Cheap Beer Kits

[Batlugs]

Would members be kind and tell me the best, cheap kits they have used. Money is not the object of this request, I am intrigued to know if modern kits are better than the ones I used back in the 80's.

Also any tweaks you have used to improve the finished product.


I am interested in bitters, IPA and blondes.


Cheers.

 

[Sandimas]

I am intrigued to know if modern kits are better than the ones I used back in the 80's.

Infinitely better - I break out in a sweat just thinking about those 80s Boots Lager kits.

You can improve many of the all-malt kits (Wherry etc) with some additional hops, some of the kits (Youngs American) come with hops. Have a read around the forum - lots of tweaks listed on here.

 

[Lesinge]

Would members be kind and tell me the best, cheap kits they have used. Money is not the object of this request, I am intrigued to know if modern kits are better than the ones I used back in the 80's.

Also any tweaks you have used to improve the finished product.


I am interested in bitters, IPA and blondes.


Cheers.

The best cheap kits I have used are the Simply range from Rictchies and Coopers. The Simply range used with brew enhancer or a cross between spray malt and sugar are really good beer kits and I have tried IPA (very bitter at first but left for five weeks to condition turns out a really really good pint for the price), the mild, brown ale, bitter and stout. The IPA is the best of these in my opinion followed by the mild.

The Coopers Australian Pale ale with enhancer/spray malt and then followed by a handful of hops to dry hop after initial fermentation is a top quality beer. I am now an all grain brewer but still top my stock up with this kit when I don't have time to devote to AG. All Coopers kits seem to have great carbonation and produce a pub quality (maybe keg rather than cask) beer and you will marvel at how you can make beer this cheap that looks and tastes this good. Of the other Coopers kits the English bitter was a bit strange for me, maybe because it used Pride of Ringwood hops which made me think of a dark lager rather than an English bitter. The Real Ale kit was good too although maybe the description suits Australians rather than the english version of real ale!

My friends have tried the wheat beer, lagers and blonds and also agree that these are really good kits.

I have tried the Geordie and wilco one can kits but found them very thin even with spray malt, the John Bull are not bad at all.

 

[terrym]

+1 on wot darrellm said.
If you go for a cheaper one can kit, go for a 1.7 or 1.8kg can, unless you want to brew short, in which case 1.5kg is fine.
Coopers have a good one can range and the yeast is reliable, although I found that the John Bull IPA and Traditional English Ale were better than their Coopers equivalent. There are several lighter beer Coopers kits, but they may come up a bit bland, apart from the Real Ale.
I have found that the darker beers need longer conditioning than the lighter ones.
All of the one can kits will need Dried Malt Extract or beer/brewing enhancer. Don't use table sugar.
If you want to just have a go on the cheap, you could do worse than a Wilko Hoppy Copper Bitter plus a jar of Holland and Barrett liquid Malt Extract and brewed short to 15 litres. This will come good after about six weeks conditioning and will be given a lift if you dry hop with an English hop like Goldings.

 

[wfr42]

I did 2 youngs harvest scottish heavy kits with a bke each from a tesco sale. They both needed 1.5kg of fermentables so I added 500g of dark dme to both and a can of treacle and a 50g dry to one. (about 60p/litre according to my spreadsheet records).

As mentioned in my signature, I bottled half of each and mixed the remaining halves in a pb. The mixture is my favourite out of the 3, but I don't think I'd do a side by side comparison again as 80 pints of similar tasting beer is a lot, they have all improved with age but i've missed my hoppy ipas.

I've done 4 out of the 7 young's craft kits and their strawberry and lime cider, which have all been good and although more expensive at £22.99 initially, there is no need for any additions (with a kilo of dme, my coopers stout came to £20.15). The festival kits and some of the bulldog kits also get a good write up on here.

To me the general consensus is the premium kits are worth it straight out of the box, while the "cheaper" kits are good to tweak* and experiment with.

Some of the cheapest beer i've brewed has been using clibit's simple ag method http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=560268#post560268
(some one was going to link it at some point), my taste tests are still pending....

 

[Spapro]

Coopers pale ale kit with coopers brew enhancer (1 or 2) dry hopped with 40-50g of cascade for 4 days at the end of primary then bottled with enough priming sugar to give a US pale ale level of carbonation. Very, very nice.

 

[clibit]

The Better Brew range gets consistently good reviews too. The IPA is highly rated. Try the Yorkshire bitter too.

 

[LarryF]

My tuppence worth would be, Coopers English Bitter, John Bull IPA & Best Bitter, Wilko Hoppy Copper & Sweet Newkie Brown. I felt that they all benefitted from using Beer Enhancer rather than sugar and I also bumped op the ABV using honey or Lyons Golden Syrup. They also, all got a hop tea added to them with the hop bag in the FV for the duration, my only testament to them is that I currently don't have a single bottle of anything I listed.

 

[Batlugs]

Thanks to all for taking time to give your thoughts and advise.

I, like Lesinge am looking for ways to vary kits when I don't have the time for an AG batch which I normally brew.

I will peruse all your suggestions and decide which way to go. I have two kits brewing currently so that will be a start point.

Once again, thanks to all.

FV Milestone Crusader Kit, Youngs American Amber Ale.
Drinking AG Yorkshire Bitter and Pale Blonde.

 

[terrym]

I, like Lesinge am looking for ways to vary kits when I don't have the time for an AG batch which I normally brew..

Some ideas here:- http://www.aussiehomebrewing.com/Customize/CustomizeCoopers.html

 

[Batlugs]

Some ideas here:- http://www.aussiehomebrewing.com/Customize/CustomizeCoopers.html

Cheers Terry, I'll go look at that.