no boil prehopped beer kits

[Somesaymybeerisdrinkable]

Spiced Apple Cider Kit review.
Spice flavor is dominant, very little apple flavor overall impression it's okay. This kit as made was not as good as fermented Costco apple juice.

I also ordered the Pear Cider Kit when I make it I will short the bach to 4.5 gallons to try and concentrate the flavor more. The apple cider was a 5.5 gallon batch with 2 lbs of sugar.

I would not recommend this kit when Costco apple juice and S-04 yeast make a better cider.

Other kit news I have the wheat beer kit fermenting now. It's a 4.5 gallon batch with 1 lb of honey.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Muntons Spraymalt Hopped Light.

Hopped DME should have a longer shelf life than hopped LME. But as always, YMMV.

---

IIRC, back in the 2017/2018 time frame, one of the major home brew stores offered, for a short period of time, 1 gal kits with Muntons Hopped DME.

IMO, this is something worth exploring ("Hopped DME"), but from 2020-2022, I was not able to find/order hoped DME -- and, in 2023, I have other interests.

 

[Wrendelar]

Hopped DME should have a longer shelf life than hopped LME. But as always, YMMV.

---

IIRC, back in the 2017/2018 time frame, one of the major home brew stores offered, for a short period of time, 1 gal kits with Muntons Hopped DME.

IMO, this is something worth exploring ("Hopped DME"), but from 2020-2022, I was not able to find/order hoped DME -- and, in 2023, I have other interests.

And those interests are?

 

[DudlyBrewRight]

And those interests are?

I don't see Muntons hopped DME anywhere except on their website. I inquired about its availability through retail stores but haven't heard back.

 

[fluketamer]

hey somesay how about the wheat beer did it also come out darker than the picture on the pouch? can you post a pic.

 

[Somesaymybeerisdrinkable]

hey somesay how about the wheat beer did it also come out darker than the picture on the pouch? can you post a pic.

I will try and remember to take a picture when packaging it. As you can see in the screen shot it didn't get fully mixed until fermentation started.

I would expect it to be darker since it's about 33% more concentrated than the recipe called for, and I added honey instead of sugar.

 

[fluketamer]

that fermentrack thing is awesome and i am jealous.

i am not happy with the color of the pilsner kits i looked online a lot and pics of the finished beer look dark also. the beer tastes great but its too dark for me . this wont be an issue with the stouts. hopefully the blonde lager comes out lighter.


i may just add roasted grains to the ales and make them into porters.

heres a list of coopers kit recipes if anyone is interested the coopers kits are 1.7 kg usually so prolly substituting an abc kit for coopers would work similarly.
1) Customize Your Coopers

if you look at them the general theme is dme and some form of corn sugar plus or minus grains and hops.

heres a list of lager recipes using 1.5 to 1.8 kg kits.

2) http://www.aussiehomebrewing.com/LagerRecipes/LagerRecipes.html

heres a list of over 150 cooper kit recipes using 1.7 kg kits.

3) Coopers Recipe Spreadsheet

hope this helps with some ideas on adding to kit beer



cheers

 

[fluketamer]

i emailed the company today and was surprised to get an answer back so soon.

i had 3 questions
1) when was lme manufactured if exp date on bag is 10/2024
ans: 18 to 24 months before exp date.
2) what is the srm values of your kits.
ans: ibus measure color and they are provided in the kit. ( clearly the sales rep is an idiot ) i wrote back to him telling him ibu isnt color waiting for reply
3) what yeast is in the blonde lager kit
ans: we are providing a general type yeast in our blonde lager because most people dont realize that a lager needs to be fermented at a lower temp - useless

clearly the sales rep is lacking in homebrew knowledge and even knowledge of his own products.

 

[mac_1103]

3) what yeast is in the blonde lager kit
ans: we are providing a general type yeast in our blonde lager because most people dont realize that a lager needs to be fermented at a lower temp - useless

I could actually believe this. They call it a lager kit but supply an ale yeast because they expect folks to ferment it without temperature control.

 

[Wrendelar]

I’m about to make one of these kits tomorrow.

It’s a pale ale kit, and I’ve decided I’m going to dip hop it with an ounce or Loral at 22.9 ibu and an ounce of Calypso at 12.9 ibu.

I’m also going to add 2lbs of pale malt DME 1lb of dextrose and 12 oz of maltodextrine.

