Just as I did with my first order, I picked one kit with grains and hops and two canned kits. The shelf life of ground grains and leaf hops (even vacuum-sealed as they were) is much more limited than the canned kits.
Again as before, my first kit was Brupaks Irish Extra Stout. I really liked how it turned out last time, and stout kits have a bit more room for error because they have such a bold taste. The hard-to-describe beer-kit-with-English-ale-yeast taste seems to be masked by the malty and roasty taste of the dark grains.
The canned kits I selected were Cooper's IPA and a Cooper's Pilsener. It should be noted that the Pilsener lager isn't really a lager with lager yeast, but a light ale designed to have a clean, light, lager-ish taste. I've heard good things about the Cooper's Pilsener, but haven't yet tried it.
I also restocked on Champagne yeast for ciders and bought a hydrometer sample tube, which I promptly broke. Homebrew West also threw in two small tubs of cleanser/sanitizer, which seems to work well. Thanks!
Homebrew Shipment |
The day the shipment arrived, I got to work on the stout kit.
I steeped the roasted grains wrapped in muslin to extract the dark, chocolatey flavor.
After steeping, I took some of the steeping water and mixed in some of the provided liquid malt extract and brought it to a boil. Once boiling, I added most of the provided dry leaf hops.
After 50 minutes, I added more of the remaining hops for flavor, and after 5 more minutes, I added the rest of the hops for aroma. After an even hour, I was ready to strain out the hops and get this beer ready for fermentation.
Steeping Grains |
After steeping, I took some of the steeping water and mixed in some of the provided liquid malt extract and brought it to a boil. Once boiling, I added most of the provided dry leaf hops.
Dried Leaf Hops |
Boiling Hops |
After 50 minutes, I added more of the remaining hops for flavor, and after 5 more minutes, I added the rest of the hops for aroma. After an even hour, I was ready to strain out the hops and get this beer ready for fermentation.
I added the rest of the liquid malt extract to the fermenting bucket with the steeping water and the (strained) hops boiling water. I topped it off to 25L- just a bit more than called for in the recipe, but I like to stretch these kits a bit- and pitched the provided yeast.
Fermenting Stout |
After a week to ten days, it will be ready for bottling and I'll have fresh homemade beer in the house once again. Pipeline ciders and apple-cranberry mixes are great, but nothing really beats a nice homemade beer.
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