The last of my kit brews

[Oneflewover]

Bit of a watershed moment. Just drinking the very last bottle of kit beer in my stash.

It's a brewferm grand cru at about 8% and very good it is too. Brewed in late 2016, so been in the bottle a while.

I wouldn't hesitate to brew beer from (certain) kits again if necessary, and they provided an accessible way into brewing my own when I decided that was what I wanted to do.

 

[Slid]

Out of interest, which other kits would you brew?
I got the most joy from doubling up the Coopers kits, and only did one Brewferm. Beyond these, fairly pricey options, I would try one of the malt extract and dry hop kits, perhaps.

 

[LarryF]

Out of interest, which other kits would you brew?
I got the most joy from doubling up the Coopers kits, and only did one Brewferm. Beyond these, fairly pricey options, I would try one of the malt extract and dry hop kits, perhaps.

Slid, when you doubled up the Coopers kits was bitterness an issue? Was it 23L brews you did when doubling them up?

 

[Slid]

Slid, when you doubled up the Coopers kits was bitterness an issue? Was it 23L brews you did when doubling them up?

Not for me. I did the Coopers Stout with Wilko Velvet Stout a few times to 27L with 1kg of sugar (you need the Coopers fermenter for this lark) and once just 2 x Coopers. The IBU's for the stout are said to be around 40 IBU's for 23L, so it could have been up near 70 IBU's, but was not overly bitter. A couple of years ago Wilko quite often had 25% off sales and that made the cost of these a bit less than £20

Also, I did a couple of Coopers Lagers (Draught, I think) as Saisons with Belle Saison yeast (25L) and they were not particularly bitter, as the Lager kits are (said to be) circa 20 IBU's for 23L. The yeast is by far the dominant player in a Saison and possibly deserves more usage with kits.

 

[Oneflewover]

Out of interest, which other kits would you brew?
I got the most joy from doubling up the Coopers kits, and only did one Brewferm. Beyond these, fairly pricey options, I would try one of the malt extract and dry hop kits, perhaps.

I've had most success with either hoppy pale ales (e.g. Youngs aipa, festival golden stag) or stouts (e.g. Coopers original stout). I also did a few brewferm kits and rated them, but benefitted from longer conditioning.

 

[Slid]

Good luck with your AG experiences, mate. It might take as long to brew a beer as to play a round of golf, but it is worth it. If you do not have the Greg Hughes book, it is worth thinking about. The brewing world really is your Oyster.

 

[Oneflewover]

Good luck with your AG experiences, mate. It might take as long to brew a beer as to play a round of golf, but it is worth it. If you do not have the Greg Hughes book, it is worth thinking about. The brewing world really is your Oyster.

Cheers bud, been ag brewing for about a year now, so got a few done. I do have that book, and you are spot on it is a great place to start.

 

[Lawrence22]

I am just about to brew my first all grain. I have a decent stock of kit beers. The big plus with this is I am not going to be as impatient as I was when I started the kit beers.

 

[Oneflewover]

I am just about to brew my first all grain. I have a decent stock of kit beers. The big plus with this is I am not going to be as impatient as I was when I started the kit beers.

Good luck. When you break it down it's actually quite a simple (but admittedly time consuming) process. Perhaps I'll get frowned upon, but I'm almost always drinking my AG brews within a week or 10 days, so being impatient (as I am wont to be!) is not such a problem.

 

[ericmark]

When I started with kits Morrisons were doing them for around £7 a can, so it was really cheap beer, to move to anything not done by Morrisons resulted in a jump to at least £12 a can. So I stuck with Scottish heavy where I could. However the brews varied according to time of year, by the time I had a brew fridge Morrisons had stopped selling beer kits, still looking for cheap beer, Wilco seemed to have sales, so got what was on offer, they had a two can wherry and I was converted, it was so much better than the single can kits, however when not on offer it comes in at £22 a big jump from the £7 can at Morrisons.

Buying ready made in local Lidi works out at £1.41 a litre, and if anything better than my home brew, or at least more to my taste, so £28.20 for 40 pints, so all the work to brew the beer saves me £6.20 minus travel to buy the kits as not sold local so I have to ask myself is it worth it? For a £12 kit saving £16.20 there is some incentive to home brew, but as the kits go up in price, one has to ask is it worth it?

Not talking about those who brew from scratch, talking about kit brewing, so I have to compare the Woodfordes Wherry Real Ale kit to Lidi Hatherwood Original Bitter is the kit beer good enough to be worth the effort? Neither the best beer, going down to the pub and drinking cask ale I have to admit the cask ale is better. So at £12 to £14 a beer kit yes worth it, but at £22 a kit not really worth the effort, so back to Scottish heavy even if not the best kit, it is value for the money.