I’ll also go to 5.5 gallons as opposed to 6.

Use the dry hops from the kit and they sent Nottingham yeast along.

I’m expecting to get a 5.1% Abv and hoping for great hop aroma.

Will update as the process goes

 

[fluketamer]

wrendy - that looks real good and should be a tasty brew but why so much md.

i would stick to 4 oz per 5 g

i think the reccomended is 1 oz per g

i find that works great.

12 oz could make it too syrupy

imo

 

[Wrendelar]

wrendy - that looks real good and should be a tasty brew but why so much md.

i would stick to 4 oz per 5 g

i think the reccomended is 1 oz per g

i find that works great.

12 oz could make it too syrupy

imo

Good to know … I’ll drop that down and stick with the rest.

Thanks for the knowledge drop.

Work just blew up so this may have to wait til tomorrow.

I’ll keep you posted

 

[DudlyBrewRight]

Sorry comment deleted

 

[fluketamer]

i dont know enough about dry hopping i have only done it once. will you get some of the bitterness out of the dry hopping cause thats a lot of malt to add to a kit without bittering hops. i would add hop tea. you could take a quarter or half ounce of one of the dry hops and boil it for 5- 20 mins in a liter of water to extract some hoppy bitterness then add that to fv . thats what i am doing on my next kit tomorow.
i will use either method 2 or 4

METHOD #2 more bitter​

1. Gently boil the hop pellets in 1 litre of water for 10 minutes.

2. Mix the boiled hops and water with other ingredients in the fermenter together with 2 – 3 litres of hot water.

3. Add cold water up to the 23 litre mark and stir well.

4. When the temperature is below 30 deg C. add the yeast and make your beer the usual way.

METHOD #4 not as bitter​

1. Bring about half a litre of water to the boil, then add hop pellets.

Turn the heat off at the same timeand let the mixture stand for about 10 minutes.

2. Mix the hops and water with the other ingredients in the fermenter together with about 3 litres of hot water.

3. Add cold water up to the 23 litre mark and stir well.

4. When the temperature is below 30 deg C. add the yeast and make your beer the usual way.

edit sorry i thought dip hopping was same as dry hopping i see it is not.

 

[Wrendelar]

i dont know enough about dry hopping i have only done it once. will you get some of the bitterness out of the dry hopping cause thats a lot of malt to add to a kit without bittering hops. i would add hop tea. you could take a quarter or half ounce of one of the dry hops and boil it for 5- 20 mins in a liter of water to extract some hoppy bitterness then add that to fv . thats what i am doing on my next kit tomorow.
i will use either method 2 or 4

METHOD #2 more bitter​

1. Gently boil the hop pellets in 1 litre of water for 10 minutes.

2. Mix the boiled hops and water with other ingredients in the fermenter together with 2 – 3 litres of hot water.

3. Add cold water up to the 23 litre mark and stir well.

4. When the temperature is below 30 deg C. add the yeast and make your beer the usual way.

METHOD #4 not as bitter​

1. Bring about half a litre of water to the boil, then add hop pellets.

Turn the heat off at the same timeand let the mixture stand for about 10 minutes.

2. Mix the hops and water with the other ingredients in the fermenter together with about 3 litres of hot water.

3. Add cold water up to the 23 litre mark and stir well.

4. When the temperature is below 30 deg C. add the yeast and make your beer the usual way.

Thought about making a hop tea, then I looked into dip hopping which is similar to a hop tea but has different effects, less bittering and more overall hop aroma. there are a few threads on the board that cover this but the basic idea is: Take 1.5 L of water that is between 150-180 and pour it over your desired amount of hops in your fermenter and cover and leave for 60min (generally your boil). So for this brew, I will start with that and then adjust time accordingly to meet the time requirement. Considering I have to heat the 3L of water for the HME, as well as heat the water for the "enhancer" I think I should be good to go.

I know it's an out-of-the-box approach to these types of kits, but I like pushing the limits when it comes to creativity.

Brew On!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

IMO, this is something worth exploring ("Hopped DME"), but from 2020-2022, I was not able to find/order hoped DME -- and, in 2023, I have other interests.

And those interests are?

Looking at ingredient/process changes (e.g. /1/ & /2/) for both my BIAB and DME recipes. The hypothesis is that 'wort is wort' at the start of the boil.

