First kit's not even out of the fermenter yet and I'm already itching to make another H&G order...
I'd like to try making two completely different styles for my next two brews. I enjoy pale ales but don't like bland lager so was thinking of making up a Cooper's kit with spraymalt but boiling with 150g crystal malt and some decent hops before fermentation. Does this sound reasonable? What hops would you suggest?
I'd also like to try a dark porter / stout type beer but a bit worried about putting this one into bottles. Do I need to invest in a keg before I can start making this kind of beer?
My next brew...
-
J_P
From personal experience you can't fall off with coopers IPA.
I'm not too sure about boiling the kit with the crystal malt will give the desired result I thought you had to steep it at around mash temperature (65-68C) for an hour or so in order for the enzymes to do their stuff and release more malt. Once you've steeped it you could give it a quick boil to sterilise the wort - that certainly wouldn't hurt, as long as it was a short boil so as not to boil off too much of the hop aroma from the kit.
On the subject of hops why not try dry hopping in either late primary for a week or in the keg? It will mean that you add the fresh aroma without any of the bitterness. This involves putting 10-15g of hops into a sterilised (10 minute boil) mesh bag and slinging it into either the fermenter or keg. I have had good results with East Kent Goldings (think Summer Lightning), I would also imagine Styrian Goldings or Bramling Cross would be good too. A PM to FiveTide may be in order, he's the man to speak to about tweaking kits - he made the newsletter don't you know
.
Why are you nervous about putting stout into bottles? I bottle nearly all of my beer and haven't had any problems so far (touch wood!).
Whatever you chose post a thread with some pics in the brewdays forum, I'm sure there are other kit brewers that would be interested to see how you "pimp" your kit, plus everyone loves pictures of brewdays
I'm not too sure about boiling the kit with the crystal malt will give the desired result I thought you had to steep it at around mash temperature (65-68C) for an hour or so in order for the enzymes to do their stuff and release more malt. Once you've steeped it you could give it a quick boil to sterilise the wort - that certainly wouldn't hurt, as long as it was a short boil so as not to boil off too much of the hop aroma from the kit.
On the subject of hops why not try dry hopping in either late primary for a week or in the keg? It will mean that you add the fresh aroma without any of the bitterness. This involves putting 10-15g of hops into a sterilised (10 minute boil) mesh bag and slinging it into either the fermenter or keg. I have had good results with East Kent Goldings (think Summer Lightning), I would also imagine Styrian Goldings or Bramling Cross would be good too. A PM to FiveTide may be in order, he's the man to speak to about tweaking kits - he made the newsletter don't you know
.Why are you nervous about putting stout into bottles? I bottle nearly all of my beer and haven't had any problems so far (touch wood!).
Whatever you chose post a thread with some pics in the brewdays forum, I'm sure there are other kit brewers that would be interested to see how you "pimp" your kit, plus everyone loves pictures of brewdays
-
dan_olo
Thanks for the advice. Do I need to steep the grain with all of the wort or will I be okay steeping with the 'rinse outs' from the can? This is what I did with the hops in my Fixby Gold and it seemed to go well.
I will definitely take some pictures of my next brewday - didn't want to do compound my inexperience the first time by trying to capture it on camera but I feel a little more confident now.
I will definitely take some pictures of my next brewday - didn't want to do compound my inexperience the first time by trying to capture it on camera but I feel a little more confident now.