For this years Christmas brew I want to "spice" it up a bit and add something extra to a kit.
I guess there is an art to this type of thing and knowing which kit works with which type of ingredient is probably a good start.
I've seen quite a few posts about adding spices like cinnamon on both this and the Content deleted in accordance with forum rules. but no one ever seems to really answer the question - mostly the replies seem to be about all grain mashing or boliing the kits - Something I never do (the misses hates the smell)
So any advice or experience on adding extra ingredients when using a kit (without boiling it) would be useful.
I've tried messing around with kits before, but the results never seem to come out as well as expected or as well as just following the instructions. Even when doing things like using two 1.5kg kits instead of 1 kit and 1Kg of brewing sugar. And some kits taste terrible with beer enhancer while others are much improved.
Am I expecting too much of a kit and should perhaps consider all grain mashing or has anyone else tried playing around with kits and had successful results?
Adding spices to kits
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maxashton
You're probably expecting a bit more from the kit than you're likely to get. You could make spice tea for the spices tho. Whack them in a pan with a couple of litres of boiling water, boil spices for 10-15 minutes then strain it into your fermenter instead of using a couple of kettlefulls of hot water to dissolve the kit.