that home brew twng

[pongobilly]

im thinking of going all grain, and was wondering, all the kits i do seem to be the same if you know what i mean, a muntons stout would be the same as a milestone stout taste wise and so on, and all seem to have that twang that i cant describe, and i always find that stout kits always seem to have a worse twang than a lighter beer, so my question is, when going all graing do you still get the homebrew twang

[Gurgeh]

no.
go for it!

[anomalous_result]

I didn't get it when I changed to extract. I think it's a combination of the extract used (quality and age) and the way the hop bitterness is gotten into a kit.

[flything]

Could be chlorine or chloramine, do you filter your water or add a crushed campden tablet to your water that you brew with? I had an instant improvement in kit quality when I started doing this.

[cooldad]

I also thought that the kits had a "home brew twng" tried AG and have not looked back , I also found the kits that I did all tasted very similar , but although i'm new to AG the 4 i've done taste completley diverent and just like you would buy over the counter.

[prodigal2]

Hi there PB.
There have been a few of us who have had your concerns, and there is not that kit twang with AG. And also there is such a reward with brewing AG.
If you can give the time it is so worth the effort, the difference is like a microwave ready meal to something you have lovingly prepaired from scatch
Also brew days are such a joy, once you have done a couple, they are more relaxation and give you time to contemplate things.

And if you don't want shinny, and just want a simple way to brew beer just look at Jims technique pages, it demistifyed the American myth of you need loads of stuff to brew.

P2

[hoppingMad]

im thinking of going all grain, and was wondering, all the kits i do seem to be the same if you know what i mean,

yep

a muntons stout would be the same as a milestone stout taste wise and so on, and all seem to have that twang that i cant describe, and i always find that stout kits always seem to have a worse twang than a lighter beer, so my question is, when going all graing do you still get the homebrew twang

With AG you definately won't get that home brew twang. What you do get, is a yeast flavour "contribution" which for you UK chaps will possibly equate to your "Real Ale" taste anyway, so you should be used to it. This is sometimes noticed by non home brewers who taste AG beer and still describe it as a " home Brew" taste.
We here in NZ on the other hand are not used to "Real Ale" and almost all beer consumed here is filtered commercial beer, which has little or no, live yeast flavour although this is changing more and more. There is still something of a stigma against Home Brew here because non brewers still asscociate all home brew with canned kits, and dare I say it ... that twang ...

[yashicamat]

As has already been mentioned, moving to AG is the best way to get rid of that "home brew taste". All the kits I've tried, both cheap ones with sugar, to full extract ones etc. have all had that flavour. Moving to extract brews and boiling my own hops made a large improvement, adding steeped grains to that (crystal malt etc.) improved that further but to be honest, none of the previous comes close to all grain brewing.

To give you some idea of time, here's what I reckon it takes me for each type of brewing, from start to closing the lid on the fermenter:

Kit - half an hour; heat up cans, sanitise the fermenter, boil some water, top up and add yeast
Extract - 2 hours; bring up at least 2 gallons of water to the boil, add extract and hops (at varying times), boil for 60 mins, cool, then add to fermenter (I sanitise during the boil).
Extract with grain: 2.5 hours, ditto the above, but with half an hour steep of the grains prior to the boil (other things can be done while the steeping takes place)
All-grain: 5.5 to 6 hours (measure out grain, mash it for an hour, remove the sweet wort, wait up to 45 mins for at least 4 gallons to come to the boil, then boil as for the extract procedure).

So as you can see, there is a fair bit more time needed for AG. On the flipside, it costs less once you're up and running (I think I worked out about 35p a pint, compared to about 50p a pint if you're using a decent kit or extract) and the flavour is fantastic. I'd say the distance in flavour between AG and extract is about twice that of the difference between extract and kit beers.

[Bongo]

Have a go fella it's good fun,you will be amazed at what you can create after some fiddling,hoppingmad says some good points there.

[ChrisG]

I cant brew kits now coz of the homebrew taste. All grain doesnt have this at all and tastes amazing!!!

Kit ales just dont compare to All grain. IMHO

[flytact]

yashicamat, you forgot partial mashing. This is a good way to step up into all grain. I did it for two batches and then dove into AG. Partial mashing will give great results with minimal extract additions required.

[booldawg]

Theres not a lot more kit you need for AG. The mash tun, boiler and chiller are the main 'must haves'. I made/bodged all 3 items for about £130. I would say that making 5 gallons of AG can often be cheaper than a decent 3kg kit.

I'd never slate kits, brewing wise its certainly where I came from 12 months ago and there are some very high quality kits out there. I'd have no qualms to brew from kits again if I wasnt able to brew AG. But there is no comparison to when you take your first taste of flat, partially fermented AG from the FV 48 hours into fermenting - you know you're on to something special!

[johnmac]

It's even possible to have a go without a chiller.

[yashicamat]

Plus if you're really serious about it, Hop & Grape do a 10 gallon brewery for about £135 (if I recall correctly) which has a 10 gallon boiler (with tap and strainer), mash tun (with manifold and tap) and a 10 gallon fermenter.