National Homebrew Club Ireland

so far i have only used the Coopers range of kits. what other kits have folk used.

Mostly used Coopers as well. Good quality kits.

Also used Munons (bin the yeast from these - they're crap!  :() and the Make Your Own Beer kit in pouches are good.

But Coopers are the best 1 can kits I've used and the Australian Pale Ale is a great base kit for hacking.

Only done 3 so far all Coopers, i think certainly for absolute beginners like me they are the most consistent, not saying they are the best just most popular and consistent and therefore have the most backup help if things go tits up ;)

Hi there,

I have done the Coopers kits and found them mostly very reliable (barring one Australian Indian PA kit that I did last year).  As far as I can remember I have done their Ale, Irish stout, Australian PA and Australian Indian Pale Ale. I have also done a few Muntons kit (not bad) and also several Brewferm kits. My experience has been that the Brewferm kits have produced the best quality beer (at least when just using the kit by itself un-hacked) as they tend to be made up with less water.

Shanna

I've tried the Brupaks Brews of the World. They only make 10 liters, but they seem to come with everything you need (ie hops and sugar)
I ordered a 'simply' kit in a bag thing, but got sent a youngs kit. was a bit disappointing to get the wrong kit, but the youngs one is on now and smells great.

From what i have been hearing from youtubers recently Wilkos kits are brilliant for english ales and stuff but you can't get them here i don't think?

All Cooper's apart from one Munton's and one Brewferm.

Anyone ever used this kit?
http://www.homebrewwest.ie/muntons-gold-dockland-porter-3-kg-423-p.asp

No weiss have not used that but i hear the muntons kits are quite good. I am looking for an Irish source of the wilkos kits if anybody sees one let me know please ;D

Forgot to mention, have used a Magnum's cider kit.



Just bottled today!  :-[

been kit brewing for 2 years or so and have done lots of Coopers, Muntons and most of what Homebrewwest have to offer, for me the best kit i've done is the Milestone black pearl stout or for cider, On The Rocks Cider Mixed Berry. Also i found the dry kits from Hambleton Bard were very good.

For anybody that hasn't already try Muntons Autumn Blush, it takes an age to clear down but worth it in the end.

Geordie Bitter