Home-Brew kits
Doug Baehr
Seen a kit at my local beer store--$47.00---makes 5 gallons of beer
and contains all needed stuff. Included was a bag of caps and sugar
and a refill kit of my choice. My question--can you make good beer
with one of these kits--if not what is a good one and where can I get
one??
Thanks in advance
GBurg92
Go to a real home brew store. There are lots of kits on the market that
are sold by people who don't know anything about homebrewing. Most stores
offer their own classes on brewing as well. The kit I bought had a guide
book written by the owner of the store. Any money you might save by
buying a cheaper kit will be wasted if you end up brewing undrinkable
beer.
Also- buy Charlie Papazian's The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing. It's a
great guide for questions that come up while you're brewing.
Good Luck
lpa...@ebtech.net
Pre-Mixed beer kits are rarely a good source of ingredients because
they already contain unknown amounts of sugar, questionable quality of
hop extract and poor quality of yeast.
For starters, Try this:
For 5 gallons
2 cans of COOPER'S unhopped light extract
1.5 oz SAAZ hops
WYEAST # 2007 yeast (MAKE STARTER !!!!)
Dissolve malt extract in at least 15 litres (4 gals) of water and
bring to boil. Add hops and boil for 1 Hr.
Cool as fast as you can (laundry tub ?) to below 60 °F and filter into
Primary fermenter. Top up with boiled cool water and add yeast
starter. Apply air lock.
FERMENT BELOW 45 °F.
After 2 weeks transfer it into secondary fermenter and fit airlock.
In two weeks you can bottle or transfer to a keg and carbonate with
CO2 gas (45 psi and shake for 2 min. reduce dispensing pressure to 25
psi.)
Now you have a beer that cannot be compared with any of the commercial
concoction.
The yeast can be reused (recultured) for a long time. (I USE one SINCE
1989)
!!!!MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS C L E E N !!!!!
Leslie Palya
Good Luck
John Agosta
>>
>Pre-Mixed beer kits are rarely a good source of ingredients because
>they already contain unknown amounts of sugar, questionable quality of
>hop extract and poor quality of yeast.
Actually, there are some very good pre-mixed (pre-hopped) kits
out there including GlennBrew and John Bull. You can
find quality pre-hopped / pre-flavored kits at a homebrew
supply store.
For the newbie, this is a good way to start, and it's hard
to screw up a batch. Troubl is, the pre-flavored kits are
expensive.
After a making a few batches this way, the newbie will get
a feel for how to do things such as adding finnishing
hops, and minor "tampering." What are the two most important
things to learn? IMHO, PATIENCE and CLEANSLINESS (did I spell
that right?)
You can save money by getting into the intermediate
brewing level where you use un-hopped / un-flavored malt
extracts such as what Leslie reccomends and adding your
own bittering/flavor/finishing hops, inaddition to
some specialty grains to add flavor and character to the beers.
After getting a grip on this method of brewing, it's time
for graduating to the "full mash" method of beer making.
This method is more affordable than using canned or dried
extracts, but requires more time and experience.
I've been at it now for 4 years myself, use all-grain as
well as extract recipes (depending upon my mood and time
constraints) and (yes) still on occasion use a flavored kit.
(But have learned to stick with the brands above,
due to the excellent quality)
Great hobby! Get into it!
-ja
depth...@aol.com
$47 sounds about right for your low end homebrew setup. Just avoid the "Mr
Brew" or "BrewBag" setups -- you'll end up with a cloudy, yeasty mess.
Pat King
DepTh...@aol.com
Ralph Forsythe
>$47 sounds about right for your low end homebrew setup. Just avoid the
"Mr
>Brew" or "BrewBag" setups -- you'll end up with a cloudy, yeasty mess.
Yeah, I spent about $80 for mine, which included a full glass setup and
other stuff. I think they had some for around $50 that were pretty
decent, although they were using plastic carboys (which I do not like for
various reasons).
- Ralph Forsythe
ra...@contact-paging.com
www.hemi.com/~ralph
Glen G. Walker
Yeah, I made one of those "Brew-bag" kits last winter. When it was time to
give it a try, I invited a bunch of friends over. They still tease me
about the beer, having unanimously voted to name it "Walker's Skanky
Lager".
--
Glen G. Walker
or...@goodnet.com
Hinshaw Financial Group L.L.C./ Oris, L.L.C
David J. Fial
I just got the Mr. Beer setup for my birthday. $60 at Hecht's.
We will see if it's good.
Does anyone know a good place to buy the mix?
Dave
>Doug Baehr wrote:
>
> Seen a kit at my local beer store--$47.00---makes 5 gallons of beer
> and contains all needed stuff. Included was a bag of caps and sugar
> and a refill kit of my choice. My question--can you make good beer
> with one of these kits--if not what is a good one and where can I get
> one??
>
> Thanks in advance
--
David J. Fial Go Sabres!!!
Telecommunications Engineer Give Blood, Play Hockey
'?? PC800 (not yet!)
Bobmcin
Caught your comment about beer kits. Does it contain a fermenting pail or
carboy? It seems a bit expensive, if not. These kits can make really
good beer, if you throw away the instructions! You should boil the wort
(unfermented beer) for at least 45 minutes, cool it to about 80F before
pitching the yeast. Let us know how it turns out. Glug glug!