Top Ten ways to improve your beer kit brews

Saturday, November 23, 2019
beer brewing tips for malt kits

Brewing with beer kits can sometimes be likened to making a ready bake cake.

You can buy ready made cake mix from your local supermarket, add some milk and eggs and chuck the mixture in the oven and you're away. The hardest part is probably making sure the oven is set to the correct temperature.

A brew kit is a similar process, you open the tin, add the contents, add some hot water, pitch in the yeast and boom, you are brewing!

And yes it's that simple, but if you want to make your beer taste even better, here's our top ten ways to help improve the flavor of your beer. 

  1. Use a beer enhancer. What this means is you are adding more malt extract and some dextrose into the mix. Instead of adding sugar (which famously makes homebrew sweet) the dextrose doesn't leave an off taste and the yeast will happily convert it to alcohol.
  2. Add extra hops. While malt kits will come with hops added, the addition of some complementary hops will enhance the flavour of your beer. For example, if you are keen on making lagers, then some Green Bullet or Cascade hops will taste great. 
  3. Patience is truly a virtue when brewing. Although primary fermentation is generally complete after a week or so - a brew left much longer in the carboy or drum will be a much better tasting beer. 
  4. When bottling, avoid stirring up the beer as much as possible. While oxygen is quite desirable during primary fermentation, it is not when conditioning beer. If not kegging, you can add a bottling wand to the fermenter to help with a smooth transfer to the bottle. 
  5. Once bottled, store the beers in a warm place for two days. This will encourage secondary fermentation to occur. THEN move your beer to a cooler play (maybe the shed) and leave them in the dark for at least three weeks. This long time will give the yeast a chance to work it's magic properly. Your beer will taste quite drinkable from three weeks on but a beer left for  6 weeks is even better!
  6. Batch priming your beer is a great way to ensure that each beer tastes consistent. Batch priming is simply adding sugar to the fermenting drum and then bottling, rather than adding sugar individually to each bottle. A side benefit is that you strongly reduce your chances of over sugaring your beer which can lead to over fizzy beer or worse bottles that explode due to too much pressure from built up CO2. 
  7. If you want to increase the alcohol content of your beer,  you can do this by adding extra sugars during primary fermentation. There's an art to this - too much extra will hinder your yeast - and that's when back yard experts start using yeast nutrients.
  8. If you are looking to make a clear beer then using finings is recommended. 
  9. Doing a cold crash just before bottling also greatly improves the clarity of beer.  
  10. If you're moving onto the full 'brewing day experience', get the bigger kettle or pot!
Leave a Comment , , , , ,

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Powered by Blogger.

Tags

absorption caps abv acetaldehyde acid adjuncts advice about beer brewing aeration aeration kit aging air lock alcohol alcohol poisoning ale ale beer kits alkaline alkaline brewery wash all grain american amylase apera apples attenuation autolysis automatic temperature compensation bacteria baker's yeast baking yeast ball lock ball valve bar keepers friend barley batch prime beer brewing beer capper beer dispenser beer filtration kit system beer gushers beer kit beer kit review beer kits beer lines beer salt beer taps beerstone best brewing equipment biotin bittering BKF black rock bleach blichmann blow off tubing bluelab bohemian pilsner boil in a bag boil over boneface bottle cap bottle caps bottle conditioning bottling bottling beer bottling spigot bourbon brettanomyces brew and review brew day brewing beer guide brewing salts brewing spoon brewing sugar brewing thermostat brewzilla british thermal unit brix brix scale BTU budvar buffer buffer solution burton snatch buyer's guide calcium chloride calcium sulphate calibration calibration probe calibration solution campden tablets capping carbon dioxide carbonation carbonation drops carboy cascade caustic soda cherry wine chinook chlorine christmas chronicle cider clarity cleaning your equipment clear beer clone recipe cloudy beer cold crashing coldbreak conditioning tablets conductivity conical fermenter contamination coopers copper tun corn sugar cornelius corny keg craft beer creamy beer crown cryo hops cubes danstar nottingham demijohn dextrose distilation DIY DME dopplebock draught dry hopping dry malt extract edelmetall brü burner eisbock ekuanot electrode enhancer enzyme equipment ester ethanol experiments in beer making faucet fermcap-s fermentables fermentation fermenter fermentis fermentor final gravity finings five star flat beer floccing foam inhibitor force carbonation french fresh wort pack fridge fruit fusel alchohol garage project gas burners gelatin gift and present ideas gin ginger beer glucose golden ale golden syrup goldings gose grain grain mill green bullet grist guinness gypsum hach hacks hallertauer heat mat heat pad heat wrap home brew honey hop schedule hops hops spider how not to brew beer how to brew that first beer how to brew with a beer kit how to grow hops how to make a hop tea how to wash yeast hydrated layer hydrogen sulfide hydrometer IBU ideas idophor infection inkbird instruments isoamyl acetate jelly beans jockey box john palmer juniper keezer keg cooler keg regulators kegco kegerator kegging kegs kettle kombucha krausen lactic acid lager lagering lauter lion brown liquid malt extract litmus LME lupulin lupulin powder lupuLN2 making beer malic acid malt malt mill maltodextrin mangrove jack's maple syrup mash mash paddle mash tun mccashins mead methanol micro brewing milling milwaukee MW102 mistakes mixing instructions moa mouth feel muntons must nano brewing New Zealand Brewer's Series no rinse nut brown ale oak oak wood chips off flavors original gravity oxygen pacific gem palaeo water pale ale panhead parsnip PBW pear pectine pectolase perlick ph levels ph meter ph pen pH strips ph tester pico brewing pilsner pitching yeast plastic drum poppet valve pot powdered brewing wash ppm precipitated chalk pressure relief valve priming prison hooch probe problem solving propane and propane accessories pruno pump system purity law radler re-using yeast recipe record keeping reddit refractometer reinheitsgebot removing beer labels from bottles review rice hulls riwaka rotten eggs saaz saccharomyces cerevisiae salt sanitization secondary regulator sediment seltzer session beer silicon simple tricks for brewing siphon site glass skunked beer small batch brewing soda soda ash soda stream sodium carbonate sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate sodium hydroxide sodium metasilicate sodium percarbonate sour beer sparge spigot spirals spirits spoon spraymalt star san starch STC-1000 steinlager steralisation sterilisation sterilization sterliization still stoke storage solution stout sucrose sugar supercharger tannins temperature temperature controller therminator thermometer tips for beginners tri-sodium phopsphate tricks and tips trub tubing tui turkey vodka infused gin vorlauf water water testing wet cardboard taste wet hopping weta whirlfloc tablets white claw williamswarn wine winter brewing wood wort wort chiller yeast yeast energizer yeast nutrient yeast rafts yeast starter yeast traps zinc

Copyright How to Home Brew Beer.

Back to Top