Right, need to get the homebrew on again. This will be my third 2 can kit having previously brewed the following:

St Peter’s Ruby Red = This was pretty good.

Nelson’s Revenge = This was bloody awful and went down the sink. A colleague brewed the exact same kit and it to was dreadful.

Would prefer a darker beer tbh, any recommendations?

Cheers!

Brupaks Scammonden Dark might be worth a try. Or Coopers Irish Stout (one can kit plus spraymalt).

Check out the forum in http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk

Try the infamous “Ditch’s Stout” from Jimsbeerkit above, you’ll find the thread in the Kit Brewing section of the forum.

Any questions and Ditch will sort you out, he *is* a bit of a character though 😉

If you’ve already got kit for extract brewing, why not make the move into all grain BIAB? Would be inexpensive.

I picked up one of these Massive Brewery after a recommendation for Flashy and my first brew is about to be bottled, with ingredients waiting at home for me for my next two brews.

Whole process was far more simple than I could have imagined and grain is surprisingly cheap!

Old Peculier clone and Anchor Porter up next…

If you’ve already got kit for extract brewing, why not make the move into all grain BIAB? Would be inexpensive.

I’m tempted but not got much time on this occasion so just want to get something going.

hops can be quite expensive though if you do an American IPA – 4 different varieties at up to £7 a pack

You have just reminded me that I should’t have been out savouring the last of the dry summer on my bike, I should have been picking hops so they don’t take weeks to dry…damn.

hops can be quite expensive though if you do an American IPA – 4 different varieties at up to £7 a pack

true, although non speciality stuff is pretty reasonable. I got 100g each of Fuggles, Challenger, Northern Brewer and Cascade for about £10.

That’s a good price but try 100g each of cascade, centennial, Chinook and Amarillo 🙂

Anyway, back to the OP. I’d avoid Woodfordes Wherry as well

I have found Coopers kits to be good.

Try festival kits. I made the porter for Xmas and it was awesome!

I have found Coopers kits to be good.

the first kit I experimented with extra hops in was a Coopers Australian Pale Ale. 20g Cascade boiled for 20 mins in a large-ish saucepan, then another 20g added ‘dry hopped’ in a boiled muslin bag, dangled in the FV with a sterilised shot glass to weigh it down.
fantastic. Could’ve been even better if I’d boiled those hops in a bit of the wort rather than plain water but you live & learn!

Try festival kits. I made the porter for Xmas and it was awesome!

not tried that one but I have a “go to” recipe for porter which is (IMHO and that of the bass player in my band) excellent:
Brew In A Bag method:

21L batch size, OG 1044, FG 1011, Colour 43.6EBC, Bitterness 47.4IBU
3474g pale malt
509g brown malt
270g pale crystal malt
198g chocolate malt
100g torrefied wheat

mash for 90mins at 67degC in 28.5L of water (brewing liquor) pre-treated with 1 campden tablet to remove the chlorine from the liquor

after 90mins remove the bag from the boiler, drain the bag into a clean FV and then add that wort back to the boiler; bring up to the boil, then…

boil for 90mins
Fuggles 59g at start of boil
Fuggles 20g at 10mins from end of boil
Irish Moss 5g at 10mins from end of boil

fermented at 20-22degC with Nottingham ale yeast

I have a rather nice Chocolate Stout recipe too… c.f. Saltaire Brewery Triple Chocoholic…

aazlad – Member

Try festival kits. I made the porter for Xmas and it was awesome! I did a festival kit earlier this year to get my eye back in after not brewing for a while – very good. Local HBS recommends them and reckons they’re a reliable choice.

Thanks all.

Going to give one the Festival kits a go. Will try the Festival Old Suffolk Strong Ale first I think 🙂