Kits V Ingredients

[Murcluf]

Packet soups everyone drinks packet, they're pretty dull and tasteless but everyone drinks them.
Can soup everyone drinks them too, takes little effort to make taste pretty good limit to watch the manufacture produces.
Home made soup take longer to make, has a huge range of ingredients to choose from and you are only limited by your imagination.

Like most things in life the principals are the same, whether it be soup, cake, beer, jam, whatever....
You can't taste the love in a mass produced product no matter how hard the marketing department tries to tell you different.

 

[barls]

ok on the kit beers, well its not quite a kilo of sugar. but my oude bruin that got a highly commended in the nsw states last year was 1 can from brewfrem and 750 g of candi sugar and then with roselare yeast. nothing more.
so good award winning beers cvan be made in k&k.

 

[Gormand]

Let's face the truth people.

Those who have moved on from kit brewing have done so because their beer didn't taste very nice and they wanted to improve it.

Actually I have switched from K&K to AG because I want more control and I want to learn more about the ingredients that go into my beer then a question of quality. I am hoping I will get much better beer from switching, but thats not why I am doing it.

 

[fergi]

depends on what you are happy to drink,if you make a can of coopers with a kilo of sugar and you like it,thats great,keep doing it.

if you like a beer with more flavor and body that you can manipulate the way you want it to taste,try adding some extras into the mix.

if you want a beer that tastes great and replicates a favorite make or style that you have tried then AG is a simple way to get top shelf beers,
there is a definite step up in quality and taste once you start with the AG process,

i have just done my 3rd AG beer and i honestly think its twice the beer that my best k&k version was,in saying that i have made some really enjoyable kit beers ,but once i made my first AG beer i realised that the jump into AG was worth my time.

fergi

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

depends on what you are happy to drink,if you make a can of coopers with a kilo of sugar and you like it,thats great,keep doing it.

if you like a beer with more flavor and body that you can manipulate the way you want it to taste,try adding some extras into the mix.

if you want a beer that tastes great and replicates a favorite make or style that you have tried then AG is a simple way to get top shelf beers,
there is a definite step up in quality and taste once you start with the AG process,

i have just done my 3rd AG beer and i honestly think its twice the beer that my best k&k version was,in saying that i have made some really enjoyable kit beers ,but once i made my first AG beer i realised that the jump into AG was worth my time.

fergi

This is the best articulated result (apparently writing "+1" is banned) on this bit.

If you are happy with coopers kits - go for it. It's 1/3 the price of buying beer, and there is still some satisfaction in it. Like painting your house, when you aren't a painter. It won't be perfect, but it's your effort, and of that you should be proud.

I believe that well executed AG, is pound for pound, better than K&K or anything else by a mile. BIAB gives a good entry point, equipment wise, and the quality isn't diminished, though slightly lower efficiency renders it marginally more expensive (increase grain to get the same result).

Also, AG gives a massive jump in flexibility. Massive indeed.

But it does take time. So does baking bread, making good food, just about anything worth doing is worth time. That being the case, it ceases to be a cost saving exercise (on the basis that time=money) and becomes a true hobby (something to do in your spare time and fantasise about in non spare time).

Goomba

 

[gone_fishing]

I guess those Kit beers Ive read about winning comps must have just been a lie and all the judges must have been utterly wrong too....

Ozziyob,

Yes you are correct. The kit beers didn't win the comp. The "brewer" added hops and most commonly a partial mash too.
GF

 

[Yob]

The kit beers didn't win the comp. The "brewer" added hops and most commonly a partial mash too.
GF

Yeah mate aware of this, rarely would a pure K&K come close to getting much recognition.. and rightly so..

The point is that "kits" can be used and used easily to make a good quality beer, with as pointed out above a few changes with simple changes such as hop additions and yeast selection and maybe a few grains can make a significant difference to the quality of a "kit" beer.

@ barls - effing nice one!!

:icon_cheers:

 

[barls]

cheers mate to make it better, it was 2 weeks in the bottle. still have the rest in the keg, looking forward to bottling the rest of the keg off soon

 

[pcmfisher]

You could probably just look at how many people kit brew verses all grain.

I would say it would be 95% kit to 5% AG.

Are those 95% wrong?

 

[np1962]

depends on what you are happy to drink,if you make a can of coopers with a kilo of sugar and you like it,thats great,keep doing it.

if you like a beer with more flavor and body that you can manipulate the way you want it to taste,try adding some extras into the mix.

if you want a beer that tastes great and replicates a favorite make or style that you have tried then AG is a simple way to get top shelf beers,
there is a definite step up in quality and taste once you start with the AG process,

i have just done my 3rd AG beer and i honestly think its twice the beer that my best k&k version was,in saying that i have made some really enjoyable kit beers ,but once i made my first AG beer i realised that the jump into AG was worth my time.

fergi

When I read page one of this thread I was going to post saying you could search for recent posts by fergi, he asked a similar question regarding cost of AG being worth the reward, something along those lines.
I think the above answers the question pretty well. Fergi no doubt made a good K&K beer, it was what he wanted and enjoyed at the time. He had been told/read that there was more to be had from beer if he went AG, he tried it, would appear he loves it and will continue doing it.
There is nothing that says he won't make another K&K if he needs to do a quick brew in the future, but IMO it will be a better K&K than before as he is now a more knowledgeable brewer for having made beer from scratch.
I never made a K&K beer I enjoyed anywhere near as much as any of my AG beers, but my Uncle has brewed Kit beers for 40 years in his shed, with sugar and kit yeast and loves them. He has no reason to change. Do you? Only one person can answer that.
Cheers
Nige

 

[Hatchy]

You could probably just look at how many people kit brew verses all grain.

I would say it would be 95% kit to 5% AG.

Are those 95% wrong?

I reckon there would still be more kit brewers but nowhere near 95% (not that I have any data).

For what it's worth, my worst AG beer was better than my best extract but I'm definitely glad I started with kits & stuck with them until I was getting good, consistent results.

For anyone brewing terrible kit beer I'd say don't throw in any more variables. If you can't brew an ok kit beer then you won't brew a good AG beer.

Edit: the last paragraph is personal opinion.

 

[SerLung]

Hi!

It's been a while since I've been able to jump onto this site.

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that commented. Really appreciate the feedback.

The guy I know that AG is a mate of a mate, I'll be keeping a lookout for some1 who AG and I'll join them for their next brew - then make the call

but it'll be Kits until then.


Thanks again all!

 

[humulus]

Ive moved from K&K to FWK and have now ventured into AG,it was the FWK that totally convinced me to head down the AG path!
I usually spend 8hrs on brew day making the brew and just tinkering around doing brew and beer related stuff!
Some people spend 8hrs sitting in their boat trying to catch a fish,me and im sure a few other people on this are just as happy designing making and then consuming their hobby,so what ever floats your boat! time is not important its our HOBBY
We are all on this forum because we love beer and the process of making it
Just my 2bobs worth
cheers humulus :icon_cheers:

 

[Dave70]

We make our beer to drink, not to win awards.

For a brief time I entertained that attitude. Then I decided I was just giving myself pardon to suck at beer making.

The time and commitment of AG makes the brewer examine his whole process from start to finish. Who want's to dump a batch it took you the whole day to create just because you got sloppy with sanitizing the fermenter?

Equally, no body starts AG to knock out Fosters Lite Ice clones. You cant help but getting swept up in the whole tapestry once you start.
It's also a savvy move from a financial stand point - Chima and Franziskaner for example run to about $90 a case. They're the kind of beers I enjoy drinking, and with a little knowledge, you can knock up something very similar.

My beers would probably never win awards, that's fine, doesn't stop me trying to make the best brew I can, and I getting better at all the time.
If I ever get satisfied with mediocrity, I'll sell my rig and go back to looking for what's on sale in the walk in cool room at ******* liquorland.



Sorry if I come off a little surly, but the milk in my coffee curdled this morning..