Brewbarrel German Pale Ale Ingredients Kit

[MickDundee]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewbarrel-Premium-Home-Ingredients-Pints/dp/B015WD1CA6

I bought this kit just after Christmas, pretty much in a whim because it looked interesting.its only the 2nd kit I've ever done after a couple of Wherries.

Brewed it 3 weeks ago and bottled it yesterday. I couldn't see any mention of it in the Kit Review A-Z sticky thread. So have started a new one for the review.

When brewing the kit I had 2 issues.

Firstly, the safety caps on the hop extract bottles are near-impossible to open. I ended up breaking the lid on one so only managed to put 3 of the 4 bottles of hop extract in.

Secondly, the starting Gravity was a bit low. The instructions stated to fill it up to 23L but I'm pretty sure they meant 20L (especially as they state all the ingredients are imported from Germany - it would be 40 x 500ml not 40 pints?)

I think the yeast must have been quite good as it seemed to ferment consistently, the bubbles went on for a much longer more consistent time than either of my Wherry kits - although this might have been related to my purchase of a brewbelt.

I bottled this kit yesterday, and tasted a bit when I did the final gravity and it was very nice.

Not as hoppy as I had expected (that might have been as a result of my hop extract issue), and taking the gravity reading my suspicions were right as its come out at 4.4% instead of the 5.7% states in the instructions. I'm not too disappointed by the ABV because I thought I was buying a session pale ale kit because they had put the same ABV for the pale ale as for the Pilsner on the Amazon listing when I bought it.

I'll add further comments in mid-March once it's had time to condition.

 

[terrym]

I had a look at the Amazon page but the Pale Ale now out of stock, although the lager is still available @ �£23. The Amazon page confirms it's 20 litres. You get quite a lot of liquid malt in this kit @ 3.6kg but the claimed 5.8% ABV using Brewers Friend is a bit optimistic, your measured ABV @ 23 litres is about what you would have expected.

Look forward to your update. :thumb:

 

[MickDundee]

Cracked open my little bottle tonight. It's carbonated well (I.e. Tastes fizzy) but has little-to-no head retention .

It's certainly drinkable and has a nice big German malty flavour, but it definitely has a bit of home brew tang. 7/10

 

[MickDundee]

It's been bugging me for days what this kit reminds me of, and it has finally hit me!

That cheap Biere Blonde that Tesco used to sell when I was 16 or 17! Brings back fond memories!

 

[MickDundee]

This has taken the best part of 4 months to fully condition but I've had 6 bottles of this over the last couple of nights and it's now a very nice beer. Tastes very "German" and goes down easily. A far cry from the early bottles!

 

[thrums1]

Really helpful posts Mick!.

I bought the Brewbarrel Oktoberfest.

Its the first kit I have bought and it has taken around 10/11 days to stop fermenting. My original SP was 1070 so its going to come out around 5.7% ABV - bang on. It looks pretty clear too. I also bought the Bavarian Larger kit and to seems to have some trouble getting going. I contacted Brewbarrel who said it may just be fermenting quietly? I gave is a gentle swirl after 3 days and it is getting going better now.
I am looking for ward to tasting it. I will be aright wie uh peh, wull it :)