Hi everyone - what a fab resource this place is!
I've been extract kit brewing for nearly 3 months now. My setup is likely very different from most... I'm using 2x Pinter pressure fermenters/kegs as an all-in-one solution. One pinter that is being poured from, the other is on the go with the next beer. The kit might not be great, it definitely isn't big... but it was very cost-effective (£50 each, including two pinter kits) to get into homebrew and it gives me a really quick cadence for brewing each batch. Since they only last 10 pints!
In the nearly 3 months I've managed to brew up 6 kits, in order:
Pinter Brewdog Punk IPA remixed (7/10)
Pinter Winter Slumber dark ale (6/10)
Pinter FourPure Citrus IPA (8/10)
Pinter American Wheat Pale Ale (6/10) - which I experimented with by steeping some oats just to see what it added, apart from haze :)
2x Mangrove Jacks Cold IPA (9/10) with bog standard table sugar instead of the recommended dextrose or DME / enhancer
I clearly have a preference for the very hop-forward, citrus IPAs... but that MJ Cold IPA was genuinely one of the nicest beers I've ever tasted. In hindsight, I would drop everything else except the FourPure by at least a point to reflect the gap in quality. On the basis it is at LEAST as good as anything I've bought, there's an argument to give it 10/10... but I'm confident in the years to come I'll make something all grain that beats it :)
I'm loving the experimentation, as well as the fact I've been able to make really good beer, quite easily. Cleaning, sanitising and mixing the extract kits (most recently having to decant the MJ kits into 3x portions) probably takes 30-40 minutes all in. That's not bad, given the results! And the fact it comes in at a fair bit less than £1/pint. Having a go at a new beer every two weeks or so, is turning out to be great fun.
I'm looking forward to sharing my experiences with other newbies and learning from the masses of you out there who've been doing this for years.
I've been extract kit brewing for nearly 3 months now. My setup is likely very different from most... I'm using 2x Pinter pressure fermenters/kegs as an all-in-one solution. One pinter that is being poured from, the other is on the go with the next beer. The kit might not be great, it definitely isn't big... but it was very cost-effective (£50 each, including two pinter kits) to get into homebrew and it gives me a really quick cadence for brewing each batch. Since they only last 10 pints!
In the nearly 3 months I've managed to brew up 6 kits, in order:
Pinter Brewdog Punk IPA remixed (7/10)
Pinter Winter Slumber dark ale (6/10)
Pinter FourPure Citrus IPA (8/10)
Pinter American Wheat Pale Ale (6/10) - which I experimented with by steeping some oats just to see what it added, apart from haze :)
2x Mangrove Jacks Cold IPA (9/10) with bog standard table sugar instead of the recommended dextrose or DME / enhancer
I clearly have a preference for the very hop-forward, citrus IPAs... but that MJ Cold IPA was genuinely one of the nicest beers I've ever tasted. In hindsight, I would drop everything else except the FourPure by at least a point to reflect the gap in quality. On the basis it is at LEAST as good as anything I've bought, there's an argument to give it 10/10... but I'm confident in the years to come I'll make something all grain that beats it :)
I'm loving the experimentation, as well as the fact I've been able to make really good beer, quite easily. Cleaning, sanitising and mixing the extract kits (most recently having to decant the MJ kits into 3x portions) probably takes 30-40 minutes all in. That's not bad, given the results! And the fact it comes in at a fair bit less than £1/pint. Having a go at a new beer every two weeks or so, is turning out to be great fun.
I'm looking forward to sharing my experiences with other newbies and learning from the masses of you out there who've been doing this for years.
.
