'Flash Brewing'? This looks interesting!

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Early report(s) are coming in: "It [I Heart IPA] was pretty decent" (external link, not my report).

 

[BrewZer]

Me too. Mine has another 6 days to finish fermenting (I'm giving it a full 14 days), then I'm going to cold crash and keg, but somebody has to be further along than I am!

Today is day 10 for my hefeweizen, and I usually let my beer sit in the fermenter for 3 weeks, so I'll be a bit late bottling this stuff.

ETA: owing to a shortage of space in the freezer, I'll be bottling at the 14 day point -- Saturday.

 

[BrewZer]

OK, so it's bottling day. Here's what it looks like in the fermenter...

Over the two weeks in the fermenter/cool bag, temps ranged from 66 to 71 with cyclical variations as the freeze bag gradually warmed up -- I changed the freeze bag every 24 hours or when the temperature hit 69, whichever came first. It's day 14, and I still plan to use carb drops in the bottles as we fill them. The recipe says to use 4 in a bomber, but the drops they sent have twice as much sugar as the drops in the recipe, so I'll be halving that. One in a 12, one in a 16, and two in a 22 oz bottle.

 

[hotbeer]

I'd leave that longer to let the stuff settle more since you are bottling. Unless you intend to consume it all right away. More time in the FV for the suspended stuff to settle will mean less sediment in your bottles to get stirred up when you pour them.

Taste? Smell? does it seem to have potential?


If you were kegging and drawn from the top of the keg, then I'd say keg it.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

@BrewZer : an additional thank you (beyond the like) for tracking temperature during fermentation. That information should be helpful when comparing experiences between brewers.

@hotbeer: many here (and over in /r/homebrewing) who are trying these kits are taking on the role of a "first time" brewer. So they are generally (and purposefully) following the kit instructions closely. Hopefully, there will be many many opportunities in future topics to opine on improving these kits.

 

[BrewZer]

I'd leave that longer to let the stuff settle more since you are bottling. Unless you intend to consume it all right away. More time in the FV for the suspended stuff to settle will mean less sediment in your bottles to get stirred up when you pour them.

Hefeweizens are traditionally rolled before pouring to suspend the yeast, so I'm not concerned about the cloud.

 

[mashdar]

I'm waiting to see a picture of a finished non-hefe. (Looking forward to Irondale video!)

All of the shots on morebeer videos have been kind of strange.

 

[BrewZer]

Bottling is done -- got 16x22 oz, 12x16 oz and 4x12 oz bottles with just a few ounces left to taste.

Half-way thru, Assistent Braumeister says "I smell bananas!" To my knowledge, she's never had a hefeweizen, so I immediately took that as a sign of success.

Taste? Smell? does it seem to have potential?

The remnant in the glass was cloudy and redolent of banana with just a hint of cloves. Flavor reminded AB of "holiday punch" -- my taste took me back to a small gasthaus in the Bavarian Alps where I drank more than a few of Hofbrau's Hefeweizens.

We'll see how it carbs up with the drops* but so far, I'd have to say the results are pretty much true to form for a hefeweizen.

* We were three bottles into the capping when I had a DOH! moment and realized we hadn't put any carb drops in those three bottles. It felt weird uncapping a 22 oz bottle and not getting a "Psst!" out of it...

 

[DevilsCups]

A 10 minute Hefe brewday is something I can absolutely get behind.

 

[IrondaleBrewing]

I'm waiting to see a picture of a finished non-hefe. (Looking forward to Irondale video!)

All of the shots on morebeer videos have been kind of strange.

Currently cold crashing and will keg on Monday or Tuesday. I took some quick progress videos during fermentation so I'll throw those together with a video of kegging, and then do the tasting after a week or so in the keg.

Since I'm going to do a closed transfer into an Oxebar keg (used this batch as an excuse to get an Oxebar since all my Torpedo kegs are 2.5 gallon), and it has a filter on the floating dip tube, I'm a little concerned about clogging the filter when going into the keg. I'll see how it looks after cold crashing but I got one of those inline Bouncer filters just in case.

I also got the I Heart IPA kit, so when I do that one I might follow the instructions to the letter and see how that goes, meaning ferment at ambient temperature, no cold crash, and do an open transfer to a keg. That way I'm not doing a bunch of stuff someone just picking up one of these kits and a fermenter wouldn't be doing. Let's just say I'm already worrying about sediment.

I'll hopefully have the progress and kegging video done mid-week.

 

[BrewZer]

Let's just say I'm already worrying about sediment.

