AussieJosh Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 So i was in the Evil BC yesterday getting my self some US05, While there i had a quick look at some fresh wort kits they had, you know the ones? there 15 liters you just dump them in the fermenter and add 5 liters of water pluss yeast, So when i got home i looked them up on the net, and see a lot of people had good things to say about them! Has anyone here ever tried one? any thoughts? Paul have you guys at Coopers ever thought about making fresh wort kits as part of your homebrew line? Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PB2 Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Thought about it??? Fresh worts kits were our first home brew products back in the 70s... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJosh Posted April 13, 2010 Author Share Posted April 13, 2010 Ok i want ask any more question on it :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PB2 Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Ask away - I was just trying to be funny, hysterical whilst being historical. Now that's punny! I've fermented many fresh wort kits over the years. Some were quite good, some were duds, many needed a little bit extra something (like dry hopping) all were expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muddy Waters Posted April 14, 2010 Share Posted April 14, 2010 Fresh wort kits are too heavy...and my wife wont carry them for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJosh Posted April 14, 2010 Author Share Posted April 14, 2010 LOL Muddy! Paul i was asking cause some people on ahb were saying there an ezy way of having AG beer, and can taste better then kit extracts, (im not sure how FWK are made?) Also yeah a lot of them said they need a little extra hops at the end! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PB2 Posted April 14, 2010 Share Posted April 14, 2010 A FWK is simply a brew. I brewed a fresh wort kit last Sunday. 51/2 kg Pale Malt 1/2 kg Crystal Malt, 28g Cascade Plugs 40mins 10g Chinook Pellets 10mins 50g Frothies Brewery Chinook Flowers 2mins Diluted it to 21litres and started it fermenting with 21g (3 sachets) of Australian Pale Ale yeast on Monday night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricky Posted April 14, 2010 Share Posted April 14, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muddy Waters Posted April 14, 2010 Share Posted April 14, 2010 Haha - Nice on Tricky :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJosh Posted April 14, 2010 Author Share Posted April 14, 2010 Hahaha! Tricky Muddy Other then them being heavy, what are your thoughts on FWK? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muddy Waters Posted April 15, 2010 Share Posted April 15, 2010 I know people who swear by the esb ones. I've tasted them and they were pretty good but I thought my beer tasted better (I usually do though). They aren't cheap and I think they only for to 19L(?) and as I don't keg I usually go to 23L. I might try one one day but it is way down my list. Maybe you should give one a try Josh? That way you could save me some money if it is no good :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porschemad911 Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 Just a quick heads-up for those in Canberra ... Fantastic news! Zierholz Brewery and Brew Your Own at Home in Kambah have teamed up, so locally made fresh wort kits are now available. The whole Zierholz range will be coming this year, but the first cab off the rank is the delicious Hopmeister, a 1.047 OG, 47 IBU Pale Ale with plenty of NZ aroma hops. I love it on tap at the brewery and am excited to have a cube waiting to be fermented! Edit: They are $50 with a pack of US-05 ... and also $50 if you don't want the pack of US-05 Cheers, John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 Good stuff. I have fermented the occasional FWK over the past year when I didn't have time to brew. From memory I did three; a Cascade pale ale, an amber ale and an American Brown Ale. The amber was OK but the other two were pretty good. They are more expensive than making it yourself but still cheaper than commercial beer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swill Bill Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 I have fermented a few FWKs and most have turned out very good beers. I have also tipped one keg out but suspect the method I used as well as using a different yeast. Fermenting the FWKs led me to go all grain and so glad I did. Cheers Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Sox Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 I bought an Amarillo Ale FWK from ESB and brewed it just before Christmas. I tasted it last night bloody fantastic. This is what all grains taste like it's brilliant. The kit came with SAF05 yeast and there's no need to add hops as it's already been added. One day when I have more room, I would love to progress to AG. