Simply, Pale Ale Kit Review

[Mike1892]

I had this kit to use up and im going to try making it tonight.

I have bought 1kg coopers beer enhancer 2 to mix with it, and plan to add a mixture of 25g Amarillo and 25g cascade steeped in just boiled water for half an hour to the fermenter along with it, as per the 'fruit salad' recipe from the coopers DIY beer website.

Im hoping that the kit gives a decent base for testing out these hops. I previously made a coopers IPA with simcoe (15g boiled for an hour, 15g boiled for last ten mins and 20g dry hopped after initial fermentation) so looking forward to testing out the difference. That beer had a lovely smell and a pleasant but quite powerful and lingering bitterness. Im looking for more aroma and less bitterness this time.

 

[Mike1892]

So this has probably been in the bottle about 5 weeks now, and most of them are drunk already! A sure sign it is a tasty beer.

There is a lovely hoppy aroma to it, and although the beer kit doesn't have a lot of body, it is a refreshing and tasty beer. I would recommend the kit and the hops certainly make a good contribution. It has a more balanced flavour than the coopers IPA with simcoe and was simpler to make due to only steeping the hops rather than the combination of boiling, steeping and dry hopping.

A good kit at a good price.

 

[MikeK117]

I've got this kit on the go at the moment, 8 days in the FV. I've just read it at 1012 so it needs some more time, but I'm a bit worried as it tastes a bit weird!

Is 'cottony' a word? This is the first brew I've done with tapwater (normally get cheap spring water, yes its expensive!) so maybe that's a factor.

 

[Hopping_Mad]

Thought I'd take a punt on this kit, I usually do 3kg plus extract kits, but it was on offer at the LHBS for £6.99.

Thought I'd give it a decent chance and got 1kg of brew enhancer and 500g of light spraymalt to use with it. I was going to dry hop it, but the 1.8kg of LME must have been pretty well hopped. The first taste of a trial jar on day 10 of fermentation made me think extra hops might be a bit of overkill.

Had first 'experimental' drink tonight after two weeks in bottles and I'm pretty surprised! :p

Not overtly hoppy, but nice and floral. I thought it might be a bit thin, but it has really good body (but remember there was brew enhancer and spraymalt added).

So not out of this world, yet quaffable, but at 35p a 500ml bottle it's bloody good value for money.

Might stop and think about it at full price, but at a discount definitely do it again.

 

[Hopping_Mad]

...so much so, I've bought another 3 kits for £21!!!

Going to experiment with Cascade, Pacific a Jade and Amarillo dry hopping and brew enhancer and spraymalt.

I can't go wrong at that price really!

 

[MikeK117]

So I've had this in the PB for 3 weeks and thought I'd have my first proper glass.

It's clear-ish (as demonstrated by my missus' make up bag!) but I've had no ability to cold crash this as I live in a second floor flat. The colour is as expected and it is flat as a pancake. It comes out of the PB like a rocket with a huge head that settles down, but virtually no carbonation. I am not using a head starter glass.

Aroma wise it has 'that home brew smell' but I think it's just a bit green. I had the same with another beer I put in the PB, which didn't smell good until about 12 weeks. It doesn't overtly smell of anything I'd associate with pale ale.

However, it tastes ok. I brewed this with brewing sugar and untreated tap water to see how cheap I could make a beer (I think I got this kit for £8 or so) but it's not particularly thin. I suppose it's a bit floral and it has a bitter finish which I quite like.

I think at about 6-8 weeks in the barrel it will come out of its shell a bit. But it's certainly drinkable now. 40 odd pence a pint is worth it. :drink:

 

[Lesinge]

52nd brew Simply Pale Ale, 27/08/14. 1 kg of youngs brew enhancer. Think I pitched at 23degrees but the thermometer is busted I think so it may be lower. OG 1044 and taste is sweet malty and very smooth with just a little bitterness. Racked 21/09/14. Taste at racking is quite nice, not much to it yet but with a hint of bitterness. Expect this to get better as it ages in the bottle. Gravity 1010.
Been in bottle in doors for about 6 days as of today 3/10/14.

 

[MikeK117]

Update: 4 weeks in the barrel and it's come a long way in a week. It's cleared right up and is as clear as any commercial beer for sure. The taste has a little way to go and I reckon it'll be good at 6-8 weeks as previously mentioned.

I'm going to do some homework on water treatment to see how I can improve the quality of these kits. When your beer kit is about 90% water, it's got to be good water!

 

[Lesinge]

Drinking this tonight after a couple of weeks in the garage cold conditioning. Lovely hoppy beer, not massive on mouth feel but this is a single kit beer and the hoppy clean taste more than compensates! Thinking if this was from a pub I would be loving being served this. Excellent value beer!

 

[Hopping_Mad]

Ok, I'm back on this kit review thread again because, for the money, I can't say enough about this kit. I'm now onto my fourth go with this one, and have two more in stock for some more experiments.

I have a similar basic modus operandi - kit LME of 1.8kg, 500gms of brew enhancer, 500 gms of light DME, and usually around 200-300 gms of dextrose (whatever odd leftovers I have from a 1kg bag to be honest!). That gets me over 3kgs of fermentables. I usually brew a little short to 21-22 ltrs. I have used the kit yeast twice and Safale US-05 twice. I'm usually around 1045 SG and an FG of 1008 with the kit yeast and 1005 with they US-05. I give it two weeks in the FV, even if it's done before that, then I bottle it (...or 5 ltrs in a mini-keg).

