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brewjunky

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If you live in a harsher climate like I do and cannot boil in your house a good alternative is the brewhouse kits.

It is a bag or wort and you add 3 gallons of water to it.

no boiling or making a mess it take minuetes.

I made the honey blonde ale and it turned out really nice. I used the yeast it came with it was the 15 gram pack of coopers and in that particular brew it turned out nice.

after 2 weeks in my kegerator it cleared out crystal clear with out any clarifiers and the beer tastes really good.

I live in Winnipeg so it's hard in the winter to all grain brew.
 
Me thinks you should make mead in the winter.

That beer kit sounds a bit...um....Well....>I'm glad you like it.

Before you bash it I would try it.

I have made probably 50 batches of all grain and this was right up there in taste.

It's packaged wort made the same way large breweries make there wort its just packaged in a large bladder bag.

To me mead sucks so why would I make that ......................I like beer
 
If it works for you and u like it keep doing it...but i wouldn't call it "brewing"...kinda takes away from the expierence but i understand that with the conditions this is what you have to do
 
I would call it the same thing as wine makers and cider makers.

Its not boiling the wort and all that because it is already done for you. It's juts an easy alternative to brewing indoors and beats extract brewing because of the quality of the wort.
 
Originally posted by brewjunky...

If you live in a harsher climate like I do and cannot boil in your house a good alternative is the brewhouse kits

Hmm...I'm starting to suspect that there are vast areas about home brewing that I still have not a clue.

Are you saying that a normal electric stove top is inadaquate for doing a five gallon boil, or is there another reason that you cannot boil indoors?

Pogo

By the way - I think I'll try one of these BrewHaus kits that you are so high on (no pun intended), the American Premium Lager.
 
Somewhere between brewhouse kits and all grain brewing, there are 5 gallon extract recipes made on the stove, indoors. You have almost the opposite of my problem. In July and August its too damn hot for me to have wort boiling for an hour.
 
Hmm...I'm starting to suspect that there are vast areas about home brewing that I still have not a clue.

Are you saying that a normal electric stove top is inadaquate for doing a five gallon boil, or is there another reason that you cannot boil indoors?

Pogo

By the way - I think I'll try one of these BrewHaus kits that you are so high on (no pun intended), the American Premium Lager.

You can do extracts kits but for all grain getting 7-8 gallons of wort to a rolling boilis pretty hard on the stove top.

I have done my boil in 2 3 gallon pots before but then you have to split your hop editions up and it steam every window in the house not to mention my wife gets mad at me because our house smells like a brewery.
 
Before you bash it I would try it.

First, TOTALLY not Bashing it....
Second, Send me some, I'd love to.

Third....has been said, but I'll reiterate. Wine kits are made that way, and plenty good. If it works for beer...COOL man! Like I said...Glad you like it.

Could be a very good option for lots of space and time limited brewers.
 
my wife gets mad at me because our house smells like a brewery.

Doesn't she have a bunko night or something when you could brew. I can't keep my face out of the pot while brewing...its my favorite smell. Someone should make a line of candles that smell like different varieties of boiling wort.
 
I agree that the Brewhouse kits are an excellent kit as well. I also can understand how many homebrewers can be put off by "wort in a bag" concept. Especially with so many bad kits out there! I think it's just like extract brewing was 15-20 years ago, not very good for a whole host of reasons.

Now that extract has come a long way and the quality has vastly improved. More respect is given to that type of brewing. With pre-made wort trying to find a place in the market, we should expect to see that product experiancing several of the same reactions as extract did. I think for pre-made to make a bigger mark, the cost may need to come down futher to be more attractive than extract kits yet mantain thier quality. From the sounds of other discussions, there are some pre-boiled kits that apparently suck while others totally rock (ie Brew House).

I think those few reasons will continue to keep many AG and extract brewers skeptical of pre-boiled wort. I can't totally disagree with what was said previously that using the Brew House kits is not "brewing" because by definition, we're not brewing the wort ourselves, unless you hack the kit and re-boil the kit with other hops or malts. If you don't do that, then we're really mixing and fermenting. Nonetheless, the brew that you can create is exceptionally good. So good in fact, various competitions do not prohibit these kits from competing against thier AG and extract brethern. And some have said that people are winning with these kits (I have not competed yet). I conducted yet another taste-test with friends on my Honey Blonde Ale (I hacked it with sweet orange and corriander) vs. Blue Moon. And yet again, everybody thought the homebrew was the commercial and the commercial was the homebrew. The comments ranged from "thin in taste" to "pale in color" when they tasted the Blue Moon - which they expected a home brew to exhibit. Where as the homebrew had "strong, fresh flavor" "great color" and "full taste" which they expected a commercial beer to have over a home brew.

