Jimboscott
Active Member
My first kit back in home-brewing after 10ish years away so thought it worth doing a real basic kit to get back into cleaning, sanitising and brewing again.
Fermented for 16 days with added 1kg of youngs beer enhancer and while I didn't take an OG reading, it ended up at 1010. Transferred to a bottling bucket with 150g sugar dissolved in 100ml or so of water.
Bottled on 11th September into 2l PET bottles and sampled on the 29th September. Was ok but still had a bit of twang. Left it for a further couple of weeks and opened properly on 5th October.
In all, the beer was ok. It was definitely darker than expected for a pale ale, and as you'd expect from a basic kit the flavour lacked depth but as a first kit back and a cheap drink it was perfectly acceptable. Absolutely no sophistication in flavours, colours or on the nose but as an everyday pint pretty good. The batch lasted 2 weeks with a fair bit of help from friends and it got good reviews - for me, this shows how far kits have come in the past 10 years because there was such limited 'twang' compared to kits I brewed in the past, and given that a cheapish, simple brew like this was still pleasant to drink etc, I was pleasantly surprised.
The kit gets a solid 6/10 from me. It's Simply pale ale and does exactly what it says on the pouch!
Fermented for 16 days with added 1kg of youngs beer enhancer and while I didn't take an OG reading, it ended up at 1010. Transferred to a bottling bucket with 150g sugar dissolved in 100ml or so of water.
Bottled on 11th September into 2l PET bottles and sampled on the 29th September. Was ok but still had a bit of twang. Left it for a further couple of weeks and opened properly on 5th October.
In all, the beer was ok. It was definitely darker than expected for a pale ale, and as you'd expect from a basic kit the flavour lacked depth but as a first kit back and a cheap drink it was perfectly acceptable. Absolutely no sophistication in flavours, colours or on the nose but as an everyday pint pretty good. The batch lasted 2 weeks with a fair bit of help from friends and it got good reviews - for me, this shows how far kits have come in the past 10 years because there was such limited 'twang' compared to kits I brewed in the past, and given that a cheapish, simple brew like this was still pleasant to drink etc, I was pleasantly surprised.
The kit gets a solid 6/10 from me. It's Simply pale ale and does exactly what it says on the pouch!
