What is/was your favorite extract kit and from who ?

[beekeeperman]

Still new to home brewing with only 3 kits under my belt .
So far been buying from Midwest due to free shipping over $59.
Two Irish Reds and a Ferocious IPA under the belt, literally .
On deck(just arrived) is a Copper ale and a Simcoe select IPA.
The Ferocious was hop hoppy and tasty but pricey at $46 + /5 gal.
Looking for great tasting extract brews in the $25-35 range .
What are your favorites ?

Newb

 

[dustinolsen84]

I love love love everything from Williams Brewing. They have gotten their kits down to a science. My favorite kit is the Summer Ale, but I love the Belgian Wit as well. Check them out.

 

[Sudz_Makenzie]

Not really "THE" favorite, but one I use a lot is Northern Brewers Nut Brown Ale kit: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/nut-brown-ale-extract-kit.html

It's relatively inexpensive and can be modified in so many ways or is just fine by itself. I added .5lbs chocolate malt to the steeping grains and a couple oz chocolate extract at bottling to make a tasty Chocolate Nut Brown Ale.

 

[flars]

Favorites so far:
American Amber Ale
Dry Irish Stout
Petite Saison
Caribou Slobber
All from Northern Brewer.

Haven't brewed any IPAs yet so there could be more soon.

About a dollar difference when comparing total price with Midwest. Orders from NB will usually be three to four beers to take advantage of the flat rate shipping. There is the occasional free item. Plastic Bigmouth with last order.

 

[unionrdr]

If I had to pick one as my favorite, it'd be the ESB E/SG kit from Morebeer. Very good balance & spot-on color. NB's Petite Saison de 'etre was pretty good, but I didn't get that peppery ester from the French WY3711 yeast I expected. The PM cascade pale ale from Midwest was another good one.

 

[ruger988]

SchneiderWeiss Aventinus clone from Austin Homebrew.

 

[podz]

Cooper's Stout, without a doubt. It's extremely difficult to mess that one up.

 

[brewbama]

I love love love everything from Williams Brewing. They have gotten their kits down to a science. My favorite kit is the Summer Ale, but I love the Belgian Wit as well. Check them out.

The William's Christmas Wit and Fireside Ale are the two I remember as favorites.


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[BigJack]

Brewferm kits can be very tasty if they aren't old and stale.

 

[DaNewf]

Cooper's Stout, without a doubt. It's extremely difficult to mess that one up.

Watching Craig (Craigtube) bang out a stout in the Cooper's Micro Brewery kit was the final push for me to start homebrewing. I was spending quite a bit of money at the liquor store on stout at the time and decided to do a little research on homebrewing.

After watching Craig's video I sat back and said to myself "It can be that easy?". A little more research and a little math, "It can be that cheap?"

I wondered if Craig was overselling the quality of his finished product but further internet searches showed that Cooper's Stout had a pretty solid reputation and a lot of people preferred it to a very famous commercial offering. That sold me.

I did a bunch of Cooper's kits before moving to (mostly) all grain and the OS Stout is my favorite of the bunch. I might just do one again soon, maybe with some Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder and vanilla extract (do I have lactose on hand...)

 

[unionrdr]

I said the same thing when my wife & I were looking into home brewing & watched Craig's videos back in December 2010. I do everything from kit-n-kilo to pb/pm biab now. I've made a lot of different beers with Cooper's cans myself.

 

[rekoob]

A LHBS here had a Porter that was one of my favs and many guests enjoyed that one too.
The Northern brown ale was another one I liked.
Lots of extract kits are pretty darn good and I don't know if I can say any one of them were my all time favorite.
Years ago I had a dry stout kit from someplace, can't remember where, and it was pretty good, might be my favorite.

 

[abrewinglife]

My LHBS, by the name of BIY Homebrew Supply, sells a Falconer's Summer Flight kit. They put it together themselves, and it turned pretty dang good! The Falconer hops really without being overly bitter. A good beer on hot summer day...I wonder if I have any left.


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[sbhank]

I began buying things from a local home brew store and that cut the price. I've started making my own recipes and adapting ones I've found online. Some of my favorites have been:
-chocolate cherry stout
-strawberry ale
-honey orange ale
-coffee porter

I can share recipes if you like, but there are plenty of good ones out there already


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[podz]

I said the same thing when my wife & I were looking into home brewing & watched Craig's videos back in December 2010. I do everything from kit-n-kilo to pb/pm biab now. I've made a lot of different beers with Cooper's cans myself.

Yeah, the thing is that Cooper's kits are the only kits produced by a real brewery. In addition, despite common belief due to extensive parroting in the homebrewing arena, their yeast does not suck; they source both ale and lager yeast from other companies as well as developing their own. While the details are secret, there's a very good chance that when you throw out the Cooper's ale yeast and replace it with US-05 the only difference lies between your ears.

As I've said before, they have absolutely zero incentive to provide shiotty yeast with their kits when their goal is to produce the best kits possible.

 

[unionrdr]

I spoke of this in that other thread about kit yeast myths dispelled a little bit ago. Rehydrated, that Cooper's 7g packet can be a beast & go head to head with the likes of US-05. About the only difference I found was that the Cooper's yeast left a little non-descript fruitiness.

 

[BigJack]

I spoke of this in that other thread about kit yeast myths dispelled a little bit ago. Rehydrated, that Cooper's 7g packet can be a beast & go head to head with the likes of US-05. About the only difference I found was that the Cooper's yeast left a little non-descript fruitiness.

I think Coopers yeast gets a bad rap because so often it doesn't make it to brew day in good shape after sitting under a lid at store temps for God knows how long. Fresh examples aren't bad.

