no boil prehopped beer kits

[fluketamer]

hi
does anyone else still brew no boil kits like coopers Muntons mangrove jack etc. or occassoinally brew them i know many have brewed them.

in the spirit of another thread on here this isnt a thread to debate why they are so bad cause they are not. or why AG through a shiny silver electric prostate massaging blickmangrainfatherpico conical thing makes better beer (it does). or at least it better for all the bells and whistles and $ etc. i am just asking who else still makes canned kits.

i figure with the reddit people coming over that the site is now even more accepting and CAN KIT brewers dont have to be shy.

cheers

 

[Ninoid]

In the beginning, I made several batches with these kits in cans.
Those kits are good for a start, but the beer obtained from them cannot be compared in quality to AG or BIAB. The kit can be significantly improved if a standard dry yeast is used, rather than the one supplied with the kit.
It is not necessary to cook it because it is already completely processed at the factory.
More expensive and worse version for beer brewing.

 

[fluketamer]

hi thanks for the reply

didnt ask a debate on whether they are bad or good just if you still brew with them but thanks

i also brew ag biab extract etc. i could argue for days on the plusses and minuses of canned kits not looking to do that now.

just asking who out there uses them still and then we can discuss.

cheers

 

[Rish]

Just got 5 various types of these in from ABC Cork to try. I'll make one per instructions then maybe tweak with steeped grains and/or different yeast depending on how it comes out. I figure a $9.95 a kit and free shipping over $40 it's worth a try.

 

[fluketamer]

yes here we go i love it

i bought 8 of those kits i posted the sale in the homebrew deals section

they are a real steal
which kits did you buy

let us know please how they turn out
thanks for the reply

another brave closet can kit brewer not afraid to stand up to the beer snob bullies

can brewers unite!

brew on

 

[Rish]

I got 2 stouts, 2 wheats and an amber. Out of town this weekend so I'll start a couple next week. Trying to figure out a recipe for one of the stouts to make a 3 gallon batch of something along the line of Mexican Cake (pretty presumptuous, no?).

 

[fluketamer]

welcome rish to the dark side of canned kit brewing
thanks for the reply
not presumptuous at all these kits are great for exbeeriments.

10 $ steal really

its a 10$ experiment who cares if it doesnt work


brew on

i bought 8 cause i have never seen kits for 10$

cheers

 

[Somesaymybeerisdrinkable]

First off BIAB is all grain, unless I have been doing it wrong.

I prefer all grain manly because I think it is more fun, also makes better beer.

Side note I recently brewed a split batch where one was made with Briess traditional dark DME, and the other was BIAB with the same malt percentages and Briess grains from the DEM data sheet. The beers are very similar.

Back on topic I just received my order from ABC craft of 2 beer kits and a cider kit. I am fermenting the cider now, so it will be a little while before moving on to the beer. I am hoping these kits make better beer than the Mr. Beer kit I did a while back. The beer kits were $9.95 and cider was $19.95. I add a $0.95 packs of yeast to get free shipping and they sent me Nottingham.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

continuing with the side note ...

Side note I recently brewed a split batch where one was made with Briess traditional dark DME, and the other was BIAB with the same malt percentages and Briess grains from the DEM data sheet. The beers are very similar.

What style(s) of beer did you make?

 

[Somesaymybeerisdrinkable]

continuing with the side note ...

What style(s) of beer did you make?

I didn't follow a specific style. I just aimed for an O.G. of around 1.058 and IBU of 29 using a single addition of nugget hops. The data sheet (LME & DME - Briess Brewer's Grade Malt Extracts) has the malt percentages.

 

[fluketamer]

back on topic ...

we (the brave unclosetted can kit brewers) have been discussing these kits in the cider forum under the "20 gal cider kits for 6$ thread."

the malt is packed in the pouch "under cold nitrogen" which is supposed to protect the concentrated wort better than the cans so maybe this will yield better results for you than those you got with your mr beer kit.

nice score on the notty for less than a buck
its a shame the web site is so poor in their descriptions.

it said workhorse ale yeast on the website
although these days im so confused with yeast strains that maybe those are the same?
ill have to check the latest yeast threads.

which kits did you get
and how do you plan on making them
dextrose ?
DME?
some mix of the two?
or some other fermentable:?

im currently drinking an agave lager i made with a coopers diy lager kit and 11 ounces of pure blue agave nectar some dme and zamba hop tea topped up to 4.5 gallons. its sublime.

and thanks so much for the reply

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

the pouch "under cold nitrogen" which is supposed to protect the concentrated wort better than the cans so maybe this will yield better results for you than those you got with your mr beer kit.

Pouches stored warm probably don't age well. One store (that I've bought LME from) that ships LME in pouches recommends storing it cool on arrival and using it within a reasonably short period of time.

