Geordie, Bitter Review

[kentmark]

Review so far....

Bought this kit as I was looking for a 40 pint single can kit and to keep costs to a minimum. Whilst I do enjoy a really good quality beer, at the moment I'm brewing to produce some cheap drinkable beer that is simple to produce. When I have a few more pennies planning to go a little more upmarket!

Cost and ingredients for this brew:

Geordie Bitter Single can kit - £11.67
2Kg bag white granulated sugar - £1.89
13 x 2L Tesco Value Bottled still water - £2.21

Total cost = £15.77
Or, 40p per pint!

Made up the kit exactly following the instructions. Typical single can kit, no surprises there. Clear simple instructions supplied in the kit. All mixed up easily, no problems. SG pre-yeast was 1.028. Instructions state that the brew should be done at 1.005. So using the forum calculator I make that about 3% ABV. Not the strongest but it's 40p a pint!

Once yeast added and a good stir up done, sealed up my FV (I've got the basic non-airlock Youngs ubrew FV), and popped it into it's spot next to the bed, wrapped in a blanket. This was in the afternoon, by the evening there was a nice thick frothy head and good pressure under the FV lid. More so than my previous brew had (a youngs ubrew lager kit).

So it started easily and seemed very active, all good so far. Initial impressions are very good on ease of use.

Hoping in the next couple of days it will be stable and finished fermenting, ready for bottling. Will update again once I've got through the next steps!

:

 

[Andyhull]

Hi Mark,

So, how has it turned out?

My brotherinlaw has this one conditioning and i would like to know if it's any good as it's nice and cheap!

Andy

 

[kentmark]

Well it's still in the FV, hadn't stopped fermenting as of a couple of days ago. Gonna test it again later on. Seems to be a very slow, and very stop/start fermentation.

Will post an update soon....

:

 

[kentmark]

It's finally finished and ready for bottling! Taken ages, which on one hand I don't mind but when the instructions say a week it's a bit frustrating!

Operation steralising as we speak and bottling tonight.

 

[Shanesfords]

have you tasted it yet is it any good? i might make this kit next cos the mild was quite nice

 

[happyhoppytaff]

ive made this one more than any other, and ive done a lot of kits.

are you really using 2 bags of sugar? are you sure you are only getting 3%?

i use 1 can. 1 bag of granulated sugar. either 20 ltrs of water or a full 5gal if i want to boost the stocks a bit.

my start grav is about 1.040 and i usually get it down to 1.008. (this is for the 20ltr brew)

i ferment for around 12 days (even in winter- no heating pads or anything) i find the beer is very good after 3 weeks in the bottle but is clear and drinkable after 1 week.

i made a few 'youngs bitter' recently to save a few quid. thye youngs is ok but its not worth the saving. i'm back brewing the geordie.

for a budget kit it's a solid 8/10, and (for my money) it's better than many of the more pricey single can kits.

 

[kentmark]

Hi all,

Apologies for the delay in completing this review.

To answer the question on sugar, I've only used 1KG in the fermentation, as per the instructions. I got a 2KG bag so that I had some left over for bottling.

Back to the kit.....

It's now been bottled in the garage for a while. Initial bottles had almost no carbonation. Having followed the instructions as to timings warm/cold environments bit disapointed. However, time seems to be its friend! Now some fizz in the bottles, and quite drinkable. Not the strongest brew but being light actually makes it quite nice some evenings when I just want something cold and fizzy!

Conclusions.....
All the timings in the kit instructions are complete bo***cks. Allow much more time all round.
Would probably benefit from more sugar in FV, or a brew enhancer.
Enjoyable brew - yes, if you dont want something too strong and cheap to brew.
Would I do another one? Probably not, I'd spend the extra couple of quid and get at least a coopers if not something better (especally when the local tesco now sells coopers at a good price)

Hope this is of some use!
: :

 

[kentmark]

Hi all,

Just to update my review, time having now passed!

I think the key to this kit is time! If you times all the times by a factor of 4 your probably not far off. I've now got a hoppy fizzy enjoyable brew, not too strong but nice if you want something cold with dinner in the evening. So I'm enjoying the brews now, but for the hassle factor probably wouldn't do another (unless it was on the clearance aisle! LOL).

HTH,



Mark

 

[plumpton]

I have no doubt the longer the better on all kits.

carbonation gets much tighter and smoother or in some instances just exist where there was a poor uptake on bubbles.

Easiest thing I find is just to sample a brew a week until u want to batter it lmao :)

:drunk:

 

[MattN]

Just bottled 18 litres of this tonight, needing a bit of mid-week motivation I cranked up Pat Benatar's Greatest Hits!

Anyway it looks and smells OK, I batched primed it with 100g of Golden Syrup (I don't want too much fizz)

This was one of the bargains the OH found recently at Tesco for £2.75!

I will give you an update soon.

Regards

Matt

 

[noddyman]

Put mine on today with 1kg of Wilkos brewing sugar. Temp was down to 16-18 after i topped it up. After reading posts on here i am in no hurry to bottle it.

 

[MattN]

I have done two of these, the one I mentioned above was pretty foul. I have no idea why I primed it with Golden Syrup (I don't even have a sweet tooth) and the GS taste was too overpowering. Everything else was great though!

The other one was batch primed to 1.95 volumes of co2 and this is one of the beers that I am drinking now. It has been bottled for 4-5 weeks and it is great.

Matt

 

[noddyman]

The FV is under the stairs at the mo and i am struggling with the temp. The stick on thermometer is showing 16-18 degrees. Will this just slow things down or will it damage the brew? :wha:

 

[MattN]

It will just slow it down. Keep an eye on it though.

Matt

 

[noddyman]

It will just slow it down. Keep an eye on it though.

Cheers for that. There is a ring around the FV so I assume something has happened. I will do a test at 10 days.

 

[noddyman]

It will just slow it down. Keep an eye on it though.

Cheers for that. There is a ring around the FV so I assume something has happened. I will do a test at 10 days.

Just done a test at 8 days and the reading is 0.008. :wha:

 

[noddyman]

Bottled mine yesterday as the reading had stayed the same. Batch primed it with 100g of cane sugar and put them in the front room. I plan to put them in the shed in a couple of weeks and wait and wait.......

 

[MattN]

Sounds like you've got an empty FV :hmm:

 

[noddyman]

Sounds like you've got an empty FV :hmm:

I have. I also have a good HB book that I got for xmas. I feel a plan coming together. :thumb:

 

[Tean Buns]

I guess this one doesn't really count as a true kit because I have done a bosh up with it, experimenting to help out a friend who can not get into grain brewing for reasons of space and dosh but would like to drink a decent pint all the same.

I steeped 1.4 kg of Crystal malt, strained and added the "juice" to the bucket. Straining 1.4 kg of crystal malt using basic kitchen equipment is NOT easy. I also steeped 25 grams of Aramis hops, strained and added the "juice" to the bucket. Otherwise, the rest of the kit was done following the kit & kilo principle.

12 days in the primary and then a further three weeks in the secondary before bottling ... and the brew has just been bottled. The first quick snifter is surprisingly good ... I mean surprisingly good, probably better than a two can kit even ... but that is to be confirmed. Results in another couple of weeks when the bottles have conditioned up ... I can't wait
:drink: