Kits I Wouldn't Brew Again

[Daz72]

Tinsel Toes - Bought 2 kits las year - Big mistake.
"A wintery dark ruby beer with sweet, fruit flavours and hints of Christmas pudding. A smooth fusion of roast malts with rich fruit characterstics ABV - 4.5%"

Not what I'd call a Christmas Ale. Had that thin watery taste. No feel. Just a hint of spice. Perhaps would have worked as a 4 gal/18l (5.5% ish) kit. I put the 2nd kit into Imperial Stouts.

Agree, very watery with little spice taste, don't waste your time or pennies on this one.

 

[Kit-brewer]

I made Cwtch...cloudy, over hopped (I always reduce the amount of hops it says,m and this was still way over), and nothing like the real thing.
Also, not found a decent cider kit ( I hate fruit ciders so will only try apple kits.) Night just try supermarket juice cider.

 

[Wherrypuzzled]

Tinsel Toes still not Red .

So far had 3 small 1/3 glasses of it and not struck on taste of it but time may enhance colour and taste , though it didn't with the CWTCH mentioned above

 

[Wherrypuzzled]

I wouldn't buy TT again. It's not Red and in fact paler than Wherry

I'm trying a St Peter's Ruby now having done it twice before and remembered it was reddish and tasted ok

Hopefully it will be my go to , but will still do an odd other kit looking for a Barnsley Bitter alike

 

[Wherrypuzzled]

I made Cwtch...cloudy, over hopped (I always reduce the amount of hops it says,m and this was still way over), and nothing like the real thing.
Also, not found a decent cider kit ( I hate fruit ciders so will only try apple kits.) Night just try supermarket juice cider.

I agree . I don't know if I did this correctly but should have reduced the Hops as it was far too bitter for me

I realised how bad it was when in Newport I went to Tiny Rebels Tap and had a couple of CWTCH and they were great

 

[marshbrewer]

Muntons Connoisseur Lager. Or was it pilsner? Can't remember. It was absolutely dreadful in every way possible. Brown not golden and more twang than Brenda Slaggs knickers.

 

[Heveilius]

St Peters Honey Porter: cloyingly sweet

 

[Graz]

St Peters Honey Porter: cloyingly sweet

I didn't like this one either, just tasted artificial. The other weird thing about it was that I had it in a keg and force carbonated it. When poured it had zero head despite being fizzy. Really weird. As usual I had to put a few litres of it into bottles with priming sugar to take up the difference between the 19L keg and 23L kit, these poured with a head, bizarre.

 

[gSmith]

Ultimate Brewery Classics Surfers Reward Cornish Ale Beer Kit​

Suggested by my local HBS and was undrinkable. 2 tubs of malt extract and a sachet of hop extract and not cheap so was really hoping for a good beer. I’ll be avoiding this one in future, and my local HBS to some extent

 

[dowden87]

Ultimate Brewery Classics Surfers Reward Cornish Ale Beer Kit​

Suggested by my local HBS and was undrinkable. 2 tubs of malt extract and a sachet of hop extract and not cheap so was really hoping for a good beer. I’ll be avoiding this one in future, and my local HBS to some extent

Not good it was undrinkable :-( I brewed this one and really enjoyed, especially after a month in the bottle. What was undrinkable about it ? Cheers Pete

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Not good it was undrinkable :-( I brewed this one and really enjoyed, especially after a month in the bottle. What was undrinkable about it ? Cheers Pete

I guess like with all things its down to personal taste, a couple of good reviews in the old thread below -

now then i had a bottle of this the other night just as a little tester to see how it was getting on was almoth clear after only a week in bottles and i tell u what it was bloody crackin a bit young reminden me of the woodfords wheary a bit nice little fruity tast and good body and a head that lasted vertualy all the way down the glass so i will leave it some were cold for a few weeks and it will be even better will post pics when its done

This has to be one of my favourites to date. Which means I'm either easily pleased and happy with the end result, or, I need to do some experiment with some more kits. I think the latter sounds better

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...s-reward-cornish-ale-review.25297/post-278136

 

[micklupulo]

Agree that personal taste must play a big part as must a mistake made in the brewing process that is not apparent by an obvious factor such as an infection. I would never again brew the Dark Rock Aussie Gold in the session series which received excellent reviews. For my taste it was far too bitter though in that regard it was no different to most kits that rely on copious dry hopping. I am sure I made no errors and it looked great. On the plus side it got me back onto all grain!

 

[Bjorn Toulouse]

Any of the gone with the wheat range, bogging. I only brew kits and there are some belters out there. I predominately brew Coopers Euro lager, lovely after 3 months conditioning. Basically every month I get a coopers euro and whatever is on special. Most are darker than the picture on the tin. The brewferm raspberry as mentioned above... I agree with the poster. With the exception of Coopers Euro I tend to stay clear of "lagers". Most (to me) just taste of home brew kits from Boots of yesteryear.

 

[Dark Arts]

If you have an AG setup why would you buy kits? Variety?

Because my AG set up only really used on 5ltr batches, could do 10 at a push? And kits are so easy to knock up in a limited amount of time 30-60mins from start to sat in the fermentation bucket, plus I give at least half away to friend n family, by the time ive done that with my AG im lucky if ive got a couple of bottles left for myself

 

[MashBag]

I really get that.. The volume you get it really isn't worth the faff.

 

[Dark Arts]

There's a bunch of kits I wouldn't brew again, but that's probably down to my miss handling/brewing of them, using the kit yeast, lack of temp control etc etc

coopers blonde lager, set this off on a cold day and then the following week we had a bit of a heat wave and I ended up with something I was struggling to give away

My results have defo gotten better as I've learnt about the effects yeast, water, temp control have on the end result.

Simplys mild kit I wouldn't do again, but that's down to personal taste and not that the kit was bad or brewed wrong, just not my cup of tea, tho it's probably a base for modding into a porter or stout?

 

[An Ankoù]

Not used kits for ages, but I had a go with some extract having heard about how much it's improved. So got a 3Kg pouch of LMS from a very reputable supply labelled Pale Malt Extract. Used half of it in a 10 litre batch hoping for an OG of 1046. The beer has the same extract taste it has always had. It's dark- nothing like "pale": it's the colour of Newcastle Brown Ale, and it won't ferment any lower than 1017. Not amused. I used to use better extract than that back in the day. I'll keep the rest for making yeast starters, I think.

 

[Druss]

I've never had great results from kits, possibly because I've only ever gone for the cheaper ones, but my last one was truly foul.

Simply Yorkshire Bitter, tasted like diluted liquid malt extract, I know that's exactly what it is but it really shouldn't stay like that after fermentation should it?

The vast majority of it went down the sink.

 

[Bitter_Dave]

Really was not impressed with Festival Hooks Best Bitter. Sounded lovely:

"Boasting a complex aroma profile of slight fruit, vanilla and malty goodness. Big and malty body on the palate, with wonderful orange marmalade character. The malts are perfectly balanced with hop bitterness."

The malt backbone was thin and the hops were unpleasant and overpowering (and not in any way orangey). I found it hard to drink. Maybe I was unlucky, maybe it just wasn't to my taste.

The best results I've had have been with Muntons one can kits + DME instead of sugar.

 

[Dark Arts]

I'm finding most kit's tend to be blander than you'd expect from the blurb With the exception of a few (MJ grapefruit ipa), think there good as a starting point for homebrew and no where as bad as they used to be hence why it took me another 25yrs to get back into it, i sometimes split a kit, brew half as intended(bland) and mod the other half(mmm quite nice) recently did this with the simply brown ale kit, turn half in the direction of old paculiar very nice