# Has Anyone Tried The "the Country Brewers" Range Of Kits I.e



## beerman101 (20/1/07)

I just wanted to vent my spleen. 
I have recently tried both the "Wal's Lager" and the "Rapid Creek Pilsner" from The country Brewer and have been bitterly disappointed with the resulting brews.
I think that The Country Brewer Franchise has become more preoccupied with maximising their profit margins at the expense of their customers satisfaction.
They have pretty much replaced all of the local and imported products they used to stock with their on branded inferior proucts.
The malts they use in their products are shit and tast like soapy water and their customer service has gone down hill over the past couple of years.
All I know is that I will not be buying from them anymore.
I am curious to find out if anyone else has come to the same conclusion with regards to The Country Brewer, or if I am on my own here.
Please give me some feedback


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## 50%mogman (20/1/07)

Yes, I agree with you.
Very cheap malt. Malt extract "tang".


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## Barramundi (20/1/07)

havent shopped at country brewer myself and im not one to rubbish a brew shop but i have heard that they are mainly interested in purely flogging off theyre canned goods , i have a mate who wanted to get into partials and things like that , they basically said "nah mate you dont wanna do that crap ' here try this can instead"...

not your best approach for someone who wants to further his/her brewing skills....


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## hewy (20/1/07)

beerman101 said:


> I just wanted to vent my spleen.
> I have recently tried both the "Wal's Lager" and the "Rapid Creek Pilsner" from The country Brewer and have been bitterly disappointed with the resulting brews.
> I think that The Country Brewer Franchise has become more preoccupied with maximising their profit margins at the expense of their customers satisfaction.
> They have pretty much replaced all of the local and imported products they used to stock with their on branded inferior proucts.
> ...




I gave a wals lager a go an was a bit dissapointed at the outcome. I haven't really made a conscious decision to not shop there I just happen to have a brewcraft shop closer to me than the country brewer...

I have heard good things about their wet packs however have never tried one myself so can't comment.


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## crozdog (20/1/07)

I can't comment on the canned range as i haven't used them. I tried 1 wetpack, the german lager. The 6l volume the instructions stated to boil seemed low so I did 9l. I mixed up the bittering hops & the aroma hops which I remedied by boiling the bittering hops for a while & then adding. I used a white labs german lager yeast. This is the only beer I have ever tipped out. it was extremely dark - not the light lager colour I expected. I can't describe the flavour, but it wasn't a german lager. I've spoken to a few others about the wet packs & they also had darker results than expected, but thought the flavour was ok. I think that they have also wone some comp medals with the wetpacks.

That was the last "kit" I did. I'd done a few fresh worts before & since, but quickly moved into AG. If you're looking to try different things & improve your brewing I'd recommend you get into extract brewing instead of relying on what kits you can get. There are lots of extract recipes around.

This isn't a go @ TCB as I have always found Bruce in Drummoyne to be interested, knowledgeable (more so than brewcraft) & helpful. I just had worse than expected results with the 1 wetpack I tried. If they can encourage more people to start making beer @ home instead of drinking mega swill, all the better I reckon.


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## Keifer (20/1/07)

I tried a rapid creek lager once and that was enough. Drinkable, but i let my mates drink that one for me


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## brenjak (20/1/07)

I recently bought a Toohey's Extra dry clone off them. I live in FNQ and basically have to amil order everything. I have not put it on yet as i have only one fridge and it is bloody hot here. Too hot too lager etc. One thing i do know though is that they bring a new definition to the term "snail mail". They process your order quick enough electronically, but it seeems to take ages for someone to pick the stuff up and put it in the mail.
Will let you know how the actuall brew goes....Why am i not so optimistic now?
Prost!


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## Sloth (20/1/07)

hey all, 

Currently extract brewer moving to AG. Have done 4 or so of the Wetpaks and got the expected result. One thing I must say about these is not to follow the instruction that come with them. Use a proper extract method that works for you.

Sloth.


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## BoilerBoy (20/1/07)

I think there are two separate issues here.

One being the TCB which I'm not going not going to comment on because I dont have any experience with them, but at the end of the day, they are a buisness and have to turn a profit.

The other being how much can you blame a retailer for the poor taste of many kits because that home brew twang and many other flavour defficiencies just go with the territory.

Ultimately, your expectations are going to be higher than what these kits can deliver so its the same decision that has driven most AG and partial brewers down the path of fresh grain and hops.

I know there are better kits than others, but if its serious flavour your after, mashing, (either AG orpartial) is the only option.

Truth is, from a retailers point of view, they dont make much money from grain brewers so its not in their interest to promote it.

However, When Goliath brewing was still going Dave, who explained this dilema once said to me

"Would you still be brewing if you only had kits?' I think probably not was my answer, because if its flavour your after there is no going back. He was an open advocate of moving people on to mashing, first visit there I left with a kilo of grains and was on my way to my first partial

It just maybe that your expectations have out grown what kits can deliver, its a question of what your prepared to live with.

