Ag = Easier Than Kits?

[Spork]

Did 3 x kit beers. 2 were "brewcraft recipe kits" - about $50 a pop, and they were shit. 1 was lawn food, my son drank the other. The other was a "toucan", my "vegemite beer"...
Did 3 x stovetop beers. 1 didn't work, but the other 2, although lacking in clarity, tasted pretty good.
Have done about 1/2 a dozen BIAB's (full size - 20 -23 litre to FV). Delicious! DSGA. Sensational. Oatmeal stout - near as good as any I've tried. Moriwaka SMaSH - a bloody nice APA, Tha Alamo - an amazing AIPA... the others are still fermenting.
To those who can make a good beer from kits - I salute you. For the rest of us - go AG. Making a good beer is soooo much easier.

 

[Steve@PMF82]

Yeah i see what your saying.

For me now it would seem way more effort to get a kit to taste how i want it, i often look at the coopers on special in woolies and think hmm wander what it would be like now?? i only did one kit before stumbling upon stove top biab.

But in reality its just way easier and more fun constructing a recipe from scratch, then placing my order online and she arrives in the mail in 2 days later.

 

[Bribie G]

Kit n kilo into the fermenter, sprinkle the dry yeast and off ya go. I once did 3 brews in an hour. No problems.

However once you get into partial mashing, steeping, hop additions etc the cost can escalate horrendously. I ended up (just before taking up full mash) paying up to $30 for a brew that I can now whack out the grain version for under $20.
Easier, yes, in a sense, but more time consuming. However with my methods, four hours is about average.

 

[Rowy]

Kit n kilo into the fermenter, sprinkle the dry yeast and off ya go. I once did 3 brews in an hour. No problems.

However once you get into partial mashing, steeping, hop additions etc the cost can escalate horrendously. I ended up (just before taking up full mash) paying up to $30 for a brew that I can now whack out the grain version for under $20.
Easier, yes, in a sense, but more time consuming. However with my methods, four hours is about average.

Your right Bribie! My last kti & Kilo with extras coasrt me 34 bucks. Now Ross by XXXXXbrewer has offered to help with other options. Yes it will take longer but I love cooking anyway so it's a natural transition. For me anyway.

 

[peaky]

Did 3 x kit beers. 2 were "brewcraft recipe kits" - about $50 a pop, and they were shit. 1 was lawn food, my son drank the other. The other was a "toucan", my "vegemite beer"...
Did 3 x stovetop beers. 1 didn't work, but the other 2, although lacking in clarity, tasted pretty good.
Have done about 1/2 a dozen BIAB's (full size - 20 -23 litre to FV). Delicious! DSGA. Sensational. Oatmeal stout - near as good as any I've tried. Moriwaka SMaSH - a bloody nice APA, Tha Alamo - an amazing AIPA... the others are still fermenting.
To those who can make a good beer from kits - I salute you. For the rest of us - go AG. Making a good beer is soooo much easier.

Yeah, the top end kit beers seem to be quite pricey from what I've seen. $50 seems expensive for a single batch of homebrew. If you could get them right for your own tastebuds and don't brew often or drink much it'd probably work I guess. My AG is costing less than a dollar a litre. And I've put down 40 brews since I started 15 months ago so the outlay for equipment has certainly paid for itself. I'm up at 6am on brew day morning and I'm finished up by about 10:00am. Plus I enjoy the process.

 

[petesbrew]

Sitting here reading this, drinking the last of a Coopers real ale kit, which I tried to tart up into a London Ale.
The idea is there, but it's failed dismally.

Out of curiosity I may retry a few favourite knk recipes from my vault every now and again, but I'm converted.

 

[Nick JD]

I recently made a 17L batch with two coopers cervesa cans and some WY1214 yeast trub. It's actually very good.

 

[brettprevans]

Recipe kits are a waste of $. Understand basics like what I.grediants taste like and buil/buy your own for a cheaoer kit.

Ag isnt technicslly easier, its just ur using better fresher ingrediants ti start with and have more error room. Understand the basics and u can make good beer. If u cant make passable k&k u prob don't understand the basics. to make truely exceptional k&k beer u have to have more skill than ur avg brewer yes, cause ur using less fresh ingrediants, less controll over ingrediant spec etc.

Anyways glad ur having success with biag. Brew on

 

[Bribie G]

I c u still posting on yr Iphone CM?



Blckbrry hs reel keybrd h34r:

 

[pyrosx]

I c u still posting on yr Iphone CM?



Blckbrry hs reel keybrd h34r:

And iphone would've got "ingredients" spelled right at least once

 

[peas_and_corn]

I prefer AG mainly because I have control over all of the ingredients in my batch. With kit and extract brewing, you're limited by the ingredients used to make the extract.

 

[DU99]

Horses for courses..

 

[brettprevans]

No iphone u smart arse bribs...samsung galaxy2, lol.

Du99 is right. Brew what u want. So long as u brew!!

 

[stux]

An iPhone just wouldn't let you post ingredient

ingredient

ingred I ant

ingrediant

 

[Maheel]

if your spending $50 on a kit and bits you would be way better of going FWK's imo

 

[MarkBastard]

FWK's are by far the easiest. With kits I must admit I often have more trouble with them than I do AG. AG is more effort obviously but the brew day always goes smoothly. With kits I always have some kind of problem, like for example I'll use dry malt extract or a brew enhancer and it'll clump into golf ball size clumps that are hard to break up, or the tap water will be too hot and I'll only get it to 28 degrees and think damn it should I pitch the yeast or not. Plus the tins of goop are messy etc. I always stress out when making kits, which is funny. I haven't made one in a long time but I did make one after doing a few AG's because I wanted to get rid of the ingredients. Never again. Fresh Wort Kits or my own AG will be the only brewing I ever do again, without a doubt.

 

[brettprevans]

if your spending $50 on a kit and bits you would be way better of going FWK's imo

And learn nothing about brewing, only fermentation...

 

[Spork]

$50 for FWK, plus freight to Tassie...
Might as well have had someone else do the fermenting and bottling too.
I was of the (mistaken) belief that those "top quality" kits would make better beer than a basic one. At least hey introduced me to steeping grains etc.

 

[sim]

And learn nothing about brewing, only fermentation...

...like how to mix and dissolve things.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

I might try my hand at making a kit beer taste as good as an all grain beer. I honestly think it will take me just as long to prep and make,clean etc than an AG. I just got a braumeister and im on my 2nd double batch (just finished) and it's taking me about 7hrs from start to finish. Thats prep to cleaned and put away. But it seems way easier because I'm not worrying about temps n shit. I'll give the "toad spit stout" form the book complete joy of homebrewing a go and see how it comes out.