Home Brew....kits Or 'do It Proper?'

[Jay Argh 6]

Just bottled 40 pints of home brew, though I 'cheat' and use kits.

 

Yet to progress onto 'proper' brewing.

 

Anyone know much about brewing beer from scratch?

 

Or are kits close enough for most?

 

J

[jjbull 38]

you could try bridging the gap between kits and all grain brewing by trying extract recipes first. some of the premium kits use a similar method over the 1 can kits

[smokingdragon 21]

My mate has just set up a microbrewery, and he always says "Shit in - Shit out" meaning bad ingredients make a bad brew. A good brew is all in the 'mash' going in. Same as distilling, cheap super strong flour mix and you have to charcoal filter the spirit to remove the homebrew taste, use a good grain mash then you should get a good result.

[3175darren 1,101]

I have tried both in the past and I must say I started again last yr after a long lay off, I will be trying to stick to ingredients this yr kits are ok for a quick,brew but from the real stuff is best in my opinion,although I find to get hold of the ingredients can prove challenging but this year I will order off the net,this is one I am going to do for next christmas

2lb dark dried malt extract

1lb light dried malt extract

1lb of cracked crystal malt

4oz goldings hops

2lb brown sugar

3lb white sugar

good beer yeast

I made this ten year ago and it was spot on left it about 6/8 months in the bottle,far better than any kit,sorry couldnt resist putting it on here it must have been fate,I was reading it to find out what I needed minutes before I saw this post,

[low plains drifter 10,676]

Never made any from scratch,but the premium kits from woodfordes are pretty good

[Blackbriar 8,569]

I was bought a Woodforde's "Wherry" kit for Xmas and I used brew enhancer, as the instructions suggested. It was the first time I've used it and the result was a vast improvement on my normal wishy-washy home brew.

Now I always use spray dried malt or brew enhancer with kits, and I , and all of my thirsty friends, think they make a more than acceptable beer ! It doesn't stay in the bottles for long !

[Jay Argh 6]

Cheers to all!

 

Have used 'wishy-washy' kits.....some ok, some not so ok

 

Last few I've used have been Woodfordes, and they do produce a decent pint

 

Only trouble I got is leaving them in the bottle long enough to condition properly.

 

Just working through 'Nelsons Revenge', and it's a tad more-ish

 

J