# Brewcraft Kits



## loikar (24/1/09)

Hey lads and ladies.

OK, so been checking out some Kits.
Just got back from the local BrewCraft Store after checking out their super-fantastic-mega-ball tearer-tit popper-deluxe kits!. Pretty good K&K I reckon, gives you a fairly decent rig, albeit for about 300 clams! :blink: 


> This kit contains: 30 Litre Fermenter O'Ring Seal & Grommet Sediment Reducing Tap "S" Airlock 120 Crown Seals Bottle Valve with Spring Digital Thermometer Brewers Spoon Hydrometer with Test Jar Bottle Brush Brewcraft Brewshield Brewclean Spray 500ml Beerclear 3pk Carbonation Drops Fully Adjustable Bench Capper Heater Plate 63 piece Bottle Draining Tree Brewing Crafts Book + Brochures + Instructions Your choice of a Brewcraft Beer Recipe Favourite Pack (there are a number to choose from and they include a beer can concentrate, brewing sugars / adjuncts and specialty yeast to make your favourite commercial style beer)




Anyway, all that aside, I was checking out some of their Clones and was thinking that that's a good way to go......BUT then I searched here...and now I'm not so sure.

So, question number 3 from the Wright honorable beerfingers QC:

Are the BrewCraft Clone kits really that bad? or is it just the enzime that comes with Coronas and the Blondes that make it turn out rank? (Please no flame wars on the enzime....I love you all equally!)

Do you guys use these with any success and how close is it to the Original?

Cheers beers!

Love your work!

BF


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## dj1984 (24/1/09)

brew craft are expensive 50 bucks will get you the JSGA kit wich is nice but cost is way too much for what it is.
i dont rate the dry enzime at all, try too get into extract brewing as quick as you can and goto beerbelly to get your stuff


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## buttersd70 (24/1/09)

dj1984 said:


> brew craft are expensive 50 bucks will get you the JSGA kit wich is nice but cost is way too much for what it is.
> i dont rate the dry enzime at all, try too get into extract brewing as quick as you can and goto beerbelly to get your stuff



Agree with this. Moving into extract, and then getting good advice on fresh grains and hops that you can add, is definately the way to go....and in adelaide the place to go for grains and hops would be Beerbelly. (he even sells extract. No kits though, it's below his dignity  )

In the meantime, though....apart from the cost (cos they're not cheap), I think a lot of the dissapointments that people have expressed with the brewcraft kits are more a case of unrealised expectation, rather than bad beer per se. A lot of comments such as "Yeah, it's a fairly good drop, but it doesn't taste like -insert brand here-."

Their more expensive packs come with steeping grains and a hop teabag, the tin of goo, and an adjunct mixture. The adjunct mix is cheaper to make up yourself.....the grain and hop is cheaper to buy elsewhere, as already stated....so you can get similar effect, cheaper, even if you still use pre-hopped goo tins. Will it taste the same as the brewcraft packs? no. Will it taste like the commercial beers? no. Will it be better than either? If the right questions are asked, and the right decision is made as a result, then yes it will.


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## crundle (24/1/09)

No affiliation there by the way for what DJ said.....

I agree regarding the kits, they are pretty expensive when it comes to making the higher end beers, but quite nice for minimal effort, but a good choice for no fuss quick beers.

It seems to me that it doesn't really matter what beer you make with AG, it seems to be fairly constant price for the grain bill, but the hops may vary in cost a fair bit, which you will pay for anyhow with the prepackaged kits.

As for how close they are, I don't think they come out close at all, maybe except for Coopers Pale Ale, and even then it is mainly because of the yeast coming from a Coopers Pale Ale bottle.

I have had some success with dry enzyme, and some horrid failures also - I don't use it anymore because of the failures, and don't really miss it at all.

You can make some really nice beers from kits and kilos, but enjoy them for what they are, done more to a style than making an exact copy of a beer you like. After a while of drinking your own beer, you will become like many of us here who can't fathom the thought of downing a commercial beer, they just begin to taste bland by comparison.

Experiment and enjoy,

Crundle


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## BoilerBoy (24/1/09)

G'day Beerfingers,

Clones provide an interesting dilemma, because all of us when we started brewing had ambitions of cloning our favourite commercial beers, which inevitabley led to great disappointment, as you will soon find out with your recent purchase.

