Which English ale kit?

[PintofPride]

Hi everyone,

I am from SE England and currently living in the Netherlands and the one thing I really miss is good ale, so of course I have decided to brew my own.

Anyway, I am am extremely indecisive so can anyone suggest what they think is a good quality two-can brew kit which resembles a good ale, like Harvey's Best/Young's Bitter/Doombar/Tribute/london pride. Any advice is much appreciated!

Happy Brewing!

PoP

 

[Runwell-Steve]

Woodfordes Wherry or St Peters Ruby Red are both excellent kits.

 

[PintofPride]

Yes I like the sound of them both haha, especially the st peters ruby red. By the way I will be bottling my beers, so if anyone knows ale kits with good bottlability too then do say.

Cheers for the input.

 

[Green Ninja]

Woodfordes Nelson's Revenge is excellent.

I'm drinking this at the moment and it is the best Woodfordes kit I've done (Norfolk Nog and Wherry I've done too and enjoyed)

You won't go wrong with Woodfordes mate.


Terry.

 

[vinniev]

Any of the Woodforde kits but the St peters Ruby Red is beautiful if left for a couple of months in the bottle. Swap the yeast for SO-4 though.

 

[NickSinatra]

I added dates to the St. Peter's Ruby.....a quality beverage.

 

[PintofPride]

Well I will be sure to have at least one Woodforde's kit! Both the Wherry and Nelson's revenge appeal to me greatly, however I'm not too sure how the NR will fair with bottling. Has anyone tried it? I have more faith in the Wherry, bottling wise, as it is supposedly very similar to Doombar, which I think is damn fine out of a bottle. I could buy a keg as well, but I don't want to spend the extra money and have heard plenty of bad stories about all the main brands of home brew kegs. Maybe something for the pipe line.

Thanks for mentioning the yeast btw Water Boy, I was contemplating that already, but now I think I'll buy some. Would you recommend doing this for most kits?

Thanks for all your responses and the more the merrier!

Cheers

PoP

 

[Green Ninja]

Buy a couple of budget barrels.

I've got 2 and never had a problem apart from having to replace the cap washers in both. But for £1.25 each is wasn't a problem.

And I think any beer tastes better from a bottle as opposed to a pressure barrel.

The other alternative of course is Corny kegs which I'm looking into at the moment.

But don't worry about bottling any homebrewed beer, I think they are superior to barreled beer.


Terry.

 

[PintofPride]

Well, with that in mind I don't think I will bother with any kegs and just bottle it all. But I may get some kegs in future when I need to store more beer, now that I know their not all treacherous doom machines.

Just to reiterate my previous question, is it advisable to use different yeasts to that provided in the kit with most kits?

Cheers

PoP

P.S. I just realised that when I said water boy in my previous post I meant Green Ninja. Apologies, I am new to this forum and got a little confused haha.

 

[Zaust]

Another +1 for St Peter's Ruby Red. Just finished one last night - lovely and very drinkable stuff.

 

[muddy90]

I was baffled too with which beer kit to get. In the end I opted for St. Peters IPA for my first beer kit.
I haven't started it yet but looking forward to it. I need more bottles. :

 

[baggyray]

My first brew was Nelsons Revenge,and I can highly recommend it,drinking it now :party:
Bottles is better than keg,no doubt about it :thumb:

 

[StrangeBrew]

Ruby Red and Wherry are both good but if I had to pick one it would be the Red...

:

 

[vinniev]

One advantage of kegging is less waste beer as all the yeast is left in the bottom of the barrel and not in your bottle.

Anyone ever hapen to have compared wastage between bottle and barrel?

 

[Joey78]

Hey chaps I'm a newbie here... But thought I'd throw wood ford wherry out there as a goodun.

Just started using a pressure barrels and having an issue with gas escaping which I think is spoiling an otherwise lovely brew... Any ideas out there?

 

[carl_saint]

make sure you've got Vaseline on all your seals and o-rings and that they are really tight!

 

[Joey78]

Thanks, do you think the ale will spoil if I undo, reseal and add some gas?

 

[Dave1970]

One advantage of kegging is less waste beer as all the yeast is left in the bottom of the barrel and not in your bottle.

Anyone ever hapen to have compared wastage between bottle and barrel?

I'd say the other way round, less waste from bottles, partly 'cos I'm not concerned about a little bit of yeast getting into my pint so tend not to leave a lot in the bottom of the bottle. Also the last few pints from a plastic keg tend to taste less than perfect so that could be considered more wasteful than bottles too.

 

[tazuk]

+1 :thumb:

My first brew was Nelsons Revenge,and I can highly recommend it,drinking it now :party:
Bottles is better than keg,no doubt about it :thumb:

 

[PintofPride]

I'd say the other way round, less waste from bottles, partly 'cos I'm not concerned about a little bit of yeast getting into my pint so tend not to leave a lot in the bottom of the bottle. Also the last few pints from a plastic keg tend to taste less than perfect so that could be considered more wasteful than bottles too.

That's what I thought.

A slightly random question, but has anyone tried Birkby Bitter or any of the Birkby kits for that matter?

Right now I'm definitely planning on brewing some Nelson's Revenge, but am also looking for something of a session beer. So please keep the suggestions coming!

Cheers everyone!