20 Min boil kits?

I see alot of places that are selling 20 min boil kits. Being very new to homebrew. Whats the story behind these? when would u add the moss?

They more than likely don't contain moss. Or much of anything I would assume. I haven't seen any. can you provide me with a link?

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/homebrewing-ingredients/recipe-kits/20-minute-boil-kits.html

I haven't tried any of them but I've seen the list.

Yeah, there's no moss in the kit. Heck half the time I forget to add any moss to my beers and after a month in primary they are perfectly clear either way.

Basically it's pre-hopped malt extract, and aroma hops..and you boil it long enough to pasturize the wort.

I guess if you wanted to add moss you could add it in the last 5 minutes. *shrug*

It's their way of selling you a prehopped kit with the add on sales of yeast, hops and DME. Then they have you ruin the prehopped kit by instructing you to boil it for 20 minutes.

My 2 cents (I did one once from Midwest), stay away. With a 20 min boil, you're only shortening your entire brew day by 40 min or so. Get a decent extract w/ specialty grains kit (midwest has plenty of those), and brew that. If you really don't have that additional 40 minutes to spare, don't brew that day. That additional 40 minutes with a (not pre-hopped) extract and specialty grains kit will give you a superior finished product. This is why I recommend avoiding the 20 min boil kit.

Coincidentally, the one I brewed turned out bad, it was the golden wheat. I don't necessarily blame the kit since I used yeast harvested from a commercial brew; my ferment temp was slightly on the high side too. I let it age a long time, and did drank some, but eventually dumped about 1/2 the batch.

If you are doing a pale ale or IPA, you could try hop bursting and only do a 20 min boil.

With extract, there really is no reason to do a 60 min boil accept for bittering hop utilization. With enough 20 min hops, you can still achieve the bitterness levels you are looking for while getting better hop flavors/aromas.

I would do something like this:

Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.00 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 93.33 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 6.67 %
1.00 oz Am/Cen/Sim [10.50 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
1.00 oz Am/Cen/Sim [10.50 %] (20 min) Hops 20.5 IBU
1.00 oz Am/Cen/Sim [10.50 %] (15 min) Hops 16.8 IBU
1.00 oz Am/Cen/Sim [10.50 %] (10 min) Hops 12.3 IBU
1.00 oz Am/Cen/Sim [10.50 %] (5 min) Hops 6.7 IBU
1.00 oz Am/Cen/Sim [10.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.062 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.13 %
Bitterness: 56.3 IBU
Est Color: 9.6 SRM

Sure, it's only 56.3 IBU, and you can adjust that if you want, but as-is, it will be very hop-forward. I just picked a setup I already had created in BeerSmith, a mix of Amarillo, Centennial, and Simcoe divided and mixed equally in 6 cups (2oz of each). You can pick something you like, and you don't have to mix them. But, I'd start your 20min with something with high AA like Simcoe with 13% and maybe work down to something like Cascade or Crystal.

Also, anyone know why BeerSmith puts dry hops at the top (or how to change it)? It's annoying since the recipe works down from longest boil. I'd like them to be at the bottom under the 0min addition.

In response to the post above with recipe by Monkey Wrench, I would respectfully disagree on doing that recipe, just as if you are very new to home brewing then you shouldn't be doing dry hopping or a ton of hops additions. neat example though of getting away with a 20min boil.

I would recommend against going with anything that has hops infused in the extract. You can get better quality beer without much more effort. If you are wanting to just learn the very basics (sanitation, boil, ferment and bottle), then doing that is fine. If you want to learn the (simple) task of adding hops a couple times during the boil, then go with a standard kit with a full 60min boil and with proper hops additions.

Edit: I just looked at the link, seems it does indeed have an aroma hops addition. So it could work fine, I always just prefer folks to start with a standard extract/steep recipe.

You make a good point about the process, but the OP didn't mention how many brews he's done. It's good to go through the process, but even first-time brewers could feel comfortable about hopping at intervals and dry hopping.

I don't think anyone needs to do a kit, even for their first brew, just get organized and prepared so nothing is surprising or needs to be rushed. Therefore, I don't see why the above recipe couldn't be handled even by the newest of newbie.

I do remember my first brew, a simple wheat with lemon zest and only 3 hop additions. My second was a Mac & Jack clone with lots of hop additions and dry hops. It turned out great, however, all of my hops are measured and separated into cups with what min written on them. Looking back, I wouldn't change a thing. I'm glad I never bought a kit.

I can't claim I came up with the 20min boil/burst idea. It's been on my radar for quite some time. It could be a great method for someone looking to create a quick and easy brew. I plan on brewing this process and comparing to a standard hop schedule recipe.

It really depends on each person and how comfortable they feel with the process in front of them and their equipment on hand.

Heres my 15 minute cascade pale ale. Its the beer I brew when I dont have a lot of time for a brew day but need to keep the pipeline full. Wonderful hop flavor and aroma and only takes about 2 hours to brew from start to finish including clean up.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/15-minute-cascade-pale-ale-210253/

i was asking about the 20 min kits for a couple of reasons. The 20 min kits are about 10-15 bucks cheaper than the standard kits. The money doesnt bother me so much. the main thing is, i want to get the process down, all the way from boil to bottle and make sure my sanitizing is enough. I really dont want to order high quality ingredients for my first couple brews for the fear of not sanitizing enough, or improperly using the siphon, second ferment, etc. Just kinda wanted a cheap way to run threw a couple brews to make sure I am doing a quality job from boil to bottle.

I made one once because I was doing a homebrew demo at the local arts center and they were only giving me a little over an hour from start to finish. It turned out OK, but it was definitely what I thought it was going to be - a bit watery and "blah". There's definitely nothing wrong with it - just don't expect to make a great beer, but rather a halfway decent beer.

Saints1313 said:

i was asking about the 20 min kits for a couple of reasons. The 20 min kits are about 10-15 bucks cheaper than the standard kits. The money doesnt bother me so much. the main thing is, i want to get the process down, all the way from boil to bottle and make sure my sanitizing is enough. I really dont want to order high quality ingredients for my first couple brews for the fear of not sanitizing enough, or improperly using the siphon, second ferment, etc. Just kinda wanted a cheap way to run threw a couple brews to make sure I am doing a quality job from boil to bottle.

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I know this is an old bump, but that looks to be no longer true now. I shop at Midwest and for example I purchased a Rasberry Wheat for $30.99, and the 20 minute boil of Rasberry wheat was $30.49. A difference of only .050 cents.

I decided to do a late summer wheat brew, as my temps with Ales is too high (Thanks Yooper).........