When I move home again maybe I will try the next stage, and buy malted grain, will never have to space to malt my own, but I have to travel 7 miles to my brew fridge so not really home brew.

 

[chub1]

When I started with kits Morrisons were doing them for around £7 a can, so it was really cheap beer, to move to anything not done by Morrisons resulted in a jump to at least £12 a can. So I stuck with Scottish heavy where I could. However the brews varied according to time of year, by the time I had a brew fridge Morrisons had stopped selling beer kits, still looking for cheap beer, Wilco seemed to have sales, so got what was on offer, they had a two can wherry and I was converted, it was so much better than the single can kits, however when not on offer it comes in at £22 a big jump from the £7 can at Morrisons.

Buying ready made in local Lidi works out at £1.41 a litre, and if anything better than my home brew, or at least more to my taste, so £28.20 for 40 pints, so all the work to brew the beer saves me £6.20 minus travel to buy the kits as not sold local so I have to ask myself is it worth it? For a £12 kit saving £16.20 there is some incentive to home brew, but as the kits go up in price, one has to ask is it worth it?

Not talking about those who brew from scratch, talking about kit brewing, so I have to compare the Woodfordes Wherry Real Ale kit to Lidi Hatherwood Original Bitter is the kit beer good enough to be worth the effort? Neither the best beer, going down to the pub and drinking cask ale I have to admit the cask ale is better. So at £12 to £14 a beer kit yes worth it, but at £22 a kit not really worth the effort, so back to Scottish heavy even if not the best kit, it is value for the money.

When I move home again maybe I will try the next stage, and buy malted grain, will never have to space to malt my own, but I have to travel 7 miles to my brew fridge so not really home brew.

Why not try biab?. It's easy,you can do small batches as well which allows experimentation.I don't have a brew fridge and use the stove top for my boiling but manage ok to produce some decent beers.You could also try partial mashes or some extract brews.

 

[Poochops]

@ericmark when you try all grain your beers will be a. much cheaper, and b. much better than anything you can get from Lidl for £1.41 a litre. If you wanted to monetarise it you'd be comparing four for a fiver in the supermarket with your homebrews, which if not hop heavy could cost you less than a tenner. I've got a foreign extra stout in the pipeline where the ingredients cost me £7.50 before yeast which I'll collect from a previous brew or pitch a pack from CML @ 80p.
Also it might become more of a craft hobby for you rather than a money saving exercise, the creative side of brewing is what gives many of us most pleasure after all. I've brewed beers cost me over a pound a pint and been gobsmacked that I could produce something of such beauty in a bucket! And if I wanted to buy something similar I'd be spending 2,3,4 quid on a 330ml can or bottle.

 

[Oneflewover]

When I started with kits it was a bit about cheaper beer, but mostly about making something myself; I grow quite a bit of fruit and veg, make preserves and pickles, and enjoy catching fish for the table.

I've really got the bug now though, and it's about trying to make the best beer I can (within limitations). For me it ticks all the boxes - endless creativity, a bit of the good life, and the best bit is you get to drink great beer!

 

[Richert]

This is exactly how I got into brewing. At first I just dabbled, purely out of curiousity. But then I got into it more and more and nowadays, I'm either brewing or thinking about brewing. Do you already know what you want to start with, Oneflewover?

 

[Oneflewover]

This is exactly how I got into brewing. At first I just dabbled, purely out of curiousity. But then I got into it more and more and nowadays, I'm either brewing or thinking about brewing. Do you already know what you want to start with, Oneflewover?

Hello, I know what you mean!

I started off AG brewing this time last year, having treated myself to a stock pot and grain bag, with a chinook smash if I remember correctly. Think I'm on AG brew 11 or 12 now. Got lots of plans, but not enough time to execute them in.

One other added benefit of brewing my own is that I now have a much deeper appreciation of different styles, and have really broadened my 'beer horizons'.

Welcome to the forum BTW. :wave:

 

[IainM]

Snap. I just wanted cheap beer when I moved back to the UK, so I dusted down the equipment and Muntons kit I got as a birthday present from colleagues when I was in Spain, which was just about at its sell by date, and the rest is history. This was 2 and a half years ago. Just under two years ago I moved to BIAB and next week I'm putting on my 30th AG brew. I've got my very last bottle of kit beer in the shed, a 7.5% chocolate milk stout Coopers mod brewed in March 2016. I wouldn't rule out doing a kit again if stocks were low and I didn't have time, though nothing comes close to AG.

 

[ericmark]

As said not living at home is a major problem, the fridge/freezer used to brew in is too big to fit in car, there is no room in mothers house to set it up in the house, so I have to find time to return home to bottle the brew, so it sits in fermenter far longer than it should.