Brewhouse Kits - looking for opinions and reviews. . .

[glockentalk]

I posted a sheet from Brewhouse with its list of kit mods for varying styles by changing the water volume and yeast types.

 

[FenMan]

here are the instructions if anyone cares
: Rj Spagnols : - Resource Center - View

 

[ChickenSoop]

Do you guys follow Brewhouse kit directions, or follow the 1-2-3 rule that seems to be recommended in general.

I went 2nd stage after 4 days, but is that too early? It looks like 10-14 days in primary is the general recommendation?

I am looking to make good beer, not necessarily fast beer at the expense of quality.

 

[glockentalk]

I just use single stage. I have generally short fermentation times (~2 weeks). I use kegs.

 

[FlyGuy]

Do you guys follow Brewhouse kit directions, or follow the 1-2-3 rule that seems to be recommended in general.

When using those BrewHouse kits, I always throw away their yeast packet and their instructions. Use a quality yeast (dry or liquid) appropriate to the style, and ferment in the primary for 2 - 3 weeks. I don't bother with a secondary any more, except when dry hopping or making a fruit beer, and my beer is better for it.

 

[Veinman]

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for using the Brewhouse or other kits to make a fruit beer?

I'm made 2 Brewhouse kits now exactly by the instructions and have been very happy with the results. That being said I think I'm ready for my first slight hack and also wanted to make either a Raspberry brew (likely an Ale) or a Coriander and Orange peel belgian wheat (Think Blue Moon, Keith's White etc.) But I'd like to do kits a few more times before getting into having to boil etc.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[glockentalk]

I made a raspberry stout. I bought a flat of fresh raspberries, ran them through a juicer, and put the juice in the fermenter. It turned out fine, but not very fruity. I learned subsquently that you should put the fruit in after primary fermentation is complete, because the CO2 will carry away a lot of the flavour.

 

[HighGravity]

I know this is an old topic, but I thought I would mention about their kit instructions. I bought my first equipment from them and understand the instructions well. I learned (the hard way) thAt everyone talking on HBT refers to a primary fermentor as a closed systems with air lock. Myself, I've never seen such a primary (why not call it a carboy), and all the equipment here is from RJ spagnols, which gives you a proper carboy for 2ndary and a simple bucket with loose fitting lid for primary. Nothing wrong with that, but after starting to keep brews longer in my primary (based on HBT chatter) I noticed some darkening and sweeter flavours for sure.

Before buying brewhouse I found I bought beer based on price often, now I spend as much for modding as much as one wants, and find I get better beers with new twists for half the price of store bought. I bought a 33lb bottle of pale malt extract to try to some extract brewing, and find myself questioning it to use as a whole recipe with a lb or so of grain additions. Now I am using it 2-5 cups at a time to simply increase the gravity of the BH wort while maintaining a 5 gallon brew. 2 cups worked very nicely with a Pilsner kit that had 1 oz saaz 15 min and 1 oz 2 min in water/extract boil. A friend who is into Pilsner Uquell thinks its a great clone, except for the darker color and chill haze.

I have a question for those that use BH: someone told me that if I am brewing at condo temps (17-23 C) then there is no point in using liquid yeast as it will not perform the proper way outside the temp profile. Do you agree? I've been coopers all the way and I really wanted to get to know it as I might be moving in the future and could only buy that. If liquid yeast is a waste of time, any opinions about another dry yeast that beats coopers? I do find coopers more attenuative than many of the recipes here on HBT, normally I get 1.002-1.007 as a FG,

 

[osagedr]

Ok, so I'm a fan of the brewhouse kits and after brewing the Honey Blonde, Pilsner, and Red Ale I'm begining to think there aren't many people out there that use these kits! Admittedly, I haven't used an extract kit and certainly I haven't moved to the AG so I don't have a baseline to compare the Brewhouse kits in order to say how much better (or worse) the Brewhouse kits are. However, having used commercial micro-brews and major national brands in a double-blind taste test with friends and family - the brewhouse kits come out on top everytime- there has to be something to these kits. Though this may sound biased, the friends and family like both national and national "micro" brands so their tastes vary.

I am begining to think that not many people on here use the Brewhouse kits - admittedly it's an odd breed, not exactly an extract and certainly not an all grain that one could boast about! Plus, the cost is a lot higher than extracts, but again, I've found these beers to be really good So despite the cost, its a great way to start out in the home brewing! No, there's no product affiliation - just surprise that more novises don't start out using this stuff.

