Brewhouse Kits

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xoltri said:
So I'm drinking my American Premium Lager kit now, bottled on Jan 31. I made it with 1056 American Ale yeast which I washed and put in a fridge in November; about 50ml of yeast slurry in the jar. I took that yeast and made a 1L starter with 100g DME boiled for 15 minutes. I used RO water to make up the 8L required and left it undisturbed in the primary for 3 weeks. No airlock, just the snap on lid.

Cleanest tasting beer I've made yet from these kits. And so much less work than doing a secondary. I'd highly recommend this method!

I'm excited to have some of my friends and family try this batch.
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Glad to hear that you tried it just with the primary with the snap on lid and it turned out okay. I have been hesitant to try this as I wasn't sure how sanitary it would be for a longer period of time. I'd love to not transfer to a secondary but I can't make it past 10 days before I get too worried and transfer it so I can put an airlock on it.

And just as an update, I'm getting more and more impressed with these kits;
I have the Cream Ale that's been in bottles for about 5 weeks and it's really good. I used Wyeast 2565 (Kolsch) and am very happy with how it turned out (having one right now actually :))

I also just bottled what I hope to be nice brown ale. I used FlyGuy's recommendation and steeped 3/4lb of crystal and added it to a Munich Dark Lager kit. I pitched Wyeast 1028 London Ale and fermented for 30 days. I'm excited for this one :mug:

And I'm also a week away from kegging my first beer! Finished my keezer and a Prairie Wheat is almost ready to go in. I did a Prairie Wheat as my first brew and thought it would be a good idea for it to be the first in a keg too. That way I can compare the two a lot easier.

If I keep liking these kits I fear it's going to be a while before I go to extract.......well, at least until I've gone through all the styles....
 
I am a fan of these kits. But I have to tell you, the day you make the jump to extract, you'll be quite proud of yourself.

I made 10-15 of these kits before I jumped to extract and hacked most of them. They all turned out pretty good. But at the end of the day, I didn't feel like I was brewing my own beer. I felt like I was brewing someone else's beer. Jumping to extract only required a canning pot ($20 from walmart) and it allowed me to make pretty much any beer style I wanted.

I have recently turned to AG. But I brewed extract for four years and loved every minute of it.

I still like these kits, but I encourage everyone else who also enjoys them to consider doing extract brews. It will cost you an extra $10 a batch, but it's worth it.
 
Drinking my latest kit, the honey blonde ale. Again I used the 1056 washed yeast I've had in the fridge for a couple months, made a 1L starter with 100G of DME boiled for 15 minutes in 1L of water, and used RO water to make up the 8L. I also again did the 3 week primary. Turned out amazing! It has a pleasant slight aroma of honey.

I've made 11 of these kits so far and I have some insight to share. All of the beers that I made from these kits where I did a 1 week primary and then 2 week secondary have a sort of musty, grassy aroma that hits you in the top back of the nose. Not sure how else to describe it. The one that is really bad is the cream ale I made several months ago. With that beer I did something really bad. As per the instructions I left it in the primary for 5 days then racked it to a carboy. But then in the carboy a bunch of yeast settled out within the next couple of days, and I wanted to harvest that yeast so I racked it again and harvested the yeast. Well it has that same bad off taste but is by far the worst of all of the beers I have made to date, even though I made it way back in September 2010. It is pretty much undrinkable, but I am holding out that it will get better one day. I attribute it to the beer not having a chance on the yeast to clean up those bad flavors, which is the problem the 3 week primary solves 100%.
 
I have done extract and BH - they are great kits. I still say if you are somewhere without a supplier of good brewing supplies but can get these kits, then go for it.

B
 
I've made a few of these kits, and I like the fact that they are easy to get and easy to make. I am currently enjoying one of my Dupe-All ales that I brewed last summer, and it will be a sad day when they are all gone.

I am hoping to do a few more kit hacks, and am looking for some advice. Using a BH kit as a base, I'd like to make up a Belgian Dubbel and also a Saison. I'm curious if anyone has tried this, and if so what is your recipe and how did it turn out?
 
Question for those extended primary proponents: My thinking, seeing as I don't have sealed primary is to rack into a carboy after the vigorous fermentation is complete but to stir it up a bit and take the yeast cake with it to the carboy. It seems to settle out in the carboy pretty quickly. Then leaving it for a month in the carboy and consider this an extended primary fermentation. Any flaws with my thinking here?
 
I am an extended primary proponent because secondary is unnecessary and it is not worth the sanitation risk to rack into a second fermenter.