More importantly, I'm glad to see more and more people talking about these kits here - when I first got into this, very little seemed to posted - and even less on follow-up threads or updates on the progress of how these kits were turning out. Consequently,
I advocate for the mods to look at the idea of creating a Brew House (and variations type kits) board since these are an odd kit that do not fall neatly into an extract or AG discussion. However, there could be a down side to having a board for this type of kit, in-put from members like the Big K that have a wealth of knowledge could become limited since these kits or discussions may not appeal to a lot of senior or premium members. Even though we don't boil, we still benifit from discussing secondary ferment, adjuncts, yeast, techniques and equipment just like everybody else. So maybe there would be a limitation to having a pre-made wort kit board. But, something to look at and see if it's worth the trouble.

Cheers!
 
Coopers extract kits are also "pre-boiled." They are more advanced and stable than the Brewhouse kits. Coopers is an actual "brewery" and has been making beer since 1865. The wort that is in the cans is produced in the same kettles that make the beer that is shipped worldwide. They just take the wort and run it through a low temperature centrifuge to remove the water. When Coopers first began making homebrew kits, they began by selling wort in a bag. They have advanced since then.
 
Coopers extract kits are also "pre-boiled." They are more advanced and stable than the Brewhouse kits. Coopers is an actual "brewery" and has been making beer since 1865. The wort that is in the cans is produced in the same kettles that make the beer that is shipped worldwide. They just take the wort and run it through a low temperature centrifuge to remove the water. When Coopers first began making homebrew kits, they began by selling wort in a bag. They have advanced since then.

These kits are made inside a brewery and instead of being fermented they are packaged the same way wine kits are done.

Trust me I have brewed many kits and many all grain brews and the Brew Haus kits is superior to any coopers kit on the market.

This is all grain brewing minus the work.

For people that live in harsher climates this is a great option. You really cant compare extract to this concept its a much better product.
 
I have made 7 of the same type of kits (FestaBrew) and they are great. I know you don't get all the fun of A.G. brewing, but I'm a University student and spending 4 hours on a Sunday brewing when I can start 2 FestaBrew kits in an hour. When I'm older and have lots of time where I don't have to study, I'll do All Grain regularly. The worst part is, I've had all the equipment (except wort chiller) to do all grain for about a month now. Again, I don't have all the time needed to assemble all the equipment (mash tun, chiller) as I have also been busy making wine kits (I've started 24 wine kits in 2008).

The quality of the kits is completely incomparable to Cooper's and such, even for light beers.

The saddest part about not having the time to brew is that the smell of boiling wort is one of the nicest smells in the world :(
 
...
I advocate for the mods to look at the idea of creating a Brew House (and variations type kits) board since these are an odd kit that do not fall neatly into an extract or AG discussion. However, there could be a down side to having a board for this type of kit, in-put from members like the Big K that have a wealth of knowledge could become limited since these kits or discussions may not appeal to a lot of senior or premium members. Even though we don't boil, we still benifit from discussing secondary ferment, adjuncts, yeast, techniques and equipment just like everybody else. So maybe there would be a limitation to having a pre-made wort kit board. But, something to look at and see if it's worth the trouble.

Cheers!

Old topic, but I actually like the idea of a brewhouse/festabrew style section.
I've made 8 or so Festabrew kits, mostly the Dry/Low Carb and 'hacked' it with different sugars and malt extract to see what happens. It's a great way to experiment without wasting a whole day on a boil and end up with a beer that is sub par.

Seems the Dry/Low Carb with 3/4lb or 2 cups of corn sugar boiled into half a litre of water to get the wort to 1.044, and bottle conditioned with 1 1/2 cups of corn sugar gives you a pretty dry cross between the canadian version of budweiser and molson dry..but dryer.. Has to be conditioned for about a month and a half before it gets good though. :mug:
 
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