Brubox kits

[Robdog]

Hi im totaly new to homebrewing but its seems really interesting and i cant wait to get started.

I read an online book form another site but to be honest it seemed very technical and over my head. It did say though that the tin kits arent the best so i fancy a go at Extraxt brewing but im not sure what i will need.

I have found a Brubox Irish Extra Stout kit and was wondering what peoples opinions on it were as i dont want to waste time making beer thats not very good.

The kit contains the following

"Each kit consists of the finest quality brewing grade malt extract, genuine top or bottom fermenting yeast and our revolutionary new BruBag system which, for the first time, enables fresh hops and grains to be used to enhance the flavour without any messy straining."

Does this seem a decent starter kit? I take it this is Extract brewing?

[MartialAnt]

Yep thats extract brewing alright. Its more fun than kits.

CAnt think what else to say as im a bit pissed. But yeah, get brewing n get pissed.

WElcome to Jim's.

ps not used brubox but it'll b e same principle.

[Marts]

There are plenty of great tasting kits though, so the online book you read is a bit misleading.


For example:
Coopers Irish Stout
Muntons imperial stout
Edme irish stout

all get great reviews from people here on the forum who have made them.

Personally i've made the EDME one and it is still young and conditioning but already tastes great. I split a bottle with a mate last weekend and the look on his face said it all. By the third sip he was marvelling at the great taste of homebrew.

If you're interested do a search in the kit brewing section for Stout and have a look at some of the threads.

All the best whichever route you decide to go with

[MartialAnt]

Marts - Yes the Edam stout is pretty ok. I did 60 pints with 2 kits + a load of sugar. Last moth i found 2 2L pets of it. Oh it was fandabbydozey after months of maturing. Wouldnt ever go back to kit shit again as ive moved on now. But for a beginner its ok. Blerghhhhhhhhhh im pissed n cant type to get across what im trying to think. If you know wot i mean.

[sparky Paul]

The Brubox kits are NOT extract brewing.

True extract brewing combines malt extract (unhopped) with the total hop addition for a full boil in a boiler. The Brubox kit is a glorified canned beer kit, with the addition of a bag of hops/grains to steep in liquor before adding to the rest of the kit. The main hop addition is already in the canned malt extract, exactly as you would have with any other beer kit.

The other problem with the Brubox is that the beer is served directly from the fermenting vessel. This means that the finished beer has to sit on top of dead yeast, and this is not recommended due to off-flavours being introduced into the beer. IMHO. you are much better off buying the recommended equipment for doing a standard kit beer. If you want to progress into true extract brewing, you can easily add a boiler to enable you to do this.

Kit brewing

Extract brewing


Welcome to the forum by the way!

[Robdog]

The Brubox kits are NOT extract brewing.

True extract brewing combines malt extract (unhopped) with the total hop addition for a full boil in a boiler. The Brubox kit is a glorified canned beer kit, with the addition of a bag of hops/grains to steep in liquor before adding to the rest of the kit. The main hop addition is already in the canned malt extract, exactly as you would have with any other beer kit.

The other problem with the Brubox is that the beer is served directly from the fermenting vessel. This means that the finished beer has to sit on top of dead yeast, and this is not recommended due to off-flavours being introduced into the beer. IMHO. you are much better off buying the recommended equipment for doing a standard kit beer. If you want to progress into true extract brewing, you can easily add a boiler to enable you to do this.

Kit brewing

Extract brewing


Welcome to the forum by the way!

Thanks for the advice so i just have to get everything that it says on the link for kit brewing in your post.

Ive also read about the yeast supplied with kits is it worth getting some seperate yeast and using that instead of the stuff supplied plus is there any other additions i should make or do you recommend i just follow the kit for the first brew and see how i get on.

Cheers for the warm welcome guys i appreciate all your comments.

[sparky Paul]

Ive also read about the yeast supplied with kits is it worth getting some seperate yeast and using that instead of the stuff supplied plus is there any other additions i should make or do you recommend i just follow the kit for the first brew and see how i get on.

That's exactly what I would recommend you do for the first few brews, it's best to get used to the process before changing anything. Any of the kits mentioned above would be excellent if you want a stout, and most stout kits make great beer without any tampering - they're a great confidence booster!

Choose a good quality 3KG (or two-can) kit which needs no added sugar, or a single can kit like the Coopers Stout (highly recommended) and add 1Kg of Spraymalt to it. Don't use sugar, as many of the single-can kit instructions advise, use the spraymalt - it's the only change I would advise for a beginner, and pretty much essential in my opinion.

Most of the better quality kits come with a good quality yeast, so I wouldn't worry about yeasts too much just yet.

Hope this helps!

[Robdog]

Ive also read about the yeast supplied with kits is it worth getting some seperate yeast and using that instead of the stuff supplied plus is there any other additions i should make or do you recommend i just follow the kit for the first brew and see how i get on.

