do you use KITS? or your own recipe?

I've made a few of the coopers kits so far. And they have come out OK. each of which I have experimented with brown sugar, and corn sugar. I understand that using DME or LME will produce MUCH better results. But this leads to a much higher cost per batch.

This leads me to believe that if I am buying a bunch of DME, is this in essence ALMOST basicly the same as the LME they supply in the kit ?? (just hopped up a little bit)

I can get 3lbs of DME @ my LHBS for $12. which isn't bad. Would it be more affordable to just make my own recipees ??? which ones should I check out first? would I just add hops to my boil of DME to create the same wort that I would have otherwise bought in the kit ?

Ideas ?

Who cares about how affordable it is. Make beers for taste.
Anyway, I make my own recipes which usually come out to ~$24 or less a batch, which is cheaper than most kits. I think the oud bruin I have fermenting now was $17 or something like that.

I would say your next step is to go to un-hopped extract (dry or liquid), steeping grains (if the recipe calls for it), and boil your hops according to the reciped you choose. DME is more expensive but is supposed to result in a better beer, I have yet to taste the difference. You could also just buy the pre-made kits that include the extract, grains, and hops needed for the particular beer you want to make.

If your going to buy the ingredients individually I would defenitley follow a recipe already posted either on this site or elsewhere. I have made the mistake recently of changing things without realizing how it will effect the end result. I have a porter, newcastle clone, and a summer ale that were very bitter since i didn't add enough malt extract. I would also recommend investing in some software such as beersmith or pro-mash.

phissionkorps said:

Who cares about how affordable it is. Make beers for taste.
Anyway, I make my own recipes which usually come out to ~$24 or less a batch, which is cheaper than most kits. I think the oud bruin I have fermenting now was $17 or something like that.

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the thing is, I don't really have a job right now, and unemployment only pays so much

$17 sounds about perfect, whats your secret recipee ??

I've never used a coopers kit but I have done a few kits from Midwest. I believe that coopers uses a pre-hopped LME so if you switched to a different kit you would be adding hops during your boil. The hop additions depend on what types of beer you are brewing.

I have looked into various recipes (extract) and when I compare the cost of a kit vs. buying separate ingredients the kit is usually a bit cheaper. However, buying things like DME and hops in bulk would probably shave a lot of the cost.

Look for some extract recipes on the forums that are too your liking. Then price out the items on one of the major homebrewing supplier websites, or your LHBS.

I bought old hops in bulk, so they were $1.25 an oz. If you use a calculator like the one on tastybrew, you can figure out the lowest amount of extract you can use and still be within range for that style. Also, making the same style again helps because you can just pitch onto the yeast cake.

You can also make Apfelwein for about the same price, if not a little lower.

My first brew was a kit, then i created the next two extract recipes, and then i went AG woohoo! Now i've done/will be brewing 3 HBT recipes, 1 HBT recipe with modifications, and then im making my own SMaSH recipe.

If you are going to somewhere like Austin Homebrew you can get their kits for about the same as if you bought the ingredients separately. Although I generally build my own recipes and buy the ingredients a la carte.

The cheapest recipe I have come up with was 6lbs LME, 1 oz Hops, 1lb specialty grains and dry yeast that can be purchased for $25 ish.

i think kits are good. I used a bb english ale kit & threw in rasberries.....turned out great.

Kits are good to get your techinic down

To date I have done all kits {16 so far this year} with most of those being mail order from Austin, Midwest or Northern. Each kit has been a different style and I have been paying attention to each of the ingredient listings to learn what I like, what I don't like and making notes on what I would change to suit my own style.

Up next I am going to brew an extract version of Edwort's Haus Pale Ale. If that turns out well, which I am sure it will based on the positive feedback for that recipe, I am going to break away from the pre-assembled kits and start doing my own thing.:rockin: Some of those will be tweaks to the kits I have already tried and liked, and I have been toying around with a few different recipes floating around in my head.

