big and easy bottle brew?

so while cruising craigs list i found a guy selling of a bunch of wine kits and some strange looking beer kits.

swmbo noticed he had a hard lemonade kit for $40. its cheaper than anywhere i have seen it and for $5 more he would come drop it off ay my place. i said OK.
its one of these kits.

so i was a little intrigued by the big and easy bottle brews he had, but i didnt want to spend money on it. needless to say i have one now. he just threw it in so now i get to test my curiousity out for free.

any one tried either of these kits?

i looked at reviews for this big easy bottle thing and they were all positive considering that its a no "brew" brewing.

thoughts?

Ive seen them at my LHBS, but I was kind of in a hurry so I didnt stop to check into it any further, how does it work?

its a 2 litre bottle bottle filled with cooled wort.

it has an extra cap with a small yeast tablet in it. you just drop in the yeast and the extra cap has an "airlock" buiult into it. seems simple.


the onyl thing i am concerned about is that the 3 styles offered are all lagers and they all say to ferment at 65-75


i was given the "premium pilsner"

the other 2 are some golden lager and cerveza

I'd be very afraid to spend my money on something like that. But since you got it for free, go for it and see what happens! If it's crap, you're not even out very much time.

I noticed the "Premium Pilsner" on that label and had some suspicions as well. From the first picture that bottle appears clear, but the wort is very dark... how's that a pilsner?

haha, the color is another thing that worried me. it seems dark for a pilsner, but i dont know too much about the style

I've tried them all. They are not bad at all, they taste better than canned kits. The Pilsner is probably my favourite. I am a little concerned about them being in clear bottles though. When I buy mine, I always pick from the back of the shelf, so I get one that isn't exposed to the light. Never had a skunked one yet.

They aren't worth it though unless you can get them cheap. I am lucky my Co-Op sells them, because our brew shops charge double ($6.99 opposed to $3.99 at Co-Op).

good call on the clear bottle. i put mine on a shelf in the basement and i put one of my brew pots over it to keep in dark.

$4 for two litres of beer? Any idea on the gravity of the wort?

Crazytwoknobs said:

$4 for two litres of beer? Any idea on the gravity of the wort?

Click to expand...

Probably around 1044 since it advertises it makes beer at 5% ABV.

So I bought some on a discount and they are fermenting. How the heck do these things carbonate? Probably don't? Should I add some measured corn sugar?

My neighbor gave me one of those once. Its how I got into homebrewing. The special cap has a 1/4 inch hole in it and a rubber gasket disc with a pin hole in it. As it ferments, the CO2 pressure builds to a point where the rubber gasket bulges out just enough to let excess CO2 out while still maintaining a decent pressure inside the bottle for carbonation. I enjoyed mine very much and I think the key to them is that after fermentation you must cold crash in the fridge to clear the beer and consume once opened. (I shared mine).

Dan.

mine never fermented or carbonated. it was a dud. i'm glad i didnt pay for it.