Recommend me a kit that will brew like Thwaites Nutty Black?

[brewtim]

I do enjoy drinking Thwaites Nutty Black which is a Ruby Mild with hints of nuttiness and bittersweet flavours. Lightly hopped with Fuggles and Goldings and the bottle contains Thwaites live yeast.

There is a slight fizz to this drink and not much head, is there anything that comes in kit form that would come close to this drink?

:

 

[calumscott]

I haven't had it in a while and I never brewed the kit I'm going to suggest (although it was on my "to brew" list before slipping over to the dark side") so take this with a big pinch of salt...

Muntons Old Conkerwood Black Ale.

 

[PD]

I've brewed Conkerwood....its not one of my favorites. Not unpleasant by any means but it has a bitterness that's a little too strong for me, even after several months in the bottle.
Its a Black Ale not a stout and yes it has a slight taste of Conkers !
A bottle to have occasionally is the best I can say.

After making the above, I brewed an All Grain Nutty Rauch Brown and its far superior ( in my eyes) to the Conkerwood and not dissimilar to the Thwaites.

 

[calumscott]

Hmmmm... Maybe the Better Brew Midland Mild? It's a lovely pint if you ditch the sugar and use a can of LME instead...

...maybe not as dark and less aroma hops but you could fix that up with a little dry hop of EKG...?

 

[brewtim]

Hmmmm... Maybe the Better Brew Midland Mild? It's a lovely pint if you ditch the sugar and use a can of LME instead...

...maybe not as dark and less aroma hops but you could fix that up with a little dry hop of EKG...?

Nice suggestion, what difference would a can of dark LME make compared to using Muntons beer enhancer instead of the sugar?

:

 

[winelight]

Youngs Harvest Mild is actually very nice (mine has come out just as you describe, slight fizz but not so much head) but doesn't have that bitterness / nuttiness edge to it, you'd have to add something to get that but I don't know what. Does extra dark DME have that caramelised edge to it. Coopers Stout is probably closer in my opinion but then my sense of taste isn't up to much.

(edit) Just wondering what would happen if you combined the Youngs and the Coopers and no other fermentables. Well, one way to find out...

 

[brewtim]

(edit) Just wondering what would happen if you combined the Youngs and the Coopers and no other fermentables. Well, one way to find out...

Careful, you could be verging on creating a whole new genre of homebrewing, kit mixing. I wonder what Acronym we could assign to it...COKING (Combining Kits) :mrgreen:

 

[brewtim]

Right, I've got myself some Betterbrew Midland Mild, now I need to decide which of the following to use with it:

1Kg of Dark DME
1Kg of Medium DME
1Kg of Muntons Enhancer

Which would be the better, for a Ruby Mild, I'm thinking the Medium DME or maybe the Dark DME to get the nutty flavour?

Also got myself some Fuggles & Goldings hop pellets, how much of these do you think I should use for a light hopping (I think there is some light hopping in with the kit malt already)?

 

[Pawlo7671]

The colour of the DME will make no difference to taste, so if your brewing from a kit then go with light DME. The colour variations in malt extract, be it liquid (LME) or dry (DME or spray malt) do nothing in terms of flavour however using malt extract instead of sugar does add body and mouthfeel to your beer as well as a slightly more malty flavour

 

[winelight]

The hopping is up to you, you do not need any with a kit but I like to add them to some bitters. Personally I wouldn't add them to a mild but that's up to your personal taste.