I just brewed my first beer and it was a recipe I created. A simple one, but still it's all mine. It's still in primary so I can't speak about success or failure in the final product, but it's doing good so far. I also studied for months before attempting my first brew so I have a lot of knowledge to very little experience.

First batch was a kit from the LHBS (Great Fermentations ) I've done my own recipes since.

I would LOVE to just build up my own recipes, but they run too expensive to justify when I can buy kits at my LHBS. They package them themselves, and have a rotating list of 6 or 7 "specials" every month are are 15% off normal price.

The last kit I bought was 32 bucks- it included 6# of muntons dme, specialty malt, almost 3 oz of cascade and williamete hops, dry yeast, fining tablet, one-use muslin grain and hop bags, and priming sugar for bottling. All the ingredients seperate would have cost over $40.

I have recipes I want to try out but will probably continue to buy kits from my LHBS, and buy the nessesary hops/specialty grains a la carte to modify them.

Dried Malt Extract is the biggest expense. If your LHBS sells 3# for 12 bucks then its not bad. Austin Homebrew is higher, and so is my local brewstore. If I could buy it that cheap in small quanties I would just build up my own recipes.

My recipe cost me less than a kid from the same LHBS.

My own experience tells me to go with kits for a few batches, then cut loose a little with recipes. Kits are good for gaining experience, method and patience. Experimentation later on teaches respect for what you have already learned, but sets you free to follow your personal tastes

I agree with the Gnome. Get your feet wet with kits. Once you have a solid grip on the process of brewing, then experiment. My first 2 batches in 1995 were kits, after that I created my own.

Four batches in, I've done one kit, three my own recipes. Kits are easy and almost always turn out really well, but it just doesn't feel the same to me.

After reading Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels I learned how to make my own recipes. You should do the same.

I like kits but don't use them often.
When I first began brewing, I purchased kits because they were the easiest way I could get quality beer. I moved around quite a bit, and i never had storage space. Now, I have a selection of recipes and the ability to stockpile ingredients, but I'll still pick up a kit once in awhile to learn a new style or have something quick and fun to mess with.

I may go with the kit a month club approach just so I can expand the horizons.

I brew a fair number of clone kits, because it is a good way to have ales that are not available locally. Otherwise, I make my own recipes. About the only exception is a Rogue Mocha Porter clone recipe. It's so much better than the Porter recipe I'd worked on.

My first 3 brews were kits from my LHBS but after that I pretty much made my own recipes. I have HBT to thank for that, I got a lot of help formulating them from the folks here.

Four batches in and never a kit. Fact is i'm more for research and brewing based on studied knowledge then reading of the directions. I feel i have a better understanding for what is going on. Now im not saying i have created all of my own recipes but i take somones and tweak it based on what i have learned and what i have found from others.

I'm still pretty much stuck on recipe kits such as Brewers Best and such. I've "modified" a couple canned kit recipes with hops and LME/DME and they've turned out great, but they didn't necessarily end up totally true to the originally intended style I'm guessing. Right now, I'm happy with prepacked kits as the beer is great! Eventually, I'll want to start experimenting with my own recipes, but I have a lot to learn first.

I did some can+kilo kits many years ago then recently did several NB extract kits. Then I went on to do some of my own recipes with a partial mash. The best I've ever done so far was my saison. It wasn't exactly how I expected it to be but still very good. Now I can do full boils but still have near 15 pounds of extract around. I also have NB tongue splitter all grain kit that I was just going to do a partial mash adding extract for two batches. Now I may just do a partial boil for a 10 gallon batch. I got to use up this extract somehow.

I think using a kit, following someone else's recipe or doing your own doesn't matter much. Just enjoy it and make the beer you like.

what are some good SIMPLE recipes I could start out with ??

illnastyimpreza said:

what are some good SIMPLE recipes I could start out with ??

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There are literally hundreds. What do you want to make? There might be some simple recipes in our database, but if you know what style you like we could help you come up with one.

6 lbs of wheat DME
1 oz of hallertau, saaz or tettnanger for 60 minutes.