Just do a 2 week primary and keg it if your fermenter isn't quite sealed (if you insist on using it), Personally, I would just ferment in the carboy and wouldn't bother with an unsealed primary fermenter.

You are proposing to take all of the risks associated with a secondary and then to forego the benefit of having "clearer beer" by stirring up trub. I also don't see any particular benefit to stirring up the trub.
 
WinoOutWest said:
Question for those extended primary proponents: My thinking, seeing as I don't have sealed primary is to rack into a carboy after the vigorous fermentation is complete but to stir it up a bit and take the yeast cake with it to the carboy. It seems to settle out in the carboy pretty quickly. Then leaving it for a month in the carboy and consider this an extended primary fermentation. Any flaws with my thinking here?
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I don't have a sealed primary either, but yet I've done 3 batches so far with a 3 week primary and they've all turned out awesome. Just bottled my 4th last night, the Prairie Wheat that I made with Wyeast 1056 American Ale.

I have done what you describe, which is to rouse the yeast after the 1 week primary before racking to secondary. I did it with the Winterfest Ale and it turned out great too, it didn't have that bad grassy taste that the usual 1 week primary beers had and it didn't have trouble clearing. But for me it's an extra step, another thing to sanitize and clean, and ultimately a waste of time IMO.
 
Okay followup question on the extended primary.
Not planning ahead very well I started a Brewhouse Honey Blonde Ale with an extra kg of honey added. It (including all the sediment from the primary) has been racked over into an air locked secondary now but I am leaving next week for 2 weeks which will make it about 4.5 weeks "in the primary". My question is am I safe leaving it "in the primary" for 4 or 5 weeks vs making alternate arrangements to have my wife bottle it for me. (not an attractive option for either one of us!) :)
 
I guess I was unable to convince you to just leave the trub or just not bother with secondary!

Anyways, 5 weeks is fine. I have left it for 6 without ill effect.
 
estoppel said:
I guess I was unable to convince you to just leave the trub or just not bother with secondary!

Anyways, 5 weeks is fine. I have left it for 6 without ill effect.
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Okay thanks. Good to know.

And actually you did convince me. I just picked up a primary bucket that I can seal and air-lock. So next batch will stay in the primary.

Cheers!
 
+1 not to worry about longer primary. That will likely really help the beer. I am drinking my kegged Prairie Wheat right this moment and it had a lengthy primary (in a carboy) with no secondary. It's excellent.

B
 
WinoOutWest said:
Okay followup question on the extended primary.
Not planning ahead very well I started a Brewhouse Honey Blonde Ale with an extra kg of honey added. It (including all the sediment from the primary) has been racked over into an air locked secondary now but I am leaving next week for 2 weeks which will make it about 4.5 weeks "in the primary". My question is am I safe leaving it "in the primary" for 4 or 5 weeks vs making alternate arrangements to have my wife bottle it for me. (not an attractive option for either one of us!) :)
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You should be okay leaving it in the primary for 4-5 weeks as long as your liquid(I use star-san sanitizer) is still in the airlock when you get back. You might just want to have your wife check on it but I doubt that it would evaporate over that short of a time frame. When you get back you should be able to rack and bottle or what ever. I'm not a pro by any means but I've heard of people forgetting about their for a few weeks(left in a closet) and finding it fine. I've also heard of people forgetting about it having the airlock run out of fluid and having an infected beer but that's usually months in the carboy without anyone looking at it.
 
Thanks guys. I will travel with peace of mind - at least as it relates to my home brew! :)
I've also got about 8 carboy of wine aging so the topping up of my airlocks was already on my todo list for the weekend before I go.
Cheers!
 
birvine said:
+1 not to worry about longer primary. That will likely really help the beer. I am drinking my kegged Prairie Wheat right this moment and it had a lengthy primary (in a carboy) with no secondary. It's excellent.

B
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I'm drinking this too, did my usual with a 1056 american ale repitch and it's awesome beer. Tried one after a week in the bottle and it was already carbed, but yeasty so I was worried. But now at just over 2 weeks in the bottle it has really come around. Slice of lemon in it and it's delicious.
 
boo boo said:
So have any of you guys tried the Festa kits?
Far superior.
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I've looked at these kits and they apparently brew a better beer mostly because they are a full wort that you don't have to add water to(not a big deal for brew house if you treat your water correctly by removing the chlorinating and so on) as well they don't change the PH, changing the PH level makes it have a longer shelf life without adding preservatives this means you have to a base to it to bring it down to normal levels so that the yeast doesn't die in(packet you use before you stir and take your OG and pitch yeast in the brew house kit) some people say this gives off an off taste this method I believe is unique to the brewhouse kits.

