Do AG brewers ever use kits?

[oldjiver]

My opinion of malt extract kits was always summed up by comparing then to the difference between fresh milk and "marvel" powdered milk. i.e. same stuff but different. Mind you its a long long time since I have bought a kit. Reading through some of the reviews in the kit section some seem to be very good, BUT compared to what? Are there any AG brewers here who have had a kit that matched their mashed brew??

 

[graysalchemy]

I haven't myself but I had a bottle from Calumscott which was from a kit and was dry hopped I think and to be honest it was IMHO as good as some All Grain's I have had and probably better than a pint of 'micro' beer in the pub. A lot of it is how you brew it if you take care then you will have wonderful beer, brew it badly and you will have carp but then that is the same for all grain.

:thumb: :thumb:

 

[boozy_shoes]

I noticed such a massive leap between my last kit and AG that i've never even contemplated going back to kits. everything just tasted so much fresher, unique and like beer I could buy in a pub.
The range of different yeasts, hops and grains and the complete freedom to put in whatever I wanted made it for me. Now IT IS exactly like cooking and i'm currently scouring the web for a cheap stock pot to be able to do 2 gallon mad experiement brews in on my hob.

One thing I do wonder though is what using the tins of malt extract (unhopped, not the kit ones) and mini mash brewing is like. Having skipped this out and going straight to all grain I am intrigued as to what quality beer these can produce?

 

[Bobw]

I can't see me going back somehow. I think of kits as a means to an end. They are a good introduction to brewing. When I started again I did a Hambleton Bard Old English, very nice indeed. I enjoyed many a pint reading the threads and how tos on here about the different ways to build an AG setup. When I finally decided to take the plunge I already had a couple of fermenting bins, syphon tube, steriliser, capper and so on. I only had to get the ingredients (Thanks Rob), and the bits to make a boiler, mashtun and chiller. Thinking about it the only reason I might brew a kit again would be to compare it with a clone recipe.

I don't want to take this OT but I was in my local the other night and decided on a beer of the same style as I had recently brewed myself. I won't name it as I don't want to seem like I'm knocking it. It was a very nice pint by a respected brewery served in a clean glass through clean lines. I passed it round my group of friends, everyone said how nice it was. I agreed but it just didn't seem to have the same flavour as my own.

Theres no going back now...
bob

 

[artyb]

ive done lots of kits...
mainly dark beers and stouts some were very nice others had a twang to them, [prob using the wrong sugar]

ive done 1 biab beer
and although i over diluted..[i ended up with 7 galls ] its a far superior taste.. and with the rising cost of kits i would be hard pushed to spend to much on them,

i have just put 2 [old] lager kits together, into an fv and will add a hop tea to it .... :whistle:

 

[Good Ed]

I will still do a kit when I don't have time or it's not convenient to do an AG. I find that they need keeping longer before drinking to get rid of that "kit taste", and I don't use the yeast that comes with the kit. Also Hamstead Brew Supplies, local to me, do 2 can kits with grain and hop tea bags which are pretty good.

Recently I've done Muntons Gold Plisner a couple of times (I added some Saaz hop tea) and the first batch is tasting pretty good after 8 weeks, however I do prefer my own AG lagers. I have a St Peters Ruby ale that is due to be bottled the next fwe days, which has good reviews.

 

[guyb]

I've done AG for about 15months now, about 15 or 16 brews in total.

I do a kit from time to time, mainly due to time constraints, it's always been St Peter's Ruby Red Ale or a Wherry with Burton Ale Yeast from Brewlab - from memory, 2 RRA to 1 Wherry. I've also gone from bottling to corny's, so I noticed a difference in the final product over bottles.

Oh, and a Kriek as well, whcih i have about 4 bottles left of, it's about 10months in the bottle.

So I'll do one from time to time, but I have found going from buying beer, to making my own and largely refusing to buy any beer (except the odd Hogaarden), to making kits to AG.

I felt the difference in the pocket going from buying beer, to making kits, and then buying kits to AG - I've got to the point where I will weigh up the cost of an AG against the convenience of a RRA. I still begrudge coughing up £20 for 2tins of malt, especially when a sack of Marris is about £25-30, and I can get approx 5 brews out of it.

What a tightwad eh! :grin:

 

[Moley]

For one reason and another, like Mrs. Mole not working any full weekend shifts (which was the only chance I had to brew in the kitchen without getting moaned at) and general apathy, 14 months elapsed between my AG#16 (November 2011) and AG#17 (the weekend before last).

TBH I don't really drink much beer at home and generally prefer wines and the occasional spirits, besides which I had got a decent amount laid down into stock. During that time I have only brewed two kits, a Cooper's real ale (when Tesco were selling all their homebrew range at half price) and a Brewmaster IPA, which sounded interesting and my LHBS had on an introductory offer for £11.

