'Flash Brewing'? This looks interesting!

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Lampy said:
My first thought was "Must be no-boil w/ pre-hopped extract" but it looks like they do include some kind of hop shot and dry hops (?)
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Seven kits, so likely seven distinct grain bills (based on the kit names).

My thought is that the "hop shot" product provides all the bittering and the "DME" is un-hopped.

eta: If I brewed 5 gal batches (or if MoreBeer were to make these as 2.5 gal kits), I'd order probably order a couple.
 
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Interesting, but I wonder how good the beer actually is. More Beer has taken Brulosophy's short and shoddy brewing to a whole other level. I could see myself giving this a go in the future, just out of curiosity, maybe when and if they do the smaller batch sizes that they mention could be coming in future.
 
If it gets people interested in brewing, then I suppose it's good. A portion of those might go on to brew by more traditional times and methods. And that will help keep the suppliers in business that I need to supply my interests.

Though I do worry that I'm going to be offered even more murkier brews from those wanting me to try their soup they call beer! Sorry, I'm a clear beer fan. Hazy is okay sometimes, but murky is... well, I don't know, I just don't enjoy it. So there!

However like extract brewing to me always just seemed to be kool-aid packet approach to beer, this seems even more like kool-aid.

No offense intended to the extract crowd, but that's why I didn't start brewing till 40 years after I first got the itch and started reading about beer brewing. It wasn't until I found a one-gallon all-grain kit that I finally made that first step. Extract just didn't have me doing the one thing that to me made it a beer I made myself.

After that I realized just how easy it is to take a larger all-grain kit and scale it down or just order my own malts and do my own thing by scaling other recipes down to the size I wanted to brew.
 
hotbeer said:
Though I do worry that I'm going to be offered even more murkier brews from those wanting me to try their soup they call beer!
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Why do you think these kits would be more likely to make murky beer? Serious question. Seems to me that the hot break and cold break are gone before they spray dry the malt. Where is the murk coming from?
 
VTMongoose said:
Looks like they decided to include a diastatic Belgian yeast with their Hefeweizen kit.

This is a pretty clever product admittedly. They're basically just spray-drying finished wort that has undergone the hot break instead of just after saccharification like conventional DME, and $42 for 5 gallons of finished beer isn't completely terrible if you're used to the costs of extract brewing.
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And there are additional pieces of information in the other kit descriptions and in the recipe sheets (PDFs).

From the "UltraLight" LME description, it looks like MoreBeer can customize some aspects of the LME manufacturing process with their manufacturer. Over time, extending that customization to spray-drying the wort feels like a win for MoreBeer, their manufacturer, and the home brewing hobby.


I revisited the video with an eye towards "splitting it" into two 2.5 gal batches. My initial concern was the "hop shot" extract product, but at room temperature it seemed to flow very easily. As for the rest of the ingredients, brewers have been using partial packages of traditional DME, pellet hops, and dry yeast for decades. Assuming "back to back brewing, splitting the kit might work. Did I miss something?
 
VTMongoose said:
$42 for 5 gallons of finished beer isn't completely terrible if you're used to the costs of extract brewing.
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Not terrible compared to the time & effort I spend doing 5 gallon all grain batches on my BrewZilla Gen 4 as well.

Since I live in SW Michigan & have been brewing almost as long as Larry Bell, I'll give the Two Hearted clone kit a try.

I almost always have real Two Hearted in the fridge, and I have brewed the official Bell's General Store 2-H all grain kit, using their house yeast. It came out wonderful.

I guess I feel confident that I'm able to give a discerning review of MB's Flash Brewing 'I Heart IPA' kit.
 
mac_1103 said:
Cheaters!
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Preach it! It's only authentic if you harvest the grains and hops yourself, use local water without changing its composition and chemistry the slightest bit, and use the yeast and bacteria growing in the very air that you breathe each and every day! It's called "terroir" for a reason, goddammit! Beer terroir. Gotta drink the land. Yum.

This message has been brought to you by the Real Ale Association of the Old World. Because brewing can only be done the way it was done by your great great great grandparents. Thank you. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
 
mac_1103 said:
Why do you think these kits would be more likely to make murky beer? Serious question. Seems to me that the hot break and cold break are gone before they spray dry the malt. Where is the murk coming from?
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True, but everyone seems to like murky today. And for the one MoreBeer video on this that I watched, the final glass of beer seemed pretty murky. Hazy I can accept, but murky?

