hambleton bard dry kits; strong ale

[dingboid]

i'm about to use these dry kits for the first time,does anyone recommend altering the ingredients and substituting the 3lb of white sugar to a kilo of beer enhancer plus 500 grams ofbrown sugar or white or honey or some other combination.....?
i've just got into a wherry that had an extra 300g of pure honey 200g brown sugar and half a sachet of hop extract that you get with the caxton kits.. extremely tasty and going gto get better and better for sure.

 

[Sparkz]

Im doing a bard kit myself at the moment (my first, got 2x larger kits cheap for around the £5/£6 mark)

personally I would give the first batch nothing extra, brew it as it says (although I would just sprinkle the yeast on top as it is instead of putting it in a cup with the beer mixture and stiring into a paste as the instructions says)

Then once its done you can decide what extras to add next time. I was in 2 minds also but added nothing extra for this first batch because a lot of people have commented on how nice it tastes as it is.

 

[Sparkz]

My Bard larger kit has just been transfered to barrel. Must say I like what I see.


FG was around .08 (it didnt start too high at about .35).

Added of course a sprinkle of geordie beer enhancer to the barrel (mostly to give the c02 building a quicker start) after syphoning and swiftly put the barrels screw top on (ages ago I took a bit too long putting it on and it started shooting out a mini fountain). As with every other kit iv done I pray to the beer gods that the barrel doesnt explode.

Since I didnt look at it too much when syphoning I poured a tiny drop into a glass once it was all done and it seemed to pour well, looks a very light, clear amber colour (reminds me of fosters in look) and held up to the light its more of a lime colour.

If it tastes as well as it looks in a few weeks i'll be kicking myself why I didnt pick up all the bard kits at this shop when they had em dirt cheap.