 

[fluketamer]

brewnwkopperkat welcome thanks for the reply .
ill email the company and see what they say the pouch just says a cool dry place

i have read reviews of MJ kits that say they've been kept at 68 to 72 with no ill effects for months

do you use prehopped extract kits if so would love to hear about it
thanks

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

i have read reviews of MJ kits that say they've been kept at 68 to 72 with no ill effects for months

There may be some differences in packaging and supply chain handling (between the MJ products and the LME products available from on-line stores) that would account for the anecdotal stories on long shelf life.

do you use prehopped extract kits if so would love to hear about it

Currently I don't.

 

[Somesaymybeerisdrinkable]

which kits did you get
and how do you plan on making them
dextrose ?
DME?
some mix of the two?
or some other fermentable:?

I got spiced cider, pale ale, and wheat beer.

Fermenting the cider now. Used 2lbs of table sugar instead of the kg of corn sugar since that will give similar results, and that is what I had. I'm only fermenting 5.5 gallons since I will be kegging and did not see the point in having leftover cider in the fermenter.

I will probably follow the directions for the pale ale, but have not decided what to do with the wheat beer yet.

 

[fluketamer]

good idea i have used table sugar in ciders before without an issue because it sometimes gives cidery flavors. which is ok in a cider lol
i almost always prime with table sugar when i make ciders cause i dont see the difference with priming ciders with dextrose.

if following the directions, it will lead to about 36 percent corn sugar which is just too much in a beer if you ask me. i like to stick to less than 20 percent and try to hit 15 or 16 at most. excessive corn sugar is what turns many off to these kits because adding all that sugar will result in thin watery sometimes cidery beer with not enough malt background.

thanks for the reply

 

[Rish]

The ABC Cork wheat beer kit is in the fv! Changes: 4.5 gallon instead of 6, 2# Briess Bavarian Wheat dme instead of 1 kilo corn sugar. OG 1.050. Smells like beer! Website says yeast is M20 Bavaria. Gonna try to keep it just above 70°F to try for the banana.

 

[fluketamer]

nice. i got my brew on today also. i like the pouches . the design is functional. the pilsner smelled very light on the hops and malt though. hoping it turns out good anyway. we have been talking up beer kits in the cider section under the 20$ for 6 gal cider kits thread. i wonder if the mods can merge these two threads somehow.
the discussion over there would nake more sense in this thread under general beer discussions .
you pimped that wheat kit nice. excited to here how it turns out.
there’s is one issue with kits as mentioned already and that’s price. if these abc kits sell out or go off sale the kits get pricey. Mj kits are 30, 40, or $50. the only semi reasonable hopped kits i’ve seen are coopers at adventures in home brewing. if anyone knows where to get cheap kits (less than 25$ ). please post it.
thanks for the replies.
brew on.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

ill email the company and see what they say the pouch just says a cool dry place

Did you get a response?

---

Here's a technique that I found works /1/ for confirming that LME is fresh. I would anticipate that it works with these kits as well.

​

-- Home Brew Recipe Bible, p 10 (ebook edition)​

/1/ If the Pilsen LME starts at SRM 15, no amount of shorter boils (or no boils) is going to lighten the color.

 

[fluketamer]

Last week the sales rep told me he would find out all he could about the yeast and get back to me I am still awaiting return responce. I did not yet ask about storage temp.
I’ll have kegged Beer In less than 3 weeks. I feel the only way to test these kits is to drink finished product. I usually go brew day to glass in 17 days. The beer I drink is stupid fresh. It’s easy to taste expired ingredients in 17 day old brew. I’ll let you know soon if the kits are truly a good value or not. Kat. Your lurking here a lot yet you “currently...do not” brew prehopped extract kits. Are you thinking about it or do you plan to. I have found half a dozen kit brewers here. I’m sure there’s more.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Kat. Your lurking here a lot yet you “currently...do not” brew prehopped extract kits. Are you thinking about it or do you plan to.

Thinking about it. Given my experiences with LME in the past, I'm curious about how well these kits store. I may check back on this topic in six months or so to see what's happening.

And, Thanks for starting the topic.

 

[fluketamer]

So I guess for me the biggest plus is time. When I do a partial mash biab I often find that the beer doesn’t come out that much better then the kits these days cause the kits now are usually so fresh it doesn’t matter. Sometimes my kits come out better then my biab beers. ( oh boy. That’s gonna bring out the haters...lol ). And the biab takes me like 5 hours start to finish. I do these literally in an hour.
the kits were getting very pricey with shipping if you are still reluctant I recommend drhans shake n brew if looking for a quick brew day like me. I was about to start down his path until susieq showed me this sale. I may still shake an brew cause I love the concept. I think in one video he says he did three ales in one hour


kat you are more than welcome. Thanks for engaging In the conversation.

