"Modding" Brewer's Best Kits

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Revvy

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
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Hi Board,

I'm new to this forum, and still relatively new to home brewing.

I took a couple of recipes into my LHBS over the holidays (One was a sweet stout and the other was Yooper's Fat Tire Clone.) Due to the hops shortage I wasn't able to get any of the hops for either recipes nor any of the " recommended subsititute" hops on their chart. (Of the 14 varitieties they had recently ordered, only one of the came in.)

The owner of the shop told me that he was suggesting that people go with buying the BB kits for a particular style and modding the recipe. At least that way you were getting the hops you wanted for your particular brew.

I ended up deciding to attempt making a sweet stout using the Brewer's Best 1023 (Irish Stout) which had Fuggles and Nothern Brewer Hops in the kit and chucking in a pound of Lactose.

I took a taste of it after I did a gravity reading yesterday and it seems like it will, in time, be a fairly decent approximation of the taste I was looking for in a sweet stout. I'm going to rack it into secondary tomorrow and leave it for a couple weeks before bottling it. Then I was planning to batch out the bottles and taste one every couple weeks (I've got 8 16 ounce fliptops I'm going to use as the "taste test" bottles) until I get a beer I like before cracking the 12 ouncers.

So I was wondering if other people were hearing the same thing from the LHBS about buying the BB kits and modifying or supplanting the kit ingredients?

And wondering also if anyone's been playing with the kits and has any interesting recipes to share.

~Cheers!
 
KevinWP said:
Well at least your kit had everything in it...

I Modded the hops schedule and extract timing on a BB Bold American Brown Ale...

The full tale is here

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=49762

Good reading and a good lesson for anyone regardless of distance to LHBS.

OPEN THE BOX BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE STORE!!!

I wouldn't be surprised if BB and other kit makers are adjusting their kits and/or scrimping on the hops or even not making certain kits due to the shortage.
 
I've brewed 2 batches of the IPA so far and modded both with a little extra hops during the boil and dryhopped them as well (the second batch is still in primary, but will be dry hopped when I transfer). I was very pleased with the first batch, it turned out quite well. The second batch is still fermenting, but so far so good.
 
sTango said:
im big into adding honey to my Brown Ale kits. here is a thread of mine on it.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=48781

Funny, I remember reading that thread yesterday. I remember noticing all the cool Lovecraftian refrences. I hadn't even realized it was a BB kit you were using.

Have you taken another gravity reading on it? Has all the honey fermented yet?
 
Revvy said:
Have you taken another gravity reading on it? Has all the honey fermented yet?

Right now, it is holding at 1.009 in the secondary.

It looks a bit cloudy which I believe is due to the amount of honey in it. Im fine with that and have taken to calling this batch a Braggot style of ale.

I brewed it on 12/15 and will probably start keg conditioning it in a couple of weeks. It tastes REALLy smooth already so I have a feeling this will be a nice one. I probably should bottle some so I can have it long after the keg is empty.
 
My LHBS has had all of the hops I have needed. They always apologize about how the price of some hops have gone up, but from what I hear here, I am glad to pay it.
 
I usually do this and throw in extra hops and flavoring stuff. It's quick and easy... I've done an Irish Stout, Steam Style, English Style Ale, Irish Red, and Holiday Ale by modifying BB kits.
 
My dad goes to a place in Baycity for his wine supplies, dunno about their beer supplies, but if that's not where you go, you might consider finding it.

Fortunatly my LHBS has a decent stock of hops for now, and i've been able to still get what i want.
 
Dycokac said:
My dad goes to a place in Baycity for his wine supplies, dunno about their beer supplies, but if that's not where you go, you might consider finding it.

Fortunatly my LHBS has a decent stock of hops for now, and i've been able to still get what i want.

I have three tiny LHBS in town, and one of the oldest, and biggest LHBS's in the metro detroit area, Cap N Cork is only 35 minutes down the road from me. Two of the small stores in town were nearly out of hops and waiting for a shipment.

It was Art, the owner at Cap N Cork who brought up the kit modding idea. He's the one who had ordered 14 varieties and only 1 came in last week when I was there. I figure if he's having problems with getting hop shipments, since he's a high and rapid turnover volume, then maybe there is something to be said about this hops shortage.
 
Revvy said:
I have three tiny LHBS in town, and one of the oldest, and biggest LHBS's in the metro detroit area, Cap N Cork is only 35 minutes down the road from me. Two of the small stores in town were nearly out of hops and waiting for a shipment.

