Tesco sell off

[giraffe]

Popped into my local Tesco home plus (Chelmsford) yesterday and they seem to be discontinuing their homebrew range and selling it off cheap.

All the Coopers kits have gone, but I got a John Bull IPA for £3 and a Geordie Yorkshire bitter for £2.75! I am normally a 2 can kit kind of guy but for these crazy prices I just couldn't resist.

Any ideas of how to brew these so they don't taste like a 3 quid brew? :) Was thinking of brewing short, very short to maybe boost the flavour a bit. Not had much success in the past with cheap kits.

 

[giraffe]

Forgot to add they also had carbonation drops for about 73p and replacement caps for Coopers PET bottles for about 50p and loads of wine kits, but wine doesn't float my boat so didn't pay much attention to that.

 

[jonnymorris]

Any ideas of how to brew these so they don't taste like a 3 quid brew?.

Replacing the sugar with DME would be a good start.

 

[Drunken Horse]

They dont taste bad they are just a bit thinner. Brew short about 20 litres has worked for me. You'll have too much of a tinned hop flavour if you shorten too much. It would be better to dry hop if you want a hoppier flavour

As above use DME.

 

[joe1002]

I was in there a while back and they told me they don't sell HB stuff :wha:

The guy was a manager too

 

[goldenone]

Stil alll full price in the Hull (St Stephens) store on Friday.

Perhaps the clearance is store specific?

 

[Dusty]

I was in my nearest Tesco's during the week and was told they are stopping HB to make room for new lines. They had some odds and ends in the warehouse but there was no discount.

 

[giraffe]

I was in there a while back and they told me they don't sell HB stuff

They haven't done homebrew in that Tesco for that long, maybe even under a year. I don't think it sold, so not surprised they are getting rid of it.

 

[RichardG]

I bought a few kits around the same time as you and had assumed they were selling it all off. Wilko haven't had any brewing sugar for the last few weeks, so I went into Tesco direct this morning on the off chance, and they were selling the kits heap again. Unfortunately I went on my bike, so the weight I could carry home in my rucksack was a concern, but I was intending to go back tomorrow for a few more and some brew enhancer.

I mentioned this to the former manager of the Alehouse he says he went in but all stock has been removed (I'm not sure he went into the Chelmsford store as h doesn't live round here any more). Will go back tomorrow in any case to check

I did ask a member of staff if they were selling off their stock and he said he thought it was a pricing error which would be fixed at some point, but prices would remain unchanged in the meantime :-)

I've been using the John Bull English ale kit as a base for a green tea ale, so for £3 I would be rude no to buy a few :-)

 

[LeithR]

I often brew one can kits and add a hop tea and DME to improve them, I don't swap DME for sugar but add it in addition (about 400g). The biggest improvement IMO is to use a good quality yeast, A Nottingham yeast is always reliable. These steps will lift a kit beer no end.

 

[RichardG]

Went back this morning and bought a few more :-)
They're still at the same prices

 

[Pjam]

I thought the Geordie Lager very weak in taste and AVB....... I'm not sure if brewing short to 20l is gonna be enough!