kilner beer kit failure

[elderberry]

brought one as a trial as they were in asda and i was walking past

not going to purchase another one, for something aimed at the higher end of the market i expected a certain amount for my £20

total failure, ended up tipping the whole lot down the drain after 8 days

not one i would suggest anyone else purchasing, sent the usual blurb to kilner and received the usual blurb back, shame i was expecting a lot more from a great british name and company trying to break into the preserving and food markets from their core base of manafacture

 

[MyQul]

What was so bad about it, specifically?

 

[elderberry]

brought the kit from asda and was impressed with its appearance went home and started it off

did not personally like the plastic bag as it had many folds and refolds and corners rather than a sealed square bag but thats just me, did not like trying to irrigate the bag clean either as with the extra folds made it very hard and harder still with warmish to hotish water to shift it all

any way into the bucket she goes, i personally allways do a yeast starter to get it going rather than pitching dried on top and hopeing for the best

any way it took almost 18 hours before the yeast showed any signs of life, when i did pitch it it did next to nothing, eventually got the sg down low enough to bottle but when i went to syphon off the whole brew was full of floating yeast detritus top and bottom and all the way through, it had not gone off or vinegar as it were just extremely cloudy,

tried running it through the filter we use but so dirty with yeast that it was not worth the effort to bottle

the yeast had started to form platelets or hard skin like sections, small but there,

think black tea in very hard water areas with the skim on the surface but adding an off taste to the brew, not the usual TCP failing but a more tannin reflection to the pallet

shame really as such a well known brand i was expecting more response than the usual ho well blurb off the customer dont care dept, i was expecting them to try to find the root cause rather than the usual kiss off, thats what started the post above, poor customer dont care service rather than their higher standards of do care

i did not want a refund or money back or any offered in return, all i wanted to do was to prevent others being disappointed with their products, shame how they have lost that touch with the people

 

[MyQul]

Sounds horrid. Don't think they'll sell many once the word get around the interweb as I'm sure a lot of kit buyers buy on the basis of reviews, I know I did

 

[MrDasherD]

Might be good to add your thoughts to the Beer Kit Reviews section on here, then everyone can benefit from your experience.

 

[elderberry]

its hard to judge the kits performance from only one outing but after their kiss off from the customer dont care department there wont be a second one for me

personally i put it down to a yeast issue and a very bad taste left behind from the customer dont care department,

after posting this on several forums and open places i found out its a common occurrence for yeast and customer service to fail from kilner, i will still buy from them but shall stick to the glass ware from now one