It was Art, the owner at Cap N Cork who brought up the kit modding idea. He's the one who had ordered 14 varieties and only 1 came in last week when I was there. I figure if he's having problems with getting hop shipments, since he's a high and rapid turnover volume, then maybe there is something to be said about this hops shortage.

You know, I was confusing where port huron was like I usually do :/. Baycity is quite a hike for you :)

I didn't see any centenial at my LHBS last week, though i found haulertrau in plug form... I think there was still some EKG, but it's way different than back in november. They are rationing now though.
 
I brewed a BB IPA and i'm dry hopping it with 1 oz of Simcoe and 1 oz of Cascade. I bottle it this week, so i'll let you know how it is.
 
I did the BB pale ale, which came with an ounce of cascade and pre-hopped extract. I boiled half the hops for 40 min, added the other half six minutes out from the end(40 min total). I added .25lb of honey at flame out, and pitched it onto a Belgian Ale cake from whitelabs(third batch on that cake). I tried it this weekend after twelve days in bottles and its great. It is actually for the superbowl, since the ingredients were funded by my chugging a glass of hotwing sauce for cash on a previous sunday during some game. Its the lightest bodied, colored, and alcohol (4.7%bv) Belgian I've ever done and I really like it.
 
count barleywine said:
I did the BB pale ale, which came with an ounce of cascade and pre-hopped extract. I boiled half the hops for 40 min, added the other half six minutes out from the end(40 min total). I added .25lb of honey at flame out, and pitched it onto a Belgian Ale cake from whitelabs(third batch on that cake). I tried it this weekend after twelve days in bottles and its great. It is actually for the superbowl, since the ingredients were funded by my chugging a glass of hotwing sauce for cash on a previous sunday during some game. Its the lightest bodied, colored, and alcohol (4.7%bv) Belgian I've ever done and I really like it.

hankevans42 said:
I tried a BB English Brown Ale with some chocolate malt added in with it. It was awesome.

Both these sound good... I just did the BB Dortmunder with Orange peel and ginger. And on the recommendation of my lhbs, added an ounce of Northern Brewer to the ounce of Hallertau at 60.

I did a hopsack with about 2 ounces of orane peel and an ounce of ginger and one tiny clove at the last fifteen. Then did another sack with a smaller amount of orange and ginger (no clove) at flameout...

It bubbled furiously for over 24 hours.

I'm kinda nervous about it...I'm afraid it may be too orangey, but at the same time I'm hoping that it will mellow with age.
 
Both these sound good... I just did the BB Dortmunder with Orange peel and ginger. And on the recommendation of my lhbs, added an ounce of Northern Brewer to the ounce of Hallertau at 60.

I did a hopsack with about 2 ounces of orane peel and an ounce of ginger and one tiny clove at the last fifteen. Then did another sack with a smaller amount of orange and ginger (no clove) at flameout...

It bubbled furiously for over 24 hours.

I'm kinda nervous about it...I'm afraid it may be too orangey, but at the same time I'm hoping that it will mellow with age.

Speaking of bringing up old posts.... Revvy was nervous at one point...hard to imagine.:D Just trying to prove my search capabilities to the master rev.
 
Speaking of bringing up old posts.... Revvy was nervous at one point...hard to imagine.:D Just trying to prove my search capabilities to the master rev.

I never ever denied I wasn't like everyone else....That's WHY I can relate, and spend so much of my postcount tryin to calm the nervous noobs....like about 8,000 posts worth.

:mug:

And Yooper's first post ever was about dropping her grommet in the fermenter.
 
Simmer down there Revvy... that was actually supposed to be compliment! Buzz killer!:D You rock, us noobs do appreciate you.
 
Simmer down there Revvy... that was actually supposed to be compliment! Buzz killer!:D You rock, us noobs do appreciate you.

Hey look...I used to secondary...:)

I took a taste of it after I did a gravity reading yesterday and it seems like it will, in time, be a fairly decent approximation of the taste I was looking for in a sweet stout. I'm going to rack it into secondary tomorrow and leave it for a couple weeks before bottling it. Then I was planning to batch out the bottles and taste one every couple weeks (I've got 8 16 ounce fliptops I'm going to use as the "taste test" bottles) until I get a beer I like before cracking the 12 ouncers.

But I did believe in waiting on drinking my beer while it was young...
 

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