which Yorkshire bitter dry kit?

[steve thailand]

hi everyone

i'm a newbee to brewing although i did make a few batches when i was a kid. now i live in Thailand which is paradise in almost every way except its very expensive to get good English beer.

i'd like to make a Yorkshire style beer like Tetleys (i'm from Leeds) or John Smiths. i'd like to find a dry kit so i can stuff as much as possible in my suitcase when i visit the UK next month. can anyone suggest a good dry kit with a light, fresh tasting Yorkshire bitter taste? I don't really go for the darker IPAs.

by the way, I realise I will have temperature issues trying to brew beer where the temperature never drops below 28degC. I will have to come up with some kind of cool box system to control temperature.

thanks in advance, steve

[Lillywhite]

Try York Brewery Yorkshire Terrier, available from Hop & Grape, or direct from the York Brewery shop and £5 cheaper if you take the tour of the brewery. It's only a few miles from Leeds.

[sib67]

Try York Brewery Yorkshire Terrier, available from Hop & Grape, or direct from the York Brewery shop and £5 cheaper if you take the tour of the brewery. It's only a few miles from Leeds.

I don't believe that's a dry kit, is it? Something like the 'Brewer's Choice' kits would probably be better for stuffing in your suitcase.

[cwrw gwent]

I brewed a Young's Traditional Bitter kit in January and finished it recently. It turned out very well, especially after about six weeks in the bottle and was an easy drinking session ale. It comes in a wood-effect cardboard box with dried malt extract, grains, hops and yeast and the net weight is 1.15kg. Youngs do nine different beers in this range including Yorkshire Bitter.

I also bought a muslin bag (30p) to contain the hops while boiling.

Does anyone remember a dry kit called Yeos which stopped production about six or seven years ago? Thirty years ago Geordie did a highly regarded dry kit too.

[steve thailand]

thanks, it looks like 'HAMBLETON BARD STRONG BITTER 40 PT DRY KIT' might be worth a try too. i guess the best thing is to buy a few different kits and see what works best over here. with differences in temperature and water, not sure quite how it will work out anyhow.

thanks for the input AND I'll definitely try the York Brewery tour too.

[sam c]

hi steve, i just posted a reply on another of your threads. i also live in thailand, in chiang mai. my first kit was a hambleton and bard lager supreme. to be honest i didn't think it made a good lager. if i was you i would go for the brewers chioce kits. ive never done one myself but have read only good things about them.

the way i have been avoiding the heat so far is to wrap my f.v with wet towels and then maybe 2 or 3 times a day pour ice cold water over the towel. i have been able to keep temps around 18-25 c depending on the heat. how ever in the future i think i will be building a cool box like jims one on here.

[KevP]

I'd give Hambleton Bard kits a miss personally, not worth the price saving by a long shot, Brewers Choice would be your best best, still a good price and quality is about as good as you'll get in a kit.

[steve thailand]

hi steve, i just posted a reply on another of your threads. i also live in thailand, in chiang mai. my first kit was a hambleton and bard lager supreme. to be honest i didn't think it made a good lager. if i was you i would go for the brewers chioce kits. ive never done one myself but have read only good things about them.

the way i have been avoiding the heat so far is to wrap my f.v with wet towels and then maybe 2 or 3 times a day pour ice cold water over the towel. i have been able to keep temps around 18-25 c depending on the heat. how ever in the future i think i will be building a cool box like jims one on here.

hi sam, i'm thinking of buying a second hand fridge and modifying the temperature control to get it to right temp for fermentation. i've seen a few circuit diagrams on the web for a temperature controller and i can handle a soldering iron.

i also checked the mailing cost from the UK to Thailand. its not too bad, about 5 pounds for 1.2kg which is about the weight of a dry kit. i figure sending one at a time will attract less attention with customs.