I've done the kit without additional hops (the LME is quite well hopped), and dry hopped with Centenniel and Cascade with the US-05 for an 'American craft' style. Don't overdo the dry hopping, 50gms of Centenniel for the last two days made it VERY hoppy! I loved it, but that was not a universal opinion!

The thing is, you get really good beer, really quickly! I'm having a fantastic pint now after 2 weeks in the coat cupboard and 2 days in the garage! It has decent mouthfeel and great head retention already (brew enhancer helps I guess?).

It's a great base kit for experimentation too. Lots of websites offer it at slightly less than RRP too. Give it a go with decent extras, I don't think it will disappoint!

Top marks Simply :clap:

 

[Lesinge]

This is a great little kit, the last one I did I dry hopped with 30g of Amarillo hop pellets which gave it a great nose and flavour to go along with the already good hoppy bitterness that comes with the kit. The one I currently have in I have have hopped it with 12g of amerillo hop pellets and 11g of Cascade dry hop flowers, so I am looking forward to see how the two types mix together.

 

[Frogbrew]

I agree lesigne this is a great kit, have to get another one ordered but would like to add a hop teabag tweak, what do you recommend?? Are the ebay ones any good? Excuse my ignorance as I only usually do kits with mdsm and or sugar...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Goldings-...344?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2a29dd3520

 

[Lesinge]

I agree lesigne this is a great kit, have to get another one ordered but would like to add a hop teabag tweak, what do you recommend?? Are the ebay ones any good? Excuse my ignorance as I only usually do kits with mdsm and or sugar...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Goldings-...344?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2a29dd3520

I have used challenger and Goldings hop teas but have found that I get better results with using hop pellets just added after the initial fermentation has died down. I also have dried hop flowers, Cascade, so am using these in place of pellets and they do smell great although don't seem to have as much oomph as the pellets.

 

[Frogbrew]

I have used challenger and Goldings hop teas but have found that I get better results with using hop pellets just added after the initial fermentation has died down. I also have dried hop flowers, Cascade, so am using these in place of pellets and they do smell great although don't seem to have as much oomph as the pellets.

Thanks for the info lesigne, do you put the pellets in a bag or something or chuck em straight in and filter out later somehow?

 

[Slid]

Hop pellets generally drop quite well, especially if you do a short boil with them, add to primary FV and rack at 7 days, before bottling at 14 days.

It's possible to add a further "dry" hop at first racking and at this stage leaf hops might be problem at bottling.

Putting leaf hops in a food processor turns them towards the pellet material and will enable more transfer of chemicals from plant flower to wort. You a can always add some boiling water to help the processing. This sounds a bit wierd, but when you stick the leaf hops in the food processer and get it going, it will sort of make sense.

 

[Lesinge]

Thanks for the info lesigne, do you put the pellets in a bag or something or chuck em straight in and filter out later somehow?

I chuk them in and then use a muslin cloth tied over the siphon hose when transferring to my bottling bucket. Maybe if you don't have a separate one it might be more problematic?

 

[Hops_and_Dreams]

Ordered some of this today to use up some hops I have. Nipped down the LHBS to get some beer enhancer and some M44 yeast to go with it.

Will hopefully get it on next weekend if the current one is finished.

 

[huwb]

Brewed this up with 1kg of rithchies brew enhancer 01/03/16 2 weeks in fv, 2 weeks in warm bottle conditioning. Sg was spot on 1.040, fg was 1.008 roughly 4%. I batch primed with 100gms of sugar for bottling.
My first kit i cannot believe how drinkable it is.
I brewed it up for my 30th bday which is still 3 weeks away. Ive managed to kill 10 bottles so far. Very happy with this kit for the price, would do it again. Maybe dry hop it and use more sugar for batch prime.

 

[Clandestine]

this is consistently my favorite kit. cheap too.
made one with a big simcoe dryhop. was beautiful.
just drinking another with 150g of citra / amarillo / mosaic / czt. . . Hands down my best brew to date. murky neipa look to it, very attractive shade of orange/copper

makes for a bloody excellent base to pimp up.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I only have a couple of brews under my belt but have just given this one a go. I used the kit with 1kg brewing sugar and 500g muntons hopped light malt extract. I stopped topping the FV up with spring water when the temperature hit 22 degrees in order to pitch the yeast but when testing the OG noticed I'd stopped quite short at just 21 litres so OG read 1.054! I used a 5g pack of muntons premium gold yeast instead of the kit yeast because of the extra fermentables and dry hopped with a muslin bag containing 25g US Cascade hop pellets on day 10. There was no activity from the airlock at all during fermentation so I thought nothing was happening but after ten days SG was 1.004 and this was the same after twelve days so it was bottled that weekend on day 14 in 500ml bottles with a teaspoon of table sugar in each. Bottles have been stored at 20 degree for 6 days now and i can tell from the few PET bottles I used it seems to be carbing up well. Will move to a cool place at the weekend for a week and pop one open. Can't wait to give it a try.