Bulldog's bad cat

[Joski]

Hi everyone,

Have bottled the raja's reward, fermenting the evil dog and the four fingered jack now (all bulldog kits). First of all i want to tell you how easy the plastic bag with the maltextract is and the kits are really good to start a nice brew. For every kit i brewed i never used the hops that came with it to dry hop or tea them, i used them to bitterhop (boiled for 60 min) .. always added beer enhancer, dextrose or even extra dry malt powder. So is there anybody who has allready brewed this rather new bad cat kit? Any tips on what to add extra? Since i heard this is not a great beer at all, just rather red one.. has a descent 7.5% abv though :-) .. I was thinking i add some beer enhancer (500 gr) and some light dry malt (250 gr) .. what to use as a dry hop? I have good amounts of, different hops (cascade, mosaic, citra, el dorado, warrior, summit) .. Help! :-)

 

[Monkey]

Hi

I have brewed this kit, was probably about 8-9 months ago, and ill be honest, it went down the drain! although saying that, i have kept a few bottles in the shed to see if by some miracle, they mature well and change what i would call a very bad kit.

I brewed this to instruction with no deviation. It smelled great during fermentation, but once i dry hopped it with the supplied hops, it kinda went funny. don't know how to describe it really. Bottled it anyway and let it sit in the shed for a couple of months before i tried it. At first it thought, wow thats strong, then a weird after taste followed (nothing like you get with infected beer) i cannot describe it really. I could carry on drinking it, but it wasn't that nice at all, so much so i decided to dump most of it.

I think either the supplied hops were off, or the fact i brewed it in the kitchen with no temp control made this turn out funny. It didn't taste like it was infected, no bottle bombs, and the taste didn't changed much over the next few months.

i suggest you maybe check the hops before adding or use your own.
I had high hopes for this, but alas it wasn't to be. I am now sticking to festival and young kits before i meddle in a bit of extract brewing

 

[Joski]

Hi

I have brewed this kit, was probably about 8-9 months ago, and ill be honest, it went down the drain! although saying that, i have kept a few bottles in the shed to see if by some miracle, they mature well and change what i would call a very bad kit.

I brewed this to instruction with no deviation. It smelled great during fermentation, but once i dry hopped it with the supplied hops, it kinda went funny. don't know how to describe it really. Bottled it anyway and let it sit in the shed for a couple of months before i tried it. At first it thought, wow thats strong, then a weird after taste followed (nothing like you get with infected beer) i cannot describe it really. I could carry on drinking it, but it wasn't that nice at all, so much so i decided to dump most of it.

I think either the supplied hops were off, or the fact i brewed it in the kitchen with no temp control made this turn out funny. It didn't taste like it was infected, no bottle bombs, and the taste didn't changed much over the next few months.

i suggest you maybe check the hops before adding or use your own.
I had high hopes for this, but alas it wasn't to be. I am now sticking to festival and young kits before i meddle in a bit of extract brewing

Oh .. well i did find the hops very pleasant but the yeast that comes with it is just not smelling great.. it smells a lot like the bry-97 yeast .. this one does also realy stinks but after some time tends to be clearing up .. hopefully my turns out to be allright monkey .. let's light a candle or 10 :-D

 

[Monkey]

I do hope yours turns out well. There are lots of good reviews of this kit, which is why I Bought it. It's kind of put me off bulldog kits, but am really tempted with either four finger jack or the dipa.
Let us know how you get on

 

[Joski]

The raja's reward i think is very nice. Just add 500 gr beer enhancer , boil the off smelling hops from the kit for bitterness and add 25 gr cascade, 25gr mosaic and 25gr citra as dry hop! Amazing!

 

[Joski]

Tasted the evil dog today, very bitter (since i boiled a lot of high alfa hops for 60 min) but not that fruity again.. 100 gr dry hops seems inefficiënt for a good ipa homebrew.. so i add from now on 10gr/liter .. bulldog kits are great though in comparision to some others .. :-)

 

[Fore]

I was one who gave it a good review. In fact, it jumped straight to my #1 kit. Sounds like the hops could be hit or miss. I have 2 of these sitting in the cellar waiting for a gap between AGs, so I hope all will be ok. I do have the hops in the freezer.

 

[Joski]

Mine turned bad also.. it got infected somehow .. need to try this bad cat thing again in some time :-)

 

[Fore]

Well I started one yesterday. Hops are still in the freezer and will be added 2 or 3 days before racking. Although your problem didn't sound like infection, I'm going to starsan the hop bag in any case, before a slight rinse and adding to boiling water. I do love Amarillo, and strong characterful beer, which is why I like this kit I think. This is not a review of the kit, but I'll let you know if it turns out OK.

 

[jotley73]

I brewed this last year and personally though it was a nice beer just needs time to mature I would definitely brew again

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

[Fore]

Yeh I might agree with that. Finally I didn't have problem with infection though, but I did starsan the hop teabags, before adding to boiling water as per instructions. But at about 3 weeks after bottling, it's still very sharp; very hoppy. I've never tried any of those very hoppy American beers, like Pliny or whatever, but I always imagine they taste something like this. I guess it depends on whatever is your thing. Personally, I find the high IBU a bit too much. I'm discovering my preference is for Belgian tripel's, so a very different personal preference. I'll see if this settles with time, but high hopped are normally supposed to be appreciated early.