Which kit??

[Mark White]

Hi all,
I'm new to home brewing and have failed at my first kit (Youngs lager) and I'm now conditioning a Coopers Draught kit.
Hoping that one works out OK If it does I'm looking to move onto a different kit but not sure which to choose??!!

I like pale ales so was thinking of an IPA kit but not sure which one and quite like honey'd ale so was going to go for an IPA and add honey but little unsure as when and how much etc.

I like the beers below so any kit reccomendations to go with my taste would be very much appreciated!!
One of favourites = Wychwood BeeWyched Honey'd Ale
- St Peters Organic Ale
- St Peters India Pale Ale
- St Austell Tribute
- Bombardier
- Daleside Greengrass Old Rouge Ale- only had it this weekend and only got one bottle. Bought from a shop from Goathland village where they film Heartbeat

I'd really like to make the BeeWyched but kinda worried about it being a little too difficult with kit brewing, not really got space/equipment for 'proper' brewing and want to see if I can actually get a successful brew too

Hope someone can help

[Mark White]

Nice one, I'll get trying some differnet kits to find one I like then first of all.
After that I'll try the honey and see what I can come up with!

Thank for the advice

[Operator]

I'm currently drinking a coopers brewmaster IPA made with 1kg of light spray malt. It's a nice easy drinking pint and came out at about 4.25%. I would recommend coopers as reliable kits.

[sam c]

I'm currently drinking a coopers brewmaster IPA made with 1kg of light spray malt. It's a nice easy drinking pint and came out at about 4.25%. I would recommend coopers as reliable kits.

i'll second that "coopers as reliable kits". im just finishing off my coopers ausie pale ale, brewed with 1kg beer enhancer.it taste's so good, i wish i had much much more.nice fruity taste, easy drinking beer. 4 or 5 pints of thi goes down too easy. i was very impressed and this was my second beer, i would deffinatley reccomend this

[brewin_bear]

Hi all,
I'm new to home brewing and have failed at my first kit (Youngs lager)

Why did that kit fail? You need to work that out before doing something else really so you don't make the same mistake(s) again.

[Mark White]

Truth is I have no idea, the only facts I know are:-
It's very flat, Cloudy and tastes nasty
I did knida rush through the kit in all my excitement at doing my first brew - maybe I did something wrong in that stage. And I used tap water.
I did however follow the instructions best I could, however I used Beer enhancer because I didn't have any brewing sugar and didn't know that normal sugar could be used!

Hoping that my coopers kit turns out good, I took a lot more care with it and its in the second barrel I bought.

I havent thrown the lager away yet as maybe it will improver given longer - only had 3 weeks in pressure barrel so far.

[mercilessrich]

I'm not hugely experienced, hewever my first 3 brews were all problematic. Can you describe the smell/taste (i'm sure someone here can help with whats gone wrong)?

Did you use a hydrometer? V improtant to check progress daily, I had a brew with 'stuck' fermentation.
Did you keg your first (flat) brew? If so was the flatness due to leaky barrel or failure of priming? And what did you prime with? From what most ppl say here its difficult to get the pressure high enough in a keg for lagers. With lager it is important however to leave in the cold to condition for some time. Ive had mine in the garage for over a month and they're only just becoming good.

Tapwater can be a problem with some areas having high chlorine- I delieve it causes a TCP like smell. As I understand it hard water itself isn't a problem. You can use a campden (?) tablet to remove this before brewing, however I have no experience of this.

My only other suggestion would be hygiene and sterilisation, which I'm guessing you're already aware of. And yeast- I've found in my limmited experience that decent (ie safale-04) yeast makes all the difference in a fast, full fermentation. Worth the extra IMHO. Hope this helps.

[Mark White]

Well Ive had some progress today,
Due to no work for today I thought I'd investigate the lager and check on the coopers kit

Lager first - It smelt like lager, looked like cloudy lager but tasted Off, I think I may have had an infection in it and the flatness was due to the pressure barrel lid - The seal wasn't seated correctly in the lid which meant that only 3/4's of the seal was actually sealed. So air leak caused that.