I'll point out that not boiling the hops during the brew process seemed to leave them more prone to stubbornly cling to the side of the fermenter in the yeast/trub ring left over. I had to scrub pretty vigorously to get the crust off, where usually a quick spray with the sink sprayer and a light rub is sufficient to clean it.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I also got the I Heart IPA kit, so when I do that one I might follow the instructions to the letter and see how that goes, meaning ferment at ambient temperature, no cold crash, and do an open transfer to a keg. That way I'm not doing a bunch of stuff someone just picking up one of these kits and a fermenter wouldn't be doing. Let's just say I'm already worrying about sediment.

I appreciate the thoughtful approach you are taking towards these kits.

If you can track either ambient temperature or wort temperature, that may help with understanding the strain behind their Flash Yeast™ product.

Also, having brewed a number of times with Centennial T90, Centennial Cryo, and "Bells' Select" Centennial (before the change in ownership, they had a home brew store where they sold the hops that were used in production), I suspect the kit will make a good Centennial IPA but not a good "Two Hearted" clone. The same is likely true of their other "Inspired by" kits.

There's probably a future discussion on "kit hacks" - what additional T90 hops would one add to make the beer 'better'.

 

[IrondaleBrewing]

I appreciate the thoughtful approach you are taking towards these kits.

Thanks! It's fun to mess with all this stuff and I'm really enjoying the discussion and discovery.

If you can track either ambient temperature or wort temperature, that may help with understanding the strain behind their Flash Yeast™ product.

Yep, ambient for me would be in my 160 sq ft brewing space with a mini split so it'd be 68-ish most of the time. I also forgot they said light doesn't matter so although when I'm not in that space there's no lights on it does have windows so I could throw normal ambient light in the mix as well.

And I even have an Inkbird temp monitor that I could use to track the temps in the room.

Also, having brewed a number of times with Centennial T90, Centennial Cryo, and "Bells' Select" Centennial (before the change in ownership, they had a home brew store where they sold the hops that were used in production), I suspect the kit will make a good Centennial IPA but not a good "Two Hearted" clone. The same is likely true of their other "Inspired by" kits.

Oh wow I didn't know about the select hops, must have been super cool to use those! Centennial also might fall into what the Sapwood Cellars guys call "cheater hops" so the beer comes out tasting decent no matter what thanks to the hops.

There's probably a future discussion on "kit hacks" - what additional T90 hops would one add to make the beer 'better'.

Great idea! It'd be fun to do some experimentation.

 

[BrewZer]

And I even have an Inkbird temp monitor that I could use to track the temps in the room.

Might want to strap that to the fermenter since the fermentation will likely generate some heat.

 

[IrondaleBrewing]

Might want to strap that to the fermenter since the fermentation will likely generate some heat.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean, but when I do the next kit I'm planning on letting it ferment at room temperature, so tracking the room temp with one of these would just be to know the temps in the room over the course of the fermentation as a data point.

The kit I'm about to keg I fermented in my fermentation chamber with the Inkbird controller set at 68F and the probe for the Inkbird taped to the side of the fermenter.

Basically the next kit I'm going to do it more "as advertised" instead of using the fermentation chamber if that makes sense.

Apologies if I'm misunderstanding what you mean.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I notice there is a new MoreBeer video out on Flash Brewing. Vito said he was going to add some of the Abstrax hop extract at packaging.

I am not sure which option would give better hop character between a hop extract or dry hopping at yeast pitch. I could see MoreBeer offering kits like a Pale Ale where you picked from a range of hops (Mosaic, Galaxy, Centennial, Citra + El Dorado, etc.) or with different hop extract options.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Vito said he was going to add some of the Abstrax hop extract at packaging.

Thanks for sharing!

For those, like me, who are not UT regulars, I'll add a couple of MoreBeer UT video links:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkpmw-haI1o - (hopefully) the link to the video that @CascadesBrewer mentioned
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6pkmOjvHWA - starting @ 2:20 is worth a listen.

I won't opine (further) on the content (at this point in time).

 

[BrewZer]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean, but when I do the next kit I'm planning on letting it ferment at room temperature, so tracking the room temp with one of these would just be to know the temps in the room over the course of the fermentation as a data point.

The kit I'm about to keg I fermented in my fermentation chamber with the Inkbird controller set at 68F and the probe for the Inkbird taped to the side of the fermenter.

Basically the next kit I'm going to do it more "as advertised" instead of using the fermentation chamber if that makes sense.

Apologies if I'm misunderstanding what you mean.

I see what you mean. So if you have 2 sensors, you could measure both... but with just one, I'd want to know how warm the beer gets vs room temp.