But I do realize that the video itself might have not represented the best results possible with the kit. Nor did I know if that recipe was supposed to be a hazy or not. Or whether some recipes of it did yield a clean and clear beer.

Perhaps it was just a un-related comment I had to add because I'd just viewed a thread here where the OP was showing their murky brew that they thought tasted great. And maybe it did.
 
Personally, I saw hazy. But I skimmed the recipe information and FAQ before watching the video. The color in the video is going to be a little dark due to the darker colors behind the bottle / glass.

And before "y'all git dat kraziness" when seeing the clear glass bottles
1720628196278.png
​
1720628075776.png


The Flash Brewing™ kit concept will likely succeed (or maybe fail) regardless of our opinions (one way or the other).

So, perhaps, be prepared for "advancing new brewer questions" from those who start with these kits (and some of the well thought out use of ingredients and equipment).
  • For example: some brands of "hop shots" (maybe all) don't skunk beer so clear glass is OK to use.
  • For example: why flame-out / whirlpool when one can add hops along with the yeast?
 
Kris.J said:
I almost always have real Two Hearted in the fridge, and I have brewed the official Bell's General Store 2-H all grain kit, using their house yeast. It came out wonderful.

I guess I feel confident that I'm able to give a discerning review of MB's Flash Brewing 'I Heart IPA' kit.
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Did Bell's discontinue (again) selling kits at their online general store? They used to sell "select hops" as well (which they stated were the same hops that they used for brewing 2-H). I brewed a number of times with Centennial "Select Hops" - it made a difference. And cryo hops will have a slightly different flavor profile as well.

I would anticipate that the MoreBeer kit will taste like a Centennial single hop IPA (there are a number of craft examples available). I doubt it will taste 'the same as' 2-H.
 
Kris.J said:
Not terrible compared to the time & effort I spend doing 5 gallon all grain batches on my BrewZilla Gen 4 as well.
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I don't know about that man. I have been all grain brewing for a few years now and I have to say, when it's cheap, it's cheap. A cream ale for example, I can easily throw a 6 gallon batch together for <$20, and that's with a fresh pitch of yeast, never mind if you really get frugal and reuse yeast, parti-gyle big beers, that kind of thing. Bottom line grains, water, and electricity are all pretty cheap.
 
VTMongoose said:
I don't know about that man. I have been all grain brewing for a few years now and I have to say, when it's cheap, it's cheap. A cream ale for example, I can easily throw a 6 gallon batch together for <$20, and that's with a fresh pitch of yeast, never mind if you really get frugal and reuse yeast, parti-gyle big beers, that kind of thing. Bottom line grains, water, and electricity are all pretty cheap.
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Yes, but time. So many things to do, finite amount of time in which to accomplish them.
 
BrewnWKopperKat said:
The idea of "no boil" (adding DME to cold water) has been around for decades. The result gets better over time as the ingredients improve and as our understanding of ingredients improve.
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Yeah, no boil "brewing" using pre-hopped LME seems more common in the UK than in the US. I have also seen wort kits that come with wort that you can just ferment. Those newer one-unit system like the iGulu and Pinter seem to be similar to the MoreBeer kits. I think they are built around just adding DME, hop oil and yeast into the fermenter. All the MoreBeer kits look to have hop pellets added into the fermenter.

The use of hop oils might open up some more creativity with this style of beer making. You are still rather limited with choices of DME if you don't plan to steep grains. That is probably why the kits now are mostly Blonde/Pale/IPA and the Hefe...I wonder what they are using for the Irish Red kit.

They seem to be using this "Flash Yeast" for all the kits but the hefe. I wonder if it is a Kveik strain, or just a typical kit ale strain that manufacturer like to claim will make good beer at room temps.

I agree that 2.5 gal kits would be a great fit with an equipment kit that used the 3 gallon Fermonster.
 
CascadesBrewer said:
That is probably why the kits now are mostly Blonde/Pale/IPA and the Hefe...I wonder what they are using for the Irish Red kit.
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All of the flash brewing kits are recipes that are also available as all grain and regular extract plus steeping grains. The Irish Red is also available as a minimash. So I would think those recipes would be a pretty good guess about what they're using. I would also think that they worked pretty hard to make sure that the flash brewing kits make pretty close approximations of the beers that the all grain and conventional extract versions make. 'Cause you know somebody has already ordered some kits to do the side-by-side and post a YouTube video about it.
 
