Tweaking kit advice please

[suzeQ]

So I was looking to score free shipping on wine labels at ABC crafted series from Canada when I noticed 6 gallon beer kits on sale for 9.99. I ended up with 4 kits. Draught, blond lager, wheat and Irish red. One of the reviews stated that The draught was a little bitter and cidery. He thought it would be better to replace the sugar with DME.
I thought I would try and make a shandy with the blond or wheat? I recall a kit that added 12 grams of lemon powder to a wheat beer at bottling. Would True Lemon crystallised powder work? Does anyone have any suggestion for improving any of these kits? Nothing to lose at this price and I'd love to learn more about flavour additives. The cider kits are also on sale at $19 for 6 gallons if anyone is interested. Their wine kits and service have been excellent.
beer-kit-craft-beer-draught-kit

 

[fluketamer]

OMG THANKS FOR THIS POST THATS DIRT CHEAP
AND FREE SHIPPING OVER 40

THIS MAKES FOR A 30 MIN BREW DAY

LOVE LOVE LOVE IT

 

[fluketamer]

oh and btw theres a whole thread here a on improving can kits but basically they need fermentable sugars added. ive done it with pure dextrose but they come out dry and thin which only works for lagers / pilsners. i prefer 250 mg md 250 mg dme and 500 mg dextrose added to the can whcih is basically coopers brew enhancer 2 i think. if you are going to add pure dme you will need to add hop tea to balance out the additional malt. ive also done 250 / 500 / 250 for more malty brew. kits are easy and very quick and make very quaffable beer in a pinch.

 

[danb35]

I assume you meant 250, 250, and 500 grams there, not milligrams.

 

[suzeQ]

Thanks! Both of you. I will fall down that rabbit hole.

 

[suzeQ]

Experimenting with flavor additives and customizing your beer kits can be a fun and creative process. Here are some suggestions to enhance the flavors of the beer kits you purchased:

1. Shandy with Blond or Wheat Beer: To make a shandy, you can mix beer with a flavored beverage like lemonade. Using True Lemon crystallized powder can work as a substitute for lemon flavoring. Start with a small amount, such as 1/2 teaspoon per pint, and adjust to your taste preferences. Add the lemon powder to the beer when serving, mixing it in gently.
2. Improving the Draught Kit: If you find the draught beer kit a bit bitter and cidery, you can try replacing the sugar with DME (Dry Malt Extract) during fermentation. DME can contribute to a fuller and maltier flavor profile. Follow the instructions provided with the beer kit, but substitute the sugar with an equivalent amount of DME.
3. Flavor Additives: You can experiment with various flavor additives to enhance the taste of your beer. This could include adding fruit extracts, spices, or even hops to create different flavors. For example, you can try adding orange zest or coriander seeds to the wheat beer to create a Belgian Witbier-style flavor.

Remember to start with small quantities of additives and adjust gradually to achieve the desired taste. Keep notes of your experiments so you can replicate successful combinations in the future.

Lastly, enjoy the process of exploring different flavors and creating unique brews. Cheers!

Thank you! This is very helpful. I'm putting sweet orange peel on my shopping list.

 

[fluketamer]

thanks again suze q i just got 4 kits in the mail today from them for 40 $ with shipping. these kits are beautiful. 4 lbs of hopped malt extract and dry hops to add in primary i have never seen a canned kit with additional hops for dry hopping. im ordering 4 more kits tonite. i plan on brewing them to 4.5 gallons with a pound of dextrose or dextrose/dme 50/50 mix instead of 6 gallons with a kilo of dextrose.

these will be great kits to add hop additions or chocolate/ vanilla/ peanut butter to the stout. i drink about a gallon a week so this will put me in beer for 18 weeks for about 50 dollars with sugar.



cheers

 

[suzeQ]

Mine are arriving today. The wine labels were 50 cents for 30 labels so I stocked up. It's like a side of free beer. Lots of it. I like the idea of mixing the dextrose and DME. That stuff gets expensive. Was there an expiration date on kits? .

 

[fluketamer]

Mine are arriving today. The wine labels were 50 cents for 30 labels so I stocked up. It's like a side of free beer. Lots of it. I like the idea of mixing the dextrose and DME. That stuff gets expensive. Was there an expiration date on kits? .

october 2024 i was actually concerned about that and emailed the co but took the risk anyway and am happy i did . since i would be buying multiple kits and dont expect to brew them for a while . i am so psyched about this. i know canned kits and prehopped malt extract are dirty words on this site but i brew delicious beer with prehopped kits and have been brewing prehopped malt for 30 years. it makes for the shortest brew day i know i may technically not be brewing anything since they dont require boiling but there is enough variables in fermenting, kegging ,carbing/ conditioning for me to have more than enough fun with. i cant get over this price. 4 lbs of hopped liquid malt extract for 10 $ with side of hops is crazy.

