Kit Beer Trade

[MattSpeight]

Hiya guys, I'm really new to homebrew. What I'm interested in is how good beer brewed with beer kits can be. Only produced a couple so far, does anyone who produced a really good beer from a kit fancy doing some swaps, I could trade with some of my very first brews or could even send some stuff down from some of our local micro's, as I run a micropub so buy loads of local produced stuff.

I just want to see how good i can get beer kit ales tasting. I don't have to much time for anything other than kits.

In pretty much interested in all beer styles.

Anyway might sound daft, but if anyone fancies sending me anything it would be ace.

Thanks guys
Matt

 

[crowcrow]

Where are you based? I've drunk all I've got but just put a tweaked Wilko IPA and a hopped Wilko Real Ale into the fermentation buckets so won't be ready for some time, but happy to trade something when they are bottled - but I'm pretty new at this so others might brew kits better than me!
I'm 'moving on' to extract brewing now, once these are bottled as gives me more options without the same length of brew day as all grain - have a read up about that as an alternative.

 

[Poochops]

I don't have any kit brews left that I could send you but if you want to know how good a kit can be make either a Tiny Rebel Cwtch or a Young's American IPA, they're both superb done careful and slow.

 

[MattSpeight]

Where are you based? I've drunk all I've got but just put a tweaked Wilko IPA and a hopped Wilko Real Ale into the fermentation buckets so won't be ready for some time, but happy to trade something when they are bottled - but I'm pretty new at this so others might brew kits better than me!
I'm 'moving on' to extract brewing now, once these are bottled as gives me more options without the same length of brew day as all grain - have a read up about that as an alternative.

I'm in Teesside, would be great to do some swaps with you once you have the two current brews ready.

I wont be moving onto extract brewing at home, I don't have a huge amount of time to dedicate to it, the kits are obviously quick and easy so work for me. Plus I work directly with a microbrewery, and get to use there kit (with the guidance of the head brewer) to make commercial brews for sale in the bar, so I get to do some pretty cool brew days.

I like to mess about with kits in my bit of free time :)

 

[Dutto]

.............

I just want to see how good i can get beer kit ales tasting. .................

This first thing to learn is patience! Almost all beers improve with time so I suggest that you put half of all brews to one side after the initial four weeks of carbonating and conditioning.

If you try a bottle of the "put aside" brews every week you will mostly see a steady improvement to the brews; and for those that don't improve note the fact and drink them early in the future.

The second thing to learn is to keep a log of everything you make, how you make it, how you carbonate it, how you condition it etc. It takes minutes to do but over the years you will build up your own reference points for the beers you do and don't like.

Enjoy!

 

[Druncan]

Dutto has mentioned the main points and do record everything. For a business venture it is your due diligence system. I even log environment/air pressure water sampling/tasting, all minor issues and even more so if something does not work!
I have run a pico HMRC brewery for two years. We sell my beers/cider directly from our restaurant.
They sell out. It can be done! However,,, I am actually only an extract brewer, not even into my BIAB stage yet :blush:
We brew using HLME/soaked grains/Hop tea/dried yeast and dextrose, so just like a big kit really. But I keg all my brews except reference analysis samples. We get analysis from Brewlab and I do bacteria/wild yeast dipslides on site. I have had great help from our local food enforcement teams (my background,,) We are also members of SIBA. This year two of my brews will be in the national keg competition in March. Will let you know how we do:unsure:

 

[copperconker]

Hi Folks, not posted for a while, i to live on Teeside, i have been brewing on and off through the years mainly kits recently bought a bulldog all in one brewing system to use grains not done many brews due to space issues, be good to trade beer locally and talk beer.