New American style kits

[Monkeybrew]

Just saw these online.

http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/beerkits/ ... beers.html

Looking along the same lines as Bulldog and Festival kits.

MB

[BertB]

well that's:

http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/beerkits/ ... -40pt.html

another to add to the list of ones I want to try!

[Fuzzy-felt]

I've just received two boxes of each of these kits (whilst they were on offer at BrewUK), as they looked interesting. I usually brew double batches, as the band I play in wallop it down like nobody's business.
I've opened up the boxes, and here's what you get:

American Amber Ale
3kg pouch of LME
600g of Brewing Sugar
100g hop pellets (Pacific Jade, Summit, Cluster) for dry-hopping
10g Newcastle Dark Ale yeast
small bag of priming sugar

American Pale Ale
3kg pouch of LME
600g of Brewing Sugar
60g hop pellets (Centennial, Columbus) for dry-hopping
15g US West Coast yeast
small bag of priming sugar

American IPA
3kg pouch of LME
1kg of Brewing Sugar
100g hop pellets (Simcoe, Centennial, Chinook) for dry-hopping
15g US West Coast yeast
small bag of priming sugar

My question would be, has anyone any experience of making these kits, and would there be any suggested modifications? My main concern here is the use of Brewing Sugar - would I be better off substituting it with a similar quantity (perhaps a little more to achieve the intended strength) of DME?

Any thoughts on this, anyone?

Cheers,

Mark.

[Liverpool-Lad]

For the IPA maybe go 50/50 on sugar and light DME?

[6470zzy]

would I be better off substituting it with a similar quantity (perhaps a little more to achieve the intended strength) of DME?

Any thoughts on this, anyone?

Cheers,

Mark.

Certainly, go ahead and replace the brewing sugar with the spray malt, you will be better off for it.

Cheers

[turbo 2011]

Just got the IPA one never started it yet as both my fv are full at mo will be interested in how that one turns out for you . Kit cost a lot of money to start adding spraymalts at an extra cost but if it's only 50/50 what's that £3 extra .

[Fuzzy-felt]

Thank you for the replies.

I think I'm going to make the A.P.A. kit first and use a 500g bag of light DME and about 200g of brewing sugar in lieu of the 600g bag of brewing sugar supplied with the kit (I think I read somewhere that you add 20% when substituting DME for brewing sugar). This will add about £3.30 to the price - hopefully my local Wilco has got some in stock whilst their 25% discount offer is still on!

I'm going to have a fair bit of brewing sugar left over - maybe I'll get a few lollies and make a big dip bag. Can you still get traffic light lollies?

Cheers,
Mark.

[Fuzzy-felt]

Mmmmm.... have I got that 120% DME = 100% brewing sugar thing the wrong way round?

[Liverpool-Lad]

Thats right, its less fermentable.

[Fuzzy-felt]

In the end I decided to keep exactly to the instructions to see how it ends up, and will then look at making tweaks for the other kits in this range, or if I make the same one again.

So far things are going well with the APA. It has a wonderful light colour to it. I'll post details of what this turns out like.

Cheers,
Mark.

[Donald]

I'd say stick to the instructions, at least for the first Brew.
The festival razorback IPA kit also has 3kg malt extract plus brewing sugar and that certainly didn't lack body etc from using sugar.

[6470zzy]

In the end I decided to keep exactly to the instructions to see how it ends up, and will then look at making tweaks for the other kits in this range, or if I make the same one again.

So far things are going well with the APA. It has a wonderful light colour to it. I'll post details of what this turns out like.

Cheers,
Mark.

When you brew the Amber Ale, I would be interested to hear what you think of the Newcastle Dark Ale yeast? Post it up , thanks

Cheers

[Fuzzy-felt]

When you brew the Amber Ale, I would be interested to hear what you think of the Newcastle Dark Ale yeast? Post it up , thanks

Will do. Might be a little while, though, as I need to do a few AG brews to use up a load of ingredients that are getting close to their best by dates.

[Fuzzy-felt]

This APA kit has been a really slow burner through the fermentation period. After 25 days the SG was steady at 1.012 over 48 hours, so I removed the krausen and added the dry hops. Now, after 29 days, I have decided to keg it. The FG appears to be 1.011 giving me an ABV of 5.3% (the box says 5.6%), but I'm not too fussed about that. Having being a bit underwhelmed by the taste at day 25, I must say that, after dry hopping, the taste and aroma is very, very encouraging.

I'm going to get 2.5 corny kegs out of this double batch, and I think I'll use isinglass finings in the half keg and one of the full ones (I expect to be able to drink these within a week), and just leave the other one to mature for a month or so.

I've got high hopes!

Cheers,

Mark.

[bob3000]

The newcaste ale yeast is a poor attenuator. The sugar will probably help dry it out.