Improving kits

[Donegal john]

The same as @Graz , I also now brew just Kits and agree with over 90% of what he recommends!

I differ in that I try not to Cold Crash and instead rely on “Time + Gravity” to clear my brews.

At the moment I only have a single brew fridge and I’ve not been brewing for two years, so I’m still getting up to “Critical Mass”. (i.e. the point where I have sufficient stock to cover my future consumption!)

The other things are that I carbonate at minimum pressure (normally 5psi) and I don’t “chill” anything.

I think drinking a brew is a very personal thing and I was weaned onto beer in the 1950’s.

This was when chilled beer was unheard of and I can’t remember a Lager being available on the pump until the mid-60’s. (At the time, Lager was a cheap drink, but tasted so bad we had to mix it with Lime Juice or Lemonade to drink it!)

The beer itself came in wooden barrels and in some pubs that didn’t have a cellar (e.g. the one at the junction of Ramsgate and Eastgate in Louth) the barrels sat at the back of the bar!

That’s probably why I prefer my brews unchilled and with low carbonation.
:hat:

As you say each to their own and it’s what you grew up on. Warm flat beer just gives me the chills. When I started on my beer journey it was the fancy Budweiser and heniken that was all the rage. And if you had extra pocket money colt45 or breaker.
Beer is as you say very much personal choice.
Oh and 1950’s ?? Gees your OLD.

 

[Slid]

In reply to the original enquiry, this is the way forwards:

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/have-a-go-at-simple-ag.51779/
Have a go at simple All Grain. You can add a 10L to 12L AG to a Wilko, or perhaps better, Coopers kit and get very good beer indeed, especially as you have temp control etc.

 

[Dutto]

Oh and 1950’s ?? Gees your OLD.

Mark Twain is reckoned to have said:

“Don’t complain about getting
old. Many people never get
the privilege!”​

My first sip of beer was a Mansfield Bitter around 1952 aged nine.

I well remember thinking “How does my Dad drink that?” and nearly spat it out!

Luckily I learned!
:hat:

BTW, tasting the beer was a treat compared to the half-inch of Condor Twist tobacco he gave me to chew, after days of pestering him to “Let me try!”

 

[Donegal john]

Mark Twain is reckoned to have said:

“Don’t complain about getting
old. Many people never get
the privilege!”​

My first sip of beer was a Mansfield Bitter around 1952 aged nine.

I well remember thinking “How does my Dad drink that?” and nearly spat it out!

Luckily I learned!
:hat:

BTW, tasting the beer was a treat compared to the half-inch of Condor Twist tobacco he gave me to chew, after days of pestering him to “Let me try!”

My first taste was the dregs of a can of tennents handed to me as my father left for the pub on a fri night. It was the cans with the ladies on the back and I must have been around the same age. It was likely 1980 though.
Never tasted chewing tobacco thank the lord.

 

[Dutto]

…..
Never tasted chewing tobacco thank the lord.

I used it on refineries, gas plants, platforms etc. Beat going without a cigarette - when I smoked!

Brought my Dad some American Beechnut Tobacco when I was in Saudi.

He gave it back two days later with the explanation, “It was so nice I kept swallowing the juice; and spent yesterday on the toilet!” Dad went back to his 40+ a day of cigarettes.

You can’t please some people eh?

 

[Donegal john]

I used it on refineries, gas plants, platforms etc. Beat going without a cigarette - when I smoked!

Brought my Dad some American Beechnut Tobacco when I was in Saudi.

He gave it back two days later with the explanation, “It was so nice I kept swallowing the juice; and spent yesterday on the toilet!” Dad went back to his 40+ a day of cigarettes.

You can’t please some people eh?

Sounds to me you have lived a life worth living :hat: