K&k Benchmark Brew

[Brewtus]

Bribie,

Thanks for the research. It justifies the extra effort for kits'n'bits. When considered with the other thread, 'liguid malt' the next challenge is to find the kit with the best malt, a good hoppy bitterness and bugger all flavour or aroma hops so it, with a can of LME can be the base of a good 'quick boil extract' (QBE).

 

[jojai]

Why not just use two cans of unhopped extract?

 

[Brewtus]

Then what can I add that saves me from boiling bittering hops for an hour?

Kits'n'bits take less than one hour start to finish. Unhopped extract brewing takes an hour to set up, pack up plus maybe one and a half hours to boil and chill.

My aim is to do a concentrated boil of LME, 6l water and Hops, 15 min max, add to fermenter with kit and let the cold water do the chilling. I hope to have something far better than a kit but take far less time than extract. Typical KnBs (that almost spells Knobs) do this but the kit can add a profile you don't want. With a kit that adds bittering and not much else the problem is gone. Maybe some clever kit company can come out with a 'hop bittered LME' or a Extract Brew Base in Lager, Ale, Red Ale, porter, Stout etc. so they give you the malt profile and bitterness. Might be a bit niche' but what the heh?

 

[Bribie G]

Why not just use two cans of unhopped extract?

You mean for producing a fizzy alcoholic liquid for turning into alcopops? Trouble with malt extract is that I would end up with a brew that actually TASTED of something! the Beauty of the Brigalow is that it tastes of virtually nothing except a sort of fruity sweetness so the Lime cordial, blackcurrant, lemon etc would nicely mask it. I can see a niche here for Brigalow .. they already do a ginger beer and a cider, maybe they should do an 'alcopop' base to brew out with two kilos of sugar which should give a nice 6.5 to 7.0 % brew. With a decent yeast that is.

 

[buttersd70]

Sugaz. It's spelled sugaz. :lol:

 

[Barley Belly]

Thinkin of puttin down a BI-LO Homebrand Draught XMAS Toucan
Lookin' to do one totally sourced from BILO (have been doin all Morgans & Brewcraft kits and bits lately, sourced from my LHBS)
Wantin' a High Alc%, drinkable brew for Xmas, on the cheap

Possibly:-

2 Tins Home Brand Draught
1kg Honey
1kg Dex
Maybe some LDME
Probably the 2 kit yeasts or could use yeast cake off Morgan's Royal Oak Amber Ale in primary now


Just thought I'd put it out there for some thoughts, as I haven't attempted a toucan before and haven't used honey.

 

[Brewtus]

Make sure you heat the honey to 80 for 10 min to kill the greeblies. It will taste bitter so you need some extra hops to balance it. That much honey will be a strong flavour and you may need some pretty fit yeast.