Home brew shop prepared wort opinions & tips

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pozmantv

pozmantv

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Hi


I brought a pre made IPA wort from my home brew shop today that requires only 5 litres of water, yeast and dry hopping.

I'm after some opinions on the concept as well as tips and ideas to go with it.

Cheers.
 
Last edited:
WTH... How freakin convenient..... I say drive on with the suggestions they list and see how it goes... You can tweak the next batch..... or take a sip and see how the IBUs line up with your preferences and go from there. would you mind sharing how much they charge for that?
 
I have heard of shops doing wort, but never, ever have I heard of it being hopped and boiled, etc. I could think of lots of things to do with this...
 
I don’t think this is prepared by your local shop, but from a distributor they use. Making malt extract is not an easy task and requires a lot specialized equipment that usually only maltsers will have.

I’ve seen pre-hopped and no boil extracts available through a couple of my distributors and I won’t stock them. Our house kits are built using dry malt extract created either from 2 row, Maris oter, pils, or wheat. We add up to three pounds of specialty grains and hops and yeast.

By using pre-prepared worts or extracts your hands are tied and your beer is limited to what that distributor thinks your beer should taste like. I prefer to give my customers the ability to customize my recipes as they see fit and know exactly what ingredients go into their beer so they can keep extensive notes and re-create it if they wish. This gives even brand new brewers the ability to make great beer that can be customized while still focusing on the fundamentals.

Any recipe that claims it does not need to be boiled is something I also absolutely avoid. We still need to boil our extracts to sanitize it and remove DMS. This sounds too much like some kind of spinoff of the Mr. Beer which can remain on the shelves of the department stores and will never be found in my shop.
 
Renegade Brewer said:
I don’t think this is prepared by your local shop, but from a distributor they use. Making malt extract is not an easy task and requires a lot specialized equipment that usually only maltsers will have.
I’ve seen pre-hopped and no boil extracts available through a couple of my distributors and I won’t stock them. Our house kits are built using dry malt extract created either from 2 row, Maris oter, pils, or wheat. We add up to three pounds of specialty grains and hops and yeast.
By using pre-prepared worts or extracts your hands are tied and your beer is limited to what that distributor thinks your beer should taste like. I prefer to give my customers the ability to customize my recipes as they see fit and know exactly what ingredients go into their beer so they can keep extensive notes and re-create it if they wish. This gives even brand new brewers the ability to make great beer that can be customized while still focusing on the fundamentals.
Any recipe that claims it does not need to be boiled is something I also absolutely avoid. We still need to boil our extracts to sanitize it and remove DMS. This sounds too much like some kind of spinoff of the Mr. Beer which can remain on the shelves of the department stores and will never be found in my shop.
Click to expand...

This is NOT an extract kit. I am not sure where you got that from. This is WORT, 120 minute boil with the hop additions listed. Add water to bring it back to the OG, pitch like you would any other wort.

I am glad that you prefer to give your customers the ability to customize your recipes, that's the right thing to do. This is not meant for that. This is a ready to go wort kit made so someone can make beer at home, just starting with the fermentation. It's another avenue to get someone interested in homebrewing their own beer, or able to make a close approximation of their beer at someones house.

They are not claiming it does not need to be boiled, it already has been.
 
I started with a similar kit from Brew House. Avoid using softened water for these. If you can add 5L of bottled water to keep the flavour profile that was intended.
from there... all you have to do is pitch the yeast and watch it go. Take gravity readings before you pitch the yeast. Dont bother with a secondary. 3 weeks should do it at roughly 65-73 degrees. Take another gravity reading and if its at or really close to the expected FG then you are good.
I would try the first one without dry hopping. Keep a few bottles around and do another batch but dry hop it... or use a different yeast and compare the difference.
 
The date on that container is June 2017!

I know it's sterilized wort, but is that age typical?

If you were to add 5 liter water, thinning it down to 75% per their instructions, and ferment it, you'd end up with 4.5-4.8% alcohol, which is definitely not IPA (5.5-7.5%), and marginally Pale Ale territory. It will be more of a Session Pale Ale.

Also the bitterness will become 75% of the listed 63 IBUs = 47 IBU, which is in the lowish IPA range (40-70 IBU).

That's not to say it can't taste OK, especially with 4 oz (120 gr) of dry hop. ;)

If you want an IPA, maybe consider not diluting it to keep the flavor and gravity and add a pound of sugar for extra alcohol and "thinning" it out a bit. Otherwise, this may be a bit cloying after its 120' boil. And definitely add 4 oz of fresh and good tasting dry hops, like Centennial and/or Amarillo, and perhaps a little Columbus.
 
yeahfairly said:
WTH... How freakin convenient..... I say drive on with the suggestions they list and see how it goes... You can tweak the next batch..... or take a sip and see how the IBUs line up with your preferences and go from there. would you mind sharing how much they charge for that?
Click to expand...
$39 Australian. Looks like this home brew place are buying them in, another place I've been to make there own. Cheers
 
Renegade Brewer said:
I don’t think this is prepared by your local shop, but from a distributor they use. Making malt extract is not an easy task and requires a lot specialized equipment that usually only maltsers will have.

