Got me some LME & IPA Bitter to batch up.

One of the brewers in my local club said get these 2 cans, 2/3 cup of corn sugar and make me a Fat Tire clone, any of you guys tried this? Figured I would check with the HBT genius' before I went with something that sounds to easy to be true.

BTY the first batch ended up great! It does not have quite the carbonation I expected but I believe I put enough corn sug in for a 5 Ga batch and ended up with closer to 6 gallons. But now I have to get some brew in the pipes cause my buddies are stopping by to try this stuff more frequently than I anticipated, It appears home brew brings friends out that you never really knew cared about you! Fascinating!

ballbuster said:

One of the brewers in my local club said get these 2 cans, 2/3 cup of corn sugar and make me a Fat Tire clone, any of you guys tried this? Figured I would check with the HBT genius' before I went with something that sounds to easy to be true.

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No hops? Are you using a hopped extract? That may make a beer, but I bet it won't taste anything like Fat Tire

Says here under ingredients, 100% hopped extract(malted barley, hops, water) dried brewing yeast.

Ya, that's what we refer to as a Kit and Kilo. A lot of times it will also say to add a Kilo of regular sugar to it (although your particular one may not). They definately don't produce the best products, and it really isn't making beer IMO, but it does get you something drinkable without much work. Do a search in the recipe database, there are a few Fat Tire clones, and some homebrew shops, like Austin Homebrew, make kits that are VERY close to the real thing, and they will be much better kits than anything that comes in a can.

here are the theproducts

Muntons | World Class Malt | Home
Muntons | Home Beer Making

Thems the ones. My first batch was a Muntons kit, and it was the worst batch I made. It was drinkable, but not much better than that. I was actually the IPA in the second link, which when I think back on it now, is pretty much impossible to make without any actual hops. It tasted nothing like an IPA, no real bitterness, of course it only says 17-23 (way too low for an IPA), and absolutely no hop flavor or aroma.

As I said, it will be beer, and might not be too bad, but it probably won't be like a Fat Tire.

My thoughts exactly. Think we can Frankenstein this up to make something good out of it? Should I just take these back and get some real stuff together. I am not set up for AG yet.

ballbuster said:

My thoughts exactly. Think we can Frankenstein this up to make something good out of it? Should I just take these back and get some real stuff together. I am not set up for AG yet.

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I have made kit beers like this for years - with mixed results. Sometimes pretty good ale, sometimes almost undrinkable. Recently, I started ordering "kits" from online suppliers - not the all grain kits. Their kits do not come in a can, and are just raw ingredients already measured out and step by step instructions. My WORST batch of these types of kits was far better than my BEST canned kit. Ingredients are fresher - you never know how long those cans have been sitting around, ability to add hops for flavoring and aroma instead of just the bittering of the hops extract in the cans, recipies are tried and true and do not require additional sugars, etc. You will find that these types of kits cost the same as two canned kits and will produce MUCH better beer. If you have a large round igloo style cooler, you can also step up to the mini-mash kits and make even better beer.

Dan

^^^

What he said. The kits put together by homebrew stores themselves are a massive step up from those canned pieces of crap. You don't need anything extra to do these kits, they come with steeping grains to help the flavor, they have fresher ingredients including healthy yeast for a good fermentation that WON'T leave you with an underattenuated (sweet) beer like a lot of these can kits do.

Check out the kits they have at Austin Homebrew Supply to see what I mean. They have a HUGE selection to choose from, and even have a commercial clone beer kit section (that has Fat Tire).