As a newcomer to homebrewing, I hope to brew Belgian-style beers as they are by far my favourite tipple.
I came across the BrewFerm Belgian beer kits on Homebrew West's website, and I was wondering if anyone has used them and what they are like?
Thanks guys.
Gareth.
I did a Brewferm Grand Cru which worked out well. All gone now, always a good sign!
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While I could not claim any great insight into Belgium beer I did the Ambiorix Brewferm kit and I also have the Diabolo kit to do after the Rasputin Imerial stout. The Ambiorix kit can be used in a couple of different ways depending on the Mix of water and sugars to get a different style of beer. I tried it by making it up to 23, 20 and 15 ltrs and the 15 was the best in my opinion. I used dried spray malt in each case (think it was Amber). I have tasted the Diabolo and chocolate springs to mind with warmth from the high alcohol content. This kit would be better for smaller bottles due to the higher alcohol content.
Shanna
I'm with Shanna on the bottles.
You will be much safer with 330ml bottles!
Quote from: johnrm on May 01, 2013, 03:47:45 PM
I'm with Shanna on the bottles.
You will be much safer with 330ml bottles!
Thanks for the advice guys. On the issue of bottles. most Homebrew Websites only seem to sell the 500ml bottles, do you know of any sources (apart from collecting my used ones of course ;)) where you can buy 330ml bottles?
Gareth
Chat to your friendly local barman.
See what stuff hes got behind the bar.
Pick your fave.
Offer him a brew.
New BFF and lifetime supply of bottles!
Quote from: johnrm on May 02, 2013, 12:08:51 PM
Chat to your friendly local barman.
See what stuff hes got behind the bar.
Pick your fave.
Offer him a brew.
New BFF and lifetime supply of bottles!
Sounds like a good idea. Thanks.
or get your mates to keep the bottles from those 20 bottle boxes of beer you get from supervalu/tesco/spar/etc
Not the twist off ones though!
twisty tops (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZknV0EGNLQ)
I made the Diabolo last November.
It's an excellent beer, clears beautifully and is a very pleasant drink after a few months in the bottle. It does need time to condition though. Unfortunately, I didn't use near enough priming sugar for the style. It's carbed like a stout really, but I'll be doing it again soon enough to have for next Christmas.
Hi Billy the gypsy
I have this kit and reading your post it sounds like this is not your first time doing this kit. I wonder when you say you did not a use enough priming sugar did you follow the suggested amount in the kit instructions or did you wing it?
Shanna
Quote from: Billythegypsy on May 13, 2013, 01:32:20 PM
I made the Diabolo last November.
It's an excellent beer, clears beautifully and is a very pleasant drink after a few months in the bottle. It does need time to condition though. Unfortunately, I didn't use near enough priming sugar for the style. It's carbed like a stout really, but I'll be doing it again soon enough to have for next Christmas.
I don't know how, but I just didn't put in as much sugar as I'd intended to. I used a priming calculator but somewhere I confused myself and mucked it up.
Don't know why, a pure mystery! :-[
It'd be a great beer if it was fully carbed.
I'll probably just follow the instructions next time.
I do like an odd dubbel, Brugse Zot has a nice 75cl bottle that can be reused to carbonate whatever you want but as kits go I made a Brewferm Christmas ale and have promised myself not to test it before December. Ill be sure to post when I have something to tell.
Did the Galia kit a while back with some candy sugar around 1Kg lobbed in. My fermentation temp. was all over the place but it came out tasting nice. Took 2-3 months to be at it's best.
Dara
I brewed the Brupaks Beers of the world, Belgian Trappist Tripel.
They're a bit more pricey and only brew to 10L, but all fermentables, hops and speciality yeast are included and it makes a good beer.
It scored a very respectable 30 in last year's competition with no alteration at all:
http://www.homebrewwest.ie/beers-of-the-world-belgian-trappist-ale-tripel-1152-p.asp (http://www.homebrewwest.ie/beers-of-the-world-belgian-trappist-ale-tripel-1152-p.asp)
Well recomended if you're looking for something different.
Sitting in my kitchen watching a Brewferm Diabolo kit for do its magic hope to be able to bottle it real soon. Just have to get my hands on some 33cl glass bottles first. Have great expectations for this beer as I have heard that it is a great beer.
Shanna
Brewed the Brewferm 'Oud Bruin' last year. Really nice tipple, but took forever to ferment out.
I should have aerated the crap out of it I think.
A lot of the brewferm kits act like that as far as i know
just did a old flemish ale one a few weeks ago, and racked it into 3 demijohns - 400g raspberry, 200g raspberry and 450g cherries in each. EDIT: 3 seperate, not all that fruit in each one##
Im now reading that i shouldn't have added the fruit until the beer was really acidic but it tasted pretty acidic to me and wasn't bubbling anymore. Im planning on bottling in 2 months...
mmm.. sounds good :)
Bottled those beers the other day... the framboise and kriek's are great, but the blackberry choffee milk stout is hilarious. too much goin on there, it took a few sips and then i had to really think about each ingredient to identify its weird mix of flavours, be interesting to see how it fares in the bottles. shoulda racked them all before and topped up with beer as gettin the fruit out was a nightmare (really bad with the blackberries - got 6 500ml bottles!)
Got an ambiorix kit there in the bargain bin so lookin forward to tryin that, think ill go with the 15L, see how that works.
EDIT: forgot which thread i was on there, ignore the stout nonsense :)
Quote from: DrowningManatee on November 15, 2013, 01:51:50 PM
EDIT: forgot which thread i was on there, ignore the stout nonsense :)
i was actually curious about that brewferm stout. :D
sorry, no caps because my keyboard has gone mental.