Why choose a beer kit

[Aquila1701]

For me it's all of the above, space, time constraints, cost and availability of ingredients locally.

At one point I started to look into all grain, bought a 33L stainless steel Pot (still unused) and quickly found I'd go deeper and deeper into buying more kit. Spending time I don't have boiling, cooling, sparging etc.

I don't generally make the 1 tin kits (apart from some cooper's) or lower end 2 tin kits and try to spend about £25 on a decent kit like Festival where you still get hop pellets, specific sugars and yeasts for that style of beer.

I can brew about 30-40 pints of pretty damn tasty beer at a significantly cheaper cost.

 

[dbg400]

My comments above are partly based on ignorance of all grain homebrew, as I've not tried any yet. My first experience of someone else's homebrew was back in the '80s and it was sufficient to put me off until a few years ago. The only people I know well enough to swap brews with are just doing kits too, so I don't know what can be achieved with a really good all grain setup. I'm happy to be convinced into moving up to something better!

 

[rodwha]

SWMBO (are you guys familiar with the term there?) got me into brewing as I had lost my job just prior to our daughter being born, and so it turned out that I'd be the one to keep her and the house going. She soon felt I needed a hobby and bought me a starter kit with two beer kits that I totally messed up badly.

I got frustrated and so she looked some stuff up on the internet and we bought the ingredients and brewed them together, and extract with some steeping grains became clear.

Ever since then I've just looked to see what it takes to brew what I want and entering stuff into a brew calculator, and then asking for critique on a forum.

I later fell in love with rye beer (and whiskey), and found I'd have to learn to mash, and tried BIAB, which didn't take up any more room. And so I tried, and though not perfect, it worked, and I've been making as many mistakes as possible since, but they've mostly been good despite me.

But I also realize that room in Europe isn't like room here in the US. Space is at a premium.

I have extra time so it's good for me.

 

[cheshirehomebrew]

Hi pms, its 90 minutes with the grain in the pot bubbling away at 60-65 degrees, an hour with the hops and malt extract to flame out.

before the 90 minute grain soak it takes about 20 minutes to bring to the boil using multiple kettles and hot water straight from the tap.

I can then strain off the hops through another muslin bag placed over a strainer, and not the usual round strainer this is oblong shaped and has extendable arms so it rests on top of the FV, takes about 5 ish minutes then I pop the lid on the FV and leave to cool, I dont have a wort chiller and I dont brew to 3 gallons and top up with 2 gallons of cold.

The big pot I use will hold 5 gallons but its a bit close to the top when full , and any hot break might boil over, so I generally brew to 4.5 gallons and sparge the hops on the strainer with a kettle or 3 of boiling water to bring me to 5 gallons

It usually takes 24 hours to cool to below 24 degrees then I pitch the yeast, yeast of choice at the mo is Gervins G12, not only does it have a nice clean taste but it goes like the bloody clappers too :grin:

 

[Megaross]

Space and time.

Trouble is I share a 2 bed terrace with a mate of mine and we've both got numerous hobbies which take up so much space.

So I basically get a bit of the front room to store brewing equipment, let alone the completed brews. It's taken a while to free up this much space so I've basically only just started brewing again.

Not to mention I don't have the time to brew AG even if the weather was nice enough to brew up in the garden.

 

[pms67]

Ok Cheshirehomebrew,full marks to you mate for your hard work,but the general theme of replies to this thread are the time,space and effort (and sometimes cost) that separates kit brewing from all grain.i guess circumstances dictate your level of brewing and given the little time I have I've lucky to even be brewing kits !
This has been a popular thread in a massive forum and all debate is healthy.
Happy brewing mate :

 

[serum]

I've wanted to make beer for years but even the beginner guides were quite overwhelming so kits were perfect to get me started. I didn't need much equipment and they work out very cheap.

They taught me about hygiene and fermentation and gave me the confidence that I could make nice quality beer. I might never have made the jump to AG if it wasn't for kits giving me an easy entry point. The British style ale kits I did were all pretty good (Wherry, the whole St Peters range and Cooper's Stout) but I really wanted to make Belgian style beers and the only kits for those are the Brewferm ones. Although they're not bad to drink, they're nothing like the real thing so I had to go AG. I considered extract and brew in a bag but then got some help building a mash tun so I went for a 2 vessel system.

It took me 3 brews to get any good at it but I'm now making some very interesting beer that I'm more than happy to drink. A brew day is about 5 hours all in compared to an hour or less for a kit so you need to be able to find time for it. The cleanup after is a ball ache as well but I think the results are well worth it.

 

[cheshirehomebrew]

cheers PMS, my mate wants to brew a lager (hopefully this one will be better than his last effort which quite frankly shocking.

any sugestions for the best pilsner beer kit ?

 

[rodwha]

Try brewing a cream ale. It's similar to a lager and uses ~1/2 lager malts with a clean ale yeast such as US-05 dry yeast.

I've made a jalapeño cream ale and it was awesome!



*Maybe I'm confusing this thread with another, but suggested the cream ale as I thought fermentation temperatures may be an issue. Sorry if I was mistaken, but would still recommend a cream ale.* :wink:

 

[dbg400]

cheers PMS, my mate wants to brew a lager (hopefully this one will be better than his last effort which quite frankly shocking.

any sugestions for the best pilsner beer kit ?