 

[BrewZer]

Thanks for sharing!

For those, like me, who are not UT regulars, I'll add a couple of MoreBeer UT video links:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkpmw-haI1o - (hopefully) the link to the video that @CascadesBrewer mentioned
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6pkmOjvHWA - starting @ 2:20 is worth a listen.

I won't opine (further) on the content (at this point in time).

As long as we're talking about it, MoreBeer is giving away a Flash Brew kit as their August giveaway. Go check it out at their site...

Your chances of winning increase with each related video you watch so you might want to register before you watch them. You can register via this link... https://wn.nr/PEB4LAh ... just realize I'll get extra entries if you do...

 

[IrondaleBrewing]

I see what you mean. So if you have 2 sensors, you could measure both... but with just one, I'd want to know how warm the beer gets vs room temp.

Ah, gotcha. Sorry, I was stuck on the Inkbird controller and controlling fermentation temps vs. just monitoring the temp of the fermenting wort.

I do have an iSpindel as well so it might be fun to throw that in there. From what I read elsewhere the pill hydrometers don't do so great with gravity for these kits (which makes sense) but temp readings might work.

I'll try and figure something out. Thanks for clarifying!

 

[IrondaleBrewing]

Another interesting MoreBeer video -- tl;dw they submitted one of these beers (oddly, they don't say which one in the video) in a homebrew competition and scored a 34.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Partial scoresheet at 0:28. looks like NHC regional at Indianapolis IN; pale ale category.

 

[Bassman2003]

Does that speak more to the validity of competitions or the quality of the flash brews?

 

[IrondaleBrewing]

Does that speak more to the validity of competitions or the quality of the flash brews?

Ha! Fair point. I'm kegging today so I'll find out first hand in a week or so!

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Does that speak more to the validity of competitions or the quality of the flash brews?

That is a can of worms! This year I got a 18 point difference between comps on a beer that was bottled and shipped on the same day. In 2023, my scores from NHC were some that I question the most. But hopefully, a 34 score shows that the beer was reasonably well brewed and reasonably to style.

Pale Ale is a flexible category, so I could see a simple extract recipe with some dry hops doing well. I used to make 1 gallon single hop "no-boil" extract beers following the Basic Brewing process. I suspect some of those would to okay as a Pale Ale in a competition (but would lose to the IPAs that tend to win the Pale Ale category). Other styles might be harder to pull off with the Flash process.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Does that speak more to the validity of competitions or the quality of the flash brews?

I'm not convinced it's reasonable, fair, or truly funny to question the quality of NHC judges to question the quality of the kit. Yes, additional data points are needed. Yes, the results will likely depend more on the "archer" than the "arrow".

---

I'm going to "close out" on this topic, other than reading replies from those who are brewing kits and who provide their personal opinions. but first ...

A simple application of "Palmer's 5 priorities" will show the strengths of these kits for those starting out. Intermediate brewers can expand the list to 7 priorities ("water & oxygen") to find areas for process improvement.

As for "single dimensional flavor" - T90 (non-cryo) hops and some of the newer hop oil products (Annie Johnson over at CB&B has been using them for a couple of years in some of her extract beers) are an obvious way provide additional flavors that can't be achieved with single cryo hop recipes.

The future of HomeBrewTalk could include many years of "kit" hacks discussion, assuming HomeBrewTalk can put beers, made a decade ago with stale extract, in the past.

The hobby isn't dead (yet). It (may have) came back to life from an (mostly) unexpected source.

 

[FunCat1828]

I ordered a couple of these kits myself. The Sculpin and the red ale. I'll likely get them going this weekend alongside the other all grain beers I am brewing.

I wanted to test them out, but also I wanted to get more beers on tap ahead of a party, this was a quick way to get that done for someone that's been away from the hobby for a while.

 

[IrondaleBrewing]

I did a compilation video of the fermentation process at various stages as well as what it looks like after cold crashing for 4 days (was only intending on 3, but had some stuff come up), and did a quick taste after I got it kegged. My initial reaction is it's pretty good!

 

[Bassman2003]

Thanks for the follow up. Glad it worked out well. The color does look pretty light!

 

[fluketamer]

that beer looks really great for 10 mins of brewing. if it even tastes decent its worth it.

 

[BrewZer]

First glass report on the hefeweizen:

Note that I rolled the bottle on the counter, but didn't shake it to fully rouse the yeast. There was a considerable layer of yeast left in the bottle -- that stuff is sticky!

