Fresh Wort Kits. Are They Any Good?

[chappo1970]

Ok so I have sat down with the financial controller and unfortunately her ability to understand the financial requirements for my HB hobby will simply not allow me to get kegging as well as going AG in the immediate future.

So it looks like I am going to have to stick with the K&B's, partials and some extracts until I can lobby hard enough for the extra expenditure.

Anyway I really want to try a fresh wort kit this weekend and would appreciate anyone's opinions, recipes, reccommendations and thoughts on these kits.

Chappo

 

[matti]

I brewed a few in the past.
They are better when not diluted too much.
The OG of a 15L diluted with 5 litre is said to be around 1.042.
This was not the case with a Pilsner FWK I tried and it ended a bit thin and no real real hops left.
Measured OG was 1.039 for 20 Litre.

Each batch may also vary a little.

If you like mega-swill beers dilute them for sure.

Undiluted the OG is generally around 1.052=+/-2

 

[KGB]

I keep hearing good things Chappo and don't remember hearing anything bad about them yet. I'm tempted to grab an ESB kit in a few weeks once I finish my next planned brew...

I say go for it, at the very least it should be an easy brew to make!

 

[Supra-Jim]

I've done a few (G&G wheat kit) and they both turned out quite nice, especially considering the ease.

:icon_cheers: SJ

 

[MarkBastard]

The positives and negatives of FWK's are all obvious. No real hidden dramas.

Positives:
* Quick and Easy
* All grain
* You get a cube to keep

Negatives
* Not your recipe
* Cost

 

[chappo1970]

"I say go for it, at the very least it should be an easy brew to make!"

Well that was what I was thinking. May as well give it a go. I have 3 spare fermenters that I need bubbling away this weekend but at $40 a pop I wanted to be sure these things are worth it and see if there where any recipes floating out there for them not just hops additions. But I am open to anything anyone is willing to offer.

I guess my fear is $40 per pop per brew will get you a fair bit of Kits and Bits.

 

[clean brewer]

Ive done 1 and found it quite good, it was from ND Brewing, comes in 15ltrs and you add 5ltr water. Thinking back now that I do AG, check out what the hops are for it and I would dry hop during fermentation to freshen it up a little with some nice Hop Aroma.

The one I did was an LCPA and was $39 and came with Saf Yeast, im sure Morgans have one aswell.. Anyhow, even if it was $50 total, its still only $25 per carton..

You can have it in the fridge fermenting in 5mins so it does save a fair bit of time, and even the cost of Kit & Bits adds up when you factor in Goop, Spec Malt, Hops, Malt & Yeast..

I think they are a good option Cost, Time and Convenience wise, still nicer than commercial and cheaper..

:beer: CB

 

[.DJ.]

I did the Amarillo and it was the worst beer ever... tasted like grass.

Did the "sparking Ale" one and it was ok, but not like that style of beer at all.. I've made batter kit beers.

So I have nothing good to say about them...

 

[KGB]

I guess my fear is $40 per pop per brew will get you a fair bit of Kits and Bits.

Fair point, I was thinking they were closer to $30. I just checked the ESB ones near me and they are $34.

 

[Jakechan]

It seems opinions are divided. I did the ND Brewing Original Porter (doesnt appear on their website, only the Choc Porter) and it was awesome.
I couldnt drink it fast enough.

Cheers,
Jake

 

[lczaban]

Like DJ I also did an Amarillo kit from the St Peter's brewery and added a 12g Cascade hops bag (steeped for 15 mins in kettled boiled water) and fermented with a packet of Muntons Premium Gold yeast. Unlike DJ, I really liked how this turned out. The Cascade gave it a "fresher" taste compared with the JSGA it is meant to emulate, and this is one beer I will be trying to replicate in the near future. ATM I have recently bottled a Summer Ale I tricked up, and unfortunately I may have overtweaked the recipe and stuffed it. It was also brewed hotter than it should have been as well. I figure I'll give it a few weeks in the bottle and see how it comes up. I have also tried this and a couple of other FWK beers at my LHBS. Most have come out all right, but some are not to my taste either.

In a nutshell, FWK's are a good, simple way of getting AG-type quality into a beer with minimal effort. You can tweak them, but generally they are pretty much set regarding what you can and can't alter with them. The cost is also higher than K&B, but keep it in perspective when you compare them to the types of commercial beers they are based upon. The only other thing I can say is keep the volume down to whatever the reccomended is otherwise the result will be a bit watery. Try one and see what you think!

 

[bear09]

I have done Kit #1 from G&G several times and found it to be delicious. I have added some amarillo to it for some more aroma.

Fresh wort kits are great if you just want nice beer at a great price. Yes - its more expensive than AG but you are paying for convenience. I get about 55 bottles from mine. Thats 81c a bottle for what I would certainly call premium beer.

Also - I bought one of these for my old man who is a crazy passionate believer in K&K. He brewed it up had a taste and now he asks me things like "so what do you do to make all grain beers then"... I am very happy about this.

I rate them highly and for anyone starting out wanting to make great beers this is the way to go.

Buy a little Crystal malt and steep it for 30 mins. Throw it in for a great enhancment.

Split the batch and use different yeasts - thats a good into too!

Cheers.

 

[chappo1970]

Thanks Guys for the responses... Keep em coming!

Oh I am definitely going to give it a go guys. Hence the post but I wanted your opinions on the stuff as well. I kind of figured if someone posted a little tips and tricks (like bear09) it would improve my chances of not making a sub-standard beer. :icon_vomit:

I also noticed that there isn't as much information about these kits compared to others like k&k and alike. Type in CPA, coopers, Morgans etc and hundreds of posts and recipes with spring up. Type in FWK or fresh wort kit and nothing... :huh: Why is that?

Ok here comes another dumb question...

I guess some are hopped and some are unhopped?

 

[Jakechan]

I guess some are hopped and some are unhopped?

They should all be hopped as I understand.

Here's the link the ND
http://www.ndbrewing.com.au/


Cheers,
Jake

 

[razE]

Best two for me were a norwest pale ale and a hefe. Very tasty.

 

[Jakechan]

If they are unhopped then you end up with "unhopped extract" rather than a "fresh wort kit", as seen on these pages. There may be more differences but I think the name says most of what you need to know.

http://www.weyermann.de/eng/produkte.asp?i...7&sprache=2

http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=2827

 

[churchy]

How would these kits rate in a competition, would it be an unfair advantage because all the hard work is done by
someone else and all you have to do is put it in a fermenter?


Andrew

 

[chappo1970]

Jake thanks for the ND linky. I was struggling to work out what the ND thing stood for??? Once I saw the packaging I remembered seeing those at the LHBS.

As for the unhopped comment as I said I was guessing, I can assure that there was no science in it, except somewhere along the line I thought I had been told or read that you could get these FWK's unhopped. I got to admit that kinda interested me as I imagined it would be simular to concocting your own brew but without the 4 hours of mashing, sparging and boiling.

 

[KGB]

How would these kits rate in a competition, would it be an unfair advantage because all the hard work is done by
someone else and all you have to do is put it in a fermenter?


Andrew

I'm pretty sure they're illegal

 

[chappo1970]

Ok if they are that good and are illegal in comps why aren't there more rantings and ravings about them? Doesn't make sense or am I missing something?