Ideas On Improving My Beer Kit-In-A-Box

[DadOfRad]

I am a noob brewer who got hooked early this year. Seriously hooked. For my 6th batch I decided to try a mail-order kit in a box from True Brew (an Irish Stout). All my previous brews have been made with LHBS ingredients and I have enjoyed them immensely. They have all been 60 min 3 gallon boils with very specific hop schedules.
So you can imagine my surprise when I opened my kit and the instructions say to boil 1 - 1 1/2 gallons of water (that's it!?) and then just sorta dump all the ingredients in at once... LME, DME, and hops all at the same time!!! Then boil for 20 to 30 mins. They mention nothing about chilling except to say you should combine 3 gallons of cold water and the "hot mixture" in the fermenting vessel and wait before pitching the yeast.
I don't know, it all seems a little like the fast food version of home brewing. Not to mention, their claim that it'll be ready to bottle in under a week.

Any ideas on how I can improve the quality of this kit? Or how to modify the process so it's a little closer to the detail-oriented and time-specific extract brewing that I am used to?

 

[DadOfRad]

Ingredients are as follows:

Hopped Dark LME - 1 can (3.3 lbs)
Dark DME - 1 lb
Dark DME - 1 lb
Crystal 60L - 6 oz for steeping
Roasted Barley - 4 oz for steeping
Cascade (US) - 1 oz
Cascade (US) - 1 oz
Muntons Dry Active Brewing Yeast 6 grams

 

[Yooper]

Well, you don't want to boil the hopped LME or at least not that long, and boiling the dark DME will darken it and create even more maillard reactions so I probably wouldn't change it much.

You can certainly use more volume in the boil than they call for though- your usually amount of water in the boil would be great. Normally, the best beer comes from boiling as much wort as possible.

 

[Kirkwooder]

First thing you must do is to DISCARD the recipe/instruction sheet they sent! the only way a beer can de ready that fast is if you go buy it bottled at the store!

I would start by steeping the grains in a bag for 30 min. in 3 gallons of 170* water. Remove the grains. Then ad the DME and LME to the water and bring to a boil, ad the hops and boil for the 3o min.. Ad enough cold water to bring to 5 gallons. Cool to 60-70* transfer to your fermenter and pitch a diffrent yeast. I would sugest US-05. Then ferment @ 58-60*.

Expect it to take at least 2-3 weeks to ferment. Then I would give it another 2 weeks for conditioning time.

Just my $.02

 

[DadOfRad]

Thanks Yoop! I had a feeling the LME being hopped was the fly in the ointment. I think I will increase the volume of the boil and then stir in the extract(s). Any suggestions on the timing of the hops additions?

 

[DadOfRad]

Instructions: Round-filed! I'm going with the Kirkwooder Method! :rockin:

I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[smp501]

I actually made this same kit a few months ago. Here's what I recommend:

Steep the grains at 155 for 30 minutes in like 3 gallons of water.

Make the biggest boil you can and boil everything for about 20 minutes.

Bring it up to 5 gallons and cool it down to as close to 62 F as possible.

I personally would punt the dry yeast they have and replace it with Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale yeast. However, the included pack will turn out decent enough.

Ferment in primary for 3 weeks and do your very best to keep it in the mid 60s.

If you're feeling up to it, look into cold brewing 1 oz (by wight) of coffee and add it after it's finished fermenting and let it sit for another two weeks (or you could transfer to secondary and add coffee there). While not strictly necessary, I enjoyed it a LOT.

After you bottle the beer will be good in 3 weeks, but after like 2 months it will be really good. The extra time mellows and blends the coffee flavor and just makes the beer better.