Boots beer kits

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rpt

Brewing without a hat
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Whatever happened to Boots beer kits? I used to make beer with my Dad with them. I must have been in my late teens so that was the early eighties. Did homebrewing become less popular and so Boots dropped them? It seems to be having a renaissance now.
 
I think you've hit the nail on the head - kits dropped out of favour a bit in the 90s, and boots also removed themselves from anything other than their core range of medicines/beauty stuff/photographic stuff. I remember when they used to sell computers! The two just combined really meaning that there wasn't a viable market for their own brand stuff.

But the other kits that my dad used to do when I were a boy, John Bull, Tom Caxton, Geordie are all still going strong - probably something to do with the price at the bar these days and that we, as a nation, seem to be getting "craft-ier".

Just look at all the artisan bakers, home-made greetings cards, cupcakes etc that seem to be springing from everywhere.
 
rpt said:
Did homebrewing become less popular and so Boots dropped them?
Click to expand...

I think homebrewing dropped off in part BECAUSE of Boots beer kits. Fair play, they were horrible: either that or they encouraged a group of newbies to the hobby who turned out rubbish beer.

I too remember making them in the early 80s, didn't taste much like beer, more cheap water with alcohol. Didn't touch homebrew for 25 years, when I came back to the hobby the kits were of a much higher standard. Personally, I was glad to see the back of them.
 
diamondtip said:
Interesting I found one of these in the basement from when I moved in 1995. Best before date said Dec 97. Brewed April 26 2015. Let you know how it tasts in a month or two.
Click to expand...

Just acquired/given an 8pt kit dated circa 1999.
Got to give it a go but I'm expecting the worst... using a new packet of yeast though
 
Bought a starter kit from Boots about 25 years ago, it was lager and not very good but I have been brewing on and off since then. I guess many regulars on this forum started the same way. I also bought the books with wine and beer recipes but can't find them anymore and I still have some of the pint bottles I bought around that time. Another blast from the past is Asda. When our local store had an upgrade in the mid-90s I think they sold off all the homebrew gear cheap and then no more.

So we shouldn't be too hard on Boots - they started off some of us.
And homebrew became "outdated" and "quaint" in the age of cheap mass production. I still remember a drinks programme on ITV (during the 2000s) where homebrew was tested against commercial brews and of course the big labels won. I still remember a statement from the presenter, roughly "... and that's why the big brewers employ an army of industrial chemists ...".

How things have changed in only a few years, craft & micro-breweries everywhere, homebrewing fashionable, etc.
 
What were those sacks that you filled with hot water and left hanging on a nail for two weeks? Were they from boots?
If I remember right that's all you had to do with them. The sack had a tap at the bottom. I only ever bought one, so I don't suppose it was very nice.
 
I got started on home brewing with a Boots starter kit though my Dad had been brewing for many years so I'd already learnt the basics. To be honest it was quite handy having somewhere on the high street that you could get brewing stuff as there weren't many home brew shops about and of course it pre-dates the Internet for shopping.

Now days Wilko provides most if not all the stuff you could have bought in Boots.
 
I remember home brew at boots and my father and grandfather doing it.

I'm sure my brew buddy still has a hydro and an airlock in boots packaging.

Kits for me (now) will always be the same. Its quick and easy, with a tweak you can find it pleasurable. And when your itching to brew that's all you need. BIAB or AG for me. Although, reduced kit at the homebrew shop, yes please I'll take it :-)

Reading threads earlier revealed that hollad and Barrett do malt extract. This I never knew.

For those with out of date stuff. The rep at my local homebrew shop said that the stuff lasts a LONG time with more modern canning methods it's only down to labelling laws etc that they can't LEGALLY put 10 year dates on them.
 
I've still got a 1986-87 Boots 'Home Wine & Beer Making' Catalogue. 32-pages with every item and prices in colour. Mint condition too. I'll need to see if I can scan it to a pdf and upload somehow....

Edit: Add picky

boots1.jpg
 
klaus said:
I still remember a statement from the presenter, roughly "... and that's why the big brewers employ an army of industrial chemists ...".

How things have changed in only a few years, craft & micro-breweries everywhere, homebrewing fashionable, etc.
Click to expand...

shorty afterwards they should have added "and that's why they employ an army of bean counters to screw the maximum profit out of the minimum of product!" :nono:

I suppose you have to :hat: off to the corporates because if they hadn't got too greedy no-one would have taken up HB mk II (post boots apocalypse)
 
Well it worked and brewed well but looked and tasted like bottled Guinness, quite nice really but not the bitter I expected. Makes a great beef and beer stew though. Made a 90 Shilling and Fat Tire (sorry yanks can't spell Tyre) and should be ready in a few weeks. Looking forward to them both.
 
Just remembered, I still have the original FV which came with the Boots starter kit, but it's a water butt in the garden now. At some stage it developed a crack near the bottom and I repaired it with some tape. Still not leaking!
 
baggybill said:
I've still got a 1986-87 Boots 'Home Wine & Beer Making' Catalogue. 32-pages with every item and prices in colour. Mint condition too. I'll need to see if I can scan it to a pdf and upload somehow....View attachment 5714
Click to expand...

Please do - that's amazing. "Crown corker" is doing my head in reading through that. The price of that crystal malt is a bit steep. I can't believe the had "liquid yeast in suspension" - wonder what type it was.

That's really got me excited, kind of like when you watch old Christmas adverts on youtube and they feature stuff like a 3 pack of c-60 cassettes only £4.97 and six shillings and ninepence. I love how everything prior to 1986 was burgundy, which was a replacement for the falling out of fashion brown.

Oh, just realised this thread is old.
 
The kits may have been **** but I thought they were great at the time... cheap beer! Come payday I'd be straight down there after work, like a kid in a sweet shop. They may have put a lot of fledgling brewers off but I bet they got an awful lot more started, who then went onto to better things. Happy days.
 

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