Brewer's Best kits - Any thoughts?

I just brewed the IPA. Anyone have any thoughts on these kits?

I use the BB kits some and never had any problems with them. I kinda like them till I get into all grain. The Holiday ale they have was good so was the octoberfest.

I did quite a few of them when I first started brewing. My first was the English Brown and I did the Red, the English Pale Ale, and I think one or two others. Excellent kits with good directions!

Another place I used to get kits was austinhomebrew.com. They have great kits and you can order one of their "clone" kits if you have a certain beer you like. They are realy good, and super fresh.

Thanks for the post VAV, as these are the only kits i've been using, and have been wanting to ask this question myself. I have done their American Cerveza, English Brown Ale, Robust Porter and Irish Stout. Every kit has been great and easy to do.
I was gonna try switching to another brand because I'm a little bored with them but then I learned about late addition brewing (where you dont add the LME till close to the end) so now im gonna re-brew the kits i have already done with that method and compare the results.

My first kit was a BB and it couldn't have been easier. I think the instructions were more than adequate and could have been shortened easily. Mine was missing the priming sugar, but that stuff was so cheap to buy I have more than enough for my next few batches. I get to either bottle mine or move to secondary in the next day or so and am pretty excited.

I already ordered a kit from AHS so I will compare the two. From what I've heard the AHS kit will contain the same type of fresh ingredients and great instructions that the BB kit did.

I've used 3 or 4 BB kits with great results. The Steam Beer, Red Ale, and Irish Stout were very good. Was not crazy about the Mexican Cervesa kit, though it did taste like a Negro Modelo sort of.

I just keged the BB IPA. Though I am having minor carbonation issues, (due to my impatience... I know, I know. This hobby is all about patience.) The beer is really good. This is the second BB kit I have used. The first one was sh!tty because I was trying to get the most out of the grains by bagging them over the kettle. Subsequently, I ended up pouring most of them in the pot accidently and boiling them due to lack of strainer. Austinhomebrew.com bags the grains for you which is more convenient, IMHO.
-Drew

I've got the Brewer's Best IPA kit in secondary right now and the sample I tasted was pretty good. I modified the kit a little though, I added an ounce of Columbus hops at 15 minutes and I'm also dry hopping for 10 days with an ounce of Amarillo in the secondary.

I'm bottling in a week, and it should be ready by the 10th of January. I'll let you know how it turns out.

trabus said:

I've got the Brewer's Best IPA kit in secondary right now and the sample I tasted was pretty good. I modified the kit a little though, I added an ounce of Columbus hops at 15 minutes and I'm also dry hopping for 10 days with an ounce of Amarillo in the secondary.

I'm bottling in a week, and it should be ready by the 10th of January. I'll let you know how it turns out.

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I'm thinking of dry hopping this one too...let me know how it turns out.

My first kit was a BB IPA kit and it came out very drinkable for me and my buddies.However, I think I did overboil the hops cause I couldnt notice any bitterness to it and there wasnt any hop notes either.It was more of a lighter colored amber ale.Still great for first time kits though.I think for the price of the BB kits you can get kits from AHBS.I am in the process of fermenting there Oatmeal stout and im going to be brewing there Two Hearted clone very soon,once I get a carboy.




Sean

Well it seems to be OK, so i'm going to go ahead and dry hop it. I bought an ounce of Cascade and an ounce of Simcoe...what do you guys think...both ounces? Half and half? One only?

anyone? D:

I tend to dry hop with an ounce of hops that I used in the boil. Usually Cascade, as an aroma hop and I like the citrusy nose.

So whatever you used in the boil, maybe go with that. Just a suggestions, by no means a rule. Give it a shot.

jvh261 said:

I tend to dry hop with an ounce of hops that I used in the boil. Usually Cascade, as an aroma hop and I like the citrusy nose.

So whatever you used in the boil, maybe go with that. Just a suggestions, by no means a rule. Give it a shot.

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So 2 ounces would be overboard?

I've done acouple BB kits. They've been good beers. My only issue is that you get 144 caps with each kit. I still have lots of "bb" caps, which sucks because I like to label the bottles just by writing on the cap.

I would go with one ounce of cascade. Some on here say in secondary, but I have always done it in the primary.

