why do so many people F with kit beer?

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I am still a noob so don't take this as harsh...but I read soooo many posts about people adding all kinds of crap to their kit beer,,stuff like coca powder,mint,honey,candy,,and much more. And then they post about "off flavors",,, Well DUH !!! I have never had a commercial beer witch was "flavored" that I enjoyed. I like beer to taste like beer not candy. maybe I am missing something?
 
Some of us like to think out of the box and experiment, I dunno, I thought thats what made home brewing a hobby for me, being able to take a beer an make it my own. I can not afford a mash tun nore can I afford everything yet for all grain, so therefore I use kit beer.
 
Different strokes for different folks.

After a few years and many, many batches of beer, you'll get tired (very likely ...) of kit beers and other people's recipes. Then you'll be one of the people suggesting all sorts of things to add to beer.

One of my two current batches has orange zest and corriander and it's a recipe I dreamt up from an ingredients list on a commercial beer. Let's just that I hope it's the start of something new and exciting, but if not, well, I have other things I can add to beer to try and do some damage to my liver!
 
I think the same exact way. I want beer, not mint (or who knows what other flavor) with beer in the background.

Do I always brew beer true to style though? No, but I don't go crazy overboard with things. Right now I'm drinking a Saison brewed with American 2-row and a fair amount of American late addition hops, but it's still damn good and tastes like a Saison.
 
Heheh people do that with the Mr Beer kits too. Maybe it's a side effect of the Brew Masters show? That's going to be a hot item for Christmas. I just saw that Sears is stocked up on them. This site is going to be insane after the new year.

I have never even used a kit fwiw.
 
I'm positive you are right. If I could afford it or knew more about it I would definitely be going all grain and "making my own beer". I guess unstaffed with kits to asses where my skills are, learn from kits and what not. I'm only on my third batch, to be brewed this coming weekend. I would absolutely love to go all out, just have to start somewhere.
 
Why not. For me changing a few things in a kit has helped me start to develo my wn recipes. Plus it kind of cool to tell you firend the new bee was your idea not the guy at the store.
 
OP isn't knocking kit beer, he's just wondering why people feel the need to throw, for lack of a better word, random ingredients into their beer.
 
I think the bigger problem is newbs trying to start with huge complex beers and/or their own recipe formulations before the have the basics figured out. Off flavors come from poor yeast health, fermentation temps, poor ingredient choices, or ingredient amounts that are out of balance.

But like it or not, the insanity will continue. It's just human nature.
 
I think the bigger problem is newbs trying to start with huge complex beers and/or their own recipe formulations before the have the basics figured out. Off flavors come from poor yeast health, fermentation temps, poor ingredient choices, or ingredient amounts that are out of balance.

But like it or not, the insanity will continue. It's just human nature.

Well ... off flavors can also come from entirely too much chocolate and peppermint extract, too!

Don't discourage experimentation. If people didn't make mistakes, they'd never learn how to do anything other than what people have always done.
 
Make what you like, drink what you like. Simple as that. Your preference is neither superior nor inferior.

Beer's been made with all sorts of flavor ingredients in it for a lot longer than it's been made in "standard" beer flavors, so it's not like adjuncts are some sort of newfangled phenomenon. Fortunately it's both easy to add them and easy to leave them out.
 
I used to wonder the same thing- since I love great beer but "plain".

I had a friend who would make a clover honey, Belgian candy sugar, coriander "wee heavy" and she loved it. Or whatever else she thought of- and she loved her beer and was very proud of it and happy to share it.

We are just two totally different types of people. I love great beer that's better than a commercial example of the same style. She brews because she can make a heather-tip spruce ale with 11% ABV.

Neither one of us is wrong, just different.

What does make me wonder though is a new brewer who decides on their first batch to "wing it" and then ask why their Brewer's Best kit tastes bad. Well, it was fermented too hot, had three pounds of honey added, and then root beer extract. That could be it! :D
 
Experimenting with ingredients is fine, but many people aren't able to extrapolate what the addition will taste like once it's been through fermentation. Honey and ginger are probably the most commonly "misused" ingredients that I have had the misfortune to taste.
 
I've made beer starters on honey. Let's just say that this is a good idea for a STARTER, but a bad idea for an added flavor.

