Tweaking Kits

[casperjah]

I bet this has been asked before but Mods feel free to move the post.

I have been using Kits for about a year (Coopers, Brewferm, Muntons, Brupacks, ales lagers and stouts). I have had some success and only 1 batch out of about 25 batches that went wrong. its saving me a fortune, I have less hangovers and I am loving the results. (Currently Drinking a Muntons St Peters Ruby Red Ale and its smashing after 2 weeks in primary and 2 weeks in bottle).

So my question is where to next? I have very little space, very little money for new equipment yet I want to start trying to improve my brewing a bit and get into a bit more tweaking or maybe control. I have read the great post on partial mash brewing nad I will attempt one day. But at the moment, still using kits, what can do to improve my brews while still using kits?

I think I can: (and please add to this list)

• Start using natural spring water rather than tap (although my tap water here is ok)
• Use better ingredients - malt extracts instead of brewing sugar
• Try racking to secondary fermenter to clear the beer before bottling
• Use a big pot to boil initial ingredients before adding to fermenter and add spices, hops etc
• try other yeasts rather than kit yeast

So these are my next steps to improving my kit brewing - any other ideas?

 

[Brew_4iT]

I still do partial mashes myself. Don't really have the equipment to do AG yet (atleast not with a huge mess). Not saying it isn't possible though. You can buy LME unhopped like briess which are 3.3 pounds. This will give you enough space to experiment with 5.5-6 lbs. of grains and not have to use two seperate stock pots or a turkey fryer to hold the right boil volume.

Also, using a good brewing calculator this one is free fairly accurate http://beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe

Search around this site for any terms and practices that seem foreign to you, and your good to go!

 

[shafferpilot]

ordering kits with the upgraded liquid yeast is a good place to switch things up. If you do this, look into yeast washing. The price of a couple jars is well worth the benefits of starting a little yeast bank.

As far as water is concerned, using bottled water is an expensive proposition. I'd think about filtering your tap water instead. You will notice a big improvement despite your tap water working for you now.

Secondary is not strictly necessary for clearer beer, a better wort chiller, giving the fermentation plenty of time, and cold crashing yield the same results. I secondary, but only so my beers can age and to free up my primaries.

I fully support the idea of tweaking kits, and/or building your own "kit" from recipes. You'll be building your knowledge base and working your way slowly towards writing your own recipes.

Save partial mashes and full mashes for when you need them. Some beers just don't really turn out with extracts. I've been full-mashing for years, but still regularly do extract batches when I don't have the time and the beer will be just as good anyways.

 

[PT Ray]

The more fresh ingredients the better. I've pushed all grain batches aside in exchange for mini-mashes. I built a mash tun out of a 2 gallon beverage cooler and boil in either a 3 or 5 gallon pot. If it's a prehopped kit I'll mash about 3.5 lbs of base malt with maybe a little specialties. Believe it or not, some of the kits I prefer to use just sugar for a summer quencher. Since I don't have to worry about adding hops I'll just boil in my 3 gallon pot.

If it's unhopped extract I'll use 3.3 lbs of extract and 3.5-4 lbs of grain. Since it needs to be hopped I'll use my 5 gallon pot and start with about 4 gallon boil. All my extract is added at flameout. It's just the wort from the mini-mashes that's boiled.

I've been skeptical of using my tap water in extract batches for some time and used store bought. I finally bit the bullet and tried it. Straight from the tap seemed to suck, but when I treated it for chloramines it seemed to make a difference. I'm quite satisfied with it now.

The only kit yeast I've tried in the last 10 years is Coopers and has served me well. Not all Coopers kits use the same yeast and it helps to know what comes with what. But I do also use liquid when I'm looking for a specific profile.

 

[Brew_4iT]

If it's unhopped extract I'll use 3.3 lbs of extract and 3.5-4 lbs of grain. Since it needs to be hopped I'll use my 5 gallon pot and start with about 4 gallon boil. All my extract is added at flameout. It's just the wort from the mini-mashes that's boiled.

Yeah if you are using more base malts then you wont need as much grain. Forgot to factor that in. I got my values from a chocolate stout using a lot more specialty grains. Good advice, I forgot to mention the pot volume. I add my extract in the last 15 minutes just for sanitary reasons although probably not needed.