That's exactly what I would recommend you do for the first few brews, it's best to get used to the process before changing anything. Any of the kits mentioned above would be excellent if you want a stout, and most stout kits make great beer without any tampering - they're a great confidence booster!

Choose a good quality 3KG (or two-can) kit which needs no added sugar, or a single can kit like the Coopers Stout (highly recommended) and add 1Kg of Spraymalt to it. Don't use sugar, as many of the single-can kit instructions advise, use the spraymalt - it's the only change I would advise for a beginner, and pretty much essential in my opinion.

Most of the better quality kits come with a good quality yeast, so I wouldn't worry about yeasts too much just yet.

Hope this helps!

Thanks again. Ive just seen this lot advertised http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/catalog/de ... ES20114857 which doesnt look a bad deal but im not sure on the quality of the kits. It says it makes 40 pints sp thats approx 18-20ltrs so the bucket will be big enough.

Do i add the spraymalt with the tin at the beggining of the process?

Also sorry for all the questions but whats better a barrel or bottles as the bottles on the site above seem cheaper than the barrels.

[Robdog]

I think i may go for the kit above plus a brewmaster top tap keg. Do i need to buy gas for it as to be honest all the stout i drink on draft in the pub is not fizzy at all.

I get a free beer kit with the starter kit mentioned in the link above so i may try the milestone black pearl as my first batch as its free and i read on here it tastes good.

So all in all i need the kit plus the brewmaster keg and 1kg of spraymalt which after further reading i have realised you add just before kegging instead of sugar.

So far it sounds easier than i thought have i misses anything i know i need cleach to sanatize do i need any other cleaning equpment? I need to get tubing aswell to transfer to the keg.

[sparky Paul]

I think i may go for the kit above plus a brewmaster top tap keg. Do i need to buy gas for it as to be honest all the stout i drink on draft in the pub is not fizzy at all.

You will need to keep any top tap keg pressurised to keep the beer flowing. If you don't drink it too fast, you may get away with priming, i.e. CO2 produced by adding a small amount of sugar after kegging. Otherwise, you may find you need an external source of CO2.

I get a free beer kit with the starter kit mentioned in the link above so i may try the milestone black pearl as my first batch as its free and i read on here it tastes good.

The Milestone kits are excellent. They are a 3Kg kit, so you do not need any additional sugar/spraymalt, only a small amount for priming.

So all in all i need the kit plus the brewmaster keg and 1kg of spraymalt which after further reading i have realised you add just before kegging instead of sugar.

The 1Kg of spraymalt is only required if you are doing a one can kit. For the Milestone kit, you will only need a small amount of priming sugar (say 80-90g) and you can use be normal granulated sugar for this.

Hope this makes a bit more sense, don't hesitate to ask away if you have any more questions...

[sparky Paul]

Ive just seen this lot advertised http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/catalog/de ... ES20114857 which doesnt look a bad deal but im not sure on the quality of the kits. It says it makes 40 pints sp thats approx 18-20ltrs so the bucket will be big enough.

The Brupaks Pride Of Yorkshire kits are very good too. 3KG kit, so no extra spraymalt required.

Most kits are 40 pints/23 litres, so no problems with the bucket size - standard buckets are usually 5 gallon/23 litres, plus a few extra inches spare.

Do i add the spraymalt with the tin at the beggining of the process?.

As above, spraymalt not required for the Brupaks. If you had a single can kit, e.g. Cooper's, you would add the 1Kg of spraymalt at the beginning, when you mix it all up.

Also sorry for all the questions but whats better a barrel or bottles as the bottles on the site above seem cheaper than the barrels.

No need to apologise, most folk on here are more than happy to help.

As for bottles or kegs/barrels, it's down to personal preference. I find bottles cheaper more convenient for me, but kegging is easier. However, you ideally need some way of keeping a keg gassed, so that's extra expense too.

Hope that helps!

[Madbrewer]

A few questions regarding the kit needed to get started (with kits) were mentioned here:-

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15910

If you get some syphon tube, a hydrometer, fermenter, placcy barrel and plastic spoon they're not goign to get wasted as whatever you do next will require them.

If you 'do' have a boiler though I'd recomend an extract brew, next after your first kit. (Even though I never really did do extract brews.) The reason being that there's alot of tailoriable recipes out there for extract brewers BUT you want to get your head aroung fermentation first and kits are a good means to do this.

FWIW Graham Wheelers Brew Classic European Beers at Home lists the followign extract recipes:-
Draught Bass, Worthington White Shield, Belhaven Export, Bulldog Strong Ale, Donnington SBA, Kilkenny, Murphy's Stout and others.

With all the recent Kit activity about I am almost keen to try another 3Kg Kit as I haven't done these in years. Am curious to remember how they come out exactly.