The problem with the full wort of the Festa Kit is that it makes it harder for you to modify the recipe and do hacks to the package. You can't add less water to make it stronger you would need to have a huge pot like you do for doing a full mash in order to steep extra grains into it before using.

I'm sure there are some other positives and negatives to each one. It would seem if you want to do modifications the Brew House would do you better, but if you wanted to just dump in some wort pitch your yeast and go the Festa Kit would look like it might be better(haven't tried it).

:mug:
 
boo boo said:
So have any of you guys tried the Festa kits?
Far superior.
Click to expand...

Can you be more specific? I wasn't really happy with the brewhouse kits with the coopers yeast and racking schedule in the instructions, but the way I've been doing them now they make awesome beer. What's far superior in your opinion about the festa brew kits?
 
I've not yet tried the FB kits. The BH are $29 here; the FB are $45. I can live with the difference but have been happy enough with the quality and selection that I stick with them. That, and, I have been doing increasingly more extract brews and soon AG but I know I'll use the kits now and then, too.

B
 
They are both the same price here. In my view, if your going to make these kits, throw the instructions and the yeast package in the garbage.

Crack your bag of wort, dump it into your fermenter. Pitch some US-05 or Notty (rehydrated). Let it sit for three weeks, rack to your keg or bottling bucket and proceed as normal.

Keep everything clean and sanitized as always. I don't even fart around with a hydrometer or take a S.G. reading. If I am adding specialty grains or something, you aren't getting much if any conversion anyways.
 
estoppel said:
They are both the same price here. In my view, if your going to make these kits, throw the instructions and the yeast package in the garbage.

Crack your bag of wort, dump it into your fermenter. Pitch some US-05 or Notty (rehydrated). Let it sit for three weeks, rack to your keg or bottling bucket and proceed as normal.

Keep everything clean and sanitized as always. I don't even fart around with a hydrometer or take a S.G. reading. If I am adding specialty grains or something, you aren't getting much if any conversion anyways.
Click to expand...

Well, there is a catch to your advice. I agree on the 3 week primary. And the Brewhouse kits come with coopers yeast; I agree that you shouldn't use that. I didn't like the same taste it gave to all of the kits.

But the Festa Brew kits actually come with good yeast. I picked up two kits locally to try them out. One of them came with Safale US-05 which I found out is the same strain as the Wyeast 1056 I have been really enjoying with all of my other beers. The other one came with Saflager S-23. They include a good yeast appropriate for the style of beer that the kit is, which is a nice change from the coopers yeast that the Brewhouse kits use for every one.

The Festa Brew kits are $46 as opposed to the $40 for the Brewhouse kits, although the Brewhouse kits always have one or two styles on sale every month for $35. But if they make better beer the extra cost may be worth it. Actually it might even be worth it to pick one up to get a good yeast strain, then wash the yeast and store it in my fridge and use it to make the cheaper Brewhouse kits...if they turn out to be just as good anyway. A pack of Safale yeast around here runs $5-$6.
 
That is expensive for Safale. I have found Notty to be a pretty similar yeast to US-05 and it is a little less costly around here.

The only real advantage to the Brewhouse kits is that you can mess around with how much water to add. I forgot that Fiesta came with good yeast. Yeah that makes a difference cause in cost because it will run you $2 or $4 for yeast.
 
Looking for some advice...

I got away from brewing for a while, so when I decided to get into it I picked up my old standby, Brew House Cream Ale. I've always used the yeast that came with the kit with great results, but I usually went by the actual activity of the batch and not the days listed in the instructions.

LHBS told me to primary for 1 week, secondary 1 week, keg/bottle, and done... Day 1-3 was crazy, it sounded like a fish tank bubbling, then 4 & 5 were slow and steady, Day 6 & 7 there was almost no activity, and this was always when I would normally rack it, so I did.

I'm on day 9 now, and there's still no activity so I was thinking of kegging it, but after reading through this forum, I'm having my doubts...

What are everyone's thoughts on this?
 
You know Relax Wait And Have A Home Brew RWAHAHB, The yeast will tidy up after themselves and the beer will taste even better if you wait until Monday. Might not taste all that bad right now though!

You can clear it using Knox unflavored gelatin and cold crashing. I have done that right in the keg.
 
I'm not sure I understood your quesiton... If you think your beer is done fermenting, take a gravity reading today and then take another one in a day or two and if they are the same, you're done. Cold crash and keg.

