Recommend a kit for the colder weather?

[Beard]

Hi everyone,

I've been merrily making kitted stouts, bitters, ginger beers and the odd IPA for a while now, and have just freed up a FV from bottling a ginger beer last weekend. With the cold weather well and truly settling in, my thoughts are turning to a doing a kit which will be happy with the lower ambient temperature during primary fermentation.

I'm going home for Christmas somewhere around the third week in December, and I want to leave something bubbling in the FV for a couple of weeks at the most while I'm gone. With heating on low (just for the pipes sake!) it'll be a bit nippy in the flat, so I'm thinking something in a lager or pale ale. Can anyone suggest a kit that would fit the bill? So far my own thoughts are Coopers Aussie Ale or maybe one of the Brupack no-boil pilsners. I'm looking for something to bottle around New Year and then stash at the back of a cupboard until Spring, when the weather heats up and I'm tired of stouts and dark ales.

As a random aside, any good porter kits out there?

Thanks!

[Geezah]

Any larger kit with a bottom fermenting yeast fits the 10c ferment temps.
Or any other kit with a larger yeast

[dunc]

the brupaks 'beers of the world' czech pilsner is a nice one.

as for a portery beer, I like Almondbury old meself, woodfordes nog is good but a bit chewy for my taste and took quite a while to condition fully.

[Ditch]

Beard; Best 'kit' I can suggest is a decent 50 Watt aquarium heater / stat.

I mean, the last thing I'd want to be guzzling in this freeze is cold lager Winter's the time for nice, dark, 'warming' ales, isn't it?

So, how about approach ye 'problem' from the other side? Instead of letting the weather dictate ye fermentations; Take control of the situation

Why not consider the Porter / Stout type ales ye've done already? Wouldn't one of those be nice to sit with of a dark evening? It's easy to do. The room I ferment in is freezing! But, I just drop a heater into my FV's and carry on regardless.

Now; Producing a nice, cold lager, in the heat of a flash summer? That too can be done. But, it's not half as easy as what I'm suggesting. But, using a heater would be the first step towards governing ye beer making.

Just don't touch the Chinese crap sold on the Bay. Go to an established Aquarists shop. German heaters are good

[Beard]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone

@Ditch - Atm I've got 30 bottles of stout approaching 6 weeks in the bottle. That's my winter drinking as you're quite right, this weather demands something dark and malty (of course, I should have made more!). I was thinking of getting a lager done now as well though, then leaving it to condition until the Spring as I'm quite bad at leaving brews in the bottle long enough to really reach their potential. I've got two FV's, so I might go with a pilsner in one and a porter in the other, keeping the porter in the boiler cupboard where it's fairly warm and leaving the pilsner by the balcony windows where it's b*llocks-rattlingly cold. Best of both worlds!

PS my favourite stout so far is a variation on your approach to the Coopers kit, where I swap in dark dme and muscavado sugar. It gets a great licorice aftertaste and a dark brown head, smashing

[jack1921]

Beard; Best 'kit' I can suggest is a decent 50 Watt aquarium heater / stat.

I mean, the last thing I'd want to be guzzling in this freeze is cold lager Winter's the time for nice, dark, 'warming' ales, isn't it?

So, how about approach ye 'problem' from the other side? Instead of letting the weather dictate ye fermentations; Take control of the situation

Why not consider the Porter / Stout type ales ye've done already? Wouldn't one of those be nice to sit with of a dark evening? It's easy to do. The room I ferment in is freezing! But, I just drop a heater into my FV's and carry on regardless.

Now; Producing a nice, cold lager, in the heat of a flash summer? That too can be done. But, it's not half as easy as what I'm suggesting. But, using a heater would be the first step towards governing ye beer making.

Just don't touch the Chinese crap sold on the Bay. Go to an established Aquarists shop. German heaters are good

to right ditch .i brought 2 last week of the bay,£7 each,brewed beer last night,put the fv in a tub as recommended,cheacked temp ect,put the heater in,left it for 20 mins before switching on so to enable to get used to water temp.heater came on got up this morning all was ok,got back from work this evening ,heater had packed up brew inside fv verry cold and water outside fv in tub ice cold,but drinking a lovely admirals reserve at the moment that was brewed in the summer,my advise is brew as many as you can in the warmer weather ready for the winter.so yes avoid the cheap crap.

[Ditch]

muscavado sugar. It gets a great licorice aftertaste and a dark brown head, smashing

Phwooar! Steady on, mate! Much more of that and we'll all be making " Beard's Stout " !

I haven't used that Muscavado in decades. Now ye mention it though; It does do something to a brew that no other sugar quite manages, doesn't it? Bit like; There's sugar. White. Brown. Demorerra. Raw Cane. What ever. Then there's Muscovado! Really is quite out there on its own, isn't it?

Giving me ideas here .....

[Andris]

depending on your taste, you can mix up a brew of your choice and change kit yeast to lager yeast and leave it fermenting at 9-10C
well, I doubt stout would taste good that way, but rest should be fine imho!