CascadesBrewer said:
Those newer one-unit system like the iGulu and Pinter seem to be similar to the MoreBeer kits.
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The strength of the MoreBeer "Flash Brewing" hardware may be that it doesn't require an internet connection (e.g. PicoBrew)

CascadesBrewer said:
the use of hop oils might open up some more creativity with this style of beer making
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That "door" to using hop oils may have been open for a while. Over the last 12 to 18 months, Annie Johnson at CB&B, has written articles on using hop oils with DME/LME.

Yesterday, one of those articles was moved to the free side of the CB&B web site (the recipe, with additional details, is currently 'subscriber only').

CascadesBrewer said:
You are still rather limited with choices of DME if you don't plan to steep grains.
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... true - if one follows forum wisdom that claims that one must use the lightest "extract" possible and use steeping grains to add colors and flavors.

OTOH, blending brands / styles of DME goes back to at least the 1990s (link FWIW in private conversation, OP stated they were able to brew a beer that accomplished their goal).


https://www.morebeer.com/content/flash_brewing_FAQ said:
So, over a five-year journey, we sourced, produced, and tested the ingredients that would allow us to replicate Fresh Wort kits without the water.
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And I'm seeing a lot of well though out combinations of ingredients, equipment, and process.

Let's give them [MoreBeer] a "break". If they "fail' two or three years from now (2026/2027), feel free [in 2027] to come back with things posted a year ago (2023 or eariler) and say "I told you so".

If they don't fail, in about a year, there should be a "wave" of 'advancing new brewer' questions based on the science and engineering that MoreBeer used to create these kits. Will HomeBrewTalk forum wisdom (in 2025/2026) help them move forward? "time will tell".
 
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You know what would make this successful for MoreBeer? When people like us use it and say "hey, this was actually a pretty good product". What would make it fail is if we tried it and said the opposite.

I'm not going to lie - I'm intrigued for a few reasons. When I don't have time to brew (even extract), I'd love to be able to ferment something and still have the opportunity to play around with things like dry-hops, yeast selection etc.

I'm also going to go out on a limb and say that I'd guess their Flash Yeast is repackaged Lutra. If you have temp control I'm sure you can use whatever yeast you please. I'd like to see the "wort" ingredient sold separately, as that would make a trial far more attractive to me. That said, I do understand why they don't sell it alone.
 
mac_1103 said:
All of the flash brewing kits are recipes that are also available as all grain and regular extract plus steeping grains. The Irish Red is also available as a minimash. So I would think those recipes would be a pretty good guess about what they're using. I would also think that they worked pretty hard to make sure that the flash brewing kits make pretty close approximations of the beers that the all grain and conventional extract versions make.
Click to expand...

So I am curious if they are just blending off the shelf DME products or working with a company to create a custom wort that is dried. Williams Brewing seems to be the only company I have seen selling custom LME products in the US. I know companies like Munton's sell LME recipe kits. Their DME/Spray looks to be just the basic Wheat, Light, Gold, etc. Could one make a good Irish Red just blending some Golden, Dark and/or Amber DME? Or 100% Amber?

BrewnWKopperKat said:
That "door" to using hop oils may have been open for a while. Over the last 12 to 18 months, Annie Johnson at CB&B, has written articles on using hop oils with DME/LME.
Click to expand...
I read that article. Hop oil products on the homebrew sized still seem limited and expensive. In that case, Annie just used a hop product designed to replace dry hopping, using pellets in the boil to bitter and skipped all late boil additions. I am not positive that approach would replicate the character of a beer with multiple hop additions....but maybe.

Also, with the MoreBeer kits, I am not sure that adding dry hops to an Irish Red or Hefe would replicate the same hop character that one might get from the typical 10 minute addition that might be found in those styles...but maybe.
 
CascadesBrewer said:
I am curious if they are just blending off the shelf DME products or working with a company to create a custom wort that is dried.
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"Our Flash Brewing Malt recipes have been boiled and whirlpooled before they are dried."

Seems to suggest the latter. I mean, why would you source DME just to rehydrate it, boil it, and then dry it again?

CascadesBrewer said:
Hop oil products on the homebrew sized still seem limited and expensive.
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One of the drivers of the extra cost of these no doubt.
 
