Please Give Me Your First Ale/Beer Kit Suggestions

Wow, so this is what the beer brewing section of the forum looks like?
NICE!!! :party:

As you may or may not know, I’ve been producing wines of late and really enjoy it but now I am looking for a simple ale or beer to be my first brew of that kind.

I have 2 x 25l FVs and plenty of beer bottles as well as all my other brewing equipment I use for wines so a kit that means I don’t need to splash out on too much more in the way of beer specific equipment or ingredients. With this in mind I am looking to kits.

Can anyone recommend a good ‘first time’ beer/ale kit to get me up to speed with the basics of beer brewing.

For my first attempt I want to keep it as simple as possible chaps. :wha:

If you have any tips to get the best from these kits would be most welcome.

I love real ale and prefer my beer not to be too gassy like lagers.

Can anyone suggest an ale/beer kit I can make in the next few weeks and perhaps enjoy at xmas this year (or even a little after is ok).

Also, are there any xmas specific brews you would recommend I try too.

Any suggestions with link to suppliers/prices would be wonderful.

Are there any kits to avoid or any common mistakes I should watch out for.

Losing my beer brewing virginity is in your hands everyone!

Thanks guys.

PS I like stout too but guess this might be more advanced (could be wrong of course)

The coopers stout kit is virtually bombproof and not any harder to make than any other 1 can kit. Tescum sell em for a tenner.

If you decided on a Wherry though don't use the kit yeast swap it out for Gervin G12

The Brewferm Xmas ale is really good :thumb:

Coppers kits are an ideal starting point, they are pretty good and a complete doddle. Try to avoid too much ordinary sugar, brew enhancer will make a much better beer. Good luck!

wheazy_joe said:

Coppers kits are an ideal starting point, they are pretty good and a complete doddle. Try to avoid too much ordinary sugar, brew enhancer will make a much better beer. Good luck!

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You can go one better and use DME (dry malt extract). I used to use 1kg for a coopers kit.

Woodfordes Admirals Reserve is a good alternative to the Wherry if you want something a bit stronger

Wow thanks for so many quick suggestions for kits, positive feedback and some really useful tips, worth their weight in gold to beer newbies. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! :clap:

MyQul said:

You can go one better and use DME (dry malt extract). I used to use 1kg for a coopers kit.

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The coopers kits get good press though never done one myself. As a seasoned wine brewer why not take the jump and mix a coopers kit with a partial mash of grain and hops (see 'Clibit'). Easy peasy and way better than kit beer alone.
18 quid for a 15 litre pot from Amazon, a bit of forum searching, and hey presto, cracking beer :party:

I agree with all the Coopers recommendations, if you like stout then try one of theirs, use some spray malt, maybe a little brown sugar (there are plenty of suggestions for that particular kit on the reviews thread), maybe steep a little chocolate malt and add that, then brew it short to 20 litres. Its pretty difficult to go wrong, and you can be drinking it a month from making it. Or if you can't wait that long, then google "Ditchs Stout"...

I've just finished a craftybrews darkstar clone for my first brew, you get extract base malt and crushed special malts 'n' hops with a bag to boil it all in.
This has been my first shot at a brew and I'm pleased with how its come out, if you have brewed wine before a mixed grain and extract kit IMO is more fun plus you would probably learn a bit more about brewing by doing the mini mash required for this kit.

MyQul said:

The coopers stout kit is virtually bombproof and not any harder to make than any other 1 can kit. Tescum sell em for a tenner.

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I love the sound of this, should I just follow the instructions and use the ingredients provided or do you replace or add any other items to it?

When people say avoid using too much 'ordinary sugar' what do you use in it's place?

Any further tips about using this kit?

Liking the sound of this one.

I've been very impressed with the young's American craft beer kits They're just under £23 in my LHBS but you get everything in the box. I put the newly released mocha porter on yesterday and posted a kit review on here. Smelt great mixing it up, no taste test yet though.

Redron said:

The coopers kits get good press though never done one myself. As a seasoned wine brewer why not take the jump and mix a coopers kit with a partial mash of grain and hops (see 'Clibit'). Easy peasy and way better than kit beer alone.
18 quid for a 15 litre pot from Amazon, a bit of forum searching, and hey presto, cracking beer :party:

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I'm actually an AG brewer (maxi-biab) I haven't made a kit in over 2 years. Just answering a new brewers query

claw6317 said:

I love the sound of this, should I just follow the instructions and use the ingredients provided or do you replace or add any other items to it?

