Cheap beer kits: is it possible to make them good?

[WishboneBrewery]

Cheap beer kits: is it possible to make them good drinking?

You can get a 'Youngs 40 pint Harvest Bitter' kit for £7.82 from http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... _Kits.html
Might this be a good kit to buy if I was to want to play about with additional hops and crushed grains?

[sparky Paul]

I've always found the Geordie kits a good base for tinkering, particularly the Bitter and Mild, you can get them for £7.49 at Brewmart.

The Mild I have on supping now is pretty good, made up with 1Kg of spraymalt, and added Chocolate Malt, Crystal Malt, and a few Progress hops.

[WishboneBrewery]

Just spotted a £6.99 kit at Wilkinsons http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/invt/0022676 *sold out*

How about 'Geordie Beer Making Kit Yorkshire Bitter' would it suck if you added dark spray malt, or would light do it more justice? Would you just replace the 1kg of sugar with 1kg of dry spray malt?
And... what would happen if you used dry Wheat spray malt? Would it have a significant effect?

cheers

[sparky Paul]

How about 'Geordie Beer Making Kit Yorkshire Bitter' would it suck if you added dark spray malt, or would light do it more justice? Would you just replace the 1kg of sugar with 1kg of dry spray malt?
And... what would happen if you used dry Wheat spray malt? Would it have a significant effect?

The Yorkshire Bitter is okay, I'd certainly make it up with light or medium spraymalt, and perhaps add some fuggles. I like fuggles.

I'm not sure how wheat spraymalt would go with a bitter...

[boingy]

Cheap lager kits can make great lagers. Replace the 1kg sugar with 1kg Golden Syrup (tesco value stuff is fine) and boil 15 grams of Halletauer hops for 10 minutes in a couple of pints of water then strain out the hops and add the water to the kit. Make up the rest of the kit as normal. Ferment at normal room temps if using the kit yeast or get proper lager yeast and ferment for longer at a lower temp (13 degrees ish).

Great summer drinking.

[WishboneBrewery]

Only one way to find out I suppose... I've had Wheat beer that has been more like a bitter with wheat before though.

Nice Lager tip there too

[sparky Paul]

Halletauer hops are great for lagers, but Saaz is my favourite.

Also, if you boil the hops in a little wort, you will get better extraction from the hops. If you rinse the can out with boiling water, the resulting liquor does the job nicely - two can fulls is ideal. I also steep some hops after boiling, to give a good aroma.

[WishboneBrewery]

before long I will have a growing list of brewing consumables...

Cheers for answering my ever growing list of questions too

[sparky Paul]

before long I will have a growing list of brewing consumables...

Cheers for answering my ever growing list of questions too

No problem.

[LemonD]

What would be the result of reducing the volume of water of a Geordie bitter to 18l but leaving the sugar content at 1Kg?

[WishboneBrewery]

excellent

[garwatts]

I did a Geordie Yorkshire Bitter on 7th January straight from the can as per instructions and 1Kg of Tate & Lyle (as advised by Ken at Arkwrights). Just finished drinking it! Very enjoyable. Will do another and experiment a bit more.

[Parva]

I've got a Geordie Yorkshire Bitter kit fermenting right now and a Geordie Bitter kegged which we're drinking. The Bitter is absolutely crystal clear and while it's not a bad pint you can tell it's homebrew (compared side by side with my AG stuff). We (well my Dad) made both up with glucose sugar rather than table sugar (bought it from H&G when I ordered my AG brewing kit and wanted to use it up) and both were made up to nearer 35 than 40 pints. For £7.99 from Wilkinsons I certainly can't grumble.

[cwrw gwent]

I'm a big fan of the Geordie range, especially if brewed using spraymalt. The result is good quality, value for money session ale at about 3.7% which seems to go down well with friends and my son (and his thirsty friends). No hangover the next day and all this for 31pence a pint! One cheap kit which didn't impress me was the Young's definitive bitter, even when I added hops. It was eminently drinkable, but a bit wishy-washy (for want of a better description). Far from being a definitive bitter it was nearer in style to a mild.

[brianboru]

I used the definitive bitter with .5kg malt extract and .250 g brown sugar/ 200g black malt 200g Raosted barley with some progress hops which i left sit in boiled water in the empty tin while fiddling round made VERY nice stout