 

[mac_1103]

I always worry about freshness whenever I see a sale this good on anything that is even arguably perishable. So for those of you who have ordered these, do they have a "best by" date, and if so is it getting close?

 

[Wrendelar]

These kits could be a great backbone for this brew method that I did a few weeks ago. You can read how i did it in this thread: No boil Brew in a Keg-20 min. brewday

Someone recommended the use of Prehopped LME and for $10 and 25 min of your time ... might be worth the experiment.

Might have to buy one of these and try it myself.

 

[hout17]

I tried Mr Beer way back when I first go into home brewing. I have been considering brewing up a Coopers kit and trying it out recently just because of the ease of the process in between ag brews. I've always been intrigued by the prehopped products.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

These kits could be a great backbone for this brew method that I did a few weeks ago. You can read how i did it in this thread: No boil Brew in a Keg-20 min. brewday

As I mentioned in the other thread

We pasteurize (and boil) to create things and to remove things.

If one decides to try drhans "shake n brew" process with LME, be sure to understand when/why pasteurization may be desirable. It may be that it varies by brand (and perhaps supplier).

 

[fluketamer]

hi guys welcome to the thread
the expiration dates are october 2024 thats why i bought 8 of them.,

i mention above dr hans shake n brew i should have linked your thread. i like his videos and his method.
the kits are ten bucks go for it
hey hout welcome - coopers are great. i am drinking a coopers lager kit right now brewed with agave nectar its delicious. the diy website has ok deals with i think flat rate shipping still . they sometimes run sale. i think i mentioned above adventures in homebrewing has 24.99 for coopers cerveza kit. but these abc kits are a third of that. for now im going to wait to recommend them further until i have tasted the beer. im almost a hundred percent sure its going to be like ccopers or any other kit but if it turns out no good thats a problem. i can definitely vouch for coopers kits tho.

kat - pasteurization is a whole nother thread and very off topic but in short kit brewing involves dumping tap water into a fermenter full of reconstituted wort. there's nothing pasteurized about that and i haven't had an infection in 20 plus years brewing kits. i used to use 1 gallon jugs of poland spring but realized it was causing a large part of my beer budget. i switched last year to brooklyn tap water filtered through a brita filter without any ill effects. what hans is doing is very similar to kit brewing and not going to lead to infection imo .

the pilsner i split up into two lbk's yesterday is already going crazy. the kit yeast took off very well and is now a thick kreusen and smells like yummy malt.
ill hop it next week then force carb it on july 5th.
beer coming in about 17 days.
thanks everyone for the replies
brew on

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

 

[DollarStoreChili]

Thanks for making this thread and bringing these cheap kits to my attention! I've been lurking
for few weeks now but this thread motivated me to finally create an account. I haven't brewed
any beer yet (I have my first two projects currently fermenting - basic beginner mead). These
kits seem like just the ticket to get my feet wet with beer brewing. When I get home I'll talk
my fiancé into us ordering a bunch.

Thanks again, cheers.

 

[Rish]

Thanks for making this thread and bringing these cheap kits to my attention! I've been lurking
for few weeks now but this thread motivated me to finally create an account. I haven't brewed
any beer yet (I have my first two projects currently fermenting - basic beginner mead). These
kits seem like just the ticket to get my feet wet with beer brewing. When I get home I'll talk
my fiancé into us ordering a bunch.

Thanks again, cheers.

If you're making mead you can certainly make beer with these kits. Go for it!

 

[fluketamer]

hi dollarstore welcome to the thread i have corrupted another brewer into kit beer. the all grainers must be fuming. glad you joined the site more members is always good and im happy if my thread resulted in you signing up. my few attempts at mead have been far below sub par if you can make palatable mead you could definitely reconstitute wort and add yeast to it and make beer like rish says below if you are making mead you can make these kits.

hey rish hows the bavaria yeast doing so far my m10 pilsner is still kicking away and the kreusen is just starting to fall a little .

btw on the other thread we have figured out that these are definitely mangrove jack kits which seem to be very high quality . my hopes for these making good beer definitely jumped up a notch.
for example rish your abc wheat kits is the same as.....
https://mangrovejacks.com/collectio.../mangrove-jacks-craft-series-wheat-beer-pouch
it matches exactly dont know if this helps as all the info is the same but interesting none the less.
now you can search for mj craft series bavarian wheat and you will get some reviews and discussion regarding your kit. kool

cheers

 

[fluketamer]

for example heres a youtube review of your exact kit

 

[Rish]

hey rish hows the bavaria yeast doing

Constant bubbles and smells really good. Looking forward to trying this one.

abc wheat kits is the same as..