When people say avoid using too much 'ordinary sugar' what do you use in it's place?

Any further tips about using this kit?

Liking the sound of this one.

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If your making a one can kit you need to add more fermentables an minimum of 1kg. Dried malt extract (DME) will give you the best results for this (rather than just brewing sugar or brew enhancer). Tescum also sell this (part of the coopers range) but it's a little expensive from there but obviously fairly easy to get hold of in the click and collect.

+1 to the coopers kit, particularly the stout if you're into stouts.

If you want to keep it cheap and simple you'll get a nice drinkable beer if you go with coopers stout and youngs beer enhancer for ~14 quid from tesco. Obviously you can get better add more dme etc but you could do a lot worse for a first attempt.

R.e. sugar normal cane sugar is sucrose which is more difficult for yeast to metabolise than "brew sugar" which is dextrose. This can lead to off flavours in beer. 1kg dextrose is £2 in wilco and you can use just this and a can but you'll probably find the results are lacking body.

Brew enhancer (the youngs one at least) is 50/50 dme and dextrose. Coopers recommend a brew enhancer for each of their kits, don't know which for the stout off thetop of my head but Google knows. They do these from tesco too and they aren't much more expensive.

DanST said:

R.e. sugar normal cane sugar is sucrose which is more difficult for yeast to metabolise than "brew sugar" which is dextrose. This can lead to off flavours in beer. 1kg dextrose is £2 in wilco and you can use just this and a can but you'll probably find the results are lacking body.

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Yeast are well able to chew through sucrose (100% iirc) but as you say with dextrose this will lead to a beer lacking in body and the beer will be very dry. When you say "off flavours I take it you mean the notorious 'home brew twang'. I think using sucrose/dextrose is one possible cause of this.

MyQul said:

I'm actually an AG brewer (maxi-biab) I haven't made a kit in over 2 years. Just answering a new brewers query

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Not disputing that, just an enthusiastic 'heads up' on partial mashing....

Redron said:

Not disputing that, just an enthusiastic 'heads up' on partial mashing....

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Good idea too! I planning on doing some partial mashing with extract and/or kits as it's faster to do (especially if you do an overnight mash) as I need to build some stock up and I don't want to be doing a full AG every week

Redron said:

The coopers kits get good press though never done one myself. As a seasoned wine brewer why not take the jump and mix a coopers kit with a partial mash of grain and hops (see 'Clibit'). Easy peasy and way better than kit beer alone.
18 quid for a 15 litre pot from Amazon, a bit of forum searching, and hey presto, cracking beer :party:

Click to expand...

Definitely the way to go if you can manage it. Alternatively, use DME for body and flavour. Brew enhancer though better than sugar is still half sugar. I really wish kit makers would stop suggesting that newcomers can use sugar if they like and produce anything like a decent drink. The difference in flavour between a beer made with grains and one made with a can and some brew enhancer is startling, and I say that as a man who has at least 36 bottles of Cooper's and BE that I made since March. I'd never go back and the joke is it is cheaper to use grains by about half. The only kit you need is a big pot and a bag and a stove. A small accurate scale for measuring hops is pretty important, but fortunately they can be had for about a fiver on the auction site.

EDIT:

Did I forget that you need a thermometer too? Yes - £3.60...

MyQul said:

Good idea too! I planning on doing some partial mashing with extract and/or kits as it's faster to do (especially if you do an overnight mash) as I need to build some stock up and I don't want to be doing a full AG every week

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I have a couple of Cooper's English Bitter kits that I bought in the Tesco sale a couple of months back and I was thinking of giving them away to a friend's lad who is 21 and getting into home brew.

On the other hand I might use one or both in partial mash brews, maybe with some late Goldings added in the last few minutes of the boil - best maybe about last minute since the English bitter is pretty well sorted in its bitterness - doesn't need anymore in my opinion.

I'm thinking that I probably wouldn't need to boil the kit contents at all lest it cause more hop utilisation and possibly boil off some of the flavour giving oils.