Brewhouse kit hacks

[Ruxin]

Fairly new to home brewing, having brewed a couple kits so far. My question is what are some simple additions I can make to a brewhouse (bag full of ready to go wort) Ale kit that can push it from pretty good to great?

What liquid yeast would be good to try? (there are so many)

I haven't tried dry hopping yet and really have no knowledge of it at all.

All advice is helpful and appreciated!

 

[mysteryshrimp]

Last things first. Dry hopping.

Put pellets in a muslin or grain bag, drop them in the bucket after bubbles stop. Wait 4-10 days. That's dry-hopping. It mainly gives a hop smell to the beer, and fades in a couple of months.

Most liquid yeast tells you exactly the style of beer to use it in. Follow that to start.

The two easiest ways to improve are to make a yeast starter and to control temperature of fermentation. Low to mid 60s for most ales.

 

[roastquake]

I'm assuming you're using hopped extract, if so, only boil it until it finishes hot break (the boil-over) usually about 10-15 and add aroma hop additions in that time. If you do a full 60 min boil you will over-boil the bittering hop oils that are in the extract causing off-flavors, and you will get a darker, more carmelized wort that you intended

 

[Ruxin]

I'm assuming you're using hopped extract, if so, only boil it until it finishes hot break (the boil-over) usually about 10-15 and add aroma hop additions in that time.

Actually, the brewhouse kit doesnt require a boil (not sure if you can still do it or not), and I havent supplemented the kit in any way.

 

[Ruxin]

Last things first. Dry hopping.

Put pellets in a muslin or grain bag, drop them in the bucket after bubbles stop. Wait 4-10 days. That's dry-hopping. It mainly gives a hop smell to the beer, and fades in a couple of months.

Most liquid yeast tells you exactly the style of beer to use it in. Follow that to start.

The two easiest ways to improve are to make a yeast starter and to control temperature of fermentation. Low to mid 60s for most ales.

Thanks! Does anyone have a favorite yeast/dry hop combo they like to use for a Pale Ale?

 

[Jayslay]

I've done about thirty I these kits.

Honey blonde with provided yeast=good beer
Honey blonde with British Ale 1098=one of the best beers I've had and way more flavor I honey.

Or take a wheat kit and pitch wyeast 3068 for a basic Hefeweizen.

 

[Ruxin]

I've done about thirty I these kits.

Honey blonde with provided yeast=good beer
Honey blonde with British Ale 1098=one of the best beers I've had and way more flavor I honey.

Sounds awesome. Added to the list, Thanks!

 

[Macdonald87]

Hey Ruxin,

When I did the Pale Ale Kit, I dry Hopped it with 3 oz of Cascades in the Secondary, and used US-05. Had a very active fermentation and turned out very nice by far the best beer I have done (only done 4 and it was the 3rd).

 

[Jayslay]

Hey Ruxin,

When I did the Pale Ale Kit, I dry Hopped it with 3 oz of Cascades in the Secondary, and used US-05. Had a very active fermentation and turned out very nice by far the best beer I have done (only done 4 and it was the 3rd).

I second the Cascade, I've done several kits that can use it so I bought a pound. For pale ale or an IPA I have used American Ale I, American Ale II and British Ale and they were all very enjoyable. Hard to say which turned out best... Im currently drinking a Baron's Pale Ale kit (pre-made wort) and I used British Ale yeast, the included Fuggles, Cascade, Simcoe and Columbus. All dry hopped. The beer is fairly light on the bitterness with alot of hop aroma and flavor up front.

For the Brewhouse kits I think the Cream Ale is great, probably better with the Kolsche liquid yeast.

 

[Ruxin]

Hey Ruxin,

When I did the Pale Ale Kit, I dry Hopped it with 3 oz of Cascades in the Secondary, and used US-05. Had a very active fermentation and turned out very nice.

How long did you leave the hops in the secondary?

 

[Macdonald87]

I think I did 5 days tbh maybe 4.

 

[jhurt]

Thanks! Does anyone have a favorite yeast/dry hop combo they like to use for a Pale Ale?

I'd throw away that coopers yeast that comes with the kit and get a sachet of Safale US-05. Dry hop with 1oz of Cascade/Citra/Galaxy/Amarillo - any of the nice citrusy aroma hops will definitely help it out. Also, try to keep the ferment somewhat cool - around 65-68. It'll give you a nice clean, crisp finish.

 

[AmandaB]

My partner and I have been playing with these kits a lot over the past 2 years.
we learned this steeping method from an article found online ages ago and have not had issues with it at all.
Pour grains into water, bring it up to 150 F. take off the heat and let it rest covered and wrapped to keep the heat in, then drain the resulting wort through cheese cloth and add it to the kit instead of water. all our brews using this method to hack kits have come out nicely. looking up my old brew notes ... this comes from : Jovial Monk Brew Manual.


Things we've done with this method:

SUPER BLONDE ALE: Brewhouse honey blonde ale with 500G of pure corn flakes steeped and added to the bagged wort.

Coffee Porter: Brewhouse Dark ale kit with 250-300(?)g of chocolate malt steeped and then cold French pressed coffee added at bottling.

Oaked IPA: 500g of Crystal malt steeped and then added to the IPA kit. Goldings hops added 3 days before bottling to the carboy.

Orange Cerveza: soak orange peel in vodka for 2-4 days and add to secondary about a week before bottling.

we've done a few other but these are the ones worth mentioning

 

[RiderEh]

I am doing the Pale Ale right now and plan on dry hopping with cascade. Will be my first time dry hopping, plan on doing it for 1 week. The freeze dried bag came with just under 2 oz.

#brewhouse

 

[DaNewf]

I've never done one of these kits (kinda pricey where I live, $40+CDN) so this is hearsay on my part, some people top off to less than 23 litres when they do these kits.

More concentrated flavour, higher ABV
Fewer bottles, higher cost per bottle

 

[jro238]

I'm going to echo what a few others have said. As long as your sanitation is good, ferment most ale yeasts between about 65-68F (there are a few exceptions) and you are going to have a good, clean beer regardless of recipe.

I'm not sure if you have to add water to this kit. If you do and use tap water, make sure that you let it sit out overnight or treat with campden tablets to get rid of the chlorine (then boil it for a bit to sanitize).

 

[RiderEh]

I use bottled water for my kits. Doing one at 19L right now, the pilsner kit with a dutch lager yeast. Fermented at 9-10 C.

 

[Jayslay]

I've done so many of these kits and tasted them brewed by other novice home brewers. I've generally been satisfied with the kits, but I have always used liquid yeasts with them. I varied the op up water, totalling between 19-24 litres.
Sometimes I found the beers to be a bit heavy for style. Some excellent variations as you play with yeasts and additives. My recommendation is to use a proper amount of yeast to minimize off flavours. I used to use liquid smack packs that had 100 billion cells max for the kit beers that required around 160-180 billion cells. It can funk it up a bit.
Honey Blonde ale is great with a British Ale liquid yeast, though slightly too much honey for me.
Cream ale kit was great, again with too much sweetness and candy like caramel flavour. I also tried it with Kolsche yeast but found it was too dark and cloudy of a beer to fit style.
I tried the Prairie Wheat a few times, one time with Hefeweizen yeast, it ended up tasting slightly like a saison, I may have messed that one up (3 years ago).
Stout was a little Weak in my opinion and could have used some steeped chocolate malt or something.

Anyways I could go on about all of them. They're great for a beginner, or when you don't have time for a regular grain and extract batch. Just keep sanitary during your procedure, use a good amount of yeast and keep the temps in the sixties or low seventies tops.