Kits Vs Extract.

[Dave70]

Firstly, happy new year and all that bollocks.

So here's the deal. I became a father to a fine son about three weeks ago, and as joyful as this is, it does carry a caveat or two.
Principally, I'm getting about as much sleep as a coke addict, secondly, my free time is somewhat curtailed at the moment so full boils are out.
But brew I must.

There are plenty of good extract recipes around, but have kits reached the level - I haven't brewed one in years - where its kind of six of one, half a dozen of the other? (at least for basic styles)

I'm only doing a simple American wheat with a few additions of coriander and citrus zest to spice it up a little, so would I be be better off going the extract route (like I said, full boils are out so I'm limited to a 13L pot and stove top, so hop utilisation may be an issue) or just grabbing a 'Witbier' style kit, and fermenting it out with a US-05 or similar?

 

[ekul]

I was doing extract and kits at the beginning of last year. I never made a good beer with the kits, even though i was using good yeast, controlling temps etc. When i started doing extract (neills centarillo is a good one) i started making beer, and when i went all grain i became a committed homebrewer Extract isn't that much harder than kits but the extra effort is very much worth it. If i only had the capability to only do kits i probably wouldn't bother.


Something you could look into though is using grain in your extract brews. I recently did an all grain aussie ale and used 1.2kg of a coopers real ale kit (saved 500g for yeast prop), you can only just taste the kit in it, and if i didn't know i probably wouldn't pick it. The rest of the fermentables was some rice and some basemalt, if it was all grain (plus the kit) i think it would have been hidden quite well. So maybe use the 13L pot to do some mini mashes.

Or i hear the fresh wort kits are quite good too...

 

[Arghonaut]

Firstly, happy new year and all that bollocks.

So here's the deal. I became a father to a fine son about three weeks ago, and as joyful as this is, it does carry a caveat or two.
Principally, I'm getting about as much sleep as a coke addict, secondly, my free time is somewhat curtailed at the moment so full boils are out.
But brew I must.

There are plenty of good extract recipes around, but have kits reached the level - I haven't brewed one in years - where its kind of six of one, half a dozen of the other? (at least for basic styles)

I'm only doing a simple American wheat with a few additions of coriander and citrus zest to spice it up a little, so would I be be better off going the extract route (like I said, full boils are out so I'm limited to a 13L pot and stove top, so hop utilisation may be an issue) or just grabbing a 'Witbier' style kit, and fermenting it out with a US-05 or similar?

I've made some very nice beers using the coopers canadian blonde or mexican cerveza as a base, then adding ldme, some carapils and flavour/aroma hops. Very neutral bases and none of that kit "twang" came through. Doing a 30 min steep, 20 min boil (ive done 4 - 6 litre boils no probs) you can knock over a brew in around an hour. I just consider the kit the main bittering component of the recipe and it saves doing a 60 min boil. I do these between ag brews to keep the supplies up when i am short of time due to family/work etc.

 

[beerdrinkingbob]

extracts are good and can save you some time, you can be more creative and place you own twist on your brew. The main thing I don't like about kits and extract is after a few you get a nasty taste on your tonge:blink:

If you can spare the time go the next step and take on high gravity BIAB it is easy and gets you results that are a world apart, here are a couple of links if you were looking for a cheap BIAB set up.

Being a home brewer you have lots of choices but it's more of a time vs reward thing, it just depends on what you want out of your beer :beerbang:

20 ltr high gravity biab

And

Biabbrewer

 

[lordofthebottleshop]

Almost all the kits I've made and/or tasted have the same underlying flavour (IMHO), unless you use a shit load of dry hops to mask it. Faced with a choice between kits and extract, I'd go the extract route every time. Some LHBS have some good 'extract' kits, where they bundle some grain, DME/LME, and hops together, which tkae a

Ekul does make a good point though, in using a bit of grain can make a big difference in quality. But for convenience and quality, you really can't go past a fresh wort kit.

 

[enuun]

With good flavour and aroma hops and a liberal use of LME or DME with some spec grains, there is no reason why you cannot make a good beer from kits when using a simple yeast like nottingham.
Definitely not as good as and AG done correctly but I have tasted some pretty awesome Kits like a well-brewed munton's conkerwood and some seriously awful AG with poor sanitation and temp control.
Seeing that you are stepping down from AG to something simpler, I am sure you have all the necessary finesse to make a nice brew with kits and bits.
And congrats on being a daddy!

 

[smileymark]

Do not know where you live but the ESB (one of our sponsers) 3 kilo kits IMHO are pretty good. They come with good yeasts ..Think you can order them over the net..congrats mate..Cheers