How To Add Things To Simple Kits To Make Them Not So Simple.

[Bizier]

At the end of my kit era I only bought Coopers Cerveza cans, I could get them fresh, they are light, they aren't overly flavourful, they aren't overly bitter. A good footing for building off. I made a few beers that I was really happy with this way.

I dislike the kit hop and darker malt tastes, and suggest the more you can add of your own hops and spec grains to get where you want, the better.

 

[bum]

I dislike the kit hop and darker malt tastes, and suggest the more you can add of your own hops and spec grains to get where you want, the better.

+ eleventy gajillion

Or, less ludicrously, I agree with Bizier. Although it does have to be said that the bigger kits can be a good base for a bigger beer - they just require a little more work (and that work would be much better expended on an extract brew).

 

[Brewman_]

Yeh, agree with last couple of posts, I think with the start with a simple base and build you get a cleaner / fresher beer if that makes any sense.

Fear.

 

[moonshine]

I dislike the kit hop and darker malt tastes, and suggest the more you can add of your own hops and spec grains to get where you want, the better.

I've made quite a few Coopers Stout and Coopers dark ale kits and quite liked the dark malt flavors they imparted, but agree totally WRT the hop flavors
although I usually prefer a lighter kit to use as a blank canvass (Coopers lager is good as it has very very little taste)

 

[dth]

While I haven't done any brews using mainly kits in a while, I did a brew not too long back that had a good portion of the fermentables as kits. It has to be one of the tastiest brews I've ever done. Picked up a couple Coopers Bitter kits for $5 a piece from Coles when they were clearing them off.

'Canned Souped Up IPA'
English India Pale Ale

S.G.: 1.053
F.G.: 1.012
Calc. IBU: 41.7
Volume: 57L
Calc. SRM: 17.0

2 x 1.7kg Coopers Bitter Kits
5.50kg Weyermann Pilsener Malt
1.00kg Dingemann Biscuit Malt
0.75kg Joe White Caramalt
0.25kg Joe White Crystal Malt

20g First Gold 7.7% 60 min
20g Challenger 5.6% 30 min
20g Challenger 5.6% 20 min
20g Styrian Goldings 3.0% 20 min
20g Styrian Goldings 3.0% 10 min
20g Challenger 5.6% Dry Hopped
20g Styrian Goldings 3.0% Dry Hopped

Overall, it wasn't really a kit beer, but it did help me reach a good volume of good strength with only 7.5kg of grain.
Everyone of my mates loved it, saying it had a really good IPA flavour but was a bit too dark too really be called an India PALE Ale. I couldn't really care about it being too dark though because the flavour was just great.

The hops were nicely upfront when it was younger, as it got older and mellowed out a bit the malt took over more but it was still great, the biscuit malt is really tasty in this type of beer.

Pity I only have one bottle left now though...

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to try and make an all grain brew now with the same sort of flavours.


Dan