MasterPint Pale Ale

[Hopping_Mad]

I can sum my review of this kit up in two words - DON'T BOTHER!

It is the worst kit I have made in two years of homebrewing.

I thought I would give it a try after my favourite pale ale kit (Simply) went back to full price.

Given that it was very cheap, I planned to improve it with a 1.5 kg can of light LME, 500 gms of dextrose and dry hop it with about 40 gms of Centenniel hops and brew it short to 21 ltrs. I used the kit yeast and assumed it would be something like Gervin Ale Yeast.

I was immediately suspicious when I emptied the pouch of kit LME into the fermenter. It was very thin compared to other kit LME I have come across. It was also coloured like no other pale ale LME I have come across.

Trial jars were not promising. When bottling, the beer was the most weird orangy yellow colour I've seen!

The extra LME and dry hopping have not rescued it! I can't even describe it as a homebrew twang, it's just awful. It's definitely not infected - it's just rubbish. Also, it hasn't cleared after 6 weeks in the bottle either, so my guess is it isn't Gervin Ale yeast as I've had that clear sooner than that in the past.

I've tried three bottles with no improvement. I'm seriously considering opening the rest of the bottles and chucking it. :-(

Do yourself a favour and pay that bit extra for the excellent Simply pale ale and make it with DME/LME - that gives excellent results.

 

[Frogbrew]

Thanks for the info on this kit, I nearly bought one last week as I thought it may be like the excellent simply one.

 

[MrDasherD]

One man's meat, eh! Just goes to show that we all have different tastes and experiences.

I've done this kit 3 times so far... 1st time as per kit instructions when I found it ok but nothing special ... tasted a bit like a flat lager. Very pale yellow in colour. 2nd time brewed short to 21 litres and with 250gms pale dme and 40gms of Cascade. This made for a very acceptable drink at around 5.0% with a nice hoppy flavour and several friends made positive comments. On the 3rd brew I have used 35gms of Summit and a further addition of Summer a few days later. This was kegged last Sunday and early tastes are quite promising. All 3 have cleared very quickly - I use a pressure barrel rather than bottles - and the latest is already clear if very pale in colour after only 7 days.

Just thought I'd add a little balance to the op's experience!

 

[Hopping_Mad]

So, around 4 months on from bottling and I forgot about my batch of this stuff. I found the boxes with it in, stuck a couple in the fridge and tried again.

I'm not going to say it's amazing, but it's at least drinkable now. Yeast still won't settle and its a bit hazy before you even start pouring. Like Mr DD says - it's very lager-esque. I could serve this to your average Carling drinker and they'd probably be thrilled (...because they are clearly easily pleased!).

So I'm drinking the batch well chilled and I haven't wasted my money after all. Still not sure I will buy it again instead of a Simply kit only to have to jolly it up with adjuncts and it cease to be 'budget', but if you want the cheapest out there and can wait, maybe it is for you after all?

 

[clibit]

All grain is cheaper and loads better. :-)

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=51779