Brewers Beat Cider Extract Kit

[elgee]

Anyone made one of the Brewers best cider kits? Wondering how it compares to a pressed cider made from scratch? Is the yeast included any decent?

 

[paperairplane]

I wouldn't bother with a cider kit - buy some apple juice and a pack of virtually any yeast.

 

[Mismost]

I wouldn't bother with a cider kit - buy some apple juice and a pack of virtually any yeast.

Can't comment on Brewer's Best, never done one. I do have a five gallon carboy of Graham's Cider/Pap's Pub Cider fermenting right now. Kinda blended the two recipes...some of this one...some of that one and pitched in Nottingham yeast. We'll see how it turns out.

Both of those recipes are here on this site....and cost about half as much to make with simple store bought supplies. This is my first batch of cider...but, I have made a couple of batches of Apple Wine and they came out good.

 

[elgee]

I've made fresh cider before with great results but thought I'd try the kit for comparison, but if it's not that good, I don't want to waste $45

 

[zgreenside]

I've made fresh cider before with great results but thought I'd try the kit for comparison, but if it's not that good, I don't want to waste $45

I made the 4 berry cider kit from them, and I thought it turned out pretty decent. Not as good as fresh pressed cider, but I thought it wasn't a bad deal for the money.

I haven't made one since, and I can't tell you how an apple kit would taste compared to the real thing, but for its ease, I'd say it's worth trying once.

 

[HB_in_Subic]

I made the Pear batch and it turned out good. Made an Apple batch without proper temperature control, came out tasty but flat. I am going to have to repitch some yeast and some sugar to carbonate. Other than that it came out good. Very simple kit almost feels like cheating in comparison to brewing or making wines/mead...

 

[elgee]

Did it have to age as long as pressed cider. I made 2.5 gallons of fresh cider and it was good but sour for the first 5 weeks, then it was well balanced but almost gone. Wondering if the kits need as long of aging?

 

[HB_in_Subic]

No need for long aging. It was ready to bottle at 3 weeks and bottle conditioned for 3 more. The 2nd batch I let sit for over 8 weeks before I bottled. I think that I had the temperature too low and thus no carbonation.

 

[truebrew2009]

Hey elgee i made two kits both came out great. They ears easy to make one month i was able to drink. hope this helps you out