Hambleton Bard - Bitter Kit (wet) - tips please

[phil.s]

HB have kindly sent me some of their 'Bitter' canned kits as a thankyou forwarding details of my local homebrew shops which weren't selling their S30 refills.

Has anyone tried these kits and do you have any tips you can give me to make the most of them. I intend using spray malt instead of sugar. To strengthen it would putting more spray malt in help rather than making less than 40 pints which I'm loathe to do.

[TC2642]

I got one too, for exactly the same reason! Yeah, I would put a kilo or so of spray malt into it, it'll boost the strength without losing any of the body.

I would also suggest that you use another yeast if you have any since the one under the cap is likely to be too old to use.

[bungle666]

yup, heres another one in the free hambleton bard kit association!

I was just gonna chuck in a kilo of BKE and short brew to 20L.... I might make a starter in sugar water for the yeast if its a bit "iffy" date wise, but most likely i wont as im lazy and cant be arsed!

B..

[TC2642]

Bungle,

Don't make a starter with sugar, this will get the yeast used to the more simple sugars when it actually needs to feed off the more complex sugars produced during the start of fermentation. You'd be better off just rehydrating it.

In the end I did a 50/50 split with sugar and malt extract since the latter is fairly expensive to pick up. Must say that I haven't made a kit for around 10 years now and the smell when I started it off really bought me back to my early years of brewing.

[spud]

My shop doesn't sell cylinders either but whats the point in getting a free kit if I can't gas it up?? can't be doing with all the hassle of bottling.
Why aren't they supplying the shops in the first place?

[TC2642]

My shop doesn't sell cylinders either but whats the point in getting a free kit if I can't gas it up?? can't be doing with all the hassle of bottling.
Why aren't they supplying the shops in the first place?

It's not them, it's the middle men who supply the shops. I got a kit because my local homebrew supplier now deals with them directly rather than where they were getting them before.

[bungle666]

and i got one, cos i was cheeky and asked! LOL!

B..

[TC2642]

and i got one, cos i was cheeky and asked! LOL!

B..

[bungle666]

just an update, finally got to putting mine in today, half kilo of spraymalt, half kilo of brew sugar. OG 1.041, wort 20L, so it should wind up around 4% ISH! smells pretty good TBH!

quite light in colour, so im hoping its a nice light summery brew!

Cheers

B..

[Paul_inYork]

Let us know what it ends up like. I mailed the names of a couple of local brew shops to them, and even though they were already aware, they said they'd send me a kit to try anyway!

[TC2642]

Tried a bit of the lager today, 50/50 spraymalt and sugar, threw out the yeast supplied and went with Muntons instead and it's ok, not really to my taste but much better than a lot of the mass produced lagers out there. I suppose it's more a steam beer since I fermented it out at 20oC, it would probably work best with something like SO5 to give a neutral yeast taste.

[bungle666]

Hambleton bard bitter...... is actually quite nice! I certainly wouldn't object to another one!

Its a bit "green" yet (only been in bottle 5 days) but its clear, fairly crisp and quite bitter! I reckon in a few weeks this will be a superb pint!

thanks hambleton bard!

B..

[phil.s]

Got around to brewing the HB bitter kit. Used amber spraymalt instead of sugar.

Very disappointing to say the least. Reminds me of a Young's bitter kit I did a couple of years ago. It tastes like homebrew.

[bungle666]

Got around to brewing the HB bitter kit. Used amber spraymalt instead of sugar.

Very disappointing to say the least. Reminds me of a Young's bitter kit I did a couple of years ago. It tastes like homebrew.

seriously phil, leave it a few weeks! mines been in the bottle 2 1/2 months (bottled 08/05/11) and i tried a bottle last night, its come good!

A REALLY nice pint!

B..

[phil.s]

Leaving beer around for more than a couple of weeks isn't an option. I have to drink it. So long as it's clear I'm swilling it.

Woodefordes Wherry has been my favourite for a few years. I get through about 20 pints of it a week. A week in the fermenter and two weeks thereafter doing its secondary stiffening up and it's as good as the best brew from the pub.

Horses for courses.