Brew House All Grain Kits

[buffalokid356]

I'm new to brewing, doing my second kit. I've done a pilsner and now i'm doing a pale ale. Just wondering if anyone has experience with the brew house all grain kits and could recomend a good third one to try? I will be kegging them.


Also each time i've started a batch in primary I just put the coopers yeast packet right in the fermentor, should I rehydrate the yeast before adding to primary does it really make a difference?

 

[s1080]

I dont know much about your first question but, to answer your second....Yes and Yes. Rehydrating the yeast helps tremendously with the final product. It has been my experience that it cuts down lag time exceptionally well. Yeast makes all the difference in brewing. I can't remember who said this but a quote comes to mind... something like "We are just wort makers. The yeast turn it into beer."

 

[Rentachik]

I can't comment on the first question... But, I know austinhomebrew.com has allgrain versions of most if not all of their kits. Based of what I have read and ordered from them, they are pretty spot on. I'd trust what they put together.

As for question number two. I have used coopers once.... Only thing is, I don't remember how well it worked out. Usually, for dry yeast packets, I do not rehydrate them. I just sprinkle them over the top of the wort and let them roll. So far it has worked out well. Best of luck.

 

[buffalokid356]

Thanks for the info...

Brewhouse all grain kits are basically a bag of four gallons of wort that you add two gallons of water and yeast too. Its as easie as extract but all the taste bennefits of all grain without the boiling. Just wondering if anyone has tried them? And what they have done to tweek the receipe

 

[Lep]

Thanks for the info...

Brewhouse all grain kits are basically a bag of four gallons of wort that you add two gallons of water and yeast too. Its as easie as extract but all the taste bennefits of all grain without the boiling. Just wondering if anyone has tried them? And what they have done to tweek the receipe

I did a cream ale from them. It was ok. It took a really long time to develop, it was only my last few bottles, about four months after I fermented it, that it came around to something I was happy with with. I didn't tweak the recipe at all.

 

[lurker18]

I have had really good success with the Brew House kits. I have done the Honey Blonde, Irish Red, IPA, I modified another IPA into a IIPA, and an American Wheat. The first thing to do is get better yeast. I have not actually tried the Coopers dry yeast that comes with the kit, but was highly recommended to get something else.
Follow the instructions on these kits to a T, except for the days they give until you are done. Go by the hydrometer for that. I think they say you can be drinking your beer in 3 weeks, but whatever I have done, they have all still been in the primary or secondary after 3 weeks.
These are great kits to use, very easy as almost everything has been done for you, and produce very good beer. If you feel the need to modify the kits, there are recipies on their website, I got the IIPA from there.

 

[glockentalk]

I have been using nothing but Brewhouse kits for two years. I love it. No cooking required at all. That means I can spend my time tweaking my recipes and process. I have made many of the kits, and always been quite satisfied. For now, I'm concentrating on three:

1. Stout. This turns out well no matter how you tweak it, so it's great for experimenting. It's my winter beer.

2. Red. A real crowd pleaser. I don't tweak this much because it is already finely balanced. I add just a little bit of crystal malt and pale malt wort. This is for spring and fall.

3. Wheat. A great summer beer. It lends itself to extensive tweaking. I use it as a base for my attempts to create a great herbal beer.​

Hop lovers will enjoy the IPA. The Pale Ale is extremely easy to make.

The cream ale is a good one to modify into a brown ale.

 

[buffalokid356]

I'm thinking of doing the wheat kit next, there is a local brewery near me that does an awsome blueberry wheat. I would like to duplicate it. Figure ill get some extract and add it to the keg when I force carb. I'm just not sure how much to add? I don't want overpowering blue berry flavor. Any advice would be a big help

 

[glockentalk]

I made a raspberry with the stout kit. It was okay, but I made the mistake of putting the raspberries in at the start of fermentation. I should have waited. I think the CO2 blew out most of the fruit esters, so the raspberry taste in the final product was quite faint. I used a flat of fresh raspberries (~10 pints). I ran them through a juicer and put the pulp in the fermenter. I'll try it again sometime.

 

[buffalokid356]

From what I've read, its better to use extract because the real fruit will ferment

 

[glockentalk]

I dunno. I was following the model of Belgian fruit lambics where whole fruit is used. And I'm pretty sure Papazian has whole fruit recipes. Besides, isn't fermentation the name of the game?

 

[McGarnigle]

Add the fruit to secondary, and rack onto it. I've never tried extracts, but I've heard mixed reviews of them.

 

[s1080]

Brewing Classic Styles suggests using puree instead of fresh or extracts. I havnt tried it yet but plan on it here in a couple weeks with a strawberry blonde ale. The book goes onto say that the nice thing about using puree is you dont have to sanitize the puree and it is cheaper then fresh without the obvious taste of extracts.