Recommend a kit

stevenmu

I've been reading this forum and Beoir.org a lot, and I'm ready to have a go a home brewing. I'm hoping to pick up a starter kit over the weekend, and all I need to decide now is what beer kit to brew in it.

My favourite beers at the moment would be Bredog's 5am Saint and their IPA, followed by the SN IPA and Porterhouse's Hop Head. I think the common thing with all these would be the Americna style cascade hops.

So I'm thinking I'd like a kit for an American style IPA if anyone knows one of these ? I've been looking at the Coopers IPA, Muntons IPA and St Peter's IPA kits, but don't really know what any of them are like.

I'm also thinking of maybe dry-hopping with some cascade, would this be a bad idea in a first effort, shoudl I be keeing it as simple as possible?

BeerNut

Get any IPA kit, spraymalt if it isn't an all-malt kit, and toss in 20g of Cascade for the second week of fermentation. Dead easy, job done.

Happy brewing!

Cork Boy

I'm a massive fan of Brewdog IPA so on that basis I highly recommend the Muntons Imperial Pale Ale 3kg kit.

Beware though, it takes time to mature in the bottle and can be a slow fermenter often requiring a stir to re-activate the yeast. That said, I don't know how well it matures as me and my friends have kinda finished it off already... and that was my first kit ever!

Oh yeah, for the American IPA taste, I also added 50g cascade pellets for dry hopping. For those that say throw them in loose and you don't need a muslin cloth technically they are correct. That said, use a cloth, it's just so much easier!

Anyway, best of luck and hope you enjoy. And listen to any advice you get from the Beernut, he's answered so many of my questions and continues to do so as I'm only starting my second brew this weekend

stevenmu

Thanks guys, that's exactly what I needed. I was hoping it'd be that easy I know that to get exactly what I want I'll need to start doing full/partial mashes, but I'd like to get a few kits under my belt first.

Cork Boy

stevenmu wrote: »

Thanks guys, that's exactly what I needed. I was hoping it'd be that easy I know that to get exactly what I want I'll need to start doing full/partial mashes, but I'd like to get a few kits under my belt first.

I'm in the same boat, already peeking at boilers and only 1 kit under my belt

BeerNut

I started with extract. Once you have the basics like sanitising down, and are willing to learn by making mistakes, extract's dead easy. I've had a few disappointments but never made an undrinkable beer.

Cork Boy

Ya I'm thinking that for my next order I might just try a stout and something else with 1.7KG kits, DME and a steeping bag and grains... sort of a step between kit and extract...

If the ditch stout is as nice as everyone claims it will be I'll just try steeping some grains for the freshness, no idea what the other one will be... joys of shopping I suppose!

I want to be able to kit brew with my eyes closed before spending the bones of €100 on a boiler.

merc230ce

Just to answer the OP - I made Coopers IPA for my second brew, and it's delicious. I don't think it's a particularly good example if the style (not bitter enough) but it's a good brew. I dryhopped (with Apollo hops) and I reckon this makes a huge difference.

Enjoy, and welcome to the madness ;-)

poitinstill

+1 coopers ipa , 1kg dme brew 250g sugar , 20g hop tea / 20g dry hop .

Stout. Coopers irish straight up with 1kg dme and 250 sugar. is good or add some choc malt + black malt to make a nice choc stout ( steep say 200 g and 50 g respectivly)

re :boilers DONT BUY AN ELECTRIM BOILER they are crap...buy another type or make your own. see beoir threads

both the above kits are as good as you get /better than 3kg kits if tweaked a little.

and always if in doubt add more hops

stevenmu

Took a little longer than planned to get around to this, but got it on last night and it has been bubbling away promisingly all day. Thanks for all the help.

merc230ce

Good to hear back from you Steve, keep us posted!

stevenmu

Got my bottling done last night. I may have done some incredibly stupid things during the process.

I realised I hadn't attached the directional intake thingy that goes on the inside of the tap, so I disinfected my arm with the bleach/vinigar mix mentioned here a lot, reached down through the beer in the fermenter and attached it. Then when I was taking out the bag with the hops I held it over the fermenter let it drip back in, that was taking a while so I gave it a good hard squeeze shooting lots of juice into the beer, then worrying that it would give an inconsistent flavour I gave it a stir.

Probably not the best planned bottling ever, but hopefully not disastrous either.

Despite 4 weeks in primary there was still a decent bit of floating yeast clumps, especially in the first and last bottles, so I think I'll use a secondary next time to clear some of that.

I had a quick taste and it seemed harsh but potentially very nice. So now the hard part is waiting for it to condition

I_am_LOST

stevenmu wrote: »

Got my bottling done last night. I may have done some incredibly stupid things during the process.

I realised I hadn't attached the directional intake thingy that goes on the inside of the tap, so I disinfected my arm with the bleach/vinigar mix mentioned here a lot, reached down through the beer in the fermenter and attached it. Then when I was taking out the bag with the hops I held it over the fermenter let it drip back in, that was taking a while so I gave it a good hard squeeze shooting lots of juice into the beer, then worrying that it would give an inconsistent flavour I gave it a stir.

Probably not the best planned bottling ever, but hopefully not disastrous either.

