'Flash Brewing'? This looks interesting!

[Skeeter686]

The obvious next product is the "Mix And Chill Beer System", consisting of a small flask of high proof ethanol, a hop shot or two, and a bag of pasteurized beer-like fluid that all ends up in a carbonation vessel.

Woof...

There used to be a company that sold super-concentrated beer and a kit for rehydrating and carbonating it. It was geared towards backpackers. Unfortunately, it seems they're no longer around.

https://gearjunkie.com/camping/pats-backcountry-beer-review

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

The obvious next product is the "Mix And Chill Beer System", consisting of a small flask of high proof ethanol, a hop shot or two, and a bag of pasteurized beer-like fluid that all ends up in a carbonation vessel.

There used to be a company that sold super-concentrated beer and a kit for rehydrating and carbonating it. It was geared towards backpackers. Unfortunately, it seems they're no longer around.

https://gearjunkie.com/camping/pats-backcountry-beer-review

Might be an interesting idea for the Brewing on the moon topic.

Beyond that, we may see some variation between
... MoreBeer's next step
... and the [perhaps "obvious" ] next step that HomeBrewTalk forum wisdom would recommed.

---

MoreBeer, ...

... by developing these kits, ...

... made a financial bet ...

... that they could bring new people into the hobby

... eta: and enjoy the rewards for producing a product that customers enjoy.

Maybe they're right (I think they are), maybe they are wrong.

Right or wrong (financially), they appear to be actively attempting to grow the hobby by attracting new customers (eta) with kits that appear to "poka-yoke" the concerns around the "top priorities" for brewing that first batch.

 

[day_trippr]

I don't actually see much commonality between a mix/chill/carb paradigm and actual brewing - and frankly would be more concerned that the former could negatively bear on the latter, never mind promote it...

Cheers!

 

[BrewZer]

From the instructions, a room temperature from 65-85F is stated.

View attachment 853811
So likely more muted yeast flavors at 65F and maybe more yeast flavors expressed at 80F. For those speculating on the yeast strain, that would be one thing to consider / measure. Also for those speculating on the yeast strain, the peak wort temperature may be a consideration. (The FAQ for the kits suggests there just one "Flash Yeast ™" product).

---

Aside: if reporting back on brewing one of the kits, if the report is missing kit name, ambient room temperature (or use of temperature control), the report is useless.

The Hefe kit came with Fermentis WB-06. I am following the directions explicitly, ignoring my natural inclination to get my whisk in there and whip it good. Room temperature (72-75) will be my fermentation temperature, and I expect the active fermentation will take it up to 78 or so.

ETA: I may tape one of my Inkbird recording temperature sensors to the side just to track how high it actually goes...

EATA: The kit is in the fermenter. I've decided I will use one Freezer Shock bag in the Coolbrew bag to keep temps closer to 70 than 80. And I will tape the temperature sensor to the fermenter as soon as it warms up to room temperature.

 

[IrondaleBrewing]

I did an overview video of unboxing and making the kit:

There's some beginning brewer stuff about fermenters and sanitization but I included chapters so you can skip to the stuff you might be interested in. I thought it was a pretty fun process!

I'm going to give it a full 2 weeks at 68F, keg it, and then do a tasting video, as well as give some only semi-informed hot takes on where I think this fits in.

 

[rmchair]

So is the consistency just like “normal” dme? Does it get lumpy?

 

[fluketamer]

So is the consistency just like “normal” dme? Does it get lumpy?

i dont have one of these and have no clue about the consistency of the DME but i would think its the same. why would it be different?

 

[IrondaleBrewing]

So is the consistency just like “normal” dme? Does it get lumpy?

Same consistency as every DME I've ever used. It was a bit clumpy in the fermenter when I first dumped it in, because hey you're dumping DME into water and only agitating it by dumping more water on top of it, but the yeast tore through it pretty quickly.

 

[rmchair]

So, has anybody tasted a completed beer yet? The suspense is killing me.

 

[IrondaleBrewing]

So, has anybody tasted a completed beer yet? The suspense is killing me.

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!

 

[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!