Whats Your Fav. K&k/k&b's ?

[Nickwrighty]

If this has already been posted, bots please redirect to the correct thread as i cannot find using the search function.

Hello,
Please post some of your favourite kit and kilo or kits and bits as i am trying to get a couple of brews up in advance.
any responce will be appreciated, as i'm sure many newb's will use this aswell.
cheers,
nicko.

 

[flattop]

Cant beat ESB 3 kilo kits if you can find them.
I have tried the Bavarian Wheat and Hoegaarden and both are decent for kits.
Easy too, add the wort, add the water and yeast, no dex or lme required as it's effectively a tucan in onecan....

 

[Peteoz77]

Cant beat ESB 3 kilo kits if you can find them.
I have tried the Bavarian Wheat and Hoegaarden and both are decent for kits.
Easy too, add the wort, add the water and yeast, no dex or lme required as it's effectively a tucan in onecan....

+1 on the ESB. The Stout is a bit weak, but the American Pale Ale isn't bad.

 

[Nickwrighty]

Ihave only tried one of thode ones,
which is the apa, which a friend put me onto. he has only tried one, but sais they are great, mine has still got another four weeks.
cheers.
nick

 

[antains]

Black Rock Nut Brown Ale.
Stock standard approach and comes up lovely.
Plus her indoors is quite fond of it.

 

[wambesi]

One of the easiest, simpler and tastier kits I did was Wassa's Honey Porter:

1 can of Cascade Mahogany Porter
1 KG of Dark dry malt
500gm of Yellowbox honey
15gm of Cascade hops

Leave at least a month or more in the bottle to condition, was quite nice.
Never did think much of the cascade kits, but this one slightly dressed up was good.

Now looking and experimenting with an AG version...

 

[Bribie G]

In my experience the way to get great results from kits n bits is to

• chuck the kit yeast and use a decent yeast
• add some hops for flavour and aroma
• depending on style use some steeping grains, carapils being excellent for lagers / aussie beers.
• don't use a kilo of sugar, at the very least use brew enhancer 2 (depending on the style)
• keep the temp as low as possible and below 20 is a must.
• do a secondary fermentation followed by a good cold crash then use Polyclar to remove chill haze. Gelatine optional.

Just those few tweaks lifted my brews from home brew twang to "oohhh did you actually brew this??"

For a light coloured refreshing easy drinking "lager" I would try:

Morgans Australian Pilsener
BE2
US-05 ale yeast
300 g carapils steeped in 2L hot water then the runnings boiled for 20 mins with 15 g BSaaz hop flowers for 10 mins.

As good as most offerings over the bar. If you want it a bit more Ozzie in character, cluster hops are good or even some POR if fresh.

 

[mwd]

Morgans Molloy Stout and Coopers Stout come out as a tasty drinkable brew even with no extras added.

 

[Swinging Beef]

Im trying to restock quickly since the Chrismassacre and its too hot to run a boiler for 4 hours, so Im doing some kits.

Drinking now.
24 litre English Brown Ale
Coopers Dark Ale
1kg dried wheat malt
Nottingham yeast
1kg sugar
25g Fuggles 'tea' thrown in the day before bottling.
No racking, no chilling, no fluffing around.
Very happy... not my best beer ever, but its helping restock nicely.

 

[chappo1970]

Brewed IPA. It was simple because of the one hop variety and as tasty as. Was my first K&B. IMHO it turned out pretty good.

1.7kg - LME (Cascade Golden Imperial Pale Ale)
0.5kg - BE2
0.5kg - LDME
0.3kg - Crystal Caramalt (Steeped 2lt @ 68c for 30mins and sparged 2lt)
BOIL
30g - Cluster AA9.3% (30mins with steeped crystal)
15g - Cluster AA9.3% (0mins)
30g - Cluster AA9.3% dry hopped day 4 or at secondary
Yeast - Safale S04
Ferment @ 18c till done

Cheers

Chappo

 

[Rurik]

Cooper Master Blend (the can with Old Man Cooper on the Front) IPA with some amber malt is a personal favorite on mine. Nothing need to be added it is delicately balanced as is.

