Tom Caxton Real Ale Review

[BIGJIM72]

Made it once.Grim :mrgreen:

 

[artyb]

i have just finished one that has been i a k/ keg for 5 months.... :shock:

i used dme and some brown sugar, i made a hop tea with 250g of fuggles.... :hmm:

at first it was twangy and bitter, the last 2 litres have just been drunk and there were like an abbot ale.....very quaffable.. :

someone gave the tom caxton kit, it was out of date so i thought good to experiment with.... :thumb:

 

[Chris_1984]

I tweaked it (by accident, added 100g of hops PLUS the hop oil satchet in the primary stage) and ended up with a reasonably Doombar clone

 

[smurf]

This was one of the first kits I ever brewed a few years back and I remember it turning out to be very drinkable. I always intended to brew another one of these but wanted to try all the other main kits first including 3 wherry's! I am looking forward to brewing this and seeing if it's as good as I remember first time around

I am specifically brewing this for my annual trip to the Epsom Derby on the 3rd of June and post event BBQ - I like the idea of turning up with a barrel of real ale!

The Brew:

Started this off in a 5 gallon FV on Friday using purified water and beer enhancer instead of sugar.

Room Temp = 21 degrees using brewing belt the evening

Starting gravity = 1.040 and want to get this down to 1.006

Let the games begin!

 

[shearclass]

I don't normally go for the 1 can kits for ales, but this was a birthday present from my mam, so i had to make it.

To my surprise, this was a very decent pint. Nothing spectacular by any means, but you probably aren't going to get anything spectacular from kits. It had a great head on it, and was very easy to drink. If someone was looking fora resonably chepa kit ale, i woudl recomment this.

I can't rememebr for sure, but i imagine i made this with 1 kilo of Beer kit enhancer (50/50 spray malt and dextrose). Turned out to be pretty strong, 5% ish

 

[TRXnMe]

I've just finished a keg of theh stuff, made it with unrefined brown sugar and some malt extract.

It's gone down quite well, but was not up to the wherry that's next in line for drinking, lesson confirmed, use malt, not sugar for fermentable, took me 2 brews to be convinced, but I'll not make that cheap skate mistake again.

I'll make it again, no worries, but will use either a dark malt, or brew enhancer specific for a dark beer, I reckon it'll be rather good done well :)

 

[Deaconbrau]

I make this using half of the hop packet, along with a packet of enhancer and it has become the favourite of my renactment group, who have preferred it to geordies Scottish export, mild and Woodfords best bitter...
I've found it to be reliable, last well in a keg and easily available from Wilko's, although its only available in its larger stores, however, it has survived the cull during their recent change of provider so that can only be a good thing.
Probably lacking the depth of the two-tin sets, more experienced brewers will no doubt turn their noses, but if you need an easy session ale then you could do a lot worse than this...

 

[Roasty1982]

This was the first kit I ever did (Jan 2012) , and I thought it was an absolute belter. So many differnet people tried it and the theme was a common one. I was very patient with it and it was fully worth it.

Currently I have a Muntons Pilsner in teh fermenter and a Sweet Newkie Brown conditioning in the bottles and a Brewmaker IPA in the keg, but I am thinking as soon as the FV is free I could be very tempted to bang another one of these in.

Cheers.

:

 

[real ale rascal]

I am specifically brewing this for my annual trip to the Epsom Derby on the 3rd of June and post event BBQ - I like the idea of turning up with a barrel of real ale!

Sorry if this sounds silly, but how do you keep your keg clear, if your moving it around? Surely the sediment will cloud you drink!

 

[Marco]

Hi Guys,

This kit it is my second homebrew, it is in primary for 9 days now (1.039).
Rather than sugar I have used honey, and I did a "tea bag" with cinnamon, orange peel, cardamom and coriander.