I dry hop in the secondary.
Yeah, i'd probably just go with the one ounce of cascade. If its not a very big IPA to begin with (and if its the basic IPA BB recipe and it hasn't changed I think I remember it being Northern Brewer and Cascade - is that right?) 2 ozs dryhopped might be a little much.

jvh261 said:

I dry hop in the secondary.
Yeah, i'd probably just go with the one ounce of cascade. If its not a very big IPA to begin with (and if its the basic IPA BB recipe and it hasn't changed I think I remember it being Northern Brewer and Cascade - is that right?) 2 ozs dryhopped might be a little much.

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Er, too late

You're right, it was 2oz Northern Brewer for bittering and 1 oz for Cascade.

So i just racked it over into the carboy for second, and dumped in the 1 oz of Cascade and 1 oz of Simcoe.

Guess we'll see

Looks good. I'm sure it'll be just fine. Let us know how it turns out. I've never used Simcoe as a dryhop.

I've done several BB kits and they all turned out light on the hops. Then I decided to run the recipe of my most recent (American Light) through a recipe calculator and I discovered the problem. According to the instruction sheet this was supposed to have 15 IBU's but the recipe calculator said 9???? I went back and checked some previous sheets and low and behold they all came up low on IBU's. Maybe the AAU content of the hops is low, or maybe it's just cost reduction in production, but I'll be running the recipes and adjusting hops appropriately from now on. Boiling with a gravity of 1.000 (as in late LME additions) would certainly help with bittering utilization. I also have about a million leftover caps

The BB IPA is one of those beers that gets much, much better with age. I brewed one up in September and it's just now starting to mellow out and get really good.

My latest honey brown ale is a BB english brown ale that I didnt add my LME, DME and Honey to until after the boil.

I used 1 quart of raw honey and my OG ended up being 1.104, which is my highest ever. I checked this a couple of times.

It was brewed 5 days ago and I still am getting regular bubbles in the airlock (once every 5 seconds or so)

I have never had airlock action so long on a bb kit (the most was two days)

I am interested to see what this ale looks like in color, taste and what the final gravity might be.

Anyway, this may be another way to do a BB kit if you get bored with the recipe as it stands.

About the caps, I end up throwing most of mine away because I keg. I still keep the priming sugar though!

Kubed said:

The BB IPA is one of those beers that gets much, much better with age. I brewed one up in September and it's just now starting to mellow out and get really good.

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I brewed the BB IPA on Sept. 3. You are right, it does get better with a little age on it. I brewed it according to the directions, and now I wish I would have dry hopped it in secondary. It is still a good, drinkable beer, but I really like hoppy IPAs. I have the BB English Pale Ale waiting to be bottled. It was in primary for 2 weeks, and will have been in secondary for 4 weeks this Sunday. The SG sample taseted pretty good when I racked to secondary. I will let you know how it tastes from the bottle after it is ready.

my first good beer was the BB IPA, I liked it a lot! Actually, I miss that beer!

I finally bottled my BB IPA yesterday. I ended up with only 4.25 gallons in my bottling bucket, partially because I didn't add enough additional water to my wort in the primary (which would explain why my OG was 1.060, off by +5 points), and also due to losing some when transferring.

My FG was also off by +5 points (1.020) because of the additional water issue, so the color seems a little darker than it ought to be, and it's probably going to need a little longer to bottle age. Still, I'm pleased with the result, I'm probably going to make it again.

My buddy and I started our first two brews with BB kits. We realy liked the instructions and the fact that it came with everything but the bottles. After a couple kits we finally felt ready to try our own but could refer back to the BB instructions as guidelines to remind us what to do when. They were great learning experiences.

Naidirem said:

My buddy and I started our first two brews with BB kits. We realy liked the instructions and the fact that it came with everything but the bottles. After a couple kits we finally felt ready to try our own but could refer back to the BB instructions as guidelines to remind us what to do when. They were great learning experiences.

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i couldn't agree more. The kits are thorough and well put together. The recipes they've developed are well balanced and are perfect for someone looking to expand their horizons without getting into really complicated procedures.

I did a BB robust porter a few months ago. It tasted great, but my house was 80 degrees when I fermented it, so I'd get a headache if I drank more than one!

I've got a BB weisenbier that I'm going to bottle today. It smells good!

