Beer kit recommendations

[Dogstar]

I live in France, so wine making is not really a very viable hobby, apart from elderflower champagne! Beer is another matter.
Whilst a number of better local beers are starting to appear (eg Coreff), I rely on homebrew for general bitters, stouts, and milds.
So, I would welcome any suggestions as to the best beer kits that members have tried. I generally prefer ones which do no require added sugar (eg Woodfordes) as I have no access to brewing sugar etc. So far, my best ones have been Woodforde's Wherry as a bitter, and Edme Stout as a ...stout. But I keen to widen my horizons!
Thanks for any suggestions,
Dogstar

[cajary]

Hi, Dogstar. I use the basic "Young's" kit. I add normal granulated sugar but at a higher ratio than they suggest!! I also add extra Hop Extract to give it a real "Bitter" flavour. It's a matter of experimenting. I find that the kits with no added sugar don't have a high enough S.G. to give them a "kick". Mine come out at about 5.6. That's enough to give the Lager drinkers a bit of a shock!! All the best.

[5thElement]

I've tried Geordie Scottish Export and Geordie Mild, both are at the cheaper end of the market, probably the cheapest kits you can get actually.

Both require adding regular sugar, or you can use "beer kit enhancer" in place of the sugar. I did both kits with the beer kit enhancer stuff and they both turned out really well. Both took around a week to ferment in the bucket, and were then bottled.

It says it's ready to drink after 3-4 weeks in the bottle but i've found leaving it longer vastly improves the depth of flavour.

Overall, for the low cost of them, they're well worth the money.

I know that probably wont help as your looking for kits that dont require additional sugar but thought id share my experiences anyway!

[paulsherwin]

Many well respected brewers add sugar to the wort, so it's certainly not a crime to do it. The argument against using sugar is that it adds fermentable material without adding any flavour, so you finish up with a strong drink that doesn't taste of anything. If you really overdo it the fermentation will produce undesirable higher alcohols (i.e. not pure ethanol), and this will result in a nasty headache after drinking it which is unrelated to the strength.

There isn't really any such thing as 'brewing sugar'. The head brewer at Waddies told me they used standard Tate & Lyle cane sugar. He advised me against using sugar from sugar beet, though he couldn't provide an explanation for this.

Paul

[Dogstar]

Thanks for the advice. I will have a go with the kits you mentioned and just try them with sugar and see how they go. Nothing to lose, after all!

[lazydog]

the beer kit enhancer you hear of is really only 500grms glucose and 500grms spray malt if you are having problems with supplies in France or anywhere else there are some excellent online brew shops if anybody needs a link and the admin dont mind me posting them please reply to this post.
I have 25 gall red grape fermenting
46 lts lager conditioning for x,mas
92 lts old style bitter either conditioning or being drunk
25 lts turbo cyder fermenting

[Lesley Jay]

Originally Posted by lazydog

If anybody needs a link and the admin dont mind me posting them please reply to this post.

Hi Lazydog, posting links on the forum to relevant sites is just fine!!

[lazydog]

Thanks Lesley i will wait to be asked and then put some up

[lazydog]

Ok no body asked then i will still give ya link to a good home brew site
The HomeBrew Index page