cant get motivated to brew again

[pongobilly]

i havent done ant homebrew kits for ages and just cant get any enthusiasm to do so, i did quite a few kits but never really did any that made me want to keep brewing, they never seemed right even though i bought loads of kit and took loads of tips from here

i think this is because im such a real ale fan and expect to make a kit that tastes like what i get in pubs or bottles, i really want to start again but just dont know if i can face making just another below average tasting kit

[BazC]

Which kits have you tried? I've only done a couple of brews since restarting homebrew recently but the two can kits (A Wherry and St.Peter's Ruby Red) I've tried are just as good as many pub beers. After a few more I'm going to try harvesting yeast from a commercial ale and try brewing with that - hopefully that will bump the quality up another notch!

[john_drummer]

Try brew in a bag. You choose the grains, hops and yeast and brew from a recipe of your Own choice

[oz11]

Try brew in a bag. You choose the grains, hops and yeast and brew from a recipe of your Own choice

+1
BIAB, or perhaps extract brewing, would be worth looking at. Maybe you've gone as far with kits as you can, and it's time to go to the darkside

[mickhew]

Your post made me laugh "hello, I can't be arsed to get a brew on, I've done it before, didn't really like it" . You are a source of inspiration!
Only joking, seriously I know what you mean. I was drinking a Coopers Old ale last night, and thought to myself "is this really anything like an old ale? it tasted very mediocre. I remind myself it's only 45p a pint, and over £3 in my local, that's what keeps me going. If in doubt, stick on a stout.

[OvenHiker]

IMHO you are probably always going to be a bit disappointed with the results from canned beer kits, if you are expecting to get something as good as your favourite real ale.

If you've not tried extract brewing, have a go at boiling some hopped extract (either from a kit or hopped extract) and adding some aroma hops for the last 5 or 10 mins. See if that improves things. Brewers Choice kits are another option. Some have real hop additions.

It's still possible to make good beer from kits. Concentrating your effort in ensuring cleanliness, correct yeast pitching rates and controlling fermentation temperature should give better results. In fact this is true of whether you are brewing kit, BIAB or all-grain.

[Jocky]

I think the stuff from Brupaks is generally pretty close to top quality real ale you'd get in a pub.

[Twistedfinger]

Try steeping some speciality grains and perhaps adding a few hops to change the kit slightly. This can make a suprising difference. or try extract brewing. I think the more effort you put into a brew the more you get out of it. Or dare I say it,,go AG..its a lot easier than you think and its well worth the extra effort.

[Kev888]

It may be that you're choosing the wrong kits for your own personal taste, or are fermenting too warm or adding lots of sugar (instead of malt) or something along those lines, but if not then maybe kits just aren't for you. I would never put down kits, they do an astounding job these days and I'm more than happy to drink the better ones, but the only way I have ever managed to make ales that can truly rival the better microbrewery offerings has been with all-grain brewing.

However all-grain takes a lot more time and effort than kit brewing (and theres more to get right), so if motivation is an issue it could be that this isn't for you either; lets face it, by the nature of this site most people on here are home brewers, but there are plenty of people out there who appreciate good beer yet don't brew it themselves. IMHO to make it worthwhile then as well as appreciating good beer, you've probably got to either have much more time than money (which is why I started) and/or enjoy the process and satisfaction of brewing itself (which is why I still do it). There is excellent microbrewery-type stuff you can just buy from many places these days, which is comparable in quality; however for me its more that I can choose to brew exactly what I want, making ales to my personal taste and of types not normally available off the shelf (and in a few cases being more extravagant with hops etc than would likely make commercial sense).

If the AG process doesn't sound like your bag, and if you've tried the better kits, maybe you could consider extract brewing. I was reminded recently that things have come on since the days I did most of my extract brews, and there are higher quality dried malt extracts available now. Its possible that you may find it motivates you more, if you get to play with ingredients and recipies and produce your own unique brews, yet without as much time/effort/equipment as grain brewing needs.

Cheers
Kev

[wortAndAll]

Hmm it's funny - I was about to start a thread saying the exact opposite. I've started brewing about 3 months ago and was pleased with the results but was worried it might be a case of 'motherly love'. However over the festive period I had a number of guests to sample these brews and the reviews were good!