Remember no matter how bad many commercial beers are they are still made with precision and difficult to replicate and the Brewcraft kits compromise on many levels to make it easy and simple for the K&K brewer.

Then the dilemma begins, How do I make it better?

If you are driven to make a better quality beer you end up at a site like this one and start down the road most of us here have gone and sooner or later you start discovering "flavour" and then start talking about "Styles" instead of clones.

With a bit of help and advice soon you will be saying "Sod the bloody clone, mine tastes better than that anyway!"

All the best,
BB (Currently sipping on an Aussie pale ale, similar to CPA only sh*tloads better) :chug:


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## zebba (24/1/09)

First post 

I've done two of the JSAA clones from Brewcraft - both my first two brews. 

The first came with a hop teabag (unsure of variety - first ever brew so it was all new), and the result was very nice, IMO, but not hoppy enough for my taste. Whether it tasted like a genuine JSAA, I'm not sure as I've only ever had one of them, ages ago. But, I rated the result on it's own as better then *most* (not all!) home brews I've had from mates/family who do kits. It was a definate improvement over the supermarket extract and brew enhancer stuff most beginners do. I think the proof was in the pudding - over Chrissy I had a fridge full of JSGA, Crown Lager (gift!) and Boags Premium, and the homebrew was what everyone kept going back for.

I've just bottled the second one, and this time instead of the teabag it came with about 15g of Cluster hops. To get it hoppier I boiled them for 5 minutes (instructions just said to steep it in a cup of boiled water). Bottled today, and the final taste from the hydrometer reading has got me excited. I think working the hops was a good move, but I'll have to wait a few weeks to be sure 

FTR, other then the hops, both were the same - 1 can Muntons Blonde, 1 can amber malt extract, 1 pkt Safale S-05.

My experience with them to date, as a beginner, has been very positive.

Next one I'm going all extract though. But then, I'm the kind of guy who finds the process as interesting as the result


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## WarmBeer (24/1/09)

I've done 2 of the Brewcraft kits, both have been positive, albeit a little expensive. The Imperial Pale ale and the Newcastle Brown ale. The Newcastle was nothing like a real Newkie in either taste or colour, but it was a fantastic beer that I lamented seeing the last of.

However, when you work out the cost per stubbie / long-neck, they still come in waaaaayyyy cheaper than buying comparitive beers at the local bottle-o.

Given they supply everything you need, they're a great way to get a feel for what can be done with kits'n'bits, without feeling overwhelmed by the sheer scope of what is possible in our hobby.

So, I say go the Brewcraft kits take small steps, and enjoy the learning curve, then step up to other "more complex" brewing.

Cheers,

Brett

BTW, Zebba, good to see you finally posting


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## zebba (24/1/09)

WarmBeer said:


> BTW, Zebba, good to see you finally posting


Hey mate

Been on here pretty much all day planning my first extract brew  It'll be going in the fermenter Monday, if all goes to plan


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## np1962 (24/1/09)

Have done the Brewcraft JSGA clone, in fact drinking it as I type. Is a damn nice beer, but not JSGA.
Having said that as I am heading quickly toward AG I went straight to an extract brew pretty quickly using different hops, Cascade and Nelson Sauvin. Was a dead set experiment to see if I could brew something without the hopped goo thet would be drinkable.
The result? 
IMHO it is heaps better than anything I have done before. 
Makes me more determined to get that first AG on the board, as did trying the beers at the AMB meet last weekend.
Conclusion... kits are fine and drinkable beer can be the result, but don't expect it to be exactly like the commercial one.
But the more control you take over your brewing the better the result and the greater the satisfaction.

Nige


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## Mantis (24/1/09)

Made a few of these when starting out and Blond was one of them and it was , well, ick.
They are very expensive and they make nothing like what they claim. 
Like Butters says, go to Beerbelly and ask some questions and get some extract and hops and good yeast. A 10-12lt pot is all you need for extract brewing and you will make some really good beers.


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## np1962 (24/1/09)

Geez Mantis, between your avatar and Tony's signature I may go blind! :lol:


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## Mantis (24/1/09)

NigeP62 said:


> Geez Mantis, between your avatar and Tony's signature I may go blind! :lol:



Yeah, I told the missus to put some clothes on before she went and got me another beer, but, oh well


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## mwd (24/1/09)

I have done the Brewcraft Little Creatures 'style' PA with a bit of extra dry malt (300g) and dryhopped 12g of Cascade after about 5 days into the primary. Careful to keep 18 C and it came out superb one of the best tasting 'style' type K&Ks I have done.