I've read a few posts that a few people have even won awards using these kits, which should make this stuff more respectable but nontheless, few poeple seem to talk (or admit) that they use these kits and what they do to make them better than what they are -

And maybe that's the turn off of these kits, since the wort is pre-made, there is littel that one can do to change the type of beer. These are somewhat limiting- esp for those that may want to make big beers. There is of course, dry-hopping, re-boiling, and adjuncts that one can play with but the base is pretty much set for you. So I can see the turn off from that perspective for some people as to why they wouldn't use these kits. Moreover, to make these already expensive kits better, one might want to use a different yeast and add adjuncts thus increasing the cost by ~$10. If you use little top-off water thus reducing the total output of the kit while adding different yeasts and adjuncts, you will ceratinly have one expensive beer, albeit great tasting.

I suggest that maybe pre-made wort kits (I presume others exists out there) need to have thier own spot on the board- it might be a lonley place - but if credance is given to this type of kit, it might even open the door for new poeple to get in to the craft!

I'm certainly interested to hear the various discussion on the topic! Thanks in advance!

Cheers!

Of course, this is just one novice's opinion. Once I grow into the AG, maybe my persepctive will change!

I've made a dozen or so Brewhouse kits and folks in this neck of the woods make a lot of them. Employing the "tweaks" listed on the company's website (inner secrets or whatever they call them) has led to some great results. I've been in touch with their head brewer who has provided some additional tips (PM me for his email address).

Overall I think they are an excellent product. I think their major weakness is yeast; they provide standard Cooper's with virtually every kit, regardless of whether it's an ale, lager, light, dark, etc. The upside of this is that the kits are nearly idiot proof. I guess more experienced brewers can select an alternative dry or even liquid yeast as they please (which I've done on a number of occasions; I've used Wyeast 2308 with the Munich Dark Lager kit and Wyeast 1056 with the Honey Blond Ale).

 

[glockentalk]

I would like to see a +/- comparison between BH and Festa. I have my first Festa in the fermentor. I don't think I'll switch. BH is high gravity, which gives me a lot of control over the final alcohol content. Also, because it comes as 15 liters, I don't have to worry about getting it all into a 23 liter primary carboy. The Festa is 23 gallons, and I lost at least a couple of liters in racking and blowoff. I now have a 11.4 liter Better Bottle carboy, so I could divide up a Festa kit. But I'm not sure that I really want to change from BH. I would love to hear from anyone who has a lot of experience with Festa, especially if they are also familiar with BH.

 

[osagedr]

I would love to hear from anyone who has a lot of experience with Festa, especially if they are also familiar with BH.

FWIW I've done a number of (and medaled with) both. Each is good. FB has better yeast included with the kit and gives you the full amount of wort so no worrying about water quality or adding the ph balancer (as you must with BH). OTOH BH has more flexibility b/c of the 15 litres (not everyone would consider that an advantage) and has a far superior website to help those interested with "tweaking" their kits. Pricewise the two are very similar.

Bottom line, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend either.

 

[glockentalk]

Thanks very much!

 

[dwight_k]

Yes it is 30 bucks here in Canada for 23 liters. I have made pilsner, IPA and pale ale. I make the pale most but I now have a make shift cold area that I lager using Bottles of ice. Just a big cooler really. So I made the pils with wyeast budvar and lagered for 5 weeks. Still a touch of sulfur smell so I will age some more in the bottle. I think they are great products.

 

[BMacD]

Hi guys.
This will be the first time making beer for me. I have The Brewhouse Canadian Light Lager. The only primary fermenter I have is about 30L. Since this is my first kit, I want to make it the full 23L. I know there can be major overflow. Would it be ok to just add the 15L wort and once the bubbling comes down add the water? Will that change the way it is suposed to taste? What if I just added 4L to start and the other 4L later?

I don't plan on running out and getting a 10gallon fermenter just yet. Any tips or should I just throw caution to the wind and see how it turns out?

Thanks in advance,
Brad

 

[jmartyg]

Hey, another PEI'er.

you'll be fine with the 30L one. put all 23L in.

 

[bdleedahl]

I've used both several times and they are similar in quality. the Festabrew is easier to make good beer since it comes with good dry yeast and a full wort bag. But I have to say I like brewhouse better BECAUSE it only comes with 15L wort so I can modify it with specialty grains easier and tweak the gravity by adding less water. But the key is with Brewhouse to take that coopers yeast and toss it directly into the garbage and pick up some quality liquid or cheaper but still good dry yeast.

