Finlandia 1kg Ale

[HomeBrewWest]

To follow up on this, I'm drinking one now.
I know it's just gone noon but i'm on nightshift, so in my world this is like 1am on a friday night, but with the sun shining, don't judge me!!!

Anyway, it's a great kit with a bit of tweaking (probably great without tweaking too, but I dunno)

I did:
Kit + 1kg LME (the cheap can from HBW or HBC) + Coopers IPA yeast (had it handy and know how it works) to 20L
fermented at 18C for 2 weeks
dryhopped with 25g cascade + 25gBramling X)

It's in the bottles for just over a month and tastes great!
Good lasting lacing head, beautiful flavor/aroma.

These kits are €6.45 and the LME is €6.95, so apart from the hops the whole kit and fermentables cost less than most other kit cans.

I'm very surpised at this beer. What started in a lesson on cheap ingredients turned out to be a keeper.

Lessons :
finlandia 1kg kits are good
cheap LME is good
(cascade + bramling cross) = win : it's maths so it must be true!

Very interesting indeed. Because these kits are here to stay and we are just reordering from Finlandia as I post this. We were only able to import a limited number of Make Your Own Kits for all of Ireland. Same with the other special value kits like Mangrove Jacks, they tend to be once off.

Did you make it up to 23 litres? Did you use:
- 1 Kg can of Traditional ale (http://www.homebrewwest.ie/finlandia-traditional-ale-10-kg-kit-1341-p.asp), plus
- full 1.5 Kg can of LME (http://www.homebrewwest.ie/bh-light-lme-liquid-malt-extract-15-kg-2733-p.asp or HBC LME can which is the same)?

Since we have hundreds of beer kits, it can be very daunting for beginners. We are going to put together a section of "popular" kits and this looks like it might fit, especialy if we bundle the two together. Along with a Cascade hop pellet teabag for dry hopping (would be get away with just the Cascade?).

Can we quote your post and put a link on  HBW to it?

[LordEoin]

Feel free to link and quote if you want

I honestly cannot remember if it was HBW or HBC LME, I use both of your shops.
But I've tried both LMEs and can't tell the difference if there is any.

Mangrove Jacks? That one completely slipped by me without noticing! 

It was to 20L because at 23L is was working out to be just that bit too weak.
When I do it again I'll probably do the same but with 300 brew sugar also.

Cascade (or any other aroma hop) on its own would be fine, but don't those teabags only contain something like 12g hops?
They're super-simple to use, but at €2.24 each they work out at about 500% the cost of loose hop pellets.
Did you ever consider making smaller packets? (with slightly higher profit margins like 50% volume for 65% cost, eg cascade 100g for €4.64 or 50g for €3)

[HomeBrewWest]

Feel free to link and quote if you want

I honestly cannot remember if it was HBW or HBC LME, I use both of your shops.
But I've tried both LMEs and can't tell the difference if there is any.

Mangrove Jacks? That one completely slipped by me without noticing! 

It was to 20L because at 23L is was working out to be just that bit too weak.
When I do it again I'll probably do the same but with 300 brew sugar also.

Cascade (or any other aroma hop) on its own would be fine, but don't those teabags only contain something like 12g hops?
They're super-simple to use, but at €2.24 each they work out at about 500% the cost of loose hop pellets.
Did you ever consider making smaller packets? (with slightly higher profit margins like 50% volume for 65% cost, eg cascade 100g for €4.64 or 50g for €3)

Both LMEs are indeed the same.

20 litres. Hmmm, I guess that could work. Ya, its 12 g hop pellets in a tea bag. Might be enough?

We don't pack our own hops and smallest we can get them is 100g (Brouwland).

[johnrm]

http://mangrovejacks.com/

[LordEoin]

You only have the options of Finnish or Swedish instructions, but luckily I work with Finnish and Swedish guys.

The instructions say to brew it to 16L with 600g sugar for Medium Strong Beer, or to 20L with 300g sugar for light beer
20L with 300g sugar = 1.021 (lol)
16L with 600g sugar = 1.034 (still pretty poor)
20L with 1.5kg LME  = 1.039 (that's a bit better)

I didn't want to brew to 16L becase I'm thirsty. And I didnt want to brew to 23L because I like to taste the beer.

If you take a kit that designed to be made to 16L, then make it to 23L, you're going to ruin the built-in bittering.
Eg. If it was designed to be 30 IBU at 16L, the same kit would be 20IBU at 23L.

The reason I dryhopped heavily was to distract from the reduced kit hops.

Apart from the size of the hop teabags, I think they're a great idea as they allow people to dryhop without all the confusion. I think that a 12g dryhop is very little, but it should give a little extra to the brew.

[HomeBrewWest]

The lads usually tape English instructions to the tops of those cans; so let me know if they forgot to do that. For the Traditional Ale kits, Finlandia currently ship them separately as they are not included under the lid.

I wonder if the Coopers yeast made much difference. I'd love to repeat the experiment with the kit yeast to see if it makes much difference. The Coopers yeast is not available without the can attached !

[LordEoin]

I'll probably be making another in a few weeks.
I'll do it with the kit yeast, 1.5kg LME , teabag, to 20L and let you know

[brenmurph]

I just picked up a few cheapies in the HBC...
http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/beercider-kits-make-your-own-beer-18-kg-kits-c-1_208.html
Weiss and Mild 1.8kg kits for about EUR7

Some of the lads at work are interested so I'm going to throw on a kit in the Canteen after work some evening.

I'm going to add 500g Sugar + 500g DME to each.

Ive bought about 20 of these kits from homebrewcompany, without tweaking they are excellent with just the kg of glucose. The mild is exceptional and has been tasted twice at Lucan meet and several times at the Kildare meetups. I have just done the secondary transfer tonight of my 21st MYOB kit. This time ive added a tball of hops (dana) as im doing a real ale cask ferment this time.

Super kits made as an own brand for a food chain in UK (its written on the packet) and highhly recomended. A few of the lads were raving about my lime wheat beers which were the MYOB wheat kit and a lime in primary or secondary, kit yeast (fabulous) as is the English ale yeast with the Mild kit. I'd say follow the basic kit without tweaks and certainly Im suggesting u dont need more malt in the mild, its full flavoured already, keep in mind its a 1.8kg kit

[HomeBrewWest]

I'll probably be making another in a few weeks.
I'll do it with the kit yeast, 1.5kg LME , teabag, to 20L and let you know

Its gonna be 6 weeks! The least we can do is provide some of the bits.  Regardless of who you order from, email your supplier and ask for the ingredients. We will cover it.

[LordEoin]

@bren - yeah, I heard they're quite good. They're out of date though aren't they? Any loss in quality?

@HBW - that's mighty kind of you. I'll PM you
By 'It's gonna be 6 weeks' do you mean until you have them back in stock or until they're drinkable?

[brenmurph]

@bren - yeah, I heard they're quite good. They're out of date though aren't they? Any loss in quality?

dont worry bout BB dates, still tastes excellent, maybe even better than 6 months ago. If there was a diminished flavour it would prob be the hops which can be added back if u wanted, currently the beer is fine.

[HomeBrewWest]

Just ordered from Finlandia, but they don't have those kits in stock. It will be end June before they make them again!

[LordEoin]

Must try ALL the things!

[johnrm]

What drugs you on Boy?
We're you lookin' at Rossas shirts again?

[HomeBrewWest]

Must try ALL the things!

Wonder if you pick up pallets on one of those?