 

[suzeQ]

october 2024 i was actually concerned about that and emailed the co but took the risk anyway and am happy i did . since i would be buying multiple kits and dont expect to brew them for a while . i am so psyched about this. i know canned kits and prehopped malt extract are dirty words on this site but i brew delicious beer with prehopped kits and have been brewing prehopped malt for 30 years. it makes for the shortest brew day i know i may technically not be brewing anything since they dont require boiling but there is enough variables in fermenting, kegging ,carbing/ conditioning for me to have more than enough fun with. i cant get over this price. 4 lbs of hopped liquid malt extract for 10 $ with side of hops is crazy.

I didn't realise they didn't need brewing when I purchased. These are like really easy wine kits. Apologies, I have a few more questions and can't find the right thread. You're going to short the water to 4.5 gallons on a 6 gallon kit. Does that not throw the balance/hop ratio off? I have enough DME to replace all the dextrose. Is that overkill and should I stick to 50%? You mentioned adding a hop tea if replacing. @ how many ozs of hops would that be? Only the draught kit came with the additional hops. Would additional hops be needed for that kit as well?

 

[fluketamer]

long post ahead

yes im shorting to 4.5 to decrease the dextrose to malt ratio and to fit in 2 of my mr beer kegs. i like to split batches for a number of reasons. i can do side by side tests of yeast or fermenting temperatures and i can do multiple additions to the same base beer and compare like say a cream ( add lactose ) vs chocolate stout ( i recently read that you can just dump chocolate syrup in the keg- OMG) for this winter. yes it will change the hop ratio and bitterness. this is partly what turns everyone on this site away from can and kilo kits because you dont really know the ibus and malt concentrations etc. )(but you can guess - and i guarantee there are people on this site who can tell you exactly how it will change the kit. ) the homebrewuk forum sister site has much more on can kits cause they are popular in the uk. they are huge in Australia. mr beer has many good recipes and directions on can kits. and partial mash and ag for that matter. mr beer went through a whole up and down on this site in the last ten years. i once used a whole can of coopers stout made for 6 gallons in a 2.25 gallon batch in mr beer keg. it was hard to dissolve. it came out very good it obviously increased the ibus abv etc. it was cheap ris. it fermented out to like 7.5 abv. and was sweet cause the yeast coulnt handle all the malt and l;eft soem unfermented. it aged very well. i tried that with coopers lager and it turned out to be way too dark for a lager so you have to experiment. i almost never use the yeast in the kits but these kits use mangrove jack which looks like it should be quality yeast but i never used it before. whatever you do dont boil the kits it will mess it up. its dehydrated wort and made to be reconstituted with h20.
in terms of dme to dextrose ratio its hard to say you have to try and see but who cares at 10 dollars a kit. be gentle. the kit is made to be done with 2 lbs of dextrose so i would be Leary on 2 lbs of malt especially for the lagers. these kits have already been hot and cold broke so if you add malt you may add haze without real boil and chill etc, i been lurking around mangrove jack website because these are mj kits btw with Canadian packaging. and i saw that mj recommends dextrose, dme dextrose mix, brew enhancer which i think has Malto dextrin or beer enhancer which i have no clue what that is but prolly has some unfermetnables in it. which means these are forgiving kits if you add two lbs of anything with sugar and bring it up to 6 gals.

hop tea --- there are a million threads on this i am no expert i almost sure brewers friend or one of the other programs can work out exact ibus for hop teas with and without malt in them. but i generally dump ounce per 4.5 gallons in plain water at 170 for 0 to x mins depending how bitter or citrusy i want it. there are steps on mr beer site under the recipe section to make hop tea to add to no boil kits, i have a great recipe for a canned lager with hop tea ill post it when i find it along with the link to the thread on here where i first read about adding hop tea to decrease the malt forward aspect of the kit if you just add dme. without hops. real quick in my head i would think that you are adding a pound of malt in 6 gallons so how much hops would you need to balance that out - not a lot maybe a quarter ounce maybe a half ounce etc. i would use less if you are only bringing to 5 gallons


what kits did you buy? i also bought the draft kit i am debating how much dme to add i dont think i will add only dextrose to that kit but i am planning on adding only dextrose to the pilsner kit and see how it comes out before deciding on the draught. thin k about it if you add only dextrose you will be making it as they planned if you add more malt it will add more body. most people on this site hate corn cause it thins out beer but i love brewing with it. i grew up on bmc which means i prolly drank more corn than malt the first ten years of my adult life. its the same reason i like the stones zepplin and the beatles it was drilled into me. id prolly start off with 50 / 50 at most and id add a hop tea. if adding that much malt . like ill said ill post tea recipe later.

