How do I get rid of the homebrew taste?

[fletcher]

definitely try and get on the BIAB train if you can mate. i made two kit brews, hated them, even with temp control and better yeasts etc. moved to BIAB, made my first beer and was shocked with how much better it was in comparison. check out nick's BIAB for $30 thread and you'll be converted. it's insanely easy.

 

[Damien13]

Looking forward to seeing you at the GoldCLUB meeting this month mate!

 

[AJ80]

Give full extract brewing a crack, I did two kit tins and have since knocked out about a dozen full extract brews. It'll help get your head around using hops as well as give a handy intro to grains (I.e. steeping speciality grains). I've made some beers I'm very happy with this way.

I'm now in the process of building a 3v AG system and am glad I took my time learning all I could from the extract brewing process. Not everyone takes this step, but it worked for me and taught me heaps.

Short answer after this and as said above, ditch the kit tins (can them?) to lose the twang.

Hope this helps.

 

[Dan Pratt]

It has been said already but to confirm from experience.

- better yeast
- temperature controlled ferment
- cold conditioning after ferment
- patience after packaging

I would also recommend biab and grain brewing.

Enjoy the journey.

 

[Bribie G]

Matt from Grafton called in yesterday on his way back from Sydney and presented me with a Coopers Showbag for my participation by entering a beer in the Grafton Show.
He seemed a bit apologetic as it's kit stuff but in fact it's a real bonus.

My kegs are low and I am now the proud owner of numerous beer bling:



The tin is Coopers Aussie Pale Ale.

A number of kit brewers have posted lately (and will continue to post of course) about how to step up a kit. So here's an opportunity to do something constructive instead of "get an urn, dudes" . I'll start a separate thread and will:

Do a partial mash with a kilo of grain in a kitchen container and esky.
Use the kit and the pack of BE2

Pimp with perhaps 12g of Pride of Ringwood for maybe 20 mins.

Ferment out with - Bingo - a schott bottle of Coopers Recultured Bottle yeast that I have in the fridge from my last AusPA brew.

I'll bump this thread later when I have done the new thread, which will be this afternoon.

 

[Bizier]

You could get rid of the homebrew taste by drinking commercial beer...

I am amazed that people still treat AG like it is some advanced voodoo that noobs should be 'saved' from. There is so much info out there these days that anyone should be able to just jump in with basically no capital outlay and have a crack.

I suggest going to some people's houses, as you have offers already. Get their opinions on a super cheap ghetto rig. Use that until you work out whether it is for you, and if it is, what you would like to move on to. OR if you know, just work out a good rig you want and build or buy it from the get-go. So much dough gets wasted when people upgrade as they learn. I am a case in point.

 

[Bizier]

I don't drink coffee, sets off my hiatus hernia. I would have thought that Vittorio was at least James Squire 150 lashes?

We'd always have walking-bird on Thanksgiving, with all the trimmings: cranberries, injun eyes, yams stuffed with gunpowder. Then we'd all watch football, which in those days was called baseball...

 

[bum]

So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time...

 

[surly]

We only had brown onions on account of the war

 

[Bizier]

Sorry Bribie, I don't mean to undermine your contribution, but I might ask Dane to change your username to Abraham.

 

[fletcher]

You could get rid of the homebrew taste by drinking commercial beer...

I am amazed that people still treat AG like it is some advanced voodoo that noobs should be 'saved' from. There is so much info out there these days that anyone should be able to just jump in with basically no capital outlay and have a crack.

I suggest going to some people's houses, as you have offers already. Get their opinions on a super cheap ghetto rig. Use that until you work out whether it is for you, and if it is, what you would like to move on to. OR if you know, just work out a good rig you want and build or buy it from the get-go. So much dough gets wasted when people upgrade as they learn. I am a case in point.

i think it's more that for noobs, especially like me in my position with not knowing a single thing about home brewing, is that unless you go into a homebrew shop or know someone who AG brews, you don't really know the difference (or even, that AG exists). i just thought the only way to homebrew was with kits. until i got on here and then did some real reading up on it because the first few beers i made were shithouse. my eyes were opened wide soon afterwards.