Now I'm off to have an American brown :beer: 

Cheers all

BB


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## petesbrew (20/1/07)

As a novice kit and Kilo brewer, I find them good. they have everything I need to make my brews more interesting than a basic "bought this at Coles/woolworths" brew.
It's also handy as the thornleigh store is only 10 minutes away.

I've tried one of their recipes, the Daze Longer Pilsener, which i found "nice" at the best, but the summer wheat wetpak was great, and I'll be trying another in future.


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## DJR (20/1/07)

From what i hear the malt extract they use in their kits does not come from a brewing source, it comes from a food supplier ( just like your Milo does  ).

People say the Wetpaks are OK, personally i think it would be fine for dark, strong ales but definitely give the lighter styles a miss.

I always found TCB to be quite helpful and their mail order service was pretty good when i didn't know much about brewing and couldn't get to a brewshop. Usually they didn't bother charging me postage!

Caveat Emptor applies i guess!


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## Wortgames (20/1/07)

I concede that running a homebrew shop must be a tough way to earn a living. Most of your customers are tightwads after all. However, as in any kind of niche business, I believe you need to service your customers and try to stock whatever it is they might want - not try to push them into buying your own overpriced substandard products (which seems to be the way many LHBS's are going).

You can give a man a hundred haircuts, but you can only scalp him once.


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## barls (20/1/07)

ive never had a problem with them and found them always helpful at the drummoyne store which is more than i can say for other stores in that area. ill be going to the thornleigh as its now closer to where im living.


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## Maxt (20/1/07)

Tcb American Ale is fantastic. Have given this to other All Grain brewers who also thought it was a very good drop. Euro Lager and Wal's Pilsner were not so good.


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## Armstrong (20/1/07)

Like any products, you have those that love them and those that hate them, so I personally welcome discussion about our brands.

And then you get those that pass comments about product when in fact they know absolutely F A, and instead of voicing their concern to the manufacturer, they choose to slander them in a public forum and in essence try to effect the livelyhood of many involved.

So ... let me clarify a few things.

MALT
-Wal's, Rapid Creek, X-TRACT and Wetpak are all produced from Coopers & Nestle malts.
-ESB 1.7kg & 3kg kits are all produced from Coopers and Nestle Malts (from memory no-one seems to think ESB uses shit malt)

Well, that's strange ... maybe they aren't shit malts??

YEAST
-Wal's & Rapid Creek use 3 different dry yeast to cover the different styles. 
-X-TRACT & WETPAK's use Saf-yeast
-ESB & Morgans use the identical strains of yeast in their 1.7kg cans

Well, maybe it's not the yeast that are shit?

HOP
-Wal's are the only 1.7kg can on the market that include fresh hop pellet in the can ... that on top of the normal hop extracts that both ESB and Morgans use. (Sounds like we do extra to produce better beers rather that "Profit Margins")

Maybe it's the extra hop character that offends??

Bottom line is that most of the time there is a problem like this, the narrow minded choose to blame the product rather than review their own brewing methods.

Some other truths about TCB
-TCB stocks base grains in 25kg & 4kg Bags including Trad Pale, Pilsner, Vienna, Wheat and Munich.
-TCB stock specialty grains in 1kg, 500g & 150g.
-TCB Wetpaks encourage people in the direction of extract, Particial and Mash brewing.
-TCB have deleted all imported beer kits over 2 years ago in favour of Australian made product (Of which we have been commended for)... NONE of the locally produced kit were deleted ... we still carry Morgan's Coopers and up until recently ESB.


Anyway, this will alway go on as it always has ... everyone is an expert and if you are unfortunate to have worked hard enough to build a business up, then you are a money grabbing profiteer that has no concern for good beer, customers, brewers etc etc ... I am comforted by the 1000's that love our products and come back repeatedly for advice

Shawn Miles
Owner - The Country Brewer


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## AIB (20/1/07)

Firstly, Beerman101: You may not like the taste of the Country Brewer range of kits, but that is YOUR opinion. I dont think that it is necessary to have a go and accuse them of profiteering and neglecting their customers because that is total and utter BULLSHIT. I shop at the Country Brewer and no matter what store I go into, I am totally satisfied, both with the service and the product. I might also add that I am an all-grain brewer myself but still from time to time do some malt-extract brewing and the kits that I have made that are produced through the Country Brewer have been no worse than the other products out on the market, and in many instances, better.

You may not have noticed, but there arent that many homebrew stores out there anymore You want to know why??? Because it is extremely hard to make any money out of them that is thanks to major suppliers who do their best to dominate the market and push out any competitors. Can you blame them for trying their best to make a go of itafter all, they are out there to offer YOU brewers the products and supplies so you can continue the craft that you so enjoy. If you dont like certain products, thats your prerogative, but dont bitch about them because in the end, they are there for YOU. Try and get a range or any expertise from the supermarket, because in the end thats what youre advocating.

Hey maybe thats where you belong Im sure they have better things to do with their time than put up with people with attitudes like yours.


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## Duff (20/1/07)

Well that's a nice first post AIB. Look forward to other constructive input from you in the future.

Cheers.


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