[sam c]

i thought it would be alot more expensive than that, thats not too bad.i got my mum to send me a multi pack of salt and viniger crisps and she said that it cost about a tenner. cheers for the offer but i can get some one to send me stuff from england if i want them too i was more worried about the cost.

i've been looking at some austrailian sites which are actually cheaper than the shops in england from what i've seen. i emailed them last night to see if they will post to thailand and am awaiting a reply. i will let you know when i find out. i am also a little worried about the customs but would rather order a large quantity at a time to save on postage, but it would be risky.

fridge with an added box and temp controll seems like a plan to me. search jims cool box on here if you havent already.

[steve thailand]

sorry to side track my own thread but just to confirm shipping rates from UK
http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/cont ... aId=400393
its more like 7.65GBP for 1.2kg, still not too bad if it gets though customs ok.

i can't find the cool box, can you post a link to it?

I just found this about 'Marston's Pedigree "Uncompromising" Home Brew Kit', sounds a bit complicated:

If you're as uncompromising as we are, you'll go a long way for a perfect pint. Now you can brew your own...

Ingredients

Burton Water

Maris Otter Malted Barley

Fuggles and Goldings Hops

Yeast

Instructions

wait 10,000 years for glacial melt water to filter through Burton-on-Trent's gypsum beds to give the distinctive taste of "Burton Water'

collect water via an artesian well and test rigorously

propagate a single strain of yeast for 170 years through the Burton Union system of brewing

while waiting, go to the Spessart forest in Germany, 180 km north east of Frankfurt and cut down a tall straight oak for Burton Union barrel staves - you'll need at least five cubic metres of oak to make one cubic metre of staves

buy some Fuggles hops from the West Midlands and Goldings hops from Kent at least five years in advance to ensure a consistent supply

blend the Fuggles and Goldings hops together with a third secret ingredient to an ancient recipe unique to Pedigree (if we told you, we'd have to kill you)

while you wait for the hops, build at least two 150 gallon oak casks with a traditional journeyman cooper

assemble the 150 gallon oak casks into a Burton Union set linked by swan neck pipes into a trough above them that will fill with foaming yeast and ale

contract a Shropshire farmer to grow Maris Otter barley - it isn't economical to grow Maris Otter so you will have to pay the farmer a premium price

when you have the barley, malt it in traditional floor maltings, turning the grain each day by hand until the malt is ready for kiln drying

mill the malt into grist, mix with your Burton water and boil into a wort

add your yeast to the cooled wort and send to the Burton Union system to ferment for five to six days

ensure that the brew is checked every two hours during the five or six days for temperature and gravity and make fine adjustments to vary the speed of fermentation

run the fermented beer into casks and add a little sugar, some whole hops and some Isinglas finings (made from the swim bladder of a sturgeon to Pedigree's own unique recipe) to help settle the beer, enhance the aroma and continue its' fermentation at a slower pace

clean the Burton Union set by hand with hot water, a scrubbing brush and elbow grease - it will take one man about a day

rack the Pedigree in a cellar at 50 degree Fahrenheit degrees for two to three days and pull your perfect pint of Pedigree by hand pump into a clean straight glass

lift the tight creamy head to your lips... BUT before you savour the unique taste of Pedigree, do as all experienced Pedigree drinkers do - take a sniff of the uniquely complex aroma, backed by the unmistakeable 'snatch' of Burton water

[sam c]

that was so long that i couldn't even be bothered to read through it all. i think i will stick to my own method, ha ha!!

i got an email back from the ausie home brew sight i was looking at and for 19-20 kg of stuff they recconed it would cost about $215 australian dollars which is like £100. not too bad for that much weight, however alot to loose if customs get hold of it. i recon from ordering this much stuff i could do an extract brew every month for a year and maybe a few extra. this is only a roaugh guess though.

heres the link for jims coolbox viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15172&hilit=cabinet. not sure if that link worked. if not go to the brewing equiptment section and search cool box construction and it should come up.