HBC American Pale Ale

This is a review for the HBC Extract American Pale Ale Kit.

In the package I received
2 x 1.5kg Light Malt Extract
Crystal Malt Grain
Magnum and Cascade Hops
1 Whirlfloc tablet
11g SO5 Ale Yeast
A muslin bag and full instructions

The packaging was ok, but the vaccum packed hops and the bag containing the instructions, tablet and yeast, were all inside the bag containing the grain. It took a bit of time to pick the grains out of the other packaging and was next to impossible not to spill some in the process.
The instructions were a bit confusing and I had to look at other pale ale recipes to gauge and idea of what I was supposed to be doing. The three hop bags were labelled '60 mins' '10 mins' and '0 mins' - when I saw these I assumed that the '0 mins' went in at the start, then the '10 mins' shortly after and the '60 mins' right at the end of the boil. The instructions tried to clarify in what order they were supposed to go in, but in the end confused me more!
"Once the wort comes to the boil add the hops at the times labelled. (Example 60 minutes means 60 minutes to go in the boil, 15 minutes means 15 minutes to go in the boil etc ...)"
It didn't help a lot, and only after looking at other pale ale recipes could I see that it was actually meant to go in in the opposite order to what I had originally thought. I think a package that just said 'add at start of boil' would be much clearer and provide less room for confusion!

This was only my second solo brew. I have previously brewed AG with Cwrw 666 (my dad). We share a brew station in our stable, on top of a washing machine. It's not the most hygienic (as proved by the slug I found in the boil just after starting) but this has never been problematic in making beer before and I'm sure won't be in this case :)




To begin with you steep the grain in 2 ltrs of water, using the muslin bag. The water should be heated to 67°C. After this you rinse the grain in another 2 ltrs of water, heated to 80°C. Then mix the two together in the boiler.



You fill the boiler up to 26 litres, then add the Malt. My boiler won't hold 26 litres safely, so I filled it as high as possible with the intention of topping it up later on in the fermentation bin. The instructions didn't actually say how much beer the kit was supposed to create, so I had to go to the HBC website and look up the kit information.

I set the kit to boil and added the hops as instructed.



I didn't have an immersion wort chiller, so I let the brew cool naturally and added the yeast when it was at the right temperature.
The mix was a lot darker than I was expecting from a pale ale, but it smelt delicious!
The hydrometer reading at the end was 1040.


It was interesting to make this kit; I would recommend it if the instructions were improved. It was pretty daunting reading through it on my own, and I feel very fortunate that I had another brewer at hand to ask questions, otherwise I would almost certainly have gone wrong.
I don't think I'd personally try this again. This kit is supposed to be a gentle step up between a 2 can kit and AG, but it's a lot closer to an AG brew. I think I'd rather have the satisfaction of doing an AG brew.

I will do another post when it's ready to drink :drunk:

Good review and hope it turns out OK

Just in the middle of doing my American Brown Ale extract . God that liquid extract is sticky :-D....

Your Brewhouse looks amazing, although it looks like it might get a bit chilly there in the winter

Soton said:

Your Brewhouse looks amazing, although it looks like it might get a bit chilly there in the winter

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True, but even though a full AG brew takes about 4 hours, you don't spend all that time hovering over the boiler - most of it's spent sat in an armchair in the house supping a previous brew while the water heats up, the mash goes on, the boil etc. it's only a case of popping out and sticking the grains in and being out there for the sparge etc.:

Excellent review, thank you! I know the guys from HBC visit our forum quite regularly, I'm sure they'll find it useful. Thanks again, and happy tasting!

Looks good !!

I might be wrong but I think boiling extract can darken it cascade hops should give it a nice floral finish.. I have done cascade blonde ale this summer and its loved

I too had this kit, and for my first extract kit, it did seem complex... but i got my head round it.
The packaging was good, and came with DPD courier (one of the best IMO, because they txt you when its due and so you can have it redlivered or left with neighbour).
As the full ingredients have been listed above, i wont bother going over them again, but everything that needed to be added was in there! (just need pans etc and steriliser).
The labelling on the packets was good, but the one thing (as mentioned above) was the bag in bag situation, but this was soon sorted (though it was a bit annoying that I couldnt read the instructions without opening the bag, so had to do it on brew day for fear of conamination).