Carbing nicely after 1 week. Color is true to style, aroma is bready with notes of clove and banana. White, clumpy head was thin-to-medium and held up for about 5 minutes. First taste is biscuit with banana and spice. Good mouthfeel, middle taste is fairly neutral, and a touch of tartness in the finish. Reminds me of Bavarian weizens I've had in Germany.

For what I paid and how long it took, I'd say it's an economic success. Kudos to MoreBeer for thinking this one up!

Next report after bottle #2 next week.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I have not watched it yet, but MoreBeer put out a Q&A on Flash Brewing a few days ago.

 

[BrewZer]

Bottle #2: Very pleasant hefeweizen! Not much head in this bottle, but the flavor is authentic and true to other hefeweizens I've had. Looked very clear in the bottle before fridging, but clouded a bit after cooling to ~ 45 F. Smells like a hefe, looks like a hefe, tastes like a hefe.

I guess it's a hefe.

My opinion remains unchanged: if you want a decent hefeweizen with half the work, the MoreBeer Flash Brewing Hefeweizen kit is a reasonable path to success. Sure, you could brew it yourself for about 1/2 the cost, but that 10-minute mix day versus the 4-hour brew day is pretty appealing and could easily justify the additional money.

This will likely be the last report on this project from me unless I run into situations like ropey pours or mysterious flavors.

 

[DevilsCups]

Thanks for the updates!

Just ordered up the Citra Session kit to give it a try for myself. It will work perfectly to fill the gap between batches for me when I can't spend 5-6 hours brewing.

 

[IrondaleBrewing]

I made the I Heart IPA kit today and took a quick video of it.


I took @BrewZer 's suggestion and threw an iSpindel in this batch to track what the temp does over the course of fermentation. OG is 1.01 according to the iSpindel. So, uh, I guess now we know what the gravity reading sitting on top of a mountain of Flash Brewing Malt is.

I still need to do a tasting video of the Citra Session Pale Ale but I've been drinking it pretty regularly and it's a tasty, easy drinking beer. Depending on how the I Heart IPA goes I can see having these kits in the pipeline semi-regularly. Can't beat getting 5 gallons of beer out of less than 10 minutes of work!

 

[DevilsCups]

Update on my Citra Session kit : Put it all together Saturday evening. I fermented this in a 6 gallon Torpedo MegaMouth keg that I modified the lid for (added a thermowell and a 2" triclamp ferrule). This 'extract' certainly does go in as a big lump lol. I went against the advice slightly and gave it a subtle stir, just to make sure it was all saturated before topping off with the 2 gallons of water. I used straight RO water for this batch.

Fermentation was going by the next morning. I did drop a RAPT Pill into mine. The pill isn't really all that accurate as far as measurements go, but very good with velocity. Interestingly enough it showed 1.057 from the start. No weird readings. Fermented at 72ºF with temp control keeping it steady. After 3 days it's settling down and reading 1.020 at the moment, and I believe that's as far as it will go, for an as-advertised 4.9%/5.0% ABV. I tried to catch the tail end to spund this batch for some carbonation, and it's currently sitting at 72ºf and 20psi.

Either the RAPT Pill reads out of calibration for me, or they did intend the kit to end higher in OG for some body. We'll see when I read with my refrac!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I'm going to "close out" on this topic, other than ...

... Flash Brewing with Chris Graham [President of MoreBeer]– BeerSmith Podcast #309.

 

[DevilsCups]

Update on my batch - The RAPT Pill slowwwwwwly crawled down to a reading of 1.017/1.018 FG and has been pretty steady there. Glad I didn't crash early. Going to give it another day or two and hope to have it in a keg and tapped by this weekend. Still sitting at 20psi and 72ºF. Samples taste clean and pleasant, after a bit of acetaldehyde note very early on. Stay tuned.

 

[DevilsCups]

Kegged last night and gave it a first taste. Still needs to carb and drop a bit more brite (maybe 60% carbed at the moment).

Impressions? Impressed. It's pretty much as expected for a sessionable beer at 4.9% or so. Cake and trub in the fermenter was much smaller than all-grain batches. Minimal malt character and some nice, subtle hop notes. Yeast character seems pretty clean, but there's still some in solution, so I'll wait a bit to see what this really tastes like.

I can certainly recommend and will be mixing these in now and again when I need a full keg and don't have time. I think the one thing that MoreBeer could do better with is explaining how the flash 'extract' is boiled and whirlpooled. The cost is a bit high relatively speaking, and I think going into the extract process a bit more could help justify to some people, as without that it's a kit with extract, 2oz of Cryo hops and a pack of yeast. Minor gripe though!

 

[rednhez]

Can’t wait to give this a try!