Wilko's Best Bitter

[Slid]

This is the third own label two can kit done by Wilko. By far the most popular is the Golden Ale, followed by the Real Ale. In the last sale, I also picked up one of the Best Bitter kits (£12.75 - those were the days). It is in similar packaging, but it is blue and I never drank a blue beer before, so maybe this is why it seems less popular?

Brewed it as an Extra Special Bitter - doing a boil for 20 minutes or so with 500g DME and the last of some hops called Junga (Northern Brewer crossed with Marynka). The hops were pretty ancient and cost me £1 from the MM bargain bin. Brewed with some (500g) additional sugar and "long" to 26L

After almost 6 weeks in the bottle it is really good. I mean seriously good for what was a cheap kit. Wonderful malty taste and something flavour wise from the 25g of ancient hops.

Can only be weak packaging that has let it down sales-wise.

 

[clibit]

That sounds good. I'm sure the hops were ok, stored correctly they keep well. Hope retailers seem to keep hops on sale until 3 years from the harvest year, and then sell off cheaply - I've used three year old hops and they've been fine.

 

[Slid]

Cheers, clibit, I guess that vacuum packing really works.

I am very impressed with this, but omitted to mention that I used Coopers yeast.

I have a collection of the Muntons/Wilco/etc kit yeast sachets in the fridge and would now be reluctant to use them. Certainly, I don't really think this yeast has what it takes for 25L brews at 6-7g. If I use it, it will be two sachets at a time. 2Pacs?