[Robdog]

Ive just seen this lot advertised http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/catalog/de ... ES20114857 which doesnt look a bad deal but im not sure on the quality of the kits. It says it makes 40 pints sp thats approx 18-20ltrs so the bucket will be big enough.

The Brupaks Pride Of Yorkshire kits are very good too. 3KG kit, so no extra spraymalt required.

Most kits are 40 pints/23 litres, so no problems with the bucket size - standard buckets are usually 5 gallon/23 litres, plus a few extra inches spare.

Do i add the spraymalt with the tin at the beggining of the process?.

As above, spraymalt not required for the Brupaks. If you had a single can kit, e.g. Cooper's, you would add the 1Kg of spraymalt at the beginning, when you mix it all up.

Also sorry for all the questions but whats better a barrel or bottles as the bottles on the site above seem cheaper than the barrels.

No need to apologise, most folk on here are more than happy to help.

As for bottles or kegs/barrels, it's down to personal preference. I find bottles cheaper more convenient for me, but kegging is easier. However, you ideally need some way of keeping a keg gassed, so that's extra expense too.

Hope that helps!

Thats great thanks.

I cant seem to find a price on the gas do you know if its expensive?

Also if the keg is pressurised would that not make my stout fizzy?

Im undecided now whether to go for a keg or bottles as the bottles are only 46p each and i assume they can be reused. I would have to buy tops for them which are cheap and a machine to crimp them on also so i suppose in the long run thats cheaper. Is there a taste difference between keg and bottled?

[sparky Paul]

I cant seem to find a price on the gas do you know if its expensive?

Also if the keg is pressurised would that not make my stout fizzy?

Lots of CO2 will make it fizzy, but the lower amounts found in beer just give the beer light carbonation and a bit of 'bite', as CO2 is an acidic gas. It is also necessary to help protect the beer from oxidising. Making the creamy head you find on a pub pint of Guinness requires a mixture of gasses, CO2 and nitrogen, this gives the smaller bubbles needed - it can be done, but it requires more specialist equipment and a pub gas bottle of the gas mix, which can be a faff to obtain.

Small homebrewer gas cylinders are available in various sizes, but they are usually purchased over the counter as they are not allowed to send them pressurised through the post, or via most couriers. Some homebrewers also use Sodastream gas cylinders, which are still available to buy and exchange in some supermarkets.

Most homebrewers try to reproduce the style of bottled stout, like bottled Guinness Original.

Im undecided now whether to go for a keg or bottles as the bottles are only 46p each and i assume they can be reused. I would have to buy tops for them which are cheap and a machine to crimp them on also so i suppose in the long run thats cheaper. Is there a taste difference between keg and bottled?

All bottles are reusable. For glass bottles, you need crown caps and a hand capper, although you can recycle many of the beer bottles found in the bottled beer section of your supermarket. Magner's Cider bottles from pubs are good too. If you want really cheap, recycled carbonated pop bottles work perfectly well for beer. I use 2 litre pop bottles all the time, I open one and decant it into a 2 litre plastic fruit juice pitcher to serve, leaving the sediment in the bottle. They have a sealed lid, a rotary closure valve and a spout which helps form a head in the glass. Like this sort of thing...



Best thing to do is experiment to find out what suits you best, without laying out too much money. If you want to try bottling first, you can do that for next to nothing with empty pop bottles.

[likesbeer]

I cant seem to find a price on the gas do you know if its expensive?

Also if the keg is pressurised would that not make my stout fizzy?

I'm a veteran of a massive three kits todate. So althoug not vastly experienced will add my two peneth.
Gas isnt expensive and last ages, my first brew was flat as a pacake and needed topping up almost every serve to get it out of the barrell (still tasted great) it was a porter John Bull 3KG kit went down a treat.

My second a brewpaks brewers choice best bitter needs gas to get the last couple of pints out now and also tastes greater even better than number 1, but not fizzy in the slightest.

No: 3 is gassing up OK still not fizzy tastes great will probably be the best ever

I think you would have to try to make it very fizzy it doesnt seem to happen that easily the missus would like it fizzier, eastern european larger drinker

Barrels are good less of a faff, however I have found that I am doing both I have 3 barrells only had two on the go at once (now) but also needed bottles for other stuff I dont want to drink to quick so neither option will be a waste of money.

If you want to save money;
Dont buy bottles though either save the bottles you drink, try freecycle (just got two bags full) and ask friends to save you will get plenty.
PLus watch ebay for cheap presure barrells they are always on there quite often not cheep though so be careful.

Finally gas is for the hambledon barden S40 type valve bottles easier than little sparklets, I think it was £5 deposit and a similar amount for the gas and will last months.

Ask away I did and do regularly and always get excellent help and advice
Welcom to the homebrewing and the site