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Good place to order dry yeast, shipping is $4.

Weyermann chocolate malt's spec sheet has an acceptable range of 350 to 450L, so I wouldn't sweat at all over the difference. More important is to use the best tasting malt and I believe Bairds has it. Just seem to end up with better tasking brown ales and black ipas when I use it, which is...

A porter shouldn't be bitter. And a pilsner shouldn't be so opaque and brewed with an ale yeast. But the brown ale kit can be somewhat to style. These kits are "fun and easy to brew," but not "serious" beers that end up in the style printed on the pouch if brewed to the instructions. They end...

I have gotten fairly good results with these kits, believe it or not. Might even buy a few more of them going forward. But I have also been brewing for 20 years and have a vague idea how to make them better. For starters, DME instead of corn sugar, obviously. Pleasantly surprised with the...

$2 for a pack of yeast, and one of the most popular ones too boot, is a great deal. And you also get the satisfaction of knowing you are supporting a small USA based business, FastRack, trying innovative approaches to capture new markets. Everyone wins. EVERYONE!

I've done a single kit so far, the Brown Ale. Added 4lb LME and 6 oz of demarara for a 5G batch. Also steeped some dark grains and split into two 2.5G batches, one pitched with the stock yeast (Empire, apparently), the other with S05. Dry hopped the Empire stock--smelled like Chinook to me--...

Yea, dump it. It's like asking a 72 year old to your high school prom. She might have been pretty hot at some point, but by now, a bit worn at the sides.

Although I'm not a huge fan of Nottingham, I went ahead and bagged this deal, expiration date 01/2025.

Pilsen DME is practically white, here is a photo of it against the Golden Light DME, but regardless, you won't end up with anything lighter than a pale amber using it in this kit, the base LME is too dark.

Doing the Pilsner kit. I used pilsen lme at 3lb into 5.25G and also got what might be better described as an amber lager with srm 12-15. The pouch LME was darker than the Briess pilsen, but it's not like the Briess pilsen is clear, it is also leaning towards amber. If you want the lightest...

I order from Morebeer or Atlantic Brew Supply, and both have Verdant and most Lalbrew yeasts for $6.99. Amazon has it shipped to me in two days, no minimum, now for $6.09. IMO, it is getting harder to justify ordering from the traditional mail order supply houses. They put the smaller guys...

There are many good deals on AMZ for dry yeast now. Lalbrew series is usually around $6, S05 can be had 3/$11 or so. I have even picked up grain for under $3/lb shipped. Does not bode well for the traditional suppliers, particularly for occasional brewers like myself, I can just pick up a...

AMZ has Notty 5 packs for $17, use current 40% off of subscribe and save deal for net around $10. For the mathematically challenged or the somewhat intoxicated (you know who you are), that's about $2/pack. Must be a Prime member...

I wonder where they got the idea the beer yeasts in the kits did not have good dates? No date code on the ones I got and the first kit brewed, the brown ale kit, had a krausen at 5 hours and finished in 3 days as expected for empire ale/windsor ale yeast.

The brown ale is on Day 3 of fermentation and the stock yeast which came in the pouch (presumably empire ale which may be the same as windsor) had a krausen at 5 hours and appears to be done! I'll see where it ends up in a couple of weeks. The dry hops went in when things started slowing down...

In reading the instructions, it appears they want you to boil 3L of water and mix in the pouch, so maybe that is how they get things dissolved in? I will probably just heat the 5G up to about 120F next time to ensure mixing. Somewhat complicating things, but don't feel comfortable not having...

Anyone getting low starting gravities? I am measuring 1.040 with 4 lb of added LME, .5 lb carafoam, .6 lb of demerera into 5 gallons. Beersmith is telling me should be 1.072. Does the LME just not register when mixing cold? Shook it like one would a redheaded stepchild. Even drew the sample...

The yeast that came with the Brown Ale kit (possibly Empire?) is impatient, got a 1/2" krausen 5 hours after pitching. Smelled terrible right out of the package, but appears to be doing its job.

Got the Brown Ale Kit going, here are some findings. If you want to get at the yeast and hops, you can carefully slit along the area indicated in red on the pouch pic with a razor blade. This should leave the LME bag intact. You might want to do this if you purchase two bags of the same type...

You are correct, these kits look like rebranded MJ "Traditional Series" kits, as opposed to the "Premium Kits" which all have more LME, yeast, and hops. Their descriptions also match up with ABC Crafted. https://mangrovejacks.com/collections/traditional-series