Hey all, new brewers probably drive you all crazy but some things you just cant find in “how to brew”.
So, i have my first sucessful brew bottled and am very pleased with the result, I just bought a Muntin kit for the first time and the instructions that came with it were not what I had expected. I called the Brew shop where i got it and asked them and they gave me the same instructions." Pour the can of LME in primary, add the addition can LME, pour 1 gal boiling water into primary and top with 5 gal cold water. Then pitch the yeast when it has cooled to 65-70 degrees".
I have read Palmers book and used it to make my first kit and it was great, but this has thrown me a curve. This sounds like it has cut out too many steps that could possibly make the brew better.
Was it one of the ‘Truebrew’ Munton kits? Their instructions are usually better than that. Marginally better.
So, it looks like they are saying this is a ‘no-boil’ kit? So, probably a hopped extract?
Don’t want to be a debby downer, but if that’s true, I wouldn’t expect a great beer to result.
I’d still boil it for awhile.
Why don’t you post the recipe. We might be able to tweak it for you so you’d get a more reasonable product.
Sorry i meant Muntons. This is a Muntons Premium Mexican Cerveza 3lb 5oz LME kit. it is to be combined with a Muntons Malt extract light 3.3 lb. It simpy says open the can and pour into the fermenter. Add 6 UK pints boiling water and 2.2 lbs. sugar. [size=85]The brew shop said add the other LME in place of the sugar. [/size] Add the rest of the water. Cold water. Then stir at wait until it reached 70-65 degrees and pitch the yeast, stir and cover the fermenter and so on…
Typical analysis: solids 80-82% / colour ebd<10 / bitterness 33-47
Ingredients: Hopped Malt Extract (Barley Malt Extract, Hop Extract), yeast (in sachet)
I’ve done several experimental batches with these canned kits, both from muntons and coopers. They do indeed produce a beer but I’ve always found them flowery to the point of being disagreeable to someone who likes dry beers. If you do follow the directions exactly you will get a drinkable beer but, to be honest, I’ve never noticed a great improvement by boiling and tweaking them. Perhaps it’s in the malt itself or something. Good luck with your new hobby and you’ll find that the more you get into it the better your beer will get(up to a point). :cheers:
You have one of Muntons’ no boil kits. Directions are correct. The sugar will bump up your ABV and give you a dry beer. The DME will add more body and a slighlty malty finish. If you use the DME you will also need to use the larger pack of Muntons Premium Gold yeast. This yeast and the extra grams of yeast are needed to handle the greater volume of complex sugars of the DME.
Muntons brew enhancer is a 50-50 mix of sugar and DME with yeast nutrients.
Do not boil pre-hopped malt extract. Boiling will make it very bitter and throw off the balance of the recipe.
Thanks i appreciate it. I guess I’ll give it a try.
When I started home brewing these canned kits were just about the only thing you could get. Many including the Coopers suggested no boil and lots of corn sugar to supplement. I always boiled the wort and had good results. Using this amount of sugar will often result in a cidery flavor in the finished product. I was about ready to give up on homebrewing until I read Papazian’s book (The Complete Joy of Homebrewing). He said to substitute light extract for the sugar. It worked. My beers lost all of the cider flavor. The canned malt beers may not be the best way to make beer, but will make an okay product. Corn sugar has a place as an ingredient in beer, but not at that amount based on my experiences back in the 80’s.
When I started home brewing these canned kits were just about the only thing you could get. Many including the Coopers suggested no boil and lots of corn sugar to supplement. I always boiled the wort and had good results. Using this amount of sugar will often result in a cidery flavor in the finished product. I was about ready to give up on homebrewing until I read Papazian’s book (The Complete Joy of Homebrewing). He said to substitute light extract for the sugar. It worked. My beers lost all of the cider flavor. The canned malt beers may not be the best way to make beer, but will make an okay product. Corn sugar has a place as an ingredient in beer, but not at that amount based on my experiences back in the 80’s.[/quote]
Just about every big Belgian beer you drink has 2+ lbs of sugar in it. I regularly put 2+ lbs of sugar in my IPA’s to dry them out. I’ve never experienced any “cidery” flavors from using lots of sugar.
When I started home brewing these canned kits were just about the only thing you could get. Many including the Coopers suggested no boil and lots of corn sugar to supplement. I always boiled the wort and had good results. Using this amount of sugar will often result in a cidery flavor in the finished product. I was about ready to give up on homebrewing until I read Papazian’s book (The Complete Joy of Homebrewing). He said to substitute light extract for the sugar. It worked. My beers lost all of the cider flavor. The canned malt beers may not be the best way to make beer, but will make an okay product. Corn sugar has a place as an ingredient in beer, but not at that amount based on my experiences back in the 80’s.[/quote]
Just about every big Belgian beer you drink has 2+ lbs of sugar in it. I regularly put 2+ lbs of sugar in my IPA’s to dry them out. I’ve never experienced any “cidery” flavors from using lots of sugar.[/quote]
Yea, but a good Belgian is a far cry from a no-boil-beer-in-a-can kit, I’m sure. Same goes for an IPA. I don’t know much about those no-boil kits but from the sounds of it there is just one can (reasonable assumption would be a 3.3# can) that gets used to make 5 gallons and to make up enough fermentables, you’re told to throw in a couple pounds of sugar. Most extract kits I’ve seen come with at least 5# of LME or DME. The cidery taste I suspect would come from the fact that there is just not enough flavoring to the brew.
True, I was just trying to dispel a myth that adding sugar causes cidery flavor in beer. I wasn’t sure if the statement was being made about these kits specifically or for all beers.
True, I was just trying to dispel a myth that adding sugar causes cidery flavor in beer. I wasn’t sure if the statement was being made about these kits specifically or for all beers.[/quote]
Good point. :cheers:
Thanks for the input. The local brew shop did reccommend the 3.3 hopped LME and an additional can of light LME in place of the sugar. Keeping my finger crossed on this one.
True, I was just trying to dispel a myth that adding sugar causes cidery flavor in beer. I wasn’t sure if the statement was being made about these kits specifically or for all beers.[/quote]
Good point. :cheers: [/quote]
I thought I had noted that at some point your percentage of sugar will cause this flavor. If that wasn’t clear, then I should have made it more so. In many of the canned kits the instructions often called for a significant amount of corn sugar relative to the FG. As I noted, there is certainly a place in brewing for the sugar, but when it makes up too large a component of the total bill, you will certainly get a decidedly cidery flavor (this is also discussed by Papazian and is the info I used to move on to all malt brewing and resulted in my staying with homebrewing).
I brewed the can kit this weekend. Used the can of Munton’s Priemium Cerveza and an additional can of Munton’s Lite Malt Extract. I thought this was going to be way easier than the traditional 1 hr boil and hop schedule but it really wasnt any easier. I was surprised how dark the wort was. Like a dark amber. Started to release in the air lock at 24 hrs but has since quit.I think it just got a little cold, got down to 63.