It was $34.00 at my local LHBS.

I wouldn't bother again though moving on and up trying Boonies famous LCPA recipe for the next batch in February.


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## loikar (24/1/09)

Onya Fellas!,

ok, so here's what I reckon I'll do.

I'll probably buy the tit popping, ball tearing, wank-wank, deluxe fermenter kit with all the bells and whistles that come with it, 275 bones in total but hey I'd only spend that on beer anyway. That comes with a kit of my choice.....still not sure on which one yet, but that should give me a feel for the kit.

After that....I'll go extract and try a few recipies until I'm pumping out South rAdelaides Finest!

Cheers for the help everyone, you guys are the best!

The Fingers Of Beer

PING > rAdelaideians
Are there any *decent *brew shops "Down South".....BrewCraft at Reynella is my Closest as far as I know.
BeerBelly is at Pooraka....thats about a 12 stubbie drive away.


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## BoilerBoy (24/1/09)

BeerFingers said:


> Onya Fellas!,
> 
> ok, so here's what I reckon I'll do.
> 
> ...



Down south you could try 'Still Brewing" who operate online only but will give you decent advice on kits extracts and mashing and set you in the right direction from the start and possibly avoid alot of the mistakes certainly I made. 

Just keep in mind though that they are a part time business, so be patient if they don't reply straight away.

Cheers,
BB


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## lczaban (24/1/09)

NigeP62 said:


> Geez Mantis, between your avatar and Tony's signature I may go blind! :lol:



:icon_offtopic: However, the improvement in avatar pics is promising. I personally don't see what the difference was between Mantis' previous pic and this one - they were both were of felines, right?? B)


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## zebba (25/1/09)

Just cracked a genuine JSAA to compare to the kit version I did. I think the similarity begins and ends with the term "malty". The genuine version is a lot hoppier with far more depth of flavour (as you'd expect). Still, I will continue to heartily endorse the Brewcraft version - whilst not a good "imitation", it is a fine drop in its own right.


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## Wonderwoman (28/1/09)

Zebba said:


> Just cracked a genuine JSAA to compare to the kit version I did. I think the similarity begins and ends with the term "malty". The genuine version is a lot hoppier with far more depth of flavour (as you'd expect). Still, I will continue to heartily endorse the Brewcraft version - whilst not a good "imitation", it is a fine drop in its own right.




I've done the Brewcraft JSAA clone... of course it's not identical to the orignal, but it is a fine beer in it's own right as Zebba points out. And as NigeP62 points out - it's much better than any of the other kit beers I've made so far.

I have another couple of Brewcraft clones that 'santa' brought me for xmas that I'm looking forward to brewing and tasting, but after that I probably wont do any more as they are quite expensive. The first one I bought without checking prices at any other HBS, so I was blissfully ignorant and happy to pay $50 - besides the HBS is so conveniently close to my house and work that I didn't mind. Now, however, I've realised it's cheaper to buy stuff online and pay delivery than to buy the brewcraft gear.


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## buttersd70 (28/1/09)

As I said, it's not so much that the beer is "bad" per se, but more unrealised expectations as to how it should taste....

And WW....all of a sudden I have a Linda Carter memory giving me a limp..... :lol:


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## Mantis (28/1/09)

buttersd70 said:


> As I said, it's not so much that the beer is "bad" per se, but more unrealised expectations as to how it should taste....
> 
> And WW....all of a sudden I have a Linda Carter memory giving me a limp..... :lol:




:lol: :lol: :lol:


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## Wonderwoman (1/2/09)

buttersd70 said:


> And WW....all of a sudden I have a Linda Carter memory giving me a limp..... :lol:



:lol: :lol: :lol:


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## beersatan (1/2/09)

AHB forum...

ALL HORNY BUGGERS

:icon_chickcheers:


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## loikar (13/2/09)

lads...ladies....how goes it?

Just got back from Brewcraft and got the super deluxe kit plus another fermenter for racking.
After 100 bucks for my birthday and another 170 for a PC repair and upgrade, (Yes, I'm a geek in bogan clothes) it only ended up costing me 35 clams! with a free 500g bag of dextrose ....errrrStoked!

Anywho...on advice from you lot I got the JSAA pack and reckon due to my impatience i'll chuck it down today even though its gonna be over 30 odd deg here for the next week (question in regard to cooling coming up).