BrewnWKopperKat said:
Personally, I saw hazy. But I skimmed the recipe information and FAQ before watching the video. The color in the video is going to be a little dark due to the darker colors behind the bottle / glass.

And before "y'all git dat kraziness" when seeing the clear glass bottles
​
View attachment 852684

The Flash Brewing™ kit concept will likely succeed (or maybe fail) regardless of our opinions (one way or the other).

So, perhaps, be prepared for "advancing new brewer questions" from those who start with these kits (and some of the well thought out use of ingredients and equipment).
  • For example: some brands of "hop shots" (maybe all) don't skunk beer so clear glass is OK to use.
  • For example: why flame-out / whirlpool when one can add hops along with the yeast?
Click to expand...
It's what keeps Miller High Life from skunking. Not gonna lie, I love that beer.

This is interesting. I hope it works out for them. But like everything else MoreBeer sells, it's likely to be too expensive for me.
 
mac_1103 said:
"Our Flash Brewing Malt recipes have been boiled and whirlpooled before they are dried."
Click to expand...
But isn't all dry malt extract boiled (and whirlpooled?) and then dried? To me it just sounds like they are just mixing batches of Briess DME. We shall see if they roll out a kit for a Vienna Lager or an Oatmeal Stout, but the kits that have now look like they could be created with existing varieties of DME.

Edit to add that I see this on the FAQ page:

Are other beer styles in the works?
Oh yeah! We are currently working on additional Flash Recipe Kits. We have a Pale Ale kit called Best Buds with Mosaic and Citra in the pipeline as well as a pretty amazing Oktoberfest. Flash kits require more time to develop and test so the releases will be metered.
 
I may try a couple of these just for the hell of it. I really enjoy my short 4 hour electric brew day but if I can crank out a batch even quicker and it's halfway decent....might be good for when I have a party coming up and would like something on tap without tying up too much time.
 
CascadesBrewer said:
But isn't all dry malt extract boiled (and whirlpooled?) and then dried?
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I don't think so:
"...malt extracts are produced in a 500-bbl state-of-the-art brewhouse, the second largest in Wisconsin. After lautering, the wort is gently vacuum evaporated to maintain its rich, full flavor and lessen color development..."
Briess CBW
 
mac_1103 said:
I don't think so:
"...malt extracts are produced in a 500-bbl state-of-the-art brewhouse, the second largest in Wisconsin. After lautering, the wort is gently vacuum evaporated to maintain its rich, full flavor and lessen color development..."
Briess CBW
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Hmmm....they also say:

Briess CBW® malt extracts get all of their color and flavor from base and specialty malts, never through additional boiling.

It seems odd that MoreBeer could have batches of a custom wort created for each recipe then have it dried and still sell it for a reasonable price. Maybe they plan to do enough volume to make this work though.
 
CascadesBrewer said:
It seems odd that MoreBeer could have batches of a custom wort created for each recipe then have it dried and still sell it for a reasonable price.
Click to expand...
I don't know. Williams introduced their own line of (partially) pre-boild LME a little while back. The selling point being that you can do a 30 minute boil instead of 60. Eight style-specific varieties. Maybe custom malt extract production isn't as expensive as we might assume?
 
Somesaymybeerisdrinkable said:
The one downside for me is the time of year I would want to use one of these kits is also a time I would worry about the heat these would be exposed to during shipping.
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My experience, over 5+ years of ordering/brewing in the summer, is that dry yeast, hop pellets, and DME ship fine in the summer.

Are you concerned about the "hop shot" bittering product? If so, maybe check with MoreBeer directly? They did spend a number of years in R&D for these kits.
 
Jmspears said:
Saw it. I think it is a net positive for the hobby because it makes brewing more accessible but it’s definitely not for me. I love the process too much.
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I love the process too - however I have an annual lakeside guys' weekend coming up 2 August, I've promised to bring a fresh 5 gallon keg of something, and I've been getting my ass kicked at work! 😝

The 'I Heart IPA' Flash Brewing kit will arrive Tuesday & I will let 'er rip that evening after work. Should be a great test - all my buddies are Bell's fans too. 😉
 
Jmspears said:
Saw it. I think it is a net positive for the hobby because it makes brewing more accessible but it’s definitely not for me. I love the process too much.
Click to expand...
Me too! I can see the positive side for some, but for me I'd miss hanging out around the brew kettle for a few hours with friends and some cold ones.
 

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