 

[Bribie G]

Pimpin' a kit thread: thus spake Bribie G

 

[pk.sax]

Agreeing with you fletcher. A much loved hb shop owner's response when I first mentioned dissatisfaction with the kits and wanting to know what to do to make proper beer since obviously, beer isn't supposed to be made from cane sugar, was 'oh, you want to make grain brews'. He didn't exactly lead me to the next step either. Of course, back then, biab was still kinda new. Telling a newb to set up for all grain wasn't exactly in any retailer's best interests. Peeps are lucky with all the good resources and guides out there now.

For my first stovetop biab, nick's 30 bucks thread and how to brew gave me all I needed to know. It fermented out super easy, no stalling like the damn kit did. I still reckon its the easiest method to churn out 10-15L of very nice beer with one pot, a stick thermo, square of voile, foldback clips and a towel or two to lag the pot for the mash. A kitchen timer and scales serve to measure both time and hops.

 

[Phillo]

I love my all grain beers, but I used to make awesome kit beers. Maybe my palette is not refined enough to taste 'kit twang', but people who tried my kit brews always said that they didn't taste like home brews.

A Coopers English Bitter kit, 1.5kg LME, 250g dex, 250g crystal and some EKG. Bloody beautiful. I never moved away from kits because I was unhappy with them, I just like the process with AG.

 

[black_labb]

I've read that old malt often causes a metallic taste, I'd try and use tins from a brew shop as opposed to the supermarket as it is probably fresher (possibly sitting in storage for a long time where brew shops would be likely to get regular shipments).

I was working casually at a brew shop and I did a few brews for samples based on kits. They always had a bit of grain and hops in them and would often use more malt than dextrose or maltodextrin. We never had samples with "homebrew taste" when doing things this way. We didn't always use the kit yeast but when we did it was fine (just make sure there is enough yeast, a 7g sachet is not enough despite being what is included in many kits)

 

[kegs23]

hey nick, if i put a thread up with the title $29 all grain set up,ill get as meny people thanking me for getting them into all grain brewing,,
mabe i could get a whole buck buy thing going and get it down even cheaper

 

[Goose]

problem with kit beers is that you just don't know what's inside that can, or how its been stored...

you can minimise the effect of the twang by using liquid yeasts, proper temperature control, avoiding 'no no' adjuncts like table sugar and by adding grains or additional hops or dry hopping, but if you are injecting the twang via the kit, you aint going to get rid of it and any discerning beer affectionado is going to pick it like a nose....

kits are akin to baking cakes with an instant cake mix packet, for beer its great if you want to avoid 5-6 hours of "cooking" (that's how long AG will take you per batch)..

i'd by all means start with the kit... you will soon find out I you are happy with the quality. My bet is you wont be.

Kits...

 

[fletcher]

yeah that's the thing. If the twang is IN the kit, you can't get rid of it, only mask it. having said that, everyone's tastes are different so sadly (or not, depending on how you look at it), it's subjective and is hard to pin point to one thing. I can personally say that even after using temperature control and 'better' yeast and a controlled process though, the twang remained. it disappeared on my first biab

 

[Guysmiley54]

I don't drink coffee, sets off my hiatus hernia. I would have thought that Vittorio was at least James Squire 150 lashes?

Um, no.

I reckon that would be something like Giancarlo (by Grinders) or Bruno Rossi (Cerebos) even Toby's Estate is owned by Cerebos now too! The Lion Nathan of the coffee world.

Coffee aint beer though, and a good Barista can serve a cheaper coffee bean that will taste better than the best beans in the hands of a novice.

 

[wbosher]

I think you can make a nice tasting kit beer if you do the basics right, and ignore the instructions with the kit. Kit beer will never be as good as AG beer IMO (although I've made some pretty horrendous AG beer), but it certainly doesn't have to be awful. In fact I have just put down a Mangrove Jacks Yorkshire Ale, my beer was running low and just didn't have the time to do an AG batch. It was actually quite cool being able to make a beer in 20 minutes Interesting to see how it turns out, compared to my kit brews before moving to AG, now that I have a fermenting fridge and MUCH more patience.