How do fellow brewers – help needed please!

i’ve got a coopers english bitter mix, and as I’ve come to do the first ferment it says “add the beer enhancer” – which I don’t have.

Is it vital?

I’ve got proper brewers’ sugar and everything else, but not this beer enhancer. Googling suggests it’s just a mix of finer sugars.

As an aside too – having flooded my bathroom syphoning stout singlehandedly into bottles, I’ve got a beer bottler and I fitted it last night – ace little device when tested with a barrel full of water.

I would imagine it’s a non-fermentable sugar (maltodextrin probably so good for a DIY sports drink 😉 ) intended to give the beer some body. Personally I don’t bother with such additions but I’m not using kits.

I’ve got one of the little bottling sticks and they are indeed ace.

I’d just add 500gm light dried malt to give more body and flavour,it’s about £4 from Brewmart at Woodseats.The enhancers have about 500gm sugar per kilo and some malto-dextrin ,but all that adds is alcohol and a bit of body,not flavour.
Ian

Sorry,Pook,they mean to add beer enhancer in place of the usual sugar,you’ll get a better effect by adding 500gm sugar and 500gm light dried spray malt,available as above.
Ian

But do I need it? Will the brewing sugar just do the job?

Pook. Brewing sugar on its own is fine. Enhancer is just an alternative to using brewing sugar.

Whats the difference between Brewing sugar and just sugar

Brewing sugar is glucose.
Table sugar is sucrose.
Brewing sugar is supposed to impart a better taste. I tend to use brewing sugar for primary fermentation and table sugar for secondary in the bottles.
If you want to find out more jimsbeerkit is quite a good brewing forum. I dont really have a clue so I use it to find out stuff.

Is it vital?

no.

it’s a mix of dried malt extract and brewers sugar so will add both flavour and alcohol; it’s also about £5/kg.

Ordinary sugar doesn’t add any flavour.

A quality LHBS will be able to provide a near-identical beer enhancer without the “Coopers” brand logo at about half, or less, of its price.

I brew from grain (just bottled 39x500ml of a nice golden ale) so I only use sugar for priming – although I do use brewer’s sugar rather than Tate & Lyle / Silver Spoon as it’s much finer and dissolves better. half a teaspoon per bottle for ales, a bit more for lager.

+1 for http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk

Brilliant – cheers all