Best and Worst Kits!

[barl_fire]

You will not be disapointed with the Fixby Gold - I tried some last week and it was really nice but saying that I've also tried the St Peters (again really good) & currently conditioning the Black pearl and had a sneaky taste (very good also) - don't think you could have gone wrong with nany of them!!

great to hear! I'm itching to try the St Peters so positive feedback on a new kit is very welcome indeed, that'll probably be my brew number four

[barl_fire]

The Fixby Gold went into the FV today, the wort smelled absolutely heavenly, got very high hopes for this one . So the next one, brew number four will be a St Peters, although I'll be very keen to explore more of the Brupaks range in the future if I enjoy the Fixby Gold , any Brupaks recommendations other than Fixby Gold will be most welcome

[thedeckking]

love the wherry and coopers stout, whatever i do with the stout i get a good drink just cant fault it

just got a nelsons revenge on trying to have a change from the wherry and also one of the st peters new kits to go in next

but if someone told me i could only drink coopers stout and woodefordes wherry for the rest of my days i could live with it

Just to add ive got a tester bottle of the nelsons revenge in front of me as i type 11 days in the bottle and i bet that after a month or so this could be a seriously good brew

The Revenge I did has to be my favorite brew so far. Even my wife loved It and she doesn't drink ale! Needless to say I've got none left after having all my family round over Xmas.

[araldite]

Hi thedeckking
Just to add, opened a couple of bottles today (nelsons revenge) 4 weeks in the bottle and very nice would imagine this will be getting done again,
ive got a st peters conditioning that i have high hopes for lovely smell in the fv.

Just put on a brewers choice best bitter and again smells really well in the fv, here's hoping

araldite

[fractureman]

I've done a brewers choice best & was a really good brew, am supping a bc IPA at the moment

[bigdave]

For my next brew, Im looking for a light coloured hoppy, almost fruity / summery taste. any recommendations?

[Garth]

For my next brew, Im looking for a light coloured hoppy, almost fruity / summery taste. any recommendations?

Fixby Gold, with some steeped in boiling water Cascade added.

Best Kit I ever did. and although AG, I would do it again if I was rushed for time and needed beer.

[sidneybigbrew]

i go to hop and grape its local very good shop has every kit on the market also fantastic online

[phildodd]

For my next brew, Im looking for a light coloured hoppy, almost fruity / summery taste. any recommendations?

Brupak's Linthwaite Light, for definite. I messed up my timings and ended up having it as my main drinking ale this winter. Not at all the ideal time of year for it, but an absolutely lovely beer.

[cwrw gwent]

bigdave wrote For my next brew, Im looking for a light coloured hoppy, almost fruity / summery taste. any recommendations?

Last June I did a Burton Bridge Summer Ale with 500 grams light hopped spraymalt and 300 (I think) grams golden syrup - very nice too! Very easy drinking session ale and it's light coloured, hoppy and summery.

Not really the thing for January/February in York, I'd have thought.

[bigdave]

I was thinking of brewing now and leaving keged in the garage for barbecue weather. Is it too early to be thinking about beer for may-june?

[barl_fire]

I was thinking of brewing now and leaving keged in the garage for barbecue weather. Is it too early to be thinking about beer for may-june?

you might be better off bottling if you're planning beer for that far ahead. If you wanted it kegged you might want to give it couple of months in the keg before barbie season when you want it to drink.

In a couple of months from now I'm planning on bottling any future brews rather than kegging anyway as unless I can get a fridge big enough to store my kegs in the garage then I 'd rather be making bottles of beer I can chill slightly in the summer months rather than drink warm ale from a keg that has been sat in a warm garage

For me stuff that's going in the FV now is what I'll be drinking from the keg in late february to march (if I'm patient enough ), come March/April I think I'll want to be bottling any beer that's ready so that I can chill it a bit.

[barl_fire]

Best so far...?

Coopers Aussie Pale Ale followed by Brewferm Abiorix and then EDME Yorkshire Bitter (its really a bit early- but it tastes great already!)

Pleased to see the EDME kit mentioned in this thread as I've just put one on to ferment today, very much looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

Well with me 9th brew under me belt since coming back to homebrewing after a 20 year hiatus, I can safely say I've found what I consider to be the best kit brew I've done so far and incidently is also the CHEAPEST (£14.50 with the additions) namely Geordie Mild done with sparky Paul's modifications. This has taught me one major lesson that with a bit of steeping and addition of hops a budget one can kit can be made to taste as good if not better than the more pricey two can kits. So a big thank you to Paul for sharing his recipe as this is one I'm going to be doing regularly.

[jason123]

I can honestly say I've never thrown any kit brew away and they've all been drinkable. I used to think there wasn't much difference between a cheap kit and an expensive kit, I just added a more flavoured sugar like a muscovado or soft sugar to modify them a bit.

Having had a wherry bought for me for chrimbo though, I can see where the extra expense gets justified. Even though I think the Wherry isn't the best kit for me it has produced an excellent quality brew and I've had worse from the supermarket. There's just more to it than in some of the cheaper kits, and if your going to buy extras to bulk up the flavour in a cheap kit why not just buy a better kit in the first place . I'm going over to the dark side though and looking to brew big batches so whilst kits aren't completely ruled out, at £20 or so for the better ones I think AG is the way forward, for me at least.

Out of all the kit brews I've done though, My favourite has to be the Coopers Wheat Beer, Can't say any more than it must just suit my taste buds.

[barl_fire]

and if your going to buy extras to bulk up the flavour in a cheap kit why not just buy a better kit in the first place .

Aye I understand what yer saying but I'm finding there's something immensely satisfying about bringing a one can kit up to the quality of a two can kit through experimenting. I'd also feel much less guilty buggering up a one can kit through messing around with it than a two can kit This is going to sound a bit daft but when I fork out £20 for a two can kit I almost feel duty bound to stick to the instructions as closely as I can. With that in mind and the fact that my two best brews so far were one can kits and cost about £15 with the extras and I've had fun playing with them then I feel like I've got more out of the experience than just mixing malt extract in a bucket of water with some yeast then hoping it's gonna taste as good as the description on the box. All grain ain't an option for me so this and maybe some extract brewing is my only real avenue for exploration.