I’ve seen pre-hopped and no boil extracts available through a couple of my distributors and I won’t stock them. Our house kits are built using dry malt extract created either from 2 row, Maris oter, pils, or wheat. We add up to three pounds of specialty grains and hops and yeast.

By using pre-prepared worts or extracts your hands are tied and your beer is limited to what that distributor thinks your beer should taste like. I prefer to give my customers the ability to customize my recipes as they see fit and know exactly what ingredients go into their beer so they can keep extensive notes and re-create it if they wish. This gives even brand new brewers the ability to make great beer that can be customized while still focusing on the fundamentals.

Any recipe that claims it does not need to be boiled is something I also absolutely avoid. We still need to boil our extracts to sanitize it and remove DMS. This sounds too much like some kind of spinoff of the Mr. Beer which can remain on the shelves of the department stores and will never be found in my shop.
Click to expand...
Appreciate this view. Defiantly ties my hands. The ability to add anything to tweak the taste except for dry hopping is taken away. But I'm about to put everything in to a stout so thought taking a quick option here might be ok. Cheers
 
hammy1983 said:
I started with a similar kit from Brew House. Avoid using softened water for these. If you can add 5L of bottled water to keep the flavour profile that was intended.
from there... all you have to do is pitch the yeast and watch it go. Take gravity readings before you pitch the yeast. Dont bother with a secondary. 3 weeks should do it at roughly 65-73 degrees. Take another gravity reading and if its at or really close to the expected FG then you are good.
I would try the first one without dry hopping. Keep a few bottles around and do another batch but dry hop it... or use a different yeast and compare the difference.
Click to expand...
Good advice on the dry hopping. Thanks.
 
So this is a nano/microbrewery which also packages wort for sale. Not unlike the wort giveaways that I've participated in from local breweries (except it sounds like they concentrate theirs just a bit). I guess freshness would be my main concern as lizard pointed out but otherwise I would expect it to make good beer.
 
Interesting, it turns out they offer 16 different kinds of wort.
$39 Australian is like $30 US, so I guess its not too bad a deal if you don't have time to brew. I would try to get a fresher jug of it next time...
 
madscientist451 said:
Interesting, it turns out they offer 16 different kinds of wort.
$39 Australian is like $30 US, so I guess its not too bad a deal if you don't have time to brew. I would try to get a fresher jug of it next time...
Click to expand...
Yeah agreed, the only reason I didn't really question the age was because I thought already being boiled etc it should be fine, and I'm dry hopping with fresh hops, but it does raise a valid point.
 
This looks very similar to a no-chill container. Maybe that’s all it is. Since the label basically says everything has been done.
Interesting concept.
 
Just an update. Had a conversation with a home brew store. Yes these worts should be used in the 3-4 month range to extract the highest flavor and quality of the hops.

The brew itself will be fine at his age but may suffer from a bit of flavor deterioration.

So 2 questions.

1. I can add some hops to boost the flavor and then dry hops as well. Would I just dump hops in or boil some up in a litre of water?

2. When I add the 5lt of water do you recommend that I heat it at all or dump it in at room temp?
 
since it's room temperature, i would try to get the water to match and just pitch and forget.
If you wanted to add hops, they will not really shine through, but possibly Apollo might be able to add something being high in AA.

Dry hop the crap out of it. Everyone will have their own suggestions. I would do something like Cenntennial and Crystal... (not a common pairing, but I have been gaining a lot of respect for crystal lately) in 50/50 rations. 2 oz each or if you can get crystal hop hash, even better.
 
pozmantv said:
[...]So 2 questions.

1. I can add some hops to boost the flavor and then dry hops as well. Would I just dump hops in or boil some up in a litre of water?

2. When I add the 5lt of water do you recommend that I heat it at all or dump it in at room temp?
Click to expand...

1a. The main idea of these ready to pitch wort packages is that you don't have to boil and chill them, saving you time, energy, and chilling water if not using no-chill. Hence the instruction on the label to "just add" yeast and dry hops. Dry hopping will give you the needed flavor and aroma to make up for what was lost during the boil, packaging, and storage. Any hops that are added after chilling are considered "dry hops."

1b. There's no real need to boil more hops on the side and add, there's sufficient bitterness in the wort for this recipe, even after diluting with 5 liter water, which I would probably omit.

1c. If you were to increase bitterness and/or hoppiness from boiling an extra volume on the side, you'd be surprised how little of those a liter (1/20) or even 5 liters (1/4) will add.

1d. If you want to add more bitterness or flavor from "late addition" boil hops, boil them in the 5 liter you're adding. But then you really should add some malt extract to that as boiling or steeping hops in plain water doesn't work well.

2. No need to heat. If your water is suitable for drinking it should be fine to add unboiled.
 
My 2 cents. I'd heat it to 175F and add a small bittering addition for 10min and be 100% sure no contaminates. But I'm overly nervous anyway. Start cooling and then add whirlpool additions, more flavor the better! Treat it as normal post boil wort from then on.
 
Bottling night. 20 x 750ml. Brought swing top bottles to eliminate capping. Smell is good 6 week lay away in the dark. Named it Fingers crossed IPA for obvious reasons.
 

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