 

[HighGravity]

Second that on just making the 23 full batch right away, its a good idea to just follow the instructions totally while trying each style once, then tweaking a little if needed.

For example, I like pilsner urquell and live in a warm place that doesnt allow cooling the fermenting beer. So I use the standard kit, add a few cups of liquid malt extract to push the ABV up to 6%, and simply boil 3 litres of this extract/water for half an hour and add 2 ounces of chezch saaz hops, one five minutes before taking the pot off the stove, and the other 3-7 days later when I notice the foam dies down and its time to rack into the aird as a dry ye tight carboy. I always use the coopers yeast included so dont know about other dry yeasts, but I do know its a waste of money if you use liquiud yeast and dont follow the temperatures needed closely. Liquid yeast brewers are always surprised that the beer I share with them is made with coopers...

bdleedahl: what would you recommend for each BH style? I heard nottingham is good but not for every style, and would like to start to compare as Im familar with coopers exclusively.

 

[BMacD]

Hey, another PEI'er.

you'll be fine with the 30L one. put all 23L in.

Ok, sounds good, I'll just put a towel around it incase it does foam over. Where are ya from jmartyg? Nice to know there are fellow islanders here

 

[jmartyg]

Ok, sounds good, I'll just put a towel around it incase it does foam over. Where are ya from jmartyg? Nice to know there are fellow islanders here

I'm in Cornwall now. Grew up in Stratford.

 

[xoltri]

I'm drinking the red ale - followed the instructions to the letter but I did add gelatin 7 days before bottling. It's a great beer, more hops than I expected which is a nice change from even the more expensive beers around here. And for this great beer I am paying half of what I can get the cheapest beer for at the liquor store.

 

[estoppel]

Second that on just making the 23 full batch right away, its a good idea to just follow the instructions totally while trying each style once, then tweaking a little if needed.

For example, I like pilsner urquell and live in a warm place that doesnt allow cooling the fermenting beer. So I use the standard kit, add a few cups of liquid malt extract to push the ABV up to 6%, and simply boil 3 litres of this extract/water for half an hour and add 2 ounces of chezch saaz hops, one five minutes before taking the pot off the stove, and the other 3-7 days later when I notice the foam dies down and its time to rack into the aird as a dry ye tight carboy. I always use the coopers yeast included so dont know about other dry yeasts, but I do know its a waste of money if you use liquiud yeast and dont follow the temperatures needed closely. Liquid yeast brewers are always surprised that the beer I share with them is made with coopers...

bdleedahl: what would you recommend for each BH style? I heard nottingham is good but not for every style, and would like to start to compare as Im familar with coopers exclusively.

This sounded pretty good to me... out of curiosity what kind of malt do you use? I am trying your small hack as we speak and used Cooper's Amber Malt. My Homebrew shop doesn't sell liquid yest unless it is on special order, so I just went Safbrew S-33.

 

[BMacD]

I'm in Cornwall now. Grew up in Stratford.

Right on. Charlottetown born and bred. My wife and I looked at a house for sale in Cornwall. Didn't suit our needs tho.

 

[xoltri]

I'm trying the cream ale with the Wyeast 1098 brit ale. I've made 3 of them with the coopers yeast so far and I wanted to see if this makes any difference. Also, I am going to wash the yeast and store it in the fridge so I may never have to buy any liquid yeast again!

 

[herbtarlicca]

Just a heads up for the Vancouverites... If you buy 8 or more kits at Spagnols you only pay $22.50 per kit. A couple of my buddies use the kits so getting them for this price is a no-brainer. Favourite beer is the Pale Ale using a 1098 Brit Ale Yeast. I would put that beer up against most of the suds at the local brew pubs or micros. DEELISH!

 

[xoltri]

Wow, 22.50? They are $40 here in Edmonton, $35 on sale.

 

[HighGravity]

Yeah, I found that out recently too when I was going to buy 6 of them. Seeing as taking more than one box on my motorcycle at a time is hard, I figured if a friend is doing me a favour by driving might as well buy 9 and give him half a batch.

Actually the price and ease of the brewhouse is what keeps me from going all grain right now, besides space issues. I recently tried their honey blond ale and cream ales for the first time, which I found to be very bland, but maybe that was the coopers yeast problem.