Might have something to say about this in about a year or two - as updates to the "Advanced (unhopped) Extract Brewing" topic.

 

[Wrendelar]

More info on dip hopping can be found here. It was originally developed in Japan and has been moving its way around the world

 

[DollarStoreChili]

Newbie here, I received my kits last week. I've never brewed beer before and I'll outline my experience so far.
I started the draught lager kit on Saturday. I'll report back again throughout the process.

I'm following the directions as they exist in the kit. I'm making no changes and following no conventional beer
making strategy. What's on the paper is how I'm doing it (except the one that says to leave your fermenter
bucket lid half cracked, I decided not to follow that one).

I ordered draught lager, wheat beer, red ale, and brown ale. In the package I received a letter from the company
that said something to the effect of "the yeast in the kit isn't right, so we sent you more yeast". Alongside my kits
there was four 11g pouches of LalBrew Premium Series Nottingham high performance ale yeast. I discarded the
yeast in the kit and pitched a whole 11g pouch of this into my draught lager.

I ordered a jug of dextrose from Amazon and used the full recommended amount of 1kg.

The bucket is happily fermenting in my pantry, quite aggressively in fact. The airlock is bubbling wildly. The bucket lid
does start to distend a little with gas so every 8 hours I burp the brew by pushing on the lid a little and let it bubble out
of the airlock. I don't know if this is bad or not, but it's fun .

Status update

Bottled today. I did deviate from the directions slightly due to certain needs and restrictions in my life.

It stayed all a few extra days over the recommended in the fermenter.

I had no way of temperature controlling my bucket, so it fermented at whatever the ambient temperature of my house is. Anywhere from 65F to 75F plus or minus depending on weather and state of air conditioning.

I used 1 liter glass swing top bottles instead of the 500ml bottles the directions suggested. After doing the math on how many 500ml bottles I'd need it just made sense to use larger ones.

Two teaspoons of dextrose for priming in each bottle.

The bottles are in a plastic tote in my garage happily (hopefully) carbonating.

I tasted it before bottling and it wasn't sweet at all. Much darker and more flavorful than I anticipated. If I had to compare it to any known branded beer it'd be Newcastle brown (back before they sold the brand, changed the label, and started tasting bad). I think I'll be happy with it even though it's definitely not going to be like the draft lager the kit described.

 

[fluketamer]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/swamp-cooler.199965/
swamp cooler link. it works wonders for basic brewers it really makes much more consistant and better beer then fluctuating ambient temps. its super cheap easy and usually you have everything in the house needed.

i think swamp cooler even for slight temp control is the most important thing aside from ingredients in homebrewing.

i went from making decent beer in the winter and drain pours in the summer to drinking really good beer all year round. i guess its less stress on the yeast is resulting in better tasting beer

 

[Wrendelar]

Just finished mixing up the pale ale kit. It’s much darker then what I was envisioning, more like a WC IPA copper color then a pale golden color. My enhancer was 2lbs of pale dme 1 lb of dextrose and 4oz of maltodextrine. The photo makes it look like an amber, it’s not that dark IRL.

see attached

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Just finished mixing up the pale ale kit. It’s much darker then what I was envisioning, more like a WC IPA copper color then a pale golden color.

So the next question may be:

What (if any) are the off flavors from these old (based on color) hopped extract kits?​

I brewed with an (unfortunately) stale un-hopped LME a couple of years ago, hydro sample color was slightly lighter than yours, and got that sharp "ball point pen" off flavor. Various places, including BBR (Aug 25 / Nov 17 2005), have some additional off flavor descriptors.

But maybe "darker than advertised" hopped LME doesn't have those sharp "ball point pen" off flavors.

 

[Wrendelar]

So the next question may be:

What (if any) are the off flavors from these old (based on color) hopped extract kits?​

I brewed with an (unfortunately) stale un-hopped LME a couple of years ago, hydro sample color was slightly lighter than yours, and got that sharp "ball point pen" off flavor. Various places, including BBR (Aug 25 / Nov 17 2005), have some additional off flavor descriptors.

But maybe "darker than advertised" hopped LME doesn't have those sharp "ball point pen" off flavors.

