Brewferm belgian kits anyone?

[guest5234]

Fancy trying a trappist beer from these kits, anyone tried these kits?

[DRB]

I've done the Brewferm Abbey,nice and dark and malty.used 500g light spraymalt instead of sugar with the head lasting all the way down.

I've also done the Diablo, but that went pears up somewhere along the line and had to bin it ,but overall people seem to give them the thumbs up.

[bitter_dave]

Go for it

I've made the Grand Cru, which I think is nice but it did take quite a while to reach it's best; I probably made it five months ago, and it is now a really nice beer, but it took a few months to get there IMO.

[guest5234]

In the past i've found these kits to give good results but I definately recommend replacing the sugar either completely or at least mostly with spray malt.

Thanks for replys, do the kits have that different "taste" of the strong belgian beers, if you know what I mean.

[Vossy1]

I've done the abbey and I've got the x-mas bottled, though wether it'll make it to x-mas is another matter

Can't remember the abbey, though no doubt it was good.

The x-mas is a very heavy, fruity, delicious and strong.

Fairly typical Belgium, though not quite the same, but as a 1 can kit, an amazing result really, with no added sugar

[steve_flack]

The 'Belgian' taste is pretty much down to a combination of yeast strain and fermentation temperature (also using a fair amount of sugar to stop the beers getting too sweet in the heavy beers). If you looked at the grain and hops for a Belgian Pale Ale there's probably not much difference between it and a British Ale (slightly less hops perhaps). The yeasts are the key.

[flything]

I made the Amber one 6 weeks ago and tried it for the first time last night, not very nice , I did use dextrose monohydrate rather than spray malt or belgian candy sugar so maybe thats why.

[guest5234]

I made the Amber one 6 weeks ago and tried it for the first time last night, not very nice , I did use dextrose monohydrate rather than spray malt or belgian candy sugar so maybe thats why.

think I will give it a miss, 8% is to heavy for me, I like a lot of ale,

[beardybrewer]

I had a great experience with the Triple and used candi sugar to prime. I just made my own Belgian Strong Ale and used the same technique. Nice way to add the sweetness without going thru a ton of candi sugar.

I've also tried their Abbey, Christmas, and have the Old Bruin on hand left to try. I think the Triple was hands down the winner and had it back to back with a Chimay Blue and was not disappointed.

I'd strongly recommend doing 2 kits at the same time as the small batches won't last. They are so well priced doing 2 isn't much more than a decent 3kg kit.

[Talheedin]

Hi All,

Very new here so all advice welcome.

I'm hoping to find a kit that'll taste similar to a Lief Blonde (my favourite beer at the minute). Do any of these brewfirm kits come close? Am I being too adventurous for my first attempt?

And, would you use the same method as used for the Brupak kits in:

http://www.18000feet.com/brupaks/my_met ... s_kits.htm

If there's no such kit then what would you recommend for a novice? (I like the darker, more hoppy beers and the crisp lagers that you can drink in Europe.

Thanks

Talheedin

[davidson]

I am just 5 days into brewing my first brewferm pils and the SG has already reached 1010. In the provided instructions it says this should take 10 days. Is it now ok to bottle or should i wait another few days.

[clootie]

Just checked back on my own records. I did the Pils in Feb (20L) version. After 5 days it hit 1008. I racked it and left for another few days but it didn't drop any further so I bottled. Nice beer but I found it took about three months to reach its peak.

[davidson]

Think i will wait for the full 10 days. Did you syphon the beer into another fermentor before adding the extra 165g of sugar? The problem i have is that i dont have one. So i was going to add 2 teaspoons of sugar straight into every litre bottle of the brew.

[davidson]

Cheers DaaB. Would i bottle the brew staright after adding the sugar, or should i wait a day. I was just thinking that any stirring would disturb the beer no matter how gently i did it?

[davidson]

Thanks again Daab for your help.