I think the equipment kit I bought is even Brewer's Best if I remember right.

hillbilly said:

I did a BB robust porter a few months ago. It tasted great, but my house was 80 degrees when I fermented it, so I'd get a headache if I drank more than one!

I've got a BB weisenbier that I'm going to bottle today. It smells good!

I think the equipment kit I bought is even Brewer's Best if I remember right.

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I really like the BB stuff too. It's convenient and makes a good tasting beer. I have started augmenting the recipes with what I want to make but I like the self contained nature of the kit. I "modded" the robust porter according to a few vanilla porter recipes that I thought sounded good and it turned out really good so far, every time I crack one open it's even better. I also took the remnants of what I had of the irish stout and made what I'm calling a sweet cream stout or milk stout. So far it tastes awesome and it's not even bottled yet, it's still in secondary; I always have to taste what I take out for grav readings =).
My next one is going to be cheesefood's caramel cream ale, which will deviate from the BB kits I've been using but if it doesn't turn out I'm going back to augmenting the kits.
+1 for BB kits, they're a great way to make beer.

hillbilly said:

It tasted great, but my house was 80 degrees when I fermented it, so I'd get a headache if I drank more than one!

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I also get a headache when I drink more than one tall robust Porter. my house wasnt anywhere near that warm. i usually dont get headaches when I drink hb, any ideas why?

I've tried some other extract ingredients kits, and I'm looking at trying a BB for my next brew. I think it will be the cerveza. The only knock on it is that the ABV target is 4-5%. I prefer 5-6% for a target. Do you think it would do much harm to add about a pound of plain light DME, or maybe even corn sugar to get the fermentables up? I'm not so interested in increasing the body, so maybe the corn sugar is the way to go. I know, everyone hates adjuncts, but I'd like to give it a shot. Any thoughts?

MMMIPA said:

My first kit was a BB IPA kit and it came out very drinkable for me and my buddies.However, I think I did overboil the hops cause I couldnt notice any bitterness to it and there wasnt any hop notes either.It was more of a lighter colored amber ale.Still great for first time kits though.I think for the price of the BB kits you can get kits from AHBS.I am in the process of fermenting there Oatmeal stout and im going to be brewing there Two Hearted clone very soon,once I get a carboy.




Sean

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Dear Sean; Definitely get a 6-gal Glass Carboy($22) I had trouble w/smaller & plastic...U can't overboil HOPS, Bud is fresh Hops hard boiled...Maybe U need additional Hops or fresh Hops R best...
Bruce

I've been using KARO Corn Syrup for over a year now, as an adjunct & a priming sugar..."Joy of Home Brewing" says corn sugar syrup is more fermentable than dextrose...More sugar more alcohol...There is also 'double fermentation' to get higher ABV...Long Trail Brewery in Vermont does it w/their "Double-Bag" & is 7.2% alcohol...Bruce

Just brew a stronger beer.

I'm not a big fan of adding more corn suger to my beer to get the ABV up.

One of my bottles didn't seal properly, so I drank it tonight. It doesn't have much carbonation due to the breached seal, but it's pretty damn good. It reminds me of Diamond Knot's IPA, but I did modify the recipe with 1 oz of Columbus hops at 20 minutes into the boil, and dry hopped with 1 oz of Amarillo hops. So it's not going to be quite like the stock recipe. Still, really tasty, with a deeper amber color (probably around 15 srm).

I cannot wait until this stuff is ready to drink (2 weeks to go!)

That's all I have ever done, is BB kits. Just recently I bought three kits from AHS. There is a big difference in taste. The BB kits have made me excellent brews and so did the AHS. I am particulary fond of the Continental Pilsner for kegging and the American Amber has really turned out good for bottling. This site had about the best prices:
www.leisure-time.com

The American Amber was the third batch I ever made. I dry hopped it with a half oz of Centennial leaf for two weeks in secondary. Very Tastey! My brew club Pres. can't wait till I make that again.

I've only done two BB kits - the Octoberfest which is long gone - and I have the Traditional European Bock in a secondary carboy now. I have supplemented both with grains and these are the only kits I have used. One of my wife's co-workers is a former homebrewer and has a vendor that sends him kits so passes them on to me in return for some suds. Great deal for me!!

Just finished brewing another batch of the IPA. This time I hit my target OG and used the right amount of water.