HBC American Amber Ale Extract kit

This is the HBC extract kit I won in the recent raffle



All ingredients nicely packaged including grain and hops. Instructions look easy to follow which is good news as I have never done an extract brew before.

Hope to start this off at the weekend so will keep you all posted.

Got round to brewing this one up yesterday.

First thing I noticed is that it was American Brown Ale not Amber as the title of this thread

Anyway all the kit contents laid out and instructions read. Seemed fairly simple.


Ingredients: 2 x 1.5kg Light Malt Extract. Grain: Crystal Malt, two types, Chocolate malt. Hops: Bravo, Cascade, Columbus. 1 Whirlfloc Tablet. 1 x 11g sachet Ale Yeast. 1 Muslin bag. Full instructions

Stockpot pressed into service to use for the grain mash (30mins)




I used my HLT to pre heat all of the water (26lts) and soaked the extract cans in hot water to make them a bit more runny.
The runnings from the mash, extract and pre-heated water were all added to the boiler. Extract cans rinsed out to get out every last drop of sticky goo. Ended up with 28lts in the boiler.

A 60 minute boil with hops being added at the required intervals.
Once boil finished the wort was dropped into the fermenter via my counter flow chiller. Nice and dark.




Ended up with about 25lts in FV at an OG of 1046. Well happy with that.



Overall this was a bit less time consuming than a full AG brew and you could probably get away with a bit less kit. All went as it should an I am looking forward to try the finished beer and see how it compares with a full AG brew.

Nice review!

I reckon that's going to be a really nice beer. :thumb:

Sounds tasty.

How long does your counterflow chiller take to get to pitching temp?

YeastFace said:

Sounds tasty.

How long does your counterflow chiller take to get to pitching temp?

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If it's anything like mine, as soon as the wort comes out of the chiller (that's a few seconds after I open the boiler tap) it's at 20°c. Really effective, but not as easy to clean as an immersion chiller.

YeastFace said:

Sounds tasty.

How long does your counterflow chiller take to get to pitching temp?

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Generally gets down to about 25c dependant on mains water temp. I usually leave the wort in the boiler to cool for half an hour.
Takes about 20 mins to drop 25lts.
If I made another one I'd add a couple more coils.

Dads_Ale said:

Generally gets down to about 25c dependant on mains water temp. I usually leave the wort in the boiler to cool for half an hour.
Takes about 20 mins to drop 25lts.
If I made another one I'd add a couple more coils.

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How do you clean yours? I pour boiling water through straight after I've used it, then the same before I use it again. I have used starsan but I believe it's not 'copper friendly'.

ManseMasher said:

How do you clean yours? I pour boiling water through straight after I've used it, then the same before I use it again. I have used starsan but I believe it's not 'copper friendly'.

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Exactly the same as you Manse. I do put a squirt of StarSan down about 5 mins before I am going to use it.
I have never had any issues in over 30 brews.
I made mine in the early 90s and they are still going strong just wish I'd made it a bit longer to improve efficiency.

Looks good! Will be interested in how it tastes when it's ready :)

Down to 1014 already. A quick taste and it has a very distinct floral hop flavour. I think this will be good

Today is bottling day :-D

Initial tasters gave a fruity hop flavour. On bottling day this has given way to a slightly aniseed/roast malt hit with the floral hop in the background.
FG was 1010 so a abv of around 4.8%.

Now have to wait a few weeks for the bottles to fully condition but it is looking good :thumb:









Happy Brewing...

Looks like you'll be first up with a taste test. Now the wait... :-|

Couldn't wait any longer. The bottles have been indoors for 2 weeks and have carbed up nicely. Transferred to beer fridge yesterday so I thought it was time to try one, rude not to ...:grin:



A lovely deep redy brown colour and a nice head. Aroma of roast malt and liquorice.
Taste giving hints of liquorice and molasses with a slight bitterness provided by the hops.

Well what's the verdict? - this is a real cracker, so much so that I had to try a couple more :whistle:. The flavour is not for the faint hearted but if you like this style then you will not be disappointed. I'm an AG brewer but I will probably but this kit again in the near future,

PS Its an American Brown Ale not Amber as in the thread title.

Thanks to the forum and HBC for giving me the chance to try an extract kit as it is something I might not have done without a push. :

what is your counter flow chiller? copper inside a plastic hose?

mike-os said:

what is your counter flow chiller? copper inside a plastic hose?

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Yep that's it. made it about 20 years ago. If I did it again I would make it a bit longer.

Well, I couldn't wait any longer

Got one of these in a bottle swap from Dads_Ale on Monday, popped the cap tonight and I have to say his taste test and rating are spot on :thumb:

For a beer with a pretty boring name (American Brown Ale) I was blown away by how good this was! In fact, I quickly jumped on to the HBC site to see if the kit was still available :shock:

IMHO it's definitely not something you would knock back at a BBQ but damn, if you want a real nice pint to sit and savour, this is it.

I like a tasty pint with a lot of flavours, including hops, but... with nothing overpowering. I savoured every sip and this really ticks the boxes for me.

Oh well, looks like another order going into HBC - I just have to have a few bottles of this put away for Xmas (if it lasts!).

Thanks Dads_Ale for the bottle swap, just thought I would add my tuppence here to the kit review as it's such a good one :-D

baggybill said:

Well, I couldn't wait any longer

Got one of these in a bottle swap from Dads_Ale on Monday, popped the cap tonight and I have to say his taste test and rating are spot on :thumb:

For a beer with a pretty boring name (American Brown Ale) I was blown away by how good this was! In fact, I quickly jumped on to the HBC site to see if the kit was still available :shock:

IMHO it's definitely not something you would knock back at a BBQ but damn, if you want a real nice pint to sit and savour, this is it.

I like a tasty pint with a lot of flavours, including hops, but... with nothing overpowering. I savoured every sip and this really ticks the boxes for me.

Oh well, looks like another order going into HBC - I just have to have a few bottles of this put away for Xmas (if it lasts!).

Thanks Dads_Ale for the bottle swap, just thought I would add my tuppence here to the kit review as it's such a good one :-D

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Glad you enjoyed this one as much as me :

Your stout is in the beer fridge ready for tomorrow night sampling. I am also impatient :-D