How has it taken them this long?

Ha, this thread is taking me back. Made my first homebrew back in '71 with a can of Blue Ribbon hopped extract from the baking aisle of a local grocery, a bag of sugar and some bread yeast. I'm sure it was dreadful, but the novelty was such that I never lacked consumers.

rallen said:

Ha, this thread is taking me back. Made my first homebrew back in '71 with a can of Blue Ribbon hopped extract from the baking aisle of a local grocery, a bag of sugar and some bread yeast. I'm sure it was dreadful, but the novelty was such that I never lacked consumers.

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Great. I'm assuming you just dissolved everything together and pitched the yeast?

Had this quick and easy way of brewing completely dissappeared in the US, between then and now?

Sadfield said:

Great. I'm assuming you just dissolved everything together and pitched the yeast?

Had this quick and easy way of brewing completely dissappeared in the US, between then and now?

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I think I only mixed the malt and sugar with warm water and then added the yeast. Everything went into a pickle crock with a towel on top for "sanitation." There weren't many ways to find directions back then ... home brewing was illegal in the U.S. until 1978. The only written source I could find was this small paperback that may be familiar to some of the more mature readers. Actually, I believe that there are some mix-and-ferment brewing kits being released now, so maybe the whole thing is coming full circle again except with a lot more quality control and good directions.

rallen said:

Actually, I believe that there are some mix-and-ferment brewing kits being released now, so maybe the whole thing is coming full circle again except with a lot more quality control and good directions.

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There are, that's what prompted the thread. They are presenting them as a new way of brewing, which is what struck me as being very odd, suggesting that there were no previous mix-and-ferment kits available in the USA. Clearly, there was. Thanks.

They've also had 'Mr Beer' kits, basically small malt extract kits, for the last 25 years. These seem to be widespread - hardly new!

Just watched video and can see it is a bit different to a regular kit, but I can't really see why it would be any improvement over existing kits. It's odd that American homebrewers often use malt extract in brewing but seem to have an aversion to beer kits.

so i have been following these kits and they are a little different than the kits in a can.
the main difference is two
1 proprietary DME. the advantage to this over can kits is that the shelf life of dme is longer than lme so theoretically you should be able to get fresh kits easier. this is one of the main drawbacks for kit sbrewers in the US is stale kits. the turn over is slow on kits here so you risk getting a kit that sat on the shelf a while. presumably this dme would hold up better. the dme is proprietary because its not just light dme or amber or dark , its a blend thats supposed to match some grain bill for a specific style. this is interesting but i dont see it as that much of an advantage over say DIY beer kits which offer rapid shipping and are always fresh imo.

2 the hops . canned kit beers often require hop teas or additions. because they lack hop character. thiese kits are claiming to make up for that with hop extract and aroma hops.

other than that they dont really seem very different to me.

i am not convinced that these kits make better beer than say coopers cans.

it is a little odd to me that some brewers in the US are finding these "novel" and are super impressed by them but not canned kits which imo can make great beer very easy.

the videos to me do not appear appealing. they look like colored milkshakes .

if i want something quick a can of coopers fits my bill .

You can buy beer kits with tons of dry hops if that's your bag, at least in the UK. The only difference it seems is that they add them at the start of the fermentation. It doesn't look very appetising to me, but then I don't like murky beer.

Bitter_Dave said:

You can buy beer kits with tons of dry hops if that's your bag, at least in the UK. The only difference it seems is that they add them at the start of the fermentation. It doesn't look very appetising to me, but then I don't like murky beer.

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in the US beer kits are very hard to come by really just mr beer and diy beer (mr beer parent company) recently a canadian company has made muntons available again in the US. after a very long spell.

the difference here is that cans have all the hops in them so you arent going to get much aroma or flavor more bittering. thats why kits do well with a hop tea or dry hopped. in these kits the hops are added seperately so hopefully more flavor and aroma retained.

i dont see much benefit over a can of coopoers and a hop tea. although latelyy the price of coopers shot up so this is prolly cheaper now.

Review from the Apartment Brewer!