gjhansford
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 6/10/09
- Messages
- 228
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I had Paul, a fellow brewer visit over Easter from Brisbane and he brought with him a keg of beer made from a BrewCraft 15l Full Work Kit. No disrespect to my mate who is a kit brewer but when he said he was bringing it I was not expecting much.
We'll ... to my surprise ... it was really good! The kit was the Heffe blend and he used a California Ale yeast ('cos he doesn't like the wheat yeast flavours). It was a professionally made beer, it had plenty of malt flavour which was interesting seeing it was, I assume, a simple pilsner and wheat malt wort, and it was quite a nice drop. It was so good that it was the first keg emptied over the long weekend! And I'm partially to blame for that!!
Anyway it got me thinking ...
Why am I spending 4 hours and probably just at much money (after factoring in gas and electricity costs) with all grain when I could just add yeast to a wort kit? It would also solve my pH, mash temp and water chemistry issues!
Now I know there's something about the artisan nature of the all grain process ... and certainly all grain gives me the variety that the concentrated wort kits don't, but I've checked out both BrewCraft's 15l and Craft Brewer's 20l full wort kits on their websites this morning and I'm looking for a good argument NOT to buy a few!
Any thoughts or experience?
ghhb
We'll ... to my surprise ... it was really good! The kit was the Heffe blend and he used a California Ale yeast ('cos he doesn't like the wheat yeast flavours). It was a professionally made beer, it had plenty of malt flavour which was interesting seeing it was, I assume, a simple pilsner and wheat malt wort, and it was quite a nice drop. It was so good that it was the first keg emptied over the long weekend! And I'm partially to blame for that!!
Anyway it got me thinking ...
Why am I spending 4 hours and probably just at much money (after factoring in gas and electricity costs) with all grain when I could just add yeast to a wort kit? It would also solve my pH, mash temp and water chemistry issues!
Now I know there's something about the artisan nature of the all grain process ... and certainly all grain gives me the variety that the concentrated wort kits don't, but I've checked out both BrewCraft's 15l and Craft Brewer's 20l full wort kits on their websites this morning and I'm looking for a good argument NOT to buy a few!
Any thoughts or experience?
ghhb