So here's my plan and I though I would run it past you's before I just go ahead with it.

1 CLEAN EVERYTHING
2 STERILIZE EVERYTHING 
3 Heat my cans up and dump them in up with a couple of liters of hot water from the pura-tap into a big steel saucepan and dissolve it all.
4 Chuck the 15g of hops into boiling water for 5min, kill the heat and steep for 10.
5 chuck in 10L of pura-tap water into the fermenter, then dump my wort on top.
6 dump in my hoppy water and T-Bag
7 top up water to 20L (is that enough, or should it be 22L?)
8 pitch yeast at 20deg (just gonna dump the dry yeast in, would it be better to chuck it into some tepid water first?)
9 Wait for the bubbles!
10 On day 4, rack it to my secondry, chuck in finings and allow to continue to ferment (I like clear beer).
11 once fermentation is done. mix up my dextrose (not sure how much yet) in half a litre of water and dump into original fermenter (after cleaning and sterilizing of course)
12 rack beer into fermenter.
13 Get the Mrs in the shed (I know its sacred mans land...but its for a higher purpose) and Bottle!.
14 wait 4 weeks, invite the fellas over for a bevvie and BBQ then resort to drunken immature comments and talking s#*t.
15 listen to the mrs tell me how much of a knob I am the next day.
16 pat myself on the back

OK.....so that's the plan....Good to go?

The other issue I have is cooling. It's gonna be over 30deg all this week in Southern Adelaide, I'm thinking of wrapping a beach towel around the fermenter and keeping it damp, you know the whole evaporation thing, do you guys\gals reckon that would keep me at least 5 deg cooler than the ambient temp? or should I just be a little more patient and wait until its cooler outside?

Cheers all, for all the knowledge you have shared in these forums...

You know that yellow pages advert where the little girl rings up the old guy at the hardware store asking about a drill and the old guys says something like "ohh we have drills in all different shapes and sizes here for daddy little girl", and then she shuts the old guy down by rattling off the drill bits and specifics she requires?
well.....today....at Brewcraft.....I WAS that little girl!!. :beerbang: 

Lovin ya work!


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## buttersd70 (13/2/09)

I would change part 10....leave the finings until fermentation has finished completely. If no fridge is available for chilling, add finings when ferment is done, then wait 48 hours and proceed to 11....
If the finings are added too earl they will either a/ not work or b/ drop the yeast out before it's fully finished.

Other than that, all sounds good. With the damp towel, get an ice cream container full of water and freeze it into a solid block....sit this on the towel, gathered into the top of the lid....as the ice melts, it will continually keep the towel damp with cold water.


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## loikar (13/2/09)

Cheers Butters,

Should I be making this 20 or 22L?

I have a 30L Fermenter


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## boingk (13/2/09)

Regarding cooling - sit the fermenter in a bath of water and put a singlet/shirt/whatever over it, so that the bottom of the shirt or whatever is in the water. Wicking action will cause the fermenter to stay cool, and the body of water will cause any temperature fluctuations to remain minimal. A frozen bottle of water dunked in the bath will cool things down nicely. 

I've got a lager sitting at 14'C at the moment using this method, could keep it cooler as well seeing as I only use 2 frozen bottles a day on rotation. For a bath use a literal bathtub, a big plastic tub from a cheap shop, or a big styrofoam box such as is used for transport of veggies or cold-stored pharmacy goods. Look at veggie markets and behind pharmacies for the latter.

Cheers - boingk


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## buttersd70 (14/2/09)

BeerFingers said:


> Cheers Butters,
> 
> Should I be making this 20 or 22L?
> 
> I have a 30L Fermenter



kinda six of one half a dozen of the other, really. If the fermentables are the same, less volume makes a higher gravity (and therefore more alcoholic) beer, and vice versa. Slightly higher gravity will possibly give more depth of flavour, but that depends (heavily) on what's in the pack and how it's been designed (and isn't always a good thing). I'm not familiar with whats in this pack, so it's hard to say.....but apart from obviously the increase in gravity, it shouldn't make a lot of difference. I'd probably split the happy diff, and go with 21L 

edit...and with the cooling, there are a thousand and one things you can do, many of which work very well indeed. One of these days some bright spark will search out all the various methods that have been posted on here, and put them in one comprehensive list as an article.....


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