 

[podz]

I think Coopers yeast gets a bad rap because so often it doesn't make it to brew day in good shape after sitting under a lid at store temps for God knows how long. Fresh examples aren't bad.

It gets a bad rap because people don't believe that it makes it to brew day in good shape so they don't even try it. Of course, the commercial yeast vendors like this situation and are waiting to sell you a new, high-priced packet of their own product. I just made a batch of nearly expired Cooper's Irish Stout by dry pitching the yeast under the lid. The batch went from 1.055 to terminal gravity of 1.012 in 65 hours from pitching and the taste is awesome, if you ask me.

A few months ago, my wife made some bread for our girls using a packet of dry yeast that had been in the cabinet for over 5 years (this German bread yeast bought from Lidl). The dough rose up just fat and fine. Two years on a shelf isn't going to hurt a packet of dry yeast.

 

[Zekk]

My favorite would have to be Smashing Pumpkin from Northern Brewer. I didn't add pumpkin or anything just left the kit as is and was amazing. Once I have room I plan on making it again, just not sure if I'll do the extract again or try all grain.

 

[ChelisHubby]

Well Right now I am drinking a 60 shilling scot from MoreBeer at 20 dollars it is great Malt forward low hopped. But I have also modified it with different things such as oatmeal for mouth feel and small amount of Mollassas and the last time I put in a lb of amber DME and changed the yeast. Easy to make and Cheap and to me taste pretty darn good.

 

[unionrdr]

I'm beginning to see that Morebeer kits are pretty darn good. I like their ESB-E/SG kit myself. Great color & malt-hop balance. But rehydrating the little Cooper's 7g ale yeast packet works really well.

 

[BigJack]

A few months ago, my wife made some bread for our girls using a packet of dry yeast that had been in the cabinet for over 5 years (this German bread yeast bought from Lidl). The dough rose up just fat and fine. Two years on a shelf isn't going to hurt a packet of dry yeast.

So your anecdote of getting lucky with some old yeast trumps all my anecdotes and the anecdotes of others who have had old dry yeast packets perform poorly or not at all. Gotcha.

 

[GHBWNY]

Imperial Oaked Stout from True Brew. I went easy on the oak powder that came with the kit; made a "tea" in a bag with about 1/3 the recommended amount rather than tossing all the powder into the wort as per instructions. I think it could have stood at least double what I used (2/3). Could be "oakier", but came out great! Getting better by the week. Palate-wise, from start to finish, a really complex, inviting brew. Finished at 6.2%ABV. Recommend.

 

[podz]

So your anecdote of getting lucky with some old yeast trumps all my anecdotes and the anecdotes of others who have had old dry yeast packets perform poorly or not at all. Gotcha.

Anectdotes are worth an equal amount as your eye rolling.

Commercial manufacturers of dry brewing yeast, in general, give a shelf life of 2 years. That doesn't mean refrigerator life, it means Shelf Life. In other words, 2 years is the minimum length of time which they guarantee that the yeast will still perform to spec. How do they know that 2 years is the magic number that they are able to guarantee? Because they continue to test for further lengths of time, in order to have a control measure. In those control testings, it's not unusual for some strains of yeasts to still perform very well when it's already nearly double the guaranteed viability date.

It varies strain by strain, even batch by batch, but in general the important factors in terms of shelf life are 1) small cell size, 2) osmotolerance, and 3) not being picky eaters in terms of carbohydrates.

 

[eadavis80]

I've only purchased from NB, Adventures in Home Brewing and my local homestore which sells Brewers Best. That being said, I think my favorite was NB's Chocolate Stout - added the cacoa nibs and soaked them in vanilla vodka before adding them to secondary. Will be doing that kit again this winter for sure!

 

[BigJack]

Anectdotes are worth an equal amount as your eye rolling.

Commercial manufacturers of dry brewing yeast, in general, give a shelf life of 2 years. That doesn't mean refrigerator life, it means Shelf Life. In other words, 2 years is the minimum length of time which they guarantee that the yeast will still perform to spec. How do they know that 2 years is the magic number that they are able to guarantee? Because they continue to test for further lengths of time, in order to have a control measure. In those control testings, it's not unusual for some strains of yeasts to still perform very well when it's already nearly double the guaranteed viability date.

It varies strain by strain, even batch by batch, but in general the important factors in terms of shelf life are 1) small cell size, 2) osmotolerance, and 3) not being picky eaters in terms of carbohydrates.

Storage conditions also play a part.

I don't know about Finland, but in Texas it gets damn hot. If some distributer transports cans of Coopers in hot trucks in August and if those cans sit by a window for two years worth of Texas summers, I promise you that the yeast WILL be worse for wear.

I'm not denying that yeast can, in the right conditions, be viable well beyond the date on the package. I don't doubt your story about the 5 year old yeast.

I'm simply pointing out that in the wrong conditions, they can be decidedly unviable well before that date- and that with canned kits handled by sloppy retailers, wrong conditions are, unfortunately, not that uncommon.

 

[BigJack]

To further my point, here's a study that shows that long term storage at 40 C (104 F) can destroy dry yeast in less than three months.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21183066

So before that Coopers can gets to the LHBS, how long is it sitting in a storage container at sea in the Gulf of Mexico? When it arrives in Houston, how long does the container sit at the docks? How long until it gets trucked out?

If 104F can kill yeast in a few months, I promise even one or two weeks at 140F in a shipping container in Houston could ruin it.

 

[podz]

Höpöhöpö (nonsense).

http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_12924553