Definition Opinon- Unimportant Blather

Kit or not a kit?

A little while back SWMBO facilitated my first beer, a Brooklyn Brew Shop IPA kit. I was surprised and pleased to see no extracts inside. All grain baby! So, I brewed the beer. My friends and I (and SWMBO) happily consumed the beer. Now I have equiptment from that kit that I can reuse (racking cane, carboy, blowoff tube, etc.)

For Christmas, my inlaws bought me a gift cert. to Weak Knee brewshop (thank you once again if you are reading, Weak Knee). I let the gentleman know that this would be only my second beer, but that I was thinking of making a stout. He and I perused a book called "Classic Styles" and found a recipe that looked promising. He ground my mixture of grains in proportion according to the recipe and put it all in one airtight plastic bag. All other ingredients he pulled out according to the recipe and put on the counter to be rung up.

When I brew this beer, am I technically brewing a kit again?

There will be no moral to this story, just curiosity.

It's all semantics. I'd say since it wasn't something that the shop had already put together and you picked the recipie out of a book then no it isn't a kit. Your just brewings someone else's recipie. Even when I do my own recipies all the grains get put in the same bag, so that has nothing to do with it.

When I re-brew one of the recipies that I originally got from a kit, with my own grains is it still a kit? don't really know, and don't really care, since I brewed it, it's my beer.

Not a kit, just someone else's recipe. Cheers!

I agree with the above replies. With a kit you know that everything you need is in the box. With a recipe you're making sure you do your due diligence to make sure you gather all the required ingredients. I suppose it's akin to the difference between buying a computer and assembling one yourself from it's component parts.

Yeah I concur, a kit in my mind is something pre-measured, pre-packaged and usually comes with instructions. Store owner just helped you collect the parts and prepare it.

Since I am ornery and pretty much buck conventional wisdom.......You bought a kit

2865 posts in a year and a half and you're only on your second brew????

gingerdawg said:

2865 posts in a year and a half and you're only on your second brew????

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Second BEER. I've been making mead, apfelwein, etc. all this time.

Ok, that's better....

CreamyGoodness has accomplished a great feat of wisdom and answered one of the most important questions ever asked:

Is there more to life than brewing beer?

Thank You CreamyGoodness!

I also have made mead out of things many people wouldnt consume seperately, nevermind in mead form.

Creamy - If the recipe came out Brewing Classic Styles then the recipe is rock solid. Just be sure to make a starter if using liquid yeast and control those fermentation temps. The last is critical to producing quality beer.

Good for you on jumping in right away on all grain btw!

Off-topic, but my plan is to put it near the glass door (coolest part of the apartment) and put a black tshirt on it. I dont know how I can really contol the temps given my apartment's temp flux.

When you, Darwin, say critical to making a quality beer, could sloppy temperature control still result in an enjoyable beer?

Yes, it can. At too-high temps, the yeast may produce some esters (which can be considered an off-flavor in many styles), but otherwise it should be fine. I've made many beers in less than optimal ferment temps, and they've been, for the most part, very drinkable. That said, I wouldn't say that temp control is unimportant--if you want to reliably produce a beer that tastes like what you want it to taste like, there are few more important factors. But at the end of the day you'll definitely still make beer (unless you ferment an ale at 45F, or most any beer at 105F!).

As an aside, one relatively easy way to improve your temp control is to get a big water basin that you can put your fermenter inside of, and keep the fermenting beer in a water bath. The water will reduce temp fluctuations and you can use bottles of ice or an aquarium heater to adjust the temp as necessary. A lot of brewers who don't have a temp-controlled fermenting environment use this method.

A water-bath sounds simple enough. If I spike the water with star-san I can ward off fungus and bugs too I bet...

CreamyGoodness said:

Off-topic, but my plan is to put it near the glass door (coolest part of the apartment) and put a black tshirt on it. I dont know how I can really contol the temps given my apartment's temp flux.

When you, Darwin, say critical to making a quality beer, could sloppy temperature control still result in an enjoyable beer?

Click to expand...

It really does depend on the yeast strain that you are using, however most yeast produce off-flavors and fusel alcohols if you ferment them too high. Some styles like stouts/porters can mask these imperfections to a certain degree, however if you do move to a style that is less forgiving then you'll notice more off-flavors. Sloppy temperature control can definitely result in an enjoyable beer, especially this time of year but when you do begin to brew in the spring and summer those high temperatures are typically exacerbated. I didn't really practice temperature control until I had a string of batches come out undrinkable - for me losing $40 - $50 per batch was a big deal which forced me to consider temperature control. There are tons of affordable and easy ways to do this!

My local shop sells kits and like most shops the owner will assemble recipes as needed. It's funny yge number of folks that come in and choose the kit because brewing the recipe is too advanced. Not really relevant but just wanted to share.