Bitter kit additions?

[edwardss]

Hi everyone,

I'm hopefully going to pick up a Youngs Brew Buddy Bitter kit tomorrow as they are currently £8 at my local Tesco, I was wondering if anyone has tried this kit before and if it's any good?

Also what additions would you recommend for a bitter kit? Particularly hop wise. I have recently made a Coopers English Bitter with 1kg Muntons BKE, a jar of honey and a cup of demerara sugar which has now been in the keg for 2 weeks and already tastes brilliant so I may follow the same recipe.

All advice/experience appreciated :

 

[klaus]

My first thought was at that price get two cans and brew them together to 40 pints.
Best to use a known yeast, such as Nottingham Ale Yeast or Safale S-04.
I have done similar, but brewing short i.e. one can to 20 pints, produced an excellent full-bodied pint.

 

[fbsf]

I've recently done a Coopers Real Ale kit, which I brewed short to 20L with Beerkit enhancer and dry hopped for 6 days with 20g of Goldings - it's made a really nice tasting beer for not a lot of extra effort.

 

[edwardss]

I ended up getting a Brew Buddy lager kit in the end as they were charging £32 for the bitter and only £8 for the lager! Both including a fv etc.

I do have another Youngs lager conditioning at the moment so am not too keen on setting off another, so thinking of using the lager kit can as a substitute for LME? I guess it's basically hopped light/medium malt extract? Sound good? :wha:

Thanks again

 

[RobWalker]

I've recently done a Coopers Real Ale kit, which I brewed short to 20L with Beerkit enhancer and dry hopped for 6 days with 20g of Goldings - it's made a really nice tasting beer for not a lot of extra effort.

we did the same but without the goldings, it was like a pub bitter. not a whole lot of flavour, but pretty malty. i wouldnt waste your lager kit, keep it for next time and just use 1kg enhancer instead of sugar :)

 

[TRXnMe]

I've made a couple of Cooper's English Bitter kits since I started brewing, using a good beer kit enhancer and no other additions they are rather a good bitter, at least they suit my tastes :)

I'm going to try and hop up my next kit, just a little, but I'm only doing this after getting to know the kit, so I'll know if I've made it better or worse

Have you thought about an extract brew?

 

[RobWalker]

Oh, that's on a brewbuddy bitter btw! I recently reviewed it on the beer kit review section so check it out :)

 

[nick9one1]

As your youngs kit doesnt come with brewing sugar I would try the Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 (thats also sold in tesco). You use it in place of sugar and it has added light dry malt which will improve the taste.