New Wilko kits

[Mavroz]

DME is slightly more expensive than dextrose but the finished brew quality to me is far better.
Again each to their own and tastes do vary.
Ps. I personally still use dextrose for carbonation opposed to dme.

 

[Spudhead94]

I've ordered the Chocmeister stout kit plus 1kg of beer enhancer as i didn't think the Medium DME would do much for it, plan to split it into 2 9L batches making one as a double choc and the other vanilla choc! Given the current time of year i think these will be my Christmas beers!

 

[Scaggs]

I bottled my Wilko Thirsty Devil yesterday. Tastes lovely and is 5.12% according to my amateur hydrometer skills. Also have a can of the Chocmeister Stout but not sure weather to wait and start it when I can get some DME to add to it.

 

[Pirate_Pete]

You can stop kicking yourself, mate, Muntons make most of the kits made in the UK.

http://www.muntonshomebrew.com/other-products/other-branded-homebrew-kits/

Including, of course, Geordie and Caxtons, also available at Wilko.
Coopers kits are shipped all the way from South Australia.

I'm pretty sure the kits come from Queensland, but what's a couple thousand Km's when you're half way around the world.

I'm actually quite jealous of the selection you have in the UK. I might take a trip up to a store about an hour away. They have Muntons, but I'm not sure exactly what they stock.

 

[Spudhead94]

I bottled my Wilko Thirsty Devil yesterday. Tastes lovely and is 5.12% according to my amateur hydrometer skills. Also have a can of the Chocmeister Stout but not sure weather to wait and start it when I can get some DME to add to it.

Just tasted mine after fermenting for 6 days its dropped from 1.052 to 1.010 smells like a nice chocolate stout but still tastes sour, no sign of infection so will just wait until the 2 week point! thinking of doing a dry hop with cacao nibs too

 

[Mavroz]

May take a lot longer than 2 weeks.
I did some ipa's and things been in the bottles for 8 weeks now and is just becoming a nice brew.

 

[Scaggs]

I tasted mine tonight because you'd reminded me. Really nice! Going to get another can from Wilko's soon.

 

[stevey]

I bought a couple of these to see what they were like, the chocmeister and the feeling hoppy.
The chocmeister has been in the keg for a while, I'm gonna try and leave it for xmas.
I used DME instead of sugar, I added 100g of coffee and some vodka soaked vanilla pods, and brewed to 20l.
(I just realised that 100g is a lot of coffee, so it was probably more like 20 0r 30g I didn't weigh it out I just poured it from the jar. it was Aldis gold roast).

I've just made the "feeling hoppy". I boiled 15g of amarillo leaf hops for 15 mins and added the liquid. I used DME instead of sugar and added 15g of amarillo at the same time I pitched the yeast. I'll also add the sachet of hop pellets (also amarillo) at 4 days into fermentation ( I like it hoppy)
Brewed to 20l, came out at 1.048.
Although I remember why I stopped doing can kits, bloody tin opener!

Edit: I forgot to mention, I swapped both of the yeast supplied for wilkos gervin, I didn't think 6g would be enough.

 

[Scaggs]

I added about a third of a jar of honey to my 'Feeling Hoppy' just because my wife likes ale with honey. It seems to to be fermenting (though very slow) for ages, not sure if it's the honey that's causing it. I'm getting a bit impatient and want to get it bottled.

 

[SteBeardface]

I got the Feeling Hoppy bottled about 2 weeks ago and the Chocmeister in a PB around the same time. Tried the stout last night, very happy with it! Glad I chose it for the PB, I like my stouts smooth and not overly carbed. I wouldn't say the choc notes come out that well, but I will try to give it time as I intend it to be my Christmas tipple, they may make an appearance yet. The wife likes it too, so I'll have some help (or someone to fight for it) :P

 

[stevey]

Just had a couple of pints of the Chocmeister stout, (so much for waiting till Xmas) I'm quite impressed. For a kit it's quite nice, although I pimped it a little.
It has quite a strong coffee taste, as I expected, the vanilla is subtle and I can detect plum and chocolate of course; although I would add some cocoa if I did it again.
No detectable "homebrew twang", if I had one criticism, I would say it tastes a bit "thin" although it's had no where near enough conditioning time.

 

[dogman]

That Red Ale kit looks nice.

 

[Mark Ritchie]

Hi. New member. Just made my first brew. Seen some negative comments about the geordie winter warmer but I've gone with it anyway. Never brewed before but read up as much as I could on the subject. Never been one for doing things by the book so brewed with just 20litres and replaced 1kg sugar with 1kg dark beer enhancer and 500g brown sugar. So should be interesting!

 

[Babs]

Bottled the Thirsty Devil Red Ale today. I did bump up the sugar to 1600g as I wanted it stronger than the 4% advertised. It took a whopping 21 days to finally finish fermenting and am happy to see it in my clear PETs! It's cloudy and muddy looking but tastes fantastic, and that's on bottling day!

I worked it out to be about 5.7% so I'm happy to have waited. The instructions specify a waiting period of 16 days from no, so I will TRY and wait that long before I give in and then post my opinion. But hopes are high!

 

[Slid]

Hi. New member. Just made my first brew. Seen some negative comments about the geordie winter warmer but I've gone with it anyway. Never brewed before but read up as much as I could on the subject. Never been one for doing things by the book so brewed with just 20litres and replaced 1kg sugar with 1kg dark beer enhancer and 500g brown sugar. So should be interesting!

Definitely a good move, mate!

 

[Nicks90]

Jumped on the bandwagon and got a feeling hoppy kit.
Chucked in 250gm pale hoppy DME and 1kg wilco brewing sugar.
I'll be chucking in a citra hop tea bag along with the supplied amarillo hops to give it some Welly.
Also didn't trust just 6gm of yeast to do the job, so also put in a 6gm sachet I had spare from a b&m IPA kit.
This is going to brewed slowly in my cellar, which is currently sitting at a steady 16.5c - with just a 0.5c daily variation daily according to my thermometer over the past week

I'll also be doing an experiment and 10 bottles will get primed with grapefruit juice instead of sugar, another 10 with mango juice and the last 20 will be straight up regular.
Just need to get the calculator out and work out how much of each equates to 3gm sugar!

Completely forgot to take a reading, so it'll be what it'll be, but I reckon 5.something

 

[bobukbrewer]

muntons hand crafted range are £25 for 3.6 kg...........

 

[stevey]

I just kegged the feeling hoppy, it tastes beautiful from the sample jar, the hops are really coming through nicely. This ones going to be great when its carbed up a bit.

Also for the first time ever (after todays all grain brew, a lager with saaz hops) I will have 5 full kegs, if I can keep my mits off it for a while

 

[Nicks90]

What does the feeling hoppy normally brew out to?
It's been in the fv since 25th Oct and is still reading 1015 which I don't feel is ''done".
It's been brewed low and slow, but would appreciate a guide from others on what the final gravity should be

 

[terrym]

What does the feeling hoppy normally brew out to?
It's been in the fv since 25th Oct and is still reading 1015 which I don't feel is ''done".
It's been brewed low and slow, but would appreciate a guide from others on what the final gravity should be

FG 1.015 sounds too high for me too. If you brewed at 16.5*C with kit yeasts that might be expecting too much to see things out properly, and it's now stuck. I would slowly raise the temperature to around 20*-22*C to see what happens. It won't do any harm (you might even get rid of any diacetyl present) and if that doesn't get it going again you will at least have some assurance that you won't create bottle bombs further on.
More on stuck fermentations here
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...s-for-dealing-with-stuck-fermentations.74910/