My question to you is: how long did your primary last? Clearly I would have an easier and faster response by running an hydrometer test but I want to check your views on this :)

Thanks

 

[TRXnMe]

Hi Guys,

This kit it is my second homebrew, it is in primary for 9 days now (1.039).
Rather than sugar I have used honey, and I did a "tea bag" with cinnamon, orange peel, cardamom and coriander.

My question to you is: how long did your primary last? Clearly I would have an easier and faster response by running an hydrometer test but I want to check your views on this :)

Thanks

My primary fermentation lasted about 3 days, but you're using honey, which I believe takes longer to ferment out, so don't expect it to have finished as quickly as the standard kit would :)

 

[Deaconbrau]

I made this earlier this year using 2 bags of medium spraymalt and the results were really drinkable.
The head and body were improved considerably and it fermented with more vigour than simply using a bag of enhancer alone.
This kit may not be one for purists, but I've always found it to make a very pleasant session drink.
I have made a keg of this for every re-enactors event I have attended for the past three years and it always goes well, this tweek to the recipe saw it drunk in two evenings rather than 4 days...

 

[mr maestro]

just bought this one today. I've done a few cooper's kits and thought i'd try a caxton's for a change.

 

[Lesinge]

Brewed with 1kg sugar and 500g medium spray malt and brewed short to 20litres. This gave it an OG of 1060 or 1058 so it could be between 5.7% and 6.3% as a final level!! Used all the hop extract too so it will be interesting as to how the flavours balance out. Pitched at 23%. Taste at measure before hop extract added was nice, sweet and malty but the sweetness dominating the malt at this stage. I wonder how the hop extract will overcome the sweetness during the brew.

 

[Lesinge]

Bottled this on 20/09/14 after three days racked. Taste is quite strong and smooth with a real bitterness to it. I hope that bitterness mellows in the bottle. Final gravity 1012 so percentage is either 6% or 6.3%!

 

[Cwrw666]

I usually brew the `dark real ale' variant. It's a pretty good beer and way better than any of the non real ale pub beers. It does however need a good 3 weeks in the bottle before it's at it's best. At first it's not very good at all so I can see why some people may not like it. I'm usually at least 2/3rds of the way through a brew before I can say it's coming up to scratch!

 

[Lesinge]

So after a week or so in the warm and a week in the garage I am trying out the 6.3% version of this beer. The smell straight out of the bottle was a bit metallic but has changed now in the glass to a kind of warm alcohol or hint of Sherry. The harsh bitter taste has gone and the beer tastes a bit of a cross between old fashioned homebrew and Brewferm's Christmas ale for the first three months of its life. I am going to leave this for a further four weeks to see what happens to it.

 

[Lesinge]

This is pretty undrinkable I am afraid. I liked the Tom Caxton best bitter but this one tastes like very bitter homebrew of the 1980's. I kind of start getting a sick stomach just drinking the first sips and although it improves slightly down the glass I never go back for a second one. I wish this was the Simply IPA every time I see the nearly two full crates of this in my garage. Will leave it to Christmas to see if it changes for the better although I am not hopeful and certainly wouldn't give it to anyone at this stage.

 

[Frogbrew]

Not one i'll be trying on your review, got a Tom Caxton best bitter to go on next which you say you liked, what did you add to this kit or would you recommend lesinge??
I did this best bitter as my first ever brew just using brewing sugar and turned out ok if I remember although didn't really have anything to compare it to.

 

[Lesinge]

Not one i'll be trying on your review, got a Tom Caxton best bitter to go on next which you say you liked, what did you add to this kit or would you recommend lesinge??
I did this best bitter as my first ever brew just using brewing sugar and turned out ok if I remember although didn't really have anything to compare it to.

I brewed the Best Bitter with 500G of Medium spray malt and 500G of brewing sugar and used the whole hop sachet (although now having the real ale I might not do so in the future) and it turned out a very good drinkable beer. My notes after one month were that it was a very nice beer, sweetish with a bit of a Wherry flavour but more bitter and I was impressed. Pity about the Real ale though.