Yep! That's it. Good to know!

 

[Wrendelar]

Just went to purchase these ABC beer kits and they want $25 shipping for 1 item or 4 items. Seems a bit steep for what you get. Maybe it’s just the purist in me.

 

[fluketamer]

its free shipping over 40$ another great deal.
so yes it looks like you would have to invest 40 and get 4 kits to get the free shipping otherwise the deal doesnt work out economically.

it only makes sense if you get the free shipping . you could also get a cider kit for 20 and two beer kits for ten each if you dont want to risk getting all this kit beer.

 

[Wrendelar]

its free shipping over 40$ another great deal.
so yes it looks like you would have to invest 40 and get 4 kits to get the free shipping otherwise the deal doesnt work out economically.

it only makes sense if you get the free shipping . you could also get a cider kit for 20 and two beer kits for ten each if you dont want to risk getting all this kit beer.

Okay yeah I see now … had to add an additional item to get it over 40 the 4 kits came out to $39.80. So I took your advice and tried 3 beer kits and 1 cider kit. 2 pale ale, 1 lager and 1 apple cider.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[Noah0504]

In 2010(ish) my dad and I got our homebrewing start with Mr. Beer kits. We quickly advanced to AG brewing. Because of limited space, I mostly did BIAB method, but was brewing 2.5 and 5 gallon batches.

Eventually life happened, and I stopped brewing for 5 or so years. Some of the equipment I has sat in a hot, dirty garage most of the time, so when I finally told myself I was going to get back into things, I actually just ordered a couple of Mr. Beer kits again. I've been using the Mr. Beer HMEs as bases for the first few batches I've done and they've been turning out great.

I'll eventually move back up to BIAB, but for some spring/summer lawn mower beers, I'll probably still keep some of the Mr. Beer refills/recipes in the pipeline.

 

[Bobby_M]

hi dollarstore welcome to the thread i have corrupted another brewer into kit beer. the all grainers must be fuming.

Fuming? Only if you forced me to drink it.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

 

[fluketamer]

wrendalar - kool are these the first prehopped kits you have made. im sorry i forgot to mention you only have to get over the 40$ mark they sell other stuff for a buck to meet the threshold./ the first time i ordered 4 kits and to get over the hump i added a 25 cent demijohn cap. the second round i added wine yeast for a buck. you dont need to get a whole extra kit but now you have a lot of beer i hope you have a lot of drinking buddies or a forgiving liver . lol.

noah mr beer kits are a whole nnother thread . bobby M prolly hates those too. lol. the small tins of extract are light on the grain and prolly not worth it. the 5 gallon kits from the same company (diybeer / coopers) are better but expensive unless on clearacne . the fermentor (LBK) is a thing of beauty.

lbk benefits
1 its got a wide mouth to easily access all areas for cleaning.
2its got this genius airlock which is a little less open then an open fermenter vessel. ( the haters hate this cause there's no airlock). a seal is formed by having the co2 run out the threads in the cap of the lbk. condensation in the threads creates essentially an air/ water barrier similar to an airlock.
3 its tinted to keep light out.
4 its light plastic and small 2.25 gallons. you can do small 2 gallon stove top biab batches/ experiments.
5 its got a spigot
6 its got a yeast trap below the spigot to collect the cake .
7 its very low profile. this is perhaps the biggest plus. you can cold crash it in a regular kitchen fridge. you can brew lagers in a 1.7 cu ft dorm fridge with just a 20 dollar ink bird.

.
the problems with lbk

1its got this genius airlock that lacks a bubbler you cant see it bubble you cant record beer porn. its essentially an open fv. if you cold crash there's is the potential of sucking o2 back into the fermenter..
2 its tinted you cant see into it well to watch yeast do the floaty dance and record more beer porn. see above
3 its plastic - scratches scratches scratches. the infection will come eventually. also its small you cant do anything bigger than 2.25 gallons with only one lbk
4 the spigot can trap bugs

i love my lbk
i have 2.25 gallons of ahs mexican pilsner in the lbk right now DA resting at 70 degrees right now . its partial mash biab, it may taste better than the abc pilsner no boil kit that i threw on last Wednesday but it took me over 4 hours to brew.

if you have two lbks you can do split batches with 5 gallon kits. theres a great sale at abc where you get 1.8kg which is exactly two mr beer tins. they are selling for 10 buck and forty $ free shipping threshold. if you are making mrbeer kits get these instead at 10 bucks for almost 4 lbs of malt it cant be beat.

bobby m - welcome . have you ever fermented a prehopped kit before. these aren't your daddys kits anymore. the days of buying a can of 2 year old muntons that's been sitting on a 75 degree hardware store shelf are a long time ago.

yo kat -