Never tried ginger. Some day I'll make a Red Stripe knock-off and give that a go ;)
 
We are just two totally different types of people. I love great beer that's better than a commercial example of the same style. She brews because she can make a heather-tip spruce ale with 11% ABV.

OUCH! And I thought I was pushing the limits of sanity at 9% ABV.

I try to encourage people to invest in one or two one gallon fermenters, if they are into experiments. I've experimented using a 2 liter growler I've got, when I wanted to try something really weird. The key is -- the greater the departure from a real recipe, the greater the risk of something that gets dumped down the drain.
 
I just made an Xmas beer so I have done the ginger thing.

I have seen so many times people wanting to dump sugar or whatever in the early batches. It's ok to have a lighter beer.
 
I have adjusted hop additions on clone kit beers. But that is because all the kits I ever purchased had recipes like this:

1 ounce Whatever Hop - 60 minute addition
1 ounce Another Hop - 20 minute addition
1 ounce Third Hop - 5 minute addition

It seems to me that the kits I was buying were just put together in a way that was convenient to the seller since most hops are sold in 1 ounce baggies. So, when I plug the ingredients into Beersmith, the IBU for the batch comes out way too high compared to what the recipe is trying to clone.

And, I stopped buying kits and went all-grain as a result.
 
So, when I plug the ingredients into Beersmith, the IBU for the batch comes out way too high compared to what the recipe is trying to clone.

You are comparing apples and oranges. Some breweries measure their IBUs, others calculate them. They don't tell you what formula they use, or how they adjust the formula to account for things like mash hopping, first wort hopping, whole vs. pellet hops, etc. So your IBU calculation will almost inevitably be off, sometimes by a large margin, especially if you use a different formula than the brewery used.
 
I agree with the OP, and I tend to like beer flavoured beer. Similar to Leary's comments on coffee...

"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQxgv4QtKM8"

 
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Dennis is great , fing funny. Except for Wits and Belgians I have always belived in creating the flavors you want with the different combinations of malt , yeast , and hops without adding anything else. I would never want chocolate mint beer. Probably good but becomes something other than beer to me. I'm just not into it. Some people are.
 
The people at Miller, Coors, Budweiser all agree with the original poster as well.

Why are any of you making beer at all? When the store is filled with their tasty version you are supposed to love? Drink the watered down, thin lager and quit thinking outside the box. It's just crazy, I say.
 
You are comparing apples and oranges. Some breweries measure their IBUs, others calculate them. They don't tell you what formula they use, or how they adjust the formula to account for things like mash hopping, first wort hopping, whole vs. pellet hops, etc. So your IBU calculation will almost inevitably be off, sometimes by a large margin, especially if you use a different formula than the brewery used.

True. But I do consider the use of anything they advertise as a rule of thumb for cloning. So, if I'm brewing a clone kit that has three ounces of hops, plugged into Beersmith, comes up to 48 - 55 IBU total for the recipe. Compare that to microbrewery's website that lists the IBU at 32. I may not get their hopping schedule down to the tee, but I sure as heck know the clone kit is way off based on the kit instructions.

And I'm still convinced that some clone kits from some sellers are suspiciously thrown together when you get three 1 ounce bags of hops and the recipe calls for exactly one ounce per addition. Not all are like this, I'm sure. So, the bottom line is "yeah go ahead and f around with your kit beer and get it where you think it ought to be." That's the beauty of homebrewing! If it comes out not to you liking, you learned something, man.
 
NICE TITLE OP!!!!!!:rockin:

Why do so many people f with kits?

Why brew if you are going to use a kit??????


I have NEVER f'd with kits.

That is like microwaving a frozen dinner and calling yourself a chef!!!!

Who needs kits???


Lol,.........what?


OH!*foot in mouth*

Wow dude.

If I was given a kit, you WOULD NOT RECOGNIZE it when I was done with it.

Let us know when you are out of training pants!

:mug:
 
I see nothing wrong with taking a Brewer's Best Robust Porter kit and brewing a choco-banana-coffee-chili-smoked-oaked-cherry-bacon-bourbon porter. Yum!
 
choco-banana-coffee-chili-smoked-oaked-cherry-bacon-bourbon porter. Yum!

Certainlly nothing wrong with brewing that if you want, but i just threw up a little in my mouth thinking about it.
vomit.gif
 
Homebrewer conversation, circa 1424:

"What hath the Dutch done, marrying good ale with the vile hop?"