Both of those were boosted with a Cooper's enhancer pack (half price from Tesco) and both came out quite drinkable.

But now I can boil my wort outdoors, I will probably never use any more kits.

 

[Sean_Mc]

I've done about three Woodforde's kits over the last 12months, there okay and fine when you haven't got 5-6hours for a brewday

 

[Baz Chaz]

I stick with AG, might be a month or three since I last brewed, but still have plenty of 'stock'.

Once the stock levels start to drop ie after the Six Nations Rugby I'll start re-stocking but it will be AG :

 

[wilsoa1111]

i'll use a kit when im desperate to brew but lack the time or skills for a particular style- but i dont bother with the instructions anymore- and rarely use the yeast they provide-also using the premium malt kits are the way to go-

I modded a brewferm triple into a imperial ipa -ish thing, by steeping some malts plus some dry hops and hop tea also using some spare london ale 3 i had, took a while to ferment out but well worth it and a nice high abv with no bother (also the high abv really brings out the plumyness in the yeast strain i was using -much better than the stock stuff IMHO )- using this method got no kit brew taste what so ever-think the fresh hops and yeast cover it nicely

in summery they are great for topping a brew up to a greater abv or a simpler alternative to malt extract

 

[calumscott]

I'm going to struggle to go back to kits.

Don't get me wrong, I've brewed a few really lovely beers (including the Better Brew IPA with Chinook dry hop I sent to GA, Muntons Midas touch with EKG dry hop which is seriously refreshing and the Ritchies Festival Porter that I've just run out of...) from kits. But, my AG is better, fresher, more complex, cleaner and less than half the cost...

...and I'm only 4 AG brews in!

 

[mattrickl06]

Interesting question - i am just waiting for the remainder of my AG stuff to arrive but was thinking last night how impressed I am with enhanced beer kits and how much better (if any) AG would be??

Although after just seeing the previous post - if its half the price, then jobsaguddun!!

 

[artyb]

I'm going to struggle to go back to kits.
But, my AG is better, fresher, more complex, cleaner and less than half the cost...

...and I'm only 4 AG brews in!

But now I can boil my wort outdoors, I will probably never use any more kits.

+1... on both of those comments.... :thumb:

 

[WelshPaul]

I've used two kits to make some Belgian-style ales for Christmas that I know I would have had trouble reproducing using an AG approach.

 

[Aleman]

Made two kits last year . . Brupaks Brewers Choice German Pilsner and BArons Dutch Lager. Fermented and treated as per my usual routine, and both are pretty bloomin' good . . .Certainly the guy I sent one as my secret santa didn't spot it was a kit :party:












Ok so he left the forum afterwards :shock: I really hope it wasn't my beer that was the cause :shock:

 

[Kinleycat]

Probably getting out of my depth here but taste alone isn't the only reason that people AG i would imagine.
They also have a fair amount of disposable time.
My Wherry kit that i did took me about half an hour, which Mrs KC doesn't mind at present - in her eyes she's already lost the cleaning cupboard and half the dining room to "brewing stuff", she probably doesnt want to lose her husband for most of the day to the shed just yet.
As yet i dont have the finances either to throw at AG equipment so the kits (if sucessful) are a great middle ground. They may not tick the taste box 100% but they tick the "i dont want to go overdwawn or get divorced boxes" perfectly.
In time i will hope to move to a bit of BIAB, i'll still stick with some of the kits though and when the time is right i would love to AG but only when it is viable.
Just my thoughts :thumb:

 

[calumscott]

she probably doesnt want to lose her husband for most of the day to the shed just yet.

That won't last... :rofl:

 

[fbsf]

I must admit that I've still got a couple of Coopers kits lying around and will be brewing them as they do turn out rather well. They were Tesco £6.99 sale specials though.

But going forward, unless I'm dramatically short of beer and time, I probably wouldn't do another kit - even my recent 12L of 9% IIPA only cost me around £11 for the ingredients and that's with 160g of hops in it, so paying the best part of £20 for a kit (when you include extra fermentables, or for a 2-can kit) seems counter-intuitive.

Especially when a normal 4% bitter or stout can be had for around £6-8 for the same amount of beer.

I just have to plan well in advance to make sure my stocks don't get too depleted before I get time to brew again.

 

[mmaguy41]

I use both kits and brew all grain, i generally do an AG batch and a kit on the same brew day to get 2 beers going at the same time, i generally add hops and extra malt, or sometimes change the yeast or steep some grains for kits to improve them and alot of them have been great beers. I will continue to do kits as well as AG because they are quick and easy and make good beer