Adding Extra malt to recipe kits

[jstrausss]

Hey just wanted to see if anyone has added more malt to a recipe kits then what was said in the directions ? Was wondering what the results would be? I 'm guessing stronger better beer ? I know I can just do it and find out for myself, and I propably will, but still - I 'm very curiuos to hear the results from people that might have done this already.

[Jughead]

Deviation from the recipe is always a good thing :)

Adding malt will add fermentables which will lead to a higher OG and a higher alcohol level.

Are you talking about replacing the sugar that some kits suggest you add, or is your kit all extract?

If you add lots of malt to your kit, you may end up without enough hops to balance the malt. Depending on your tastes, this may or may not be a good thing.

I think the best thing to do, is give it a try and see what happens. Have fun with it.

[Wilson]

I too have decided to do this, I think I am just going to buy a bunch of pale DME and add a pound to every kit I get. I dont think this would be enough to throw off the malt/hops ballance. Plus I dont actually ever get as high an OG as the kit says I'm supposed to get; this should help. Of course I havent actually tried this yet, so no telling, but we'll see!

[Caffinehog]

You definately could throw off the malt/hops balance. If you look around, I think you'll find that you can buy hopped DME from muntons.

[paul84043]

One pound will throw off your balance, but it's still good...
I would also add a little extre hops to offset the malt, unless you're really into malty beer, then leave it be!

I have done this on many batches and it turns out very well, but I have found myself wishing that I had made the recipe "normal" first just so that I would actually know what the difference was.

[jstrausss]

Hmmm - Sounds good . I have some Ideas . Alot of the Malts I've used in kits seem to say they have Hops already added . I 'll keep that stuff in mind - Thanks

[bierboy]

Adding DME or LME in place of sugar is the course of action. It will, however, change your bitterness level. To compensate you will have to either use prehopped extract or boil hops. If you are using with the noboil kits then you can boil your DME/LME in a couple of gallons of water and boil the hops in that. This wortcan then be added to your noboil kit and cold water.

My best advice is to skip the kits entirely and just buy unhopped DME/LME, hops, and specialty yeast. Your resulting product will be much better. After doing this once or twice try adding some some specialty grains to the mix.