"It is an abomination which the tongue doth surely reject!"

"Hold your curses, knaves! For taste is truly in the mouth of the beerholder!" (Phrase was eventually misused and altered, just as Ben Franklin's was.)


I think the trick, besides the undeniable fact that everyone has different tastes, is to find the right amount of the right flavors to make a positive sensory experience. Whether it's a hint of mint in a chocolate stout, or a sweat inducing addition of hot peppers.

Adding different flavors to beer is nothing new or disturbing. I like tasting new and different beers as well as enjoying a well done old standard. The different part is one reason that Jolly Pumpkin and Right Brain have such a loyal following in my state. It's why pumpkin beers sell out across the nation.

Rest assured, there is plenty of room for boring stand-bys and experimental beers both.
 
I see nothing wrong with adding your own touch to a kit/recipe, that is the wonderful thing about home brewed beer--you have complete control of what you do with your recipe. If you mess up and it tastes awful, like any chef experimenting with a new dish, you know not to do that the next time. If we all just followed the same old recipes, then there wouldn't be much of a point to brew your own beer--you might as well just save your time and money and buy it at the store.
 
Get that salt and pepper off the table! Who are you to adjust what the cook has determined fit!?!


And no condiments on that hot dog! Eat it as God intended; ground pork floor sweepings in a white bun! Plain!
 
Epicly put homercidal............

For those that love to follow, we wish you the best, but for those of us that lead, just stay out of our way and don't criticise what you don't understand.........

On the other hand, if you do buy a kit, why f with it? you copuld have bought all of the ingredients plus or minus your changes cheaper?;)
 
Some of us like to think out of the box and experiment, I dunno, I thought thats what made home brewing a hobby for me, being able to take a beer an make it my own. I can not afford a mash tun nore can I afford everything yet for all grain, so therefore I use kit beer.

10-gallon cooler mash tun for about 60-70 bucks, worth it! Will save on ingredients.
 
I don't use kits in the normal sense. Just a cooper's can or two,& some plain DME. Mix them up color/flavor-wise to get it close to yet another I like. It's fun to recombine them,depending on what I intend the outcome to be. Just got used to what works & what doesn't.
Def need to try a yeast pitch calculator,since I use a couple other calculators already. It'd be nice to be able to cut ferment times,Control temps precisely for even better beers.
But extracts can make good beer if combined properly. Above temps,pitch.etc...But whatever floats your boat. So let's try not to shoot down what others are doing just because we think we da shizz. Can't we all just get along?;):D
 
To each his own I guess. I am a neewb and on my third kit, nut brown ale, I threw some coffee into the boil for the last 5 minutes and the end product, while not really a nut brown ale, was wonderful. I like to F with stuff but that's just who I am. I call it learning. Besides, if I F with my kit and F it up, I am the one who is gonna be stuck with it. My first kit was pitched at around 100 degree's, used cleaner to sanitize, forgot to put liquid in the airlock and only let it sit in the primary for 4 days, and boy that is some awful beer, but it's MY awful beer.
 
Well said,BR. Like this saying my 9th grade math teacher had above the chalkboard-"Do your own thing,but don't stop me from doing mine".
 
I think a lot of noobs equate fiddling with their kits to ownership of the finished product. If they did everything the kit says word for word with all of the supplied ingredients, they feel like it's Northern Brewer's beer, or AHS's beer, or whatever, and not theirs.

By screwing with it, they feel like they are making it unique, something that only they could have made. In reality, they're just adding failure modes, increasing the chances they'll be dissatisfied with their first brew.

This isn't my philosophy- my mom and my wife make the same cookies with the same recipe and neither are even remotely similar cookies- but that's what it sounds like to me when I hear "hey, I just got my first kit- I'm going to add six pounds of bacon and three cups of creme de menthe."
 
I don't think it's setting up the ol' fail mode unless it's some off beat stuff from the kitchen,garden,produce department,that sort of thing. I don't like all that off the wall fruity chocominty nuts-n-banana biscuits-n-gravy bacon & egg ales. I like water,hops,malts,& yeast...some zest & grains of paradise,coriander,etc is cool. There's plenty of styles in that description to suit me for a while.
But if you really wanna try these other additions,do it within reason,research it,& it'll come out a little better.
 
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