Holiday Cheer - Tis the Season

[birvine]

I had been thinking for some time to brew a batch what with Xmas on its way and all. As I perused the HBT threads I found a few others in the same frame-of-mind. My only problem is that I am far enough away from an ingredient-supplier which makes it really expensive to ship. A final straw on the proverbial camel's back was that when I asked a couple of Ontario mail-order suppliers some questions about shipping one gave me an outrageous price and the other failed to respond - maybe he has earned his income-quota for the year. As an alternative, I gave thought to getting some type of kit and taking it from there. I found a supplier of Brew-House (?? I think) by Spagnol kits in Timmins and decided to use a Blond Ale kit as my base LME. I steeped my black patent and crystal malts in separate pots with some local spring water (has anyone tried this? That is, steeping them separately then adding them to the brew pot) I added the honey, I added the cinnamon, orange peel and ginger. All of this I boiled. I added the wort from the kit and it is bubbling away in the primary.

I guess my questions is, has anyone used these kits as a starter for a brew? For this brew? Any thoughts?

Thanks

Brent

 

[mjrtom]

i've used a kit before, and it came out very poorly. but then again, it was the very first beer that i tried to brew. and with that, i was so excited that i kinda rushed it.

one tip: although the kit might tell you that you should add corn sugar, DONT. there is more than enough sugar in the kit already.

 

[boo boo]

i've used a kit before, and it came out very poorly. but then again, it was the very first beer that i tried to brew. and with that, i was so excited that i kinda rushed it.

one tip: although the kit might tell you that you should add corn sugar, DONT. there is more than enough sugar in the kit already.

That kit is a 18 liter or so bag of wort, not extract, and yes a lot of
people use those kits as a starting point to tweek to get what they want.
Better is the Festa kits which are 23 liters of brewers wort. They make an excellent beer as is, and you also can tweek them.