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Titan8 Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 My son bought me one of these for my birthday 2 days before Christmas, a Golden Ale. Excellent stuff and the next step up from brew cans IMO. Sadly its all gone now ( i was thirsty) but would buy one at the drop of a hat. Came with no or virtually no instructions and about 15g of mosaic. Probably my best brew so far. Was about 5 day ferment, 5 days left to clean up. Kegged and gassed for 5 days outside fridge. Fridge for 5 days and lasted about 5 days after first pour. Would have been better if i could have left it alone. Pretty sure the name "5 day Golden Ale" was appropriate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 If there's one thing that kits and extract brewing can't get close to all grain with, it's freshness of flavor. I remember when I did my first AG batch in October 2012, I was very impressed by the step up in quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 I bought an Amarillo Ale FWK from ESB and brewed it just before Christmas. I tasted it last night bloody fantastic. This is what all grains taste like it's brilliant. The kit came with SAF05 yeast and there's no need to add hops as it's already been added. One day when I have more room' date=' I would love to progress to AG. Cheers [/quote'] You don't need a lot of space for a Grainfather, Robobrew, Braumeister or even BIAB in an urn. You just need dollars and time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackSands Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 I looked at FWK but dismissed the idea - aside from the high cost, it just wouldn't feel like I was brewing if I wasn't messing around in the kitchen for several hours with my own recipe! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Payno Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 At $45 each I don't think they are that expensive...ofcourse you need yeast and finishing hops aswell. I am sure AG is much cheaper, But sometimes hard to even do a K&B brew at that cost. (eg ROTM's) Im fermenting my first FWK now - will bottle this weekend. Looking forward to trying it to see the difference. Was planning to order an Urn straight after Christmas but held off while I try a couple of these FWK's. Im sure I'll inevitably get the Urn and go AG but wanted to see what these are like as the time saving is very appealing. While I like playing around with recipes, and enjoying the results - as we all do, I do find that I am regularly time poor on weekends. I know AG requires more time commitment - so just need more planning probably....but I like the idea of these, so quick to do when you don't have time and Keg King have a considerable range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joolbag Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Payno, I thought the same until my mate bought a FWK, brewed it and gave me a six-pack. Instructions said late hop heavily, like 200gms worth! He didn't have any on hand and just brewed it as is. As a commercial entity, they know how to minimise costs and maximise profit - save $$ (Or should that be $$$$) on the hops! I Now know why they said heavily late hop. Because they didn't do it themselves. The beer had bitterness but very little flavour, zero aroma, etc. So once u factor in a $45 FWK plus $20 on hops, that is getting rather expensive. Or $45 for a beer with no flavour. I'm very much into my extract brews now and I love being able to control the bitterness, flavour and aroma hop additions. Really enjoying my extract beers. It's a great way to home brew skills with existing equipment. Producing excellent beers is a satisfying bonus. I'll stick to extract over FWK any day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 It would only be a big IPA that would require a 200g late hop and an extract version would still require you to buy those hops. The few that I have bought weren't dry hopped and they were plenty flavoursome. But you are comparing two different things; extract allows you to create you own recipe and have a bit of fun brewing whilst a FWK allows you to make (usually) good quality beer with minimal effort. I would never go full-time FWK because I like to brew my own beer. But they are great keg fillers when time constrained at a reasonable price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Sox Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 I bought an Amarillo Ale FWK from ESB and brewed it just before Christmas. I tasted it last night bloody fantastic. This is what all grains taste like it's brilliant. The kit came with SAF05 yeast and there's no need to add hops as it's already been added. One day when I have more room' date=' I would love to progress to AG. Cheers [/quote'] You don't need a lot of space for a Grainfather, Robobrew, Braumeister or even BIAB in an urn. You just need dollars and time Unfortunately they are two things that I don't have at the moment. When the kids are grown up I'll have both....lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porschemad911 Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 I finally found a spare hour this morning to sanitize the fermenter, rehydrate the US-05 and get my Hopmeister FWK up and running with some ice packs in my Cool Brewing bag Re paying extra for late / dry hops ... I am fortunate enough to have a ton of cones developing on my Perle plant at the moment. Looks like it is very happy with its new spot. Whenever the majority of the cones are ready to harvest I will make a wet hop tea with them and add it into the fermenter. It shall be known as the Wethopmeister. Cheers, John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 I'm not sure if this applies to doing hop teas or not John, but usually with wet hops you need to use about 6-7 times the weight that you'd need if they were dried sufficiently. Might be something worth researching though, for the good of the beer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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