Question on AHS kits

I'm going to brew up my 3rd batch of beer soon. I only have 3 weeks left until classes start and I'll always be working on weekends so I have to get it brewed soon. Schedule leaves plenty of time for racking to a secondary (if needed) and bottling.

I'm looking at picking up a mini mash kit from AHS and have a question. Are their mini mash kit instructions set up for a full boil or partial boil w/ top off? My stove can just barely get 3 gallons to a rolling boil. I have no other equipment (or money to get equipment) to do a full boil.

I'm leaning towards making a stout and toying with the idea of racking 1/2 onto cherries and leaving the other 1/2 plain. The only downside of that for me is I'd have to pick up a 3 gallon carboy.

Going to order the kit on Friday when I get my paycheck. Was hoping to brew on Wednesday or Thursday but by the time the kit gets delivered to way upstate NY I doubt I'd have time to make a yeast starter (which I've never done).

All of the ones I've purchased have been partial boils.

david_42 said:

All of the ones I've purchased have been partial boils.

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Same here.

Great...thanks! Now to make my final kit selection before Friday.

I have their Oatmeal Stout PM in bottles. Very excellent.

Do not forget that you will need a grain bag to brew an AHS PM.

did theirs on PM. was awesome brew days! everything was packaged very lovely too AHS rocks!

Nice to see a fellow northern new yorker. I've done three partial mashes from ahs. their instructions are to steep (mash) the grain in 2 and a half gallons of water (pretty sure). You can then add the extract and boil. Top off later. I really liked their irish red ale. Yes, get the nylon reusable bag.

The Double Chocolate Stout was fantastic. Just killed that keg last Saturday.

I was going to order a kit today but ran out of time before work. I keep going back and forth between the Guiness clone and their Oatmeal Stout kit. Looks like I won't be brewing until the week after next now.

I already have a couple grain bags. I picked up a 2 pack of paint strainer bags at Lowes when I did my first PM last month.

I wish I could help with your mini mash q since I've only done AG, but AHS is a great company and their kits are absolutely phenomenal. I stopped ordering from them for a while b/c they sat on stuff for days before shipping, but now it's very fast (next day sometimes 2 days) and I'm a customer again.

And go for the oatmeal stout!!!

Just placed the order. Went with the oatmeal stout and opted for the Danstar Windsor dry yeast. Don't know exactly when I'll be able to brew so I wouldn't be able to plan out when to make the starter. Now I've got 4-6 weeks to decide if I want to rack all of it onto cherries or only 1/2 of it. For some reason a Cherry Oatmeal Stout sounds delicious...plus my oldest brother probably wouldn't drink it so more for me!

EddieB428, did you see my PM about starting a homebrew club in Plattsburgh?