Beer Kit Brewing.

Welcome to your new forum. :

I have moved the posts below from the original Beer Kit forum request thread.

good idea that.were not all ag'rs.yet!!!

Amen :pray:
Kit brewer and proud :rofl:

Nothing wrong with kit brews, all the ones I have tried have been as good or better than most commercial beers

Just cracked a coopers European lager that is 2 months into conditioning. ... great brew :

mike-os said:

Nothing wrong with kit brews, all the ones I have tried have been as good or better than most commercial beers

Just cracked a coopers European lager that is 2 months into conditioning. ... great brew :

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I got two cans of Coopers Euro lager delivered today , been brewing for two years and never done one because lack of temerature control, but now that's sorted.....
Also got a Beerworks Sheepdog Bitter ?????? Looks good,got 50g of Pilgrim hops with it,never used these.
All these kit Brewers are coming out the woodwork,yessssss!!!!!
Light over darkness
No Clibit, No, you know it's wrong :rofl:

Hey! I have no problem with kit brewing, I was a kit brewer myself! It fitted my life style for a long time, as a dad of three and a wage slave. I'm just loving the joy of AG, now I have more time. The freedom to experiment and make up new recipes etc.

clibit said:

Hey! I have no problem with kit brewing, I was a kit brewer myself! It fitted my life style for a long time, as a dad of three and a wage slave. I'm just loving the joy of AG, now I have more time. The freedom to experiment and make up new recipes etc.

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Stand down Vader, maybe one day i will also throw away the tin opener.
Its all good and healthy.
Dont stop encouraging progression.
Your knowledge is invaluable mate

Thanks, I just don't want to be over-bearing, and fear I might be, to some people at least. Nothing at all wrong with making kits, modifying them etc. Or extract brews, or any kind of brews. For me, AG has given me a new lease of life, and taken my beer to another level. So I get a bit, er, carried away!

clibit said:

Thanks, I just don't want to be over-bearing, and fear I might be, to some people at least. Nothing at all wrong with making kits, modifying them etc. Or extract brews, or any kind of brews. For me, AG has given me a new lease of life, and taken my beer to another level. So I get a bit, er, carried away!

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Not at all buddy,you are making me paranoid now!
My aim long term is to copy you!
Im just keeping the forum open and lively (and keeping myself company with kit brewers) Guys like you make sure things keep improving otherwise we would all be brewing at weird temps and adding nothing but tate and lyle *disclaimer * nothing wrong with that either
When im ready or my wifes ready to let me take the next step you will be my first point of contact.
Cheers

But you are still banned from this thread :)

I can understand the trouble in allocating a slot for AG.. I have a 6 and a 4 year old child so I know the time constraints..

I do not think some kits are actually that bad at all, and some people brew to save money, so to knock up 40 pints or so in 30 mins pretty easy stuff if the result is a decent enough pint!!

I will be honest and say it is unlikley I will go back and try a kit again soon but If I do I would try probably some young's or festival kits.. the Youngs AAA I had was nice and the St Peters Ruby red was well recieved.

That said the hobbiest inside me (because I actually love the more advanced parts of brewing) makes me think I would grab a one can kit and boil some hops with extract or mini mash..

What does the coopers Euro lager taste like?? I was thinking of doing an AG lager with us05 however my Dad did a John Bull Lager (which comes with ale yeast) and If I was honest I thought it tasted a bit dodgy. does the Euro lager have that crisp finish??

One thing this thread has proved already is that kit brewing, whilst not the full brew house experience does have a place and isn't necessarily the poor cousin of home brewing. There are some great kits available now and this is because kit brewers demand a high quality product which produces consistent results. They are certainly much, much better now, and in greater variety then they ever have been.

It's the same as is happening in pubs where the choice of beer available is huge these days.

Brewery's like St Peters would not be putting their name and reputation on the line if they didn't think the product was a fair reflection of their commercially produced beer. Courage are producing a kit of their Directors bitter and my guess is that will be pretty good as well. It needs to be because brand is very important to these guys and will encourage people to drink their beer in pubs and buy for home.

I'm happy to make kits right now and am enjoying the experience and the out comes. It is certainly stuff I recognise as beer and am happy to drink and share with friends. It has made me think about how beer is made and join this forum to research how I can make better beer. I'm sure that one day I will look to up my game and be more creative and join in all the recipe discussion posts but I like the kits I make and am happy to keep making them at the moment and even if I say so myself fairly proud of what I am making.

Proud to be a kit brewer and a kit tweaker! :hat:

Have tried a couple of small batch AG brews and they were good too! But the quality and consistency of kits nowadays is not a great persuader to move on to more investment.