If you are asking whether to use a secondary at all... That is a metter of preference. There is no right or wrong way to do it.

I personally don't use a secondary.
 
Those replies answered my questions just fine, thank ya'll

My hydrometer got broken back in the day, which was a Wednesday, so I went to my LHBS today to get a new one. I walk in and owner of said LHBS asks me what I'm looking for. "A beer hydrometer" I tells him. "You don't need one. Just keep it one week in primary, one week in secondary, and you're ready to bottle. Hydrometers are old school." (The man is in his 50's or 60's, so he knows old school)

Funny thing is, he talked me out of an easy $10 sale, so I gots to think he really believes what he says, which means all ya'll are nuts... haha jk

I told him I heard that you could check for variances in SG to confirm that fermentation has stopped. He said something about foam and bubbles etc.

I'm so confused, the internet has never lied to me before, but that man talked me out of buying something from him... why would he have dozens of these things in his store if they were useless?

I want my Mommy
 
Of course bubbles and krausen are signs of active fermentation but the lack thereof is not proof that fermentation has stopped. Especially, in the later stages of fermentation you really can not tell conclusively without a hydrometer.

Generally though, if you have any doubt and no hydrometer, wait another week. It won't hurt your beer. In all of my years of brewing, I have never had a stuck fermentation.
 
Just wondering if anyone has done a Brew House kit lately? Have you got any recipies or additions for these kits? I'm moving up from cans to BH.
 
blueyes said:
Just wondering if anyone has done a Brew House kit lately? Have you got any recipies or additions for these kits? I'm moving up from cans to BH.
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If you like a fairly strong IPA, I recommend taking their IPA kit and only adding 4L of water and dry hop with an ounce or two of cascade. Use wyeast 1056 or safale-04 to ferment with. If you have some carafa to add to it, you can make a nice cascadian dark. I did that once, and the recipe just didn't last long enough.
 
Going onto Day 14 of secondary fermentation for the Red Ale kit.

So far it smells like beer! Can't wait to get it into a bottle!

I also picked up the Munich Dark as well but I think maybe I bit off more than I can chew with a lager for my second beer.

Did any of you who did that one actually lager it or just treat it like an ale?

I also picked up a Wyeast 2308 for it but maybe I should have stuck with an ale yeast since the 2308 has such a low fermentation temp?

How much of the Wyeast liquid stuff should I use in place of the included dry yeast?
 
brewNdrink said:
The brewhouse kits are made very close to where I live! I've used 2 kits from them and they turned out very well. I tried the dark lager and the pilsner. The yeast that comes with the kits are basic Coopers yeast I believe. For an ale that's ok, but for the pilsner kit I used a liquid yeast.
Click to expand...

Those are BOTH lagers
 
jscovill said:
Going onto Day 14 of secondary fermentation for the Red Ale kit.

So far it smells like beer! Can't wait to get it into a bottle!

I also picked up the Munich Dark as well but I think maybe I bit off more than I can chew with a lager for my second beer.

Did any of you who did that one actually lager it or just treat it like an ale?

I also picked up a Wyeast 2308 for it but maybe I should have stuck with an ale yeast since the 2308 has such a low fermentation temp?

How much of the Wyeast liquid stuff should I use in place of the included dry yeast?
Click to expand...

1 vial per 5 gallons for 1.040 to 1.050
 
I know a guy who's done the lager ones. Apparently it turns out good if you use a regular yeast and don't bother to actually lager it. It will turn out better if you lager it and use the right yeast to do that and a temp control environment I've heard, but it should be still a good beer if you don't.

:mug:
 
If you can't ferment at lager temps, just use an ale yeast and brew an ale. I made the Munich dark kit once with us-05 and it turned into a pretty decently bready brown ale.

If you are going to use lager yeast and ferment at lager temps...you need to pitch ALOT of yeast. Use Mrmalty's pitching rate calculator, but my guess would be 3 to 4 packages of liquid yeast or one big-ass starter.
 
In the early posts here, there was talk of links to the Brewhouse site for doing mods to the recipes. I took a look at the original link, but it doesn't work anymore. Anyone know where the new site is?
My first Brewhouse was a by-the-book IPA, which I will be sampling tomorrow (10 days after bottling).
My second is a Prairie Wheat with Wyeast 3068 and a hopsack full of fruit in the primary for 10 days, the racked into a carboy. I'm bottling it next weekend I think.

For you Alberta guys, where do you get your extract kits from? How are the prices?
 

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