Beer kits???

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

brewgenie

Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2005
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Location
Shropshire, England
Reading through the various threads it seems that all you US guys brew as mashers from malts etc. Over hear we are more into beer kits.
Do you have much in the way of beer kits and if so what and what's your favourites?
Also are there any brewers here from England?
 
I’m in Salem Oregon, but lived for years in Britain (Derby) until the late 80’s. You can get kits very commonly here – but most everyone I know prefers to put their own together with specialty malts and grains added to the extracts. All of the European hops are available here – and being from Oregon, we also grow some of the finest hops in the world.

Quality beer has only started to become commonly available here again in the last 20 years with the advent of the small breweries. Sadly, over 4,000 breweries were put out of business with prohibition resulting in the destruction of an important part of our culture. After prohibition, it has take 50 years to get back in the direction we were in before prohibition with small breweries cropping up everywhere.

However due to the lack of good quality commercial beer, home brewing became a more important art, and the concocting of ones own recipes became common (although an undergrown art until legalized in the 70's) – and now most breweries here have grown out of the basements of home brewers – despite the best efforts of the neo-prohibitionists. What I find common here are "clone" recipes – but they do not appear in kit form. There are kits to recreate some of our better beers, but most are created by attempting to duplicate beers with tailored recipes – at least that’s my impression. I have also seen a number of classic British beers in Kit form (Bass comes to mind) at my local brewstore. The owner tells me they don't move very often - but he does keep them.

keg_pounding_lg_clr.gif

Ian

 
Hi brewgenie, i've seen a few here from the Uk, and I'm from Ireland. I only use kits cos I don't have the space for all the equipment nor indeed the choice of ingredients locally. I don't think that theres a brick'n'mortar HBS in Dublin!!!
Ken
 
brewgenie,
Just found your thread because I don't usually look in the American Beer & wine folder.
I'm from ENGLAND :D and yes I brew from kits. Brewferm Belgian kits every time although I've done a Bru-paks Brewers Choice kit IPA earlier this year.
A few years ago I used to brew with extract, hops etc. in a big pan on the cooker. After a house move and the stuff getting packed away and my job I had a break from brewing for about 6 years and started again this year. I'll probably get back to extract brewing eventually. I'd love to go full mash but the expense and lack of space puts me off. Maybe one day.

Roger.
 
Back
Top