Geterbrewed Proper English IPA Kit - final verdict

Final view on my Geterbrewed raffle prize kit.

If you saw my brew day report on this kit, you may know that because at the time, I only had a 12l pot to brew in, I split the full 26litre kit in half and made two brews out of it.

The first brew I did according to the directions as near as I could manage. I ended up with 10litres of 7% ABV English IPA.

At the end of 6 weeks I just sampled the result with my eldest son (a connoisseur of beer). He described the result as 'legendary' :) Forgive the exuberance - it is par for the course when consuming good beer, but I think it is apt. It is a fine, flavoursome and pleasant beer. Well worth a try. It is satisfying and substantial drinking. Full of complex notes of hops. The kit is in every way worth the money in my opinion.

So what did I do with the other half of the kit? I adapted it to be used as a lighter version for dinner time drinking and made a 3% ABV version. I added another 20g of East Kent Goldings and 10g of Citra at flame out and brewed that half of the kit to about 22l. I'm sure this is not what the Geterbrewed kit designer intended but it is an absolute winner for me and my testing helper. We both loved the fresh, hoppy profile and I have this kegged version on tap in the garage for easy drinking. It is very drinkable and I really enjoy it.

This kit at the original price of £15 and the new sale price of £12.50 is an absolute winner. Yes - people say, 'Oh - the kit instructions don't hold your hand all the way through the brewing process', but then who is buying an all grain ingredients kit without doing a bit of research on the Internet about what is involved? I approached this kit as my fourth All Grain Brew with only a 12l pot, and I had no problem working it out and adapting the kit contents to my own peculiar kit limitations.

Really pleased to get the opportunity of trying the kit and enjoying the results.

Thanks Geterbrewed and the forum mods who arranged the competition.

Just ordered another couple of these ingredients boxes.

The Proper English IPA beer was hands down the best brew I ever made and my sons want more of it. I also ordered the hoppy American Pale Ale one which is a bit more expensive. To be honest, I need more experience in recipe design if I am going to match these recipes like the one I made a few weeks ago. Stand out good brews.

http://www.geterbrewed.com/a-proper-english-ipa-all-grain-ingredient-kit/

Incredibly cheap with the discounted price and the special forum discount code.

Did the Geterbrewed Real English IPA kit as a full sized brew this time last week on the 14th. Five days later the bloody thing has already come down to 1010 from 1052. I got a lower starting gravity this time, but it has come out as 24 litres in the FV. Quite a lot of trub though. I'm having problems getting strained wort out of the ACE boiler. The tap has been blocking up of late. This time, I just ladled it out with a sterilised pan into the FV, then upended the boiler into it. Gorgeous flavour this brew. I loved it last time and now, even at five days in, I just drank the trial jar with some pleasure. If you are wondering what the hell I'm doing taking SG readings at five days from lift off, the thing brew has been flat and still for a day and a half, so I wanted to check it hadn't just stuck. This kit uses the Gervin Ale Yeast which I think is Nottingham. It is certainly a quick worker.


By the by, I tested the other Geterbrewed kit yesterday - the Hoppy APA one they sell for £17. That's another real winner. It was only two weeks in the bottle and it was absolutely gorgeous already. Great kit....... BUT - BE WARNED if you are a beginner. The last two Geterbrewed kits I got although really nice ingredients and everything you need is there - they have zero instructions - not a thing. The APA came with indelible hand written note on each foil hop pack giving only the minutes of the boil - like '60 minutes', '10 Minutes', '0 Minutes'. Nothing else was there. It is just sold as an ingredients kit, and anyone who has done an AG brew or two will be fine. A beginner might be a bit bewildered. The beers though are really great.

Have you used the Gervin yeast each time?

clibit said:

Have you used the Gervin yeast each time?

Click to expand...

I used it when I made the first Real English IPA way back - when I started this thread. The Geterbrewed APA used US05. I used what they sent with the kit. I'm petty sure all is well. It is probably fermented out - might drop a touch more in the next 8 or 9 days before I bottle it. The flavour is very nice, but obviously at this early stage a little yeasty still. Nothing amiss I am sure.