For the darker beers I think the munich dark lager has a nice roastines/nutiness that I would like to increase by using a 2 gallon boil of extra grains, and the stout is decent as well.

All nine I just bought were pilsners, so over the next few months I'll be trying them with small grain steeps, 2 oz of saaz, but switching yeasts between nottingham, 2001 Urquell, and 2278 Chech Pils. I wish however that I had nine fermenters to get started!

A friend of mine fell in love with my pilsners after I threw in the saaz, even though I was brewing at 22 C with coopers yeast. So I imagine with the right yeast, temps, saaz and a little grain it could be quite good.

 

[HighGravity]

This sounded pretty good to me... out of curiosity what kind of malt do you use? I am trying your small hack as we speak and used Cooper's Amber Malt. My Homebrew shop doesn't sell liquid yest unless it is on special order, so I just went Safbrew S-33.

Sorry for the late response, getting emails when there's activity in a thread is spotty it seems. I use a pale malt extract for the sole reason its the only malt extract around here that is reasonably priced. At the place that manufactured BH they sell 500 gr of the coopers dry malt you used for $5, but when I asked about ordering 50lbs of it I was shocked they wanted $190. The liquid sells at another place for $2 a pound in large jugs, I find it an easy way to add fermentables but to really see the quality of it I guess one would need to make a batch using just that, and a # or two of grain and see how it turns out.

I'm moving more toward cramming as much grain in a bag as possible for a 8 litre steep/boil as the end result is a cheaper and fuller flavour addition to the BH kits. So I really would not consider buying a 23L kit like Festabrew because you don't have this flexibility with 2/5 of the wort.

 

[xoltri]

Actually the price and ease of the brewhouse is what keeps me from going all grain right now, besides space issues. I recently tried their honey blond ale and cream ales for the first time, which I found to be very bland, but maybe that was the coopers yeast problem.

All nine I just bought were pilsners, so over the next few months I'll be trying them with small grain steeps, 2 oz of saaz, but switching yeasts between nottingham, 2001 Urquell, and 2278 Chech Pils. I wish however that I had nine fermenters to get started!

Bland? I have not experienced that. I've made the red, honey and Oktoberfest all with the coopers so far and the do all have a similar background flavor that I attribute to the yeast, but at the same time they are all distinct from each other and not bland. As I said above I have a cream ale that will be ready to drink in 2-4 weeks that I used 1098 British Ale yeast so we'll see how it comes out.

I'd be interested to know what you think about your modifications of the kits, particularly the differences with different yeasts. I plan on doing the Duvel clone they have on their website. I've never had Duvel (can't find it locally) but I've heard good things and met a guy from Belgium when I was last in Vegas and he recommended it.

 

[xoltri]

Also, one of the guys at the LHBS said he made an excellent Innis&Gunn clone from one of these kits, some oak chips and maybe some whiskey to fortify. I can't remember exactly but I'll probably get the recipe from him and do that one too.

 

[HighGravity]

Also, one of the guys at the LHBS said he made an excellent Innis&Gunn clone from one of these kits, some oak chips and maybe some whiskey to fortify. I can't remember exactly but I'll probably get the recipe from him and do that one too.

I'm just opening a bottle of Innis and Gunn Blonde for the first time as I saw your message...amazing stuff, I can't say I've had anything like it. The vanilla is quite pronounced and the sweetness is just perfect. I'm going to buy some for ladies who supposedly don't like beer and see what they think. I think you would be doing a service to humanity if you could post the BH mod here when you get it.

Duvel is a good beer, but I find I need much more experience trying high gravity belgian beers such as storng pale ale, trippel, or strong dark ale like Golden Draak to really see the difference between them. The belgian yeast flavour is quite different than others, maybe you want to try a Canadian made belgium beer like Philips or one of the Unibroues like La Fin Du Monde for an idea.

I guess since I make mostly darker beers, or pilsner or IPA, the cream ale just didn't have the strong flavours I've been adding. It will be 3 weeks until I can report about how nottingham goes with an IPA and a Octoberfest, and 6 weeks likely before finding out about using the 3 different yeasts for the same pilsner mod. We wait for many good things in life, but there is nothing like waiting for a favorite beer to mature and see how you can improve it next time.

I think the best BH mod I did so far was the munich dark lager with 500grams black patent malt, 2 Tbsp crushed black pepper, and a full sized pot of coffee on the dark side. That was something.