California at home?

[chuckle-bus-tom]

Hey all,

Been a long while since I've logged in, and as long since I've brewed

Hope everyone is good, and your whistles well wetted!

Now, I haven't brewed for a while because the results I was getting from kits wasn't to my taste. The quality of the beer was fine, well bodied and balanced, but at the end of the day it's just flavourless English ale! I'm much more into the so called 'craft' beer scene like the punchy IPAs from California.

As my time for home brewing is limited, I tried using an IPA kit (st peters), using a lager yeast, and then dry hopping the hell out of it with Galaxy hops from eBay. Wasn't bad, but still lacked the crispness of a craft IPA.

So, my question to anyone interested, is: can I achieve my desired brew without investment of time and money into grain brewing?

Thanks in advance
Tom

 

[Dunfie]

To be completely honest you are going to struggle to get that sort of flavour using a kit as a base.

However there is a intermediate step of extract brewing that will give you a lot more control and really allow you to experiment with hopping combinations. The downside is that will need to invest in a boiler to really take advantage of the options. There is no need to mash but you will want to boil the hops to extract the alpha acids and flavours.

It is not hassle than kit brewing and you will need to spend a bit of cash but it will certainly set you off down the road to creating your own recipes.

 

[pittsy]

yeah i would defo try extract brewing , you just need a good sized stock pot (15l) and a good hob/burner and you will/can get excellent results . 10 times better than most kits

 

[chuckle-bus-tom]

Thanks Dunfie, I will look into that option and ways to make it viable! Any investment is bound to outweigh the money I spend buying imported beer!

 

[fbsf]

For what it's worth, if you are happy to go extract (i.e. get a decent boiler/stockpot) then AG is only a mashtun away, and AG brewing ingredients can be quite a bit cheaper than extract - £30 for a sack of grain which will last 5 brews vs £4 per 500g bag of DME (and you'll normally need at least 4 per brew).

I built my mashtun from 2 Fermentation Vessels - just drilled lots of holes in the base of the top one, fitted a tap to the bottom one and put the drilled one inside the tapped one. Instant mashtun. Total cost was about £25. Only other thing you need is a duvet to wrap it in while it mashes.

The results are commercial quality beer, but it does take a bit longer - about 3hrs more - on brewday.

 

[andyn2001]

I make American Craft style beers using dry malt extract and they taste great! so, yes it is possible.

Will move onto AG in the new year.

 

[Kegged]

I have recently just started All Grain brewing, this is what you really need to look into to starting brewing beers like those from Cali.

I am hoping to make a 'Sierra Nevada' style beer next :)