sugar, brewing sugar, brew enhancer

baitmaster

Hi all, I'm just starting out on brewing, and have a question about the best sugars to use

My first attempt was Magnum cider, which went well. I used brewing sugar instead of normal sugar, all good. My plan was to make a beer of some sort next, and I've bought some Coopers brew enhancer 2. Given the success of the cider I want to make more of that instead, but don't have the brewing sugar at the moment, only the enhancer

Initial question is therefore, what is brew enhancer? Is it something specific to beer/lager, or will it work with cider as well? How does this differ from ordinary brewing sugar, which I know works in cider?

Thanks

batfink5537

I believe brew enhancer 1 is 70% dextrose / 30% maltodextrin and brew enhancer 2 is 50% dry light malt, 30% dextrose and 20% maltodextrin. Seeing as you have brew enhancer 2 which is 50 percent dry malt i dont think it will work for cider. Or it would work ie ferment but you would have some kind of malt taste to the cider.

HBO_Staff

That's right, the brew enhancer is for beers and lagers, if you used it with cider it would give it a malty taste, you're better to stick to brewing sugars really. It would be a case of experimenting with the enhancer in cider if you wanted to, but the taste could be a bit unusual. You could always just use ordinary sugar if no brewing sugar is to hand, but it's generally regarded as not as good as brewing sugar, but wouldn't give a malty taste

Brigantii

Hello all, I'm a pure novice at this, although I did try a Geordie brew kit in the 70s, still got the pint pot,

My question is this there seems to be a debate, about the use of juices used, either from concenrate or pure,

I have smoochedlidl and Aldi as some people say they are the cheepest, are they? All I can see is concentrated

is more in my price range, and if they will do why not use them? I'm looking for a good cider.

HBO_Staff

When making cider you can either use an ingredients kit usually in the form of a can, which comes supplied with yeast under the lid, and are often fruit concentrate with any sweeteners and yeast nutrient etc. or some people use shop bought apple juice and then buy a yeast to ferment it. You can do either, you would use the shop bought fruit juice in a similar way to if you had just pressed it

 

garypee

hi when using shop bought apple juice i use tesco cheap and cheerfull 49pltr made fron concentrate lol, can ordinary bakers yeast be used as an alternative to brewers yeast will it work?????