I’ll know sooner then later. It’s fermenting now with the Voss and it’s already down 28 pts and I pitched just about 12 hours ago. I expect to be racking sooner then later

 

[DudlyBrewRight]

Forgive my inexperience but when people say they added dextrose to a recipe I assume they mean the kind made from corn, not wheat. Corn sugar seems to get a bad rap so is that the reason for saying "I added 1lb of dextrose" instead of 1lb of corn sugar? Or is wheat dextrose a better alternative?

 

[mac_1103]

Dextrose is dextrose. Corn is just the cheapest/most common source. The "bad rap" is just about using as much of it as these kits call for. That's why people substitute DME for some or all of the sugar. I could be wrong, but I don't think you can actually buy dextrose made from wheat.

 

[fluketamer]

this is the pilsner kit with golden light dme made up to 4.5 gallons after 20 days in the keg without any finings. the clarity is great. the color is more golden than i wanted but it tastes really good. its just a little less bitter than i wanted and could use more graininess but no off flavor at all.
i made up the blonde lager kit yesterday and added hop tea and steeping grains. the color came out more of what i was looking for and the wort tastes great but the recipe took me over an hour with the grains and hop tea. this one should be very good.
ill post recipe and wort pics later .

 

[fluketamer]

1.5 kg blonde lager kit pouch
4 oz of flaked corn
4 oz of carapils
4 oz of maltodextrin
10 ounces of dextrose
10 ounces of pilsen light dme

1/2 ounce of chinook hops boiled for 30 mins in 1 quart of water then strained into fermenter

this came out to 1040 so i added 6 more ounces of pilsner light dme and it came to 1043

smells tastes and looks awesome

much closer to the color i was looking for in a lager/pilsner


i split it into two fermenters
1 with diamond lager slurry at 56 deg and 1 with notty at 70

 

[Bobby_M]

I have to ask, with all the gymnastics and lipstick you have to smear on these kits, what exactly is the aversion to just starting with 100% fresh ingredients and brewing a premium product? After all is said and done, you saved what $10 max? It's one thing to argue that the kit makes good beer on its own (I wouldn't believe that), but you exhibit the confirmation that the kit isn't good as designed. Why continue to support a business/product that needs to be doctored beyond recognition to make it drinkable? I understand this might be insulting but I'm honestly curious about the motivation.

 

[Somesaymybeerisdrinkable]

I have to ask, with all the gymnastics and lipstick you have to smear on these kits, what exactly is the aversion to just starting with 100% fresh ingredients and brewing a premium product? After all is said and done, you saved what $10 max? It's one thing to argue that the kit makes good beer on its own (I wouldn't believe that), but you exhibit the confirmation that the kit isn't good as designed. Why continue to support a business/product that needs to be doctored beyond recognition to make it drinkable? I understand this might be insulting but I'm honestly curious about the motivation.

If you are curious what everyone's motivation is you could read the thread. I have already stated that I expect this to be inferior to my all grain batches, but at this price point thought it would be fun to try. If you just want the best beer possible why even both with homebrewing, there are many great breweries today and the only way homebrew is cheeper is if you're time is worthless. I homebrew because like to be creative trying different ingredients and methods. Also I just wanted to see if these have improved since I started out 12 years ago.

Some people brew these kits because they don't have time right now to do a more traditional brew, or they are just getting started and thinking all grain brewing sounds too complicated.

Yes there are cheerleaders on this thread, but everyone posting here is not of the same mindset.

 

[mac_1103]

After all is said and done, you saved what $10 max?

I decided against buying any of these for exactly this reason. It never really was $8.46 for 6 gallons of beer, it was $8.46 for 3.3 lbs of hopped LME. You can get 7 lbs of LME on Amazon for $21 and I don't really like working with LME anyway, so it's just not for me. But to each his own.

However, I will say that it can be quite satisfying to show people that you can make chicken salad out of chicken poop.

 

[mac_1103]

I have already started that I expect this to be inferior to my all grain batches, but at this price point thought it would be fun to try.

The gist of Bobby's question is about the true price point as brewed. Fluketamer's recipe in the post just above Bobby's is pretty obviously not "at this price point" and not really any easier than a standard extract brew day. Most of the other recipes in this thread also involve additional ingredients, time and effort. Even brewing as directed is at least twice the price of the kit because dextrose ain't free either, but it seems that few people actually went that route to get ~6 gallons of beer for about ~20 bucks anyway.