Gaspode said:

One thing this thread has proved already is that kit brewing, whilst not the full brew house experience does have a place and isn't necessarily the poor cousin of home brewing.

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I don't think anyone is disputing for one moment that kit brewing has a place. You only have to look at the number of reviews in the A-Z Beer Kit Review thread versus those in the AG thread to see that. As for it being seen perhaps as 'the poor cousin of homebrewing', perhaps it is more akin to the father? How many AG brewers amongst you started with kits and then sought to tweak/improve flavour? I suspect those that go straight down the AG path are perhaps a bit of a rarity?

Gaspode said:

One thing this thread has proved already is that kit brewing, whilst not the full brew house experience does have a place and isn't necessarily the poor cousin of home brewing. There are some great kits available now and this is because kit brewers demand a high quality product which produces consistent results. They are certainly much, much better now, and in greater variety then they ever have been.

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I agree.
I do kits because there are enough kits out there to try, enough things you can do to modify them - different adjuncts, extra hops etc etc- so that you can improve the kit or change it to suit your taste, or just do it as an experiment. I have not got the space to try AG or more grain based brewing, nor the time, and whilst there is probably a better end product it's not for me. I'm also lucky enough not to worry about the possible difference in cost between kit based beers and brewing from mostly grain.
However what I have noticed on here are the same questions been asked by 'newbies' who have bought a kit and have come across a problem. To a newbie some things seem like a 'have I spoilt my brew' or 'should it go down the drain' situation, whereas people who have being home brewing for some time would just shrug them off because they know it's not serious. What I haven't come across on this forum is a basic guide to home brewing kit beer, covering the do's and don't of how to successfully make a beer that is comparable or even better than something you get in the pub or off the supermarket shelf. If it exists then can someone point it out to me, and if it doesn't then we need one. So any newbie with a question just gets directed to the guide, rather than repeat the same stuff over and over. A case in point is checking the SG with a hydrometer to confirm the same reading at the end of the primary to confirm it's safe to bottle.

terrym said:

I agree.
To a newbie some things seem like a 'have I spoilt my brew' or 'should it go down the drain' situation, whereas people who have being home brewing for some time would just shrug them off because they know it's not serious. What I haven't come across on this forum is a basic guide to home brewing kit beer, covering the do's and don't of how to successfully make a beer that is comparable or even better than something you get in the pub or off the supermarket shelf. If it exists then can someone point it out to me, and if it doesn't then we need one.

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We have a 'how to' thread as you know. If there is one, it will be in there. If there isn't, how about producing one?

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2423

Seek and ye shall find......

Didn't take long, about 5 minutes actually.

ManseMasher said:

I don't think anyone is disputing for one moment that kit brewing has a place. You only have to look at the number of reviews in the A-Z Beer Kit Review thread versus those in the AG thread to see that. As for it being seen perhaps as 'the poor cousin of homebrewing', perhaps it is more akin to the father? How many AG brewers amongst you started with kits and then sought to tweak/improve flavour? I suspect those that go straight down the AG path are perhaps a bit of a rarity?

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I like the father/son analogy much better than my 'poor cousin' one, thanks. I think that sums it up much better. As a father myself I like to think that I can give my kids some advise and guidance based on my experiences and more importantly my mistakes.

That is what I have gained by joining the forum and reading what others have been doing.

Given that my kids are teenagers though means that they never take it as they know everything and life is soooooooooo unfair.

OK then.
I'll start with a kit brewing question.
I'm gonna do a Finlandia Traditional Ale next week.
Anyone done this? No review here.
I'm doing it purely out of curiosity.
It's a 1KG kit, for 16L.
Kit calls for 600G of sugar. I'm not about to start weighing out stuff, so my options for fermentables I have to hand are 1.5KG LME, 1KG BKE, 1KG Medium Spray Malt or, plain old brewing sugar.
So.
Q. Given that it's a 1KG kit, does anyone see any potential problems if I was to use 1.5KG LME? Would I be better off using BKE or Spray Malt instead of the LME?
Thanks.

OK then.
I'll start with a kit brewing question.
I'm gonna do a Finlandia Traditional Ale next week.
Anyone done this? No review here.
I'm doing it purely out of curiosity.
It's a 1KG kit, for 16L.
Kit calls for 600G of sugar. I'm not about to start weighing out stuff, so my options for fermentables I have to hand are 1.5KG LME, 1KG BKE, 1KG Medium Spray Malt or, plain old brewing sugar.
So.
Q. Given that it's a 1KG kit, does anyone see any potential problems if I was to use 1.5KG LME? Would I be better off using BKE or Spray Malt instead of the LME?
Thanks.