The Range - MYO beer kit and starter set.

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Hey all.

I havent brewed anything like 20 years. and then it was only wine and cider

Got the bug back and am trying out beer this time for the first time.

after seeing a post here that the range shop has a small section
the only walk in shop near me that does anything brew related. Gone be the days when health food stores stocked home brew equipment.

I got the starter kit with is the bucket , temperature gauge. Paddle, Sanitizing powder and syphon kit. (25 euro not bad to get started i thought)

Then the pouch of beer kit and some dextrose sugar.


All in 43 euro for all the equipment minus the bottles needed for 40 pints.

Has anyone tried these "Make your Own" brand of kits?
what was the beer like from them?

Cheers, Chevron

stecleary

Not tried any of their kits but if you are in Dublin i have loads of bottles if you want them
The will be going the bottle bin on monday if you dont want them, I've just moved to kegs so need them gone to keep wifey happy

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Thank you for the offer. i have plenty of bottles.
i dont drive anymore so i dont get to the bottle bank as much lol

mordeith

I bought one of the kits from The Range once to try it out and it was grand. Like all kits cleanliness and patience are your main concerns.

Bogwoppit

stecleary wrote: »

Not tried any of their kits but if you are in Dublin i have loads of bottles if you want them
The will be going the bottle bin on monday if you dont want them, I've just moved to kegs so need them gone to keep wifey happy

Where are you based? I might be interested in those bottles

stecleary

Bogwoppit wrote: »

Where are you based? I might be interested in those bottles

Coolock

Bogwoppit

I won’t be able to make it out there for a while unfortunately. Let them off to someone else or to the bottlebank.
Thanks

sharingan

Chevron: like all kits, they are much improved by adding a kilo of Malt extract (dry or liquid) instead of dextrose. Dextrose or table sugar is cheap at < 1€ kg, whereas malt extract is typically expensive, at least 5-6€ / Kg, so kit advice has always been to use cheap sugar to save cost.

But we dont make normal beer by replacing half the malt with sugar, so why should our kit beers do it? Note that things like brew enhancer sugar is a misnomer - it is just malt extract blended with cheap sugar. Your fermentables are less adulterated, not 'enhanced'.

You will have to source it online, the range wont stock it, and IIRC the home brew company has the best prices for it last I checked. And if you live in/near Laois you can collect it from their depot.

Where are you based? There may be a club near you that can give you tips, or access to shared resources.

chevron

Oh i didnt know about using malt extract. Its one il keep in mind.
I plan on moving away from kits to BIAB by the end of the summer.

I got to help do a BIAB a few weeks ago .. its what gave me the beer brew bug lol
i got the range starter set to get me started while i gathered the funds to get more equipment from the HBC.
so im on a very steep learning curve so i might brew an extract before the final BIAB.

Im in tallaght so will look out for local clubs.

sharingan

chevron wrote: »

Oh i didnt know about using malt extract. Its one il keep in mind.
I plan on moving away from kits to BIAB by the end of the summer.

I got to help do a BIAB a few weeks ago .. its what gave me the beer brew bug lol
i got the range starter set to get me started while i gathered the funds to get more equipment from the HBC.
so im on a very steep learning curve so i might brew an extract before the final BIAB.

Im in tallaght so will look out for local clubs.

The kit & kilo dogma has cheap sugar ingrained in it - you go to all that effort to make a beer, and heavily compromise the whole batch to save 5e