Just my two bob

Rurik

 

[Pennywise]

Can't go past the old Mountain Goat Pale Ale "clone"

Coopers Pale Ale goo
1kg LDME
100g Med Crystal
25g Amarillo at flameout

Not so sure it tastes like MGPA but still one of my regular quick and easies

edit; forgot US-05 yeast

 

[chappo1970]

Can't go past the old Mountain Goat Pale Ale "clone"

Coopers Pale Ale goo
1kg LDME
100g Med Crystal
25g Amarillo at flameout

Not so sure it tastes like MGPA but still one of my regular quick and easies

That sounds alright HB79.

 

[boingk]

Got a few here, some might take your fancy and some mightn't so feel free to PM me if you are interested in what other stuff I've done. These and everyone elses suggestions should tide you over though:

Any lager kit (I like Coopers, Wals and Rapid Creek, have heard good things about Morgans Blue Mountain Lager)
700g LDME
300g Dextrose
20g Tettnang @ 15min
10g Tettnang dry in secondary (or in primary after 4 days fermentation)
Any good lager yeast, fermented below 15'C, or US-05 fermented at <18'C
[A good addition to this is 200~250g of Munich malted grain]

Any pilsner kit (I like Morgans Aussie range as well as Coopers Premium & Brewmaster, although Cascade Golden Harvest Went alright, too)
1500g liquid amber malt
150g Chocolate malted grain
20g Saaz @ 15min
10g Saaz dry in secondary (or in primary after 4 days fermentation)
Any good lager yeast, fermented below 15'C, or US-05 fermented at <18'C

These are two of my favourite brews, the top one is currently in its fifth version and I think I'm done tweaking it - time to go AG! The bottom one ahs been done a few times with varying results but this is the original version I did, I also think it came out the best. Both of these have been given good rating from mates, especially the top one which has been said to 'top Heineken'. Make of that what you will.

Cheers, and good luck with upping the stocks! - boingk

 

[Pennywise]

It is very tastey, it's one of the recipes floating around on Oliver & Geoff's

 

[Jase71]

I've done three Coopers Master Blend Wheat kits now, with an added can of wheat malt, and Czehk Saaz for extra flavour. Even with the kit yeast (shock horror!), I'm really happy with the results for an everyday drinking beer (everyone who has tried it also enjoys it, so that's saying something

 

[wyethm]

Can't go past the old Mountain Goat Pale Ale "clone"

Coopers Pale Ale goo
1kg LDME
100g Med Crystal
25g Amarillo at flameout

Not so sure it tastes like MGPA but still one of my regular quick and easies

edit; forgot US-05 yeast

Sorry for my ignorence but what is "Med Crystal" and do you have to do anything special with it or does it gostraight in with the goo and LDME?

Cheers Mark

 

[Supra-Jim]

Medium Crystal is a grain. You need to steep it in hot water (67-70 deg) for about 30 mins. Then you boil the liquid. Kinda like a big tea bag, you're LHBS will be able to supply you with grain bags or you can strain out the liquid through a seive.

Do not boil the grain!! Only boil the liquid after the grain is removed!

:icon_cheers: SJ

 

[unterberg]

Sorry for my ignorence but what is "Med Crystal" and do you have to do anything special with it or does it gostraight in with the goo and LDME?

Cheers Mark

Medium crystal malt means that its not to light nor to dark in colour. Probably around 120EBC?
You need to steep the milled grains in hot water (70C not boiling!) for around 30 mins to get the sugars out of the malt into your liquor.
Then just use a strainer to get rid of the grains/husks.

 

[Pennywise]

Crystal type malts are grain that needs to be steeped in hot water at about 70 deg (not boiling) then you use the licquor that results from the steep, discard the actual grain and boil the liquid. They don't need to be mashed like base malts and such. Medium Crystal malt adds a slight caramel/toffee taste. Prolly one of the must have malts IMO. Craftbrewer has a fair bit of info on each grain they stock http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=779

Man I'm sooooo slow at typing