So my question was going to be how can my novice created beer be better than many of the mass produced beers? (Although I wasn't comparing my beer to 'real ale')

I notice from your signature you are using kegs, a friend of mine has been using kegs and got lack-lustre results. I can't really explain this except: first I refrigerate bottles before drinking - difficult with a keg. Second, bottles probably increase variability which may actually help.

[Kev888]

IMO in some ways the mass-produced beers have a difficult job and consequently many aren't actually all that good (compared to good home brew and microbrewery ale, for instance). They usually need to be acceptible to a wide number of people - so the flavours tend to be a bit 'safer' (more bland) and they have to come in at a price that enough people (not just very keen beer drinkers) will pay even when there are competing brands on offer, so timescales/turnover and ingredients may be limiting factors too. Also they have to cope with being reasonably consistent throughout the often less-than-ideal distribution, storing and serving methods in pubs and supermarkets; thats not easy and so they may prioritise consistency over absolute taste.

In a way, thats great for us as it makes homebrewing much more likely to be successful and satisfying by comparison. But we tend to always be looking for improvement and its not easy to gauge sometimes; as you say its difficult to be impartial, also friends can be kind/encouraging and/or they may be judging by different standards (better than they expected 'for homebrew', for instance). Also it depends how you like your beer; its easier to make a beer that tastes okay when chilled than it is to make one with no flaws when served at more traditional real-ale temperatures. I guess so much comes down to why a person brews and what they themselves want and expect from it, really.

The OP mentions being a real ale fan, IMO that really means mixing it with the very best commercial offerings. Its definately possible with all grain homebrewing, but it takes quite a bit of effort and practice/learning to do so consistently. It may be possible with extract and kits too, and they can definately compete with most of the mass produced stuff, though I personally haven't managed to beat the better commercial real-ales with anything but grain brewing as yet.

Cheers
kev

[Rookie]

i think this is because im such a real ale fan and expect to make a kit that tastes like what i get in pubs or bottles, i really want to start again but just dont know if i can face making just another below average tasting kit

The real ale you get in pubs or bottles is not made from kits. A step up to partial mash or all grain would make a world of difference in your beer.

[bazookajoe]

Thing is, though there are commercial beers out there that taste amazing, there are also as many that are really disappointing with a lot that are plain ok. With crap ones, you'll try them once and that's enough. If you make a kit up and are disappointed in how it tastes, you've generally got 5 gallons to get through which unless you opt to tip it down the sink each subsequent taste will only further disappoint you. With kits, the drawback is that you're faced with a big choice and no idea how they'll taste without making them up.

So what to do? Try other people's offerings? Get together with a few mates if any brew and each make something different. If budget isn't critical, only make part of a kit up, just to try it - this is what I did when I was getting back into it, made 2 demijohns of young's harvest lager which gave me the bug again.

Others have mentioned brupaks, i've done a few of their beers of the world, and for my tastebuds I reckon their yorkshire bitter and scottish 80 shilling are as good as my favourite shop bought equivalents. These kits are also only 2 gallons so you get enough to try it out. If you like one, you could always do a double batch next time. Their two can kit range which includes the lovely scammonden dark and also come with grains and hop pellets to brew the kind of brew that suits you. Still kits, but offering a bit more to play with instead of shelling out for a bit more equipment that BIAB or extract or all-grain would require, and the extra time to do it and work out what you're doing.

We can all recommend ones we like but doesn't necessarrily mean anyone else trying them might find it suits their tastebuds.

Ah dunno, just my tuppenceworth.

[oz11]

Maybe you can find another local brewer who will let you sit in on a brew day, whether that's AG, extract or kit, and see how they do it. Have a sample as well and see if it's more to your liking.

[bazookajoe]

Or not quite kit, not quite extract but looks fabby all the same:

Coopers Nelson's Light http://www.coopers.com.au/the-brewers-g ... on's-light their latest DIY recipe

Nelson’s Light is intended to produce generous amounts of aroma and flavour while maintaining drinkability. One could argue that this recipe fits closest to BJCP Style 8A (English Pale Ale, Standard /Ordinary Bitter), only with slightly less alcohol.

Ingredients
1.5kg Coopers Light Dry Malt (3 x 500g)
300g Crystal Malt
25g Centennial hops
20g Nelson Sauvin hops
25g Nelson Sauvin hops
Coopers commercial yeast culture or an ale yeast of your choice

Now that sounds nice, and from the instructions well easy to knock up. I reckon I might get stuff for a 2 gallon version come payday.