Ahh well, used it as experience and chucked it down the drain - Think I'll stick to Ale from now on

Then checked the coopers kit - drew off a small sample and wow there's some bloody pressure in that one!
Was very impressed reall - only slightly cloudy and smelt tasted ok allbeit a bit green (I believe thats the right terminology)
so bearing in mind its only had 10 days in the pressure barrel, all is looking good so far!

That kinda spured me on to get another kit on the go.
So I went down to BrewMart and got my first all malt 3kg kit, Milestone Crusader took my fancy so that and some more tubing so I can reach the bottom of the barrel when moving from the FV. Then went to Asda and got 10 bottles of Smart price still water.
Brewed it up this afternoon and took my time making sure everything was steralised correctly and rinsed correctly afterwards.
Followed the instructions to the letter and all went pretty damn

so to conclude hopefully I'll have myself 40 pints of Coopers Draught ready soon whilst the Crusader is conditioning

[Typhoon Tyke]

Returning to homebrew after a break of about 20 years I was amazed how much kits had improved. I'm currently working through the Brupak Pride of YorKshire catalogue (obviously) and have had excellent results from every one I've made. I'm not a particularly fastidious brewer and not too bothered about tweaking things too much but these kits do give you some scope to modify the taste. I like to brew a decent beer and sup it!

I've used other kits (although not Coopers yet which seem to get much praise) and so far all have been perfectly acceptable beers from 3kg extract kits but the Brupaks produces quite an authentic taste. Have a go at their Birkby Bitter and give it a good blast of the extra hops you get with it.

Don't be put off by a few naff brews. My first attempt in Jan 2008 was pretty bad but drinkable, the second was appalling but on storing for 12 months has become much better, the third was good - since then I haven't looked back - no real failures and a shed full of beer.

Interested to hear how the Milestone Crusader turns out, that's next up for me and fancying it already.

[brysie]

hey mark?

looking at your list of favored beers there i cant help wondering what you were doing brewing a lager?

[escapizm]

HI Mark, seems we like the same tipples (see signature), I too like an IPA and have opted for the Brewmaker IPA, not to costly if, as yours has, goes pair shaped.

I would review your cleaning regime, are you using chlorine based cleaner? I did to begin with but disliked the constant rinsing, I now use an Idophor solution based on Iodine (search "rinse free" cleaners).

I’ve read good reviews about the Woodfordes Wherry "a good session beer" which is hopped extract only so requires no sugar, I hope the quality to be a bit better than the IPA but I’ve not tasted either yet.

[Mark White]

The lager looked the best of the Youngs kits at the time I was buying my equipment (Sunday afternoon impulse buying for the win!!)
Don't think I'll be going for a lager again, well maybe in summer for bbq's etc

I use Richies Steriliser and to be honest after todays brewing and taking further time and care I'm pretty happy with my progress hope I've not cursed myself now!

I'm thinking of going for an IPA with added honey soon, might try a few other kits and follow them first to make sure I'm fully getting the hang of stuff.


On another note - Freecycle, how good is that!!
Registered today and ended up picking some laminate flooring up tonight, 3 packs of £20 a packs worth
Tomorrow I think I'm picking up some grolsch swing top bottles and also been offered 10 magners bottles by another user..........

ALL FOR FREE Loving it and can't wait to have a good house clearing and return the good vibes!

[StrangeBrew]

I've just brewed a Best of British IPA, it's a two can kit so requires no extra fermentables. I cut the brew length from 23lt down to 20ltr giving an OG of 1046 and an FG of 1013 and approx abv 4.42%. It's turned out to be a pleasent, easy drinking beer with a good hoppy finish.
I'll definitely be doing this one again! Although originally made by Vina, I hope it hasn't changed as I think it's now made by Muntons.

[Mark White]

Well success

The coopers kit worked out ok - had my first pint tonight and it tasted great, can only imagine it's gonna get better through time!



Nice and clear and a great head on it that stayed on all the way to empty glass!
Very chuffed indeed


Now I'm thinking of getting another brew on the go and doing a honeyd ale with an IPA kit, might just bottle this one though, not sure yet.

Does anyone have any advise on bottling my coopers kit now that its ready? I'm wanting to bottle some to take round to friends/family to show off my brew and also to chill in the fridge a little more before drinking.
I tried bottling one the other day and left it in the fridge. After opening today it was very flat and didn't taste right so I must have done something wrong