Smithy Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Hey guys,not sure if this is the right section to post in, as it's kind of in the middle (I'm sure it'll get moved if it's wrong [cool] ). I have a question about using different kits to make totally different styles of beer. I was at my LHBS yesterday and we were discussing the Best Extra Stout which I'd tried the night before and I wanted to replicate it (or at least the rich smooth mocha flavours), and he grabbed a few things to make it, which included a can of Aussie Bitter and some dark grains (I forget the name, but they tasted nice!). He brought up his spreadsheet and showed me what the beer will look like once done, and yes, it was a stout. I'm confused to why you wouldn't skip all this and just buy a stout kit. I've seen on these forums people using the aussie bitter kits to make pale ales etc too, which baffles me even more! Can someone explain to me why you would do this please? And also how to know to do this is another important thing I'd like to know as I'm sure once you have this kind of knowledge, the kit brewing world would become your oyster! [w00t] Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 I'm confused to why you wouldn't skip all this and just buy a stout kit. I've seen on these forums people using the aussie bitter kits to make pale ales etc too, which baffles me even more! Can someone explain to me why you would do this please? There are probably 2 main reasons for this; freshness and flexibility. Starting with a base kit and using your own specialty grains means you are (hopefully) adding fresh ingredients to the beer. Malt extracts will have been made some time ago and extracting malt from grains to use immediately will freshen it up. Also, it is more flexible because you can use whatever specialty grains you want in whatever quantities you want. The stout kit already has the specialty malt added. Oh, there is a third one. It is fun to play around with the kits and experiement. But the option is always there to use the stout kit and they are generally good consistent quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DylanI Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Totally agree with Hairy. Perhaps another way to look at this is to check the bjcp guidelines. The guidelines will describe what the beer should look/smell/taste like, and list the IBUs, colour and alcohol content. So for an example, you could buy an IPA kit, or do what I've done, and base your IPA (or an Americal Pale ale, or a number of styles)around a Coopers Real Ale kit. The real ale kit gets you most of the IBUs that you need, and you can play around with specialty malt and hops to get the beer that you want. It's good fun. Hope this helps -Dylan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 Yep, both those answers make a lot of sense, and I'll be playing around with different things etc very soon! Cheers guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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