last thing once kit is opened you cant do say half and put the other half away for later thats also why people dont like these kits they are all or nothing. you cant spilt a 6 gallon batch and do a 2 gallon batch today and 4 gallon next time like i can when i brew grain or extract.

sorry long post thanks so much for letting me rant about can kits and haters of them. haha
i brewed an AHS lawnmower lager today partial mash it took all frikken day with clean up and thats biab not AG

its great beer i have several gallons of it kegged but i am planning to switch to no boil for the next year or two.
with these kits.
i have obviously been can brewing off and on with AG, extract , Partial mash for a long time and it must work cause i drink a lot of canned coopers muntons DIY or any other ktis i can get on sale.

anyone else out there who brew cans don't be shy i know there's someone.



again thanks for the clearance sale heads up
cheers

 

[fluketamer]

heres a thread on brew enhancer which is premixed dme/ dextrose etc to add to kits instead of straight sugar.


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/substitute-for-brew-enhancer.410598/#post-5188801
its used in coopers kits and similar to what i have been talking about. i would like to credit unionrdr with help cause he has posted alot on coopers kits which are simialr to all no boil canned kits.

 

[fluketamer]

last post i promise

zamba lager

put two 1 gallon spring water jugs in the freezer. you will need cold water to cool down the wort you are not using ice bath or wort chiller.

bring 12 to 16 cups of water to 160 deg. steep 4 oz flaked corn and 4 oz carapils for 30 mins at 155 - 160 . sparge with 2 cups of hot water.
while grains steep dissolve 4 oz of maltodextrin and 3 oz of brewers crystals in 1 qt of cool water. Brewers crystals are dextrose corn syrups solids and malto dextrin i think. I sometimes add MD to beers. it comes from my highschool days brewing root beer it makes for a creamy head that will last for days. its great in a nitro stout.
when the steep is done and sparged, bring the grain water to a boil and add .25 ounces of zamba hops. i love zamba it has a melon flovor that works great for summer lagers. but you could use any citrusy low alpha hop. boil for 5 mins remove from heat and at flameout add . 75 oz zamba hops. ,12 oz of golden light dme, the brewers crystal/ MD solution, and one 4 lb can of any lager. i used coopers but im sure the abc crafted series blonde lager would work .

add water to top up to 2.5 gallons and temper wort so as not to pour boiling liquid into 5 gallon pail.

add 40 degree icewater from freezer to bring vol to 4.5 and temperature down to 68 deg. pitch lager yeast. i use lalbrew diamond lager yeast i dont like s 23 . i want to try 34/70 soon. i usually give it a day at 65 to 70 to really get a good kreusen before i drop temp down to 50's.

it spits al lot of sulfur which i havent had a problem with in the final product. ferment cold 54 to 59 deg. for 10 days then DAR for 4 days then keg very cold (36deg) at 20 psi for 24 to 48 hours then 12 for 48 then 8 to 10 psi for 10 days serve low like 4 - 6 psi.

i dont gelatin and i dont cold crash

its one of my favorite brews but a pain with all the added ingredients. still easier then boiling wort for an hour

i have also warm fermented this with the same yeast at 68. i find the only difference is that it takes longer to clean up in the keg ( about twice as long.)
enjoy

 

[suzeQ]

Thank you so much for the details. It's gonna take me a few reads to digest it all. I have a few 3 gallon carboys and I love your idea about splitting the batches. Please feel free to post away. Cheers!

 

[fluketamer]

i bought 4 more today another pilsner 2 more stouts and im going to try the amber ale i don't normally like ales but its a higher abv so im interested to see whats different about that kit.

the blonde lager btw doesnt come with dry hops and its also less malt extract in the pouch 1.5 as opposed to 1.8 kilos.

after A lot of thought im going to add dextrose to the blonde, 1/2 lb of dme and 1/2 lb of dextrose to the pilsner , prolly the same to the draft and pure dme to the stouts.

i think im going to skip the hop teas as its a minimal amount of additional malt and im already increasing the ibus by shorting the kit to 4.5 gallons.

im going to add dry hops to the blonde tho.

split batches are the best you can also stagger fermentation times to fit keg space. so for example i split a 4.5 gallon into two 2.25. one stays on the yeast for 3 - 4 weeks while waiting for keg space to free up. the other gets kegged right away.

cheers