Despite 4 weeks in primary there was still a decent bit of floating yeast clumps, especially in the first and last bottles, so I think I'll use a secondary next time to clear some of that.

I had a quick taste and it seemed harsh but potentially very nice. So now the hard part is waiting for it to condition

That's a new one! :eek: :pac:

I'm new to the beer making myself though so I can't comment on what ya did. But when you say directional intake thingy do you mean the Little Bottler system? because I never attached that for my first brew and it was easy enough to bottle just using the tap.

But anyway best of luck. Hope it turns out well

stevenmu

I_am_LOST wrote: »

But when you say directional intake thingy do you mean the Little Bottler system? because I never attached that for my first brew and it was easy enough to bottle just using the tap.

I think it is a part of the little bottler system alright. It's a plastic cylinder that attaches to the tap inside the fermenter, it's only open on one side, so that you can direct it upwards and the beer will only enter the tap from above rather than all directions, so it isn't sucking and disturbing yeast off the bottom. I think that's what it's for anyway

Krusty_Clown

Hi there, after a successful first venture (Canadian Blonde - unusual but not unlikable results!), I'm looking to go brew a second batch, this time based on a Munton's IPA kit. I also picked up two bags of Finishing hops (Goldings). Plan was to add one bag (12g), prior to adding the yeast, and then potentially adding a second bag during secondary. The instructions for these finishing hops suggest that they should be boiled and added prior to yeast. Do you think the same finishing hops can be used for dry hopping/secondary also, or am I better off throwing them all in before the yeast?

BeerNut

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Plan was to add one bag (12g), prior to adding the yeast, and then potentially adding a second bag during secondary.

This sounds good. the briefly-boiled one will give you a bit of flavour, and then you can throw theother one in dry for aroma. Personally, though, I'd use both for dry-hopping, but I'm not familiar with the kit.

Krusty_Clown

Thanks BeerNut. I presume that as the 'tea-bag' style hops are vacuum sealed, I wouldn't need to pre-boil them prior to adding them for the dry-hop? Just wondering if pre-boiling them (but adding the boiling liquid to the water also), will in some way defeat the purpose of the dry-hop?

*Edit*: S'ok, I found this quote here, which kind of answers my question:

Either soak the bag of hops in hot water and add the liquid to your wort or add the bag directly to your beer to give your brew a fresh hop aroma.

stevenmu

I_am_LOST wrote: »

do you mean the Little Bottler system? because I never attached that for my first brew and it was easy enough to bottle just using the tap.

Btw the little bottler system is worth a try if you have it, it's slower than just the tap but causes less foaming too.

engrish?

BeerNut wrote: »

Get any IPA kit, spraymalt if it isn't an all-malt kit, and toss in 20g of Cascade for the second week of fermentation. Dead easy, job done.

Happy brewing!

hey Beernut

I have taken your advice here - I just bought a kit with a two tin IPA. I asked for a bag of Cascade too. I asked the company when I should add it and they said after 5 days, then leave it sit for another 10. Would you agree?

I absolutely love Brooklyn East India Pale ale but I just cant afford to keep buying it. I would love to recreate it at home - thats what has gotten me into homebrewing!

Edit - hello to everyone in the forum by the way!

BeerNut

engrish? wrote: »

they said after 5 days, then leave it sit for another 10. Would you agree?

I doubt a few days either side makes much of a difference, but a week of dry-hopping has always worked for me. 10 days would be fine, I'm sure.

leggit

I'm doing an IPA soon and have 2 bags of east kent goldings finishing hops (12g each).

Was going to put the 2 of them in a litre of boiling water for 10 minutes and add it to the fermenter before the yeast and leave them in for the entire process until bottling? I love really hoppy beer so is this a good idea?

Last IPA I did wasn't hoppy at all (coopers IPA), didn't add any hops though so I went with the muntons 3kg IPA this time

engrish?

BeerNut wrote: »

I doubt a few days either side makes much of a difference, but a week of dry-hopping has always worked for me. 10 days would be fine, I'm sure.

Great - thanks! Will let you know how I do!

BeerNut

leggit wrote: »

Was going to put the 2 of them in a litre of boiling water for 10 minutes and add it to the fermenter before the yeast and leave them in for the entire process until bottling? I love really hoppy beer so is this a good idea?

No. It won't do any harm, but it won't make "really hoppy beer". For really hoppy beer you need something with a bit more wallop than 24g of Goldings.

All you get from adding late hops (and since your kit is pre-hopped, all hops you add to it are late hops) is aroma, and aroma lessens with time, so the later you add these the better.

If you want really hoppily aromatic beer from a kit get yourself some pungent hops -- Citra is ideal for this -- and add 20 or 30g, loose, into your fermenter for a week before bottling.

If you want extra hop flavour, it's time to move on from kits to extract.

engrish?

BeerNut wrote: »

If you want extra hop flavour, it's time to move on from kits to extract.

I've been reading and researching for weeks now and I did consider going straight to that but I figured it is best to start out simple and move up as I have perfected each stage. That and its a fairly big financial investment!

Baby steps!

BeerNut

That post was directed at leggit.

engrish?

BeerNut wrote: »

That post was directed at leggit.

Sorry I thought we were both asking the same thing!