Ultimate Brewery Classics German Pilsner turned out better than I expected. It's not a style that I drink very often, and that's the only pilsner kit I've done, but I'll be doing it again sometime - most likely early next year so it benefits from some colder conditioning.

 

[pms67]

Ive brewed the Muntons Continental Pilsner and its a nice beer.

 

[norm]

Try brewing a cream ale. It's similar to a lager and uses ~1/2 lager malts with a clean ale yeast such as US-05 dry yeast.

I've made a jalapeño cream ale and it was awesome!



*Maybe I'm confusing this thread with another, but suggested the cream ale as I thought fermentation temperatures may be an issue. Sorry if I was mistaken, but would still recommend a cream ale.* :wink:

Forgive my ignorance but what is cream ale. Can you buy it as a kit (If so which ones) or do you have to do extract or all grain? :wha:

 

[the_kitchen_brewer]

cheers PMS, my mate wants to brew a lager (hopefully this one will be better than his last effort which quite frankly shocking.

any sugestions for the best pilsner beer kit ?

I really liked the Better Brew Czech Pilsner and tends to get positive reviews.

Coopers Canadian Blonde is a nice light lager - crystal clear and tastes something like Molson/Coors. Easy to make, leave it for about a month, everyone who's tried it has liked it so far.

If he's anywhere near Liverpool/Chesterfield try a sample of the BeerWorks Southern Gold Digger at Love Brewing. Great smell and clean taste, I wasn't 100% keen on the after-taste myself but I'm sure others would like it.

 

[rodwha]

A cream ale is an ale that somewhat mimics a lager and/or would be well received by a lager only lover, especially the lighter American types.

I found an American kit which would give you an idea:

http://www.brewersbestkits.com/pdf/1011 2013 American Cream Ale Recipe.pdf

Here's the wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cream_ale

My recipe got overworked as I'm well known for tweaking a small test batch after I bought the ingredients. So I had to make up the tweaks I had done with things I had around the house such as honey and table sugar. It turned out rather great, though I would tidy up the recipe and use a little more jalapeño as it wasn't quite as hot and flavorful as I would have liked.

I haven't tried the it but it's something like a kolsch from what I understand. Here's the wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kölsch_(beer)

 

[rodwha]

If you can buy ingredients I can give you a recipe unless you wanted to work off of the one from the brew kit I posted. I suppose you could make a British version by using Maris Otter in place of American 2-row, and use a British hop as well.

 

[pms67]

I've wanted to make beer for years but even the beginner guides were quite overwhelming so kits were perfect to get me started. I didn't need much equipment and they work out very cheap.

They taught me about hygiene and fermentation and gave me the confidence that I could make nice quality beer. I might never have made the jump to AG if it wasn't for kits giving me an easy entry point. The British style ale kits I did were all pretty good (Wherry, the whole St Peters range and Cooper's Stout) but I really wanted to make Belgian style beers and the only kits for those are the Brewferm ones. Although they're not bad to drink, they're nothing like the real thing so I had to go AG. I considered extract and brew in a bag but then got some help building a mash tun so I went for a 2 vessel system.

It took me 3 brews to get any good at it but I'm now making some very interesting beer that I'm more than happy to drink. A brew day is about 5 hours all in compared to an hour or less for a kit so you need to be able to find time for it. The cleanup after is a ball ache as well but I think the results are well worth it.

Serum,you seem to know about or are drinking saison ?
I know nothing about this style of beer but Youngs are doing a new kit in their American range and if it's half as good as the amber ale I would like to brew it.
Any info ?

 

[serum]

Serum,you seem to know about or are drinking saison ?
I know nothing about this style of beer but Youngs are doing a new kit in their American range and if it's half as good as the amber ale I would like to brew it.
Any info ?

Yeah I've made and drank a fair bit of saison.

It's a very interesting and tasty beer but very loose in terms of style so it's hard to describe. The Belgian ones are normally around the 5-7% mark and very refreshing.

That kit looks like a highly hopped version which is an american take on it but I'm sure it'll be good as kits go. The only thing that would concern me is whether they've put a good enough yeast in there. If you try it I'd be interested to know if it's any good!

If you want to try a saison then the best example to begin with is Saison Dupont. For a hoppy one Brew By Numbers do a few that are decent.

 

[mickthetrick]

its horses for courses so to speak. some people are happy to brew kits and hey why not? they have come on a long way since the days of the nasty boots kits. the majority of kits today make perfectly acceptable beer. a few tweaks and you can make very good beer. add some cold steeped grain and perhaps a hop tea.
kits are very convenient too. an hours work and bobs your uncle.
ag is a step up in regards to quality imo. the beer just tastes much better to me. i know its more time consuming but thats all part of our hobby and a few hours more is no big deal to me. a little more equipment is needed, granted but you can set yourself up pretty cheaply. its not all about shiney gear. you can make good beer out of a homemade boiler and mash tun easily enough. also in general ag beer is ready to sup faster than kit beers.
i still make the odd kit as ive a few to use up after compulsive buying when sales were on. im happy enough to make them but i do prefer my ag brew days. it relaxing to me and gets me out of the way of the women in my life for half a day.