HockleyPete
Active Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2018
- Messages
- 79
- Reaction score
- 40
First of all thanks again to Brew2Bottle who run the amazing competitions - was lucky enough to win the set of 3 Hard Seltzer kits last year and finally got round to putting the Raspberry one on recently
I tend to stick to beer and wine don't really dabble with spirits/ mixer type drinks so this was something different for me to brew
The review here is duplicated in the beer and the wine making section - had a quick check in with Chippy as this is a bit of a hybrid product it's in both sections
What's in the kit:
The kit comes in a small box with a few sachets and packets with nice clear instructions
The syrup itself is really easy to work with and very runny compared to say LME where it gets stuck to the packet so it was simple to pour in and rinse out
Fermenting:
The kit was extremely easy to get going – I was pretty much bang on the SG and FG figures giving me an ABV of around 4.7%
I kept mine at 18 degrees and fermentation was done in about 8 days
Carbing:
I ended up putting half of the kit in a 9.5L corny keg and the rest in bottles to see which came out better
For the keg route I used both sachets of finings and carbed to 20 psi without using a carbonation stone
After 2 weeks the keg was nicely carbed giving a tonic water type fizz – I used the set and forget method they recommended in the instrctions
The bottles I might have gone a bit easy with the sugar as again I didn’t really get a huge amount of fizz but I went for 84 grams of sugar in the 10 litres I had left
I’d say the instructions are a bit of pain in relation to how much sugar to use per bottle as it talks in terms of carbonation drops and tea spoons vs 750ml so I might have miscalced on that but would look to increase next time around.
I’ll see if this improves over the coming weeks
End result and taste test:
I like the flavour – it’s sweet but not overly so and a nice change from the beer and wine and I think would be a cracking drink for warmer time of the year
Verdict:
Overall I recommend this line of products – it’s easy to make, a bit better on the waistline and for me I enjoyed the flavour profile – sits nicely on the border between beer and wine
I’ll be saving the other 2 flavours (Pineapple / Lemon & Lime) for spring/ summer time
I tend to stick to beer and wine don't really dabble with spirits/ mixer type drinks so this was something different for me to brew
The review here is duplicated in the beer and the wine making section - had a quick check in with Chippy as this is a bit of a hybrid product it's in both sections
What's in the kit:
The kit comes in a small box with a few sachets and packets with nice clear instructions
The syrup itself is really easy to work with and very runny compared to say LME where it gets stuck to the packet so it was simple to pour in and rinse out
Fermenting:
The kit was extremely easy to get going – I was pretty much bang on the SG and FG figures giving me an ABV of around 4.7%
I kept mine at 18 degrees and fermentation was done in about 8 days
Carbing:
I ended up putting half of the kit in a 9.5L corny keg and the rest in bottles to see which came out better
For the keg route I used both sachets of finings and carbed to 20 psi without using a carbonation stone
After 2 weeks the keg was nicely carbed giving a tonic water type fizz – I used the set and forget method they recommended in the instrctions
The bottles I might have gone a bit easy with the sugar as again I didn’t really get a huge amount of fizz but I went for 84 grams of sugar in the 10 litres I had left
I’d say the instructions are a bit of pain in relation to how much sugar to use per bottle as it talks in terms of carbonation drops and tea spoons vs 750ml so I might have miscalced on that but would look to increase next time around.
I’ll see if this improves over the coming weeks
End result and taste test:
I like the flavour – it’s sweet but not overly so and a nice change from the beer and wine and I think would be a cracking drink for warmer time of the year
Verdict:
Overall I recommend this line of products – it’s easy to make, a bit better on the waistline and for me I enjoyed the flavour profile – sits nicely on the border between beer and wine
I’ll be saving the other 2 flavours (Pineapple / Lemon & Lime) for spring/ summer time