The hop were bagged up and labelled clearly with times to go in (but not variety, which would have been nice to know for future reference if I went AG).
the muslin did a good job while steeping and then just followed instructions. The steep was for 30 mins and the boil for another hour, so took quite a while (adding in the time i reread instructions etc) compared to a can kit, but we shall see if my efforts are rewarded. The brew is now bubbling on my table (first bubble took over a day later made me worry that id done something wrong or pitched yeast while too warm). The OG was 1.029 which seems quite low, but there was nothing to say what it should be.

This brew smells amazing, the hops are very aromatic and much like a real American pale ale I had while I was over in Michigan, it was very citrus/floral.

looking forward to bottling it and more importantly drinking it! (will get my american friends' to taste it for authenticity!)
Thanks HBC

They don't tell you what hops go in when because you can copy the recipe for cheaper. That OG is very low. You sure it was correct?

well thats what my (rather old and basic) hydrometer measured, but that could be well out (also the temperature was higher than rtp so this might make it lower).
there were 2 large cans of ME and a bit of specialty malt too, so im sure there is enough in there volume wise, i was just concerned that i didn't convert all the malt grains to sugar (but there should be more than enough sugar in the 2 cans, plus im not too bothered if its low alcohol as long as it tastes good!)

And they tell you exactly what the hops are when you order it so the recipe isnt very secret, but it would have been nice to know what the hops were so i could order them in the future or look out for AG or extract kits with them if i like the hops....

So you do know the hops?

Great review and well done :thumb:

Your next one will be a lot easier, you learn something new every time! Looking forward to the taste tests :drink:

Yes, but not which ones were added at which time.

jamesw said:

well thats what my (rather old and basic) hydrometer measured, but that could be well out (also the temperature was higher than rtp so this might make it lower).

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Question; did you stir your mix after adding the Malt extract?

If you didn't then a lot of the malt extract could still be at the bottom and what you'd be measuring would be a really diluted version (more water)

Should still be a fine beer but this would account for the low OG reading

jamesw said:

Yes, but not which ones were added at which time.

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All companies do it to protect their recipe

Just bottled my beer!
I had to use plastic bottles as I'm moving in a few weeks and can't take my glass ones with me
The final gravity was 1010, so it should come out at 3.8% abv

Did a taste test - I normally don't like pale ales at all so it came as a nice surprise that this was actually lovely, it was a lot darker than I expected and had a really nice bitter taste.

CwrwPreseli said:

Just bottled my beer!
I had to use plastic bottles as I'm moving in a few weeks and can't take my glass ones with me
The final gravity was 1010, so it should come out at 3.8% abv

Did a taste test - I normally don't like pale ales at all so it came as a nice surprise that this was actually lovely, it was a lot darker than I expected and had a really nice bitter taste.

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Being slightly pedantic you're probably closer to 3.9 (and should be 4.1% when primed!)

As for the darkness I think that is just one of the things about extract when boiled it can darken.

the instructions didnt come with anything after putting the yeast it (i dont think).

so I used 140g of table sugar.

Here is the bottled results. now we wait,.....

Did a taste test last night in front of Wales vs England rugby!
Turned out it was a VERY good night to try it, and myself and a few friends got through the majority of my supply :party:
Nice taste, but not bitter at all. It has a really floral/perfumy taste, and it's very hoppy.
It's good and enjoyable, but sadly not as good as an AG brew result, and only slightly better than a 2 can kit result :/

I had a couple of bottles recently, one was nice and floral, the other not so.
Perhaps a bit young. Hope this improves as the main difference between this and a can kit is the hoppy aroma (which I believe you can achieve with just dry hopping).
Will have to wait and see if it improves, because if not, its back to can kits for me (with hop additions).

jamesw said:

I had a couple of bottles recently, one was nice and floral, the other not so.
Perhaps a bit young. Hope this improves as the main difference between this and a can kit is the hoppy aroma (which I believe you can achieve with just dry hopping).
Will have to wait and see if it improves, because if not, its back to can kits for me (with hop additions).

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Go forwards, and use some grain! Makes a huge difference.