White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale Yeast

simplest and one of the best extract recipes.

if you are looking for something a little more challenging/interesting, pick a specific style and search the web. there are plenty of great formulations in the recipe section here on HBT, there's brewmonkey, there's the recipator.

or msg me. i've got a few sure-fire recipes for partial mash brewing. if you haven't done a partial mash yet, check out my sig.

DeathBrewer said:

6 lbs of wheat DME
1 oz of hallertau, saaz or tettnanger for 60 minutes.

White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale Yeast

simplest and one of the best extract recipes.

if you are looking for something a little more challenging/interesting, pick a specific style and search the web. there are plenty of great formulations in the recipe section here on HBT, there's brewmonkey, there's the recipator.

or msg me. i've got a few sure-fire recipes for partial mash brewing. if you haven't done a partial mash yet, check out my sig.

Click to expand...

sounds like a good recipee. But I guess this whole extract thing just isn't the way to go for "GOOD" beers, or experimenting.

I just hate spending much more then $25-30 bucks on a batch.....it definatly looks like All grain is in my future.

I can buy any of the coopers kits, 2# of LME or DME and be done with it for under $27...and they are a pretty damn good beer !

I will prolly end up trying this one out though....right before I try all grain

trust me...that wheat extract is amazing stuff...you can make a damn fine beer without grain. HOWEVER, it won't help you make the jump. i have some very simple PM hefeweizen and dunkelweizen recipes, too. all very simple, such as:

3 lbs Wheat Malt
2 lbs Pale Malt (2-row)
¼ lbs Chocolate Malt

0.75 ounces saaz, tett, or hallertau hops for 60 minutes

WLP380 Hefeweizen IV Yeast

Mash:
Mash grains for 30-45 minutes at around 150-155°F in 2 gallons of water. Sparge with 2 gallons of 175°F water.

Bring to a boil, remove from heat and add extract.

Bring to a boil, add hops and boil 60 minutes as usual.

See? easy stuff!

Damn you DeathBrewer for making me want to give up my current extremely easy to whip up yet so incredibly badass Extract Dunkelweizen recipe.


forgive the run on sentence.

Regards,
Your neighbor to the south,
Shawn.

DeathBrewer said:

trust me...that wheat extract is amazing stuff...you can make a damn fine beer without grain. HOWEVER, it won't help you make the jump. i have some very simple PM hefeweizen and dunkelweizen recipes, too. all very simple, such as:

3 lbs Wheat Malt
2 lbs Pale Malt (2-row)
¼ lbs Chocolate Malt

0.75 ounces saaz, tett, or hallertau hops for 60 minutes

WLP380 Hefeweizen IV Yeast

Mash:
Mash grains for 30-45 minutes at around 150-155°F in 2 gallons of water. Sparge with 2 gallons of 175°F water.

Bring to a boil, remove from heat and add extract.

Bring to a boil, add hops and boil 60 minutes as usual.

See? easy stuff!

Click to expand...

DeathBrewer said:

trust me...that wheat extract is amazing stuff...you can make a damn fine beer without grain. HOWEVER, it won't help you make the jump. i have some very simple PM hefeweizen and dunkelweizen recipes, too. all very simple, such as:

3 lbs Wheat Malt
2 lbs Pale Malt (2-row)
¼ lbs Chocolate Malt

0.75 ounces saaz, tett, or hallertau hops for 60 minutes

WLP380 Hefeweizen IV Yeast

Mash:
Mash grains for 30-45 minutes at around 150-155°F in 2 gallons of water. Sparge with 2 gallons of 175°F water.

Bring to a boil, remove from heat and add extract.

Bring to a boil, add hops and boil 60 minutes as usual.

See? easy stuff!

Click to expand...

$21.10 from my LHBS....not bad ! thanks man, I definatly have some motivation to try all grain now.... I am curious about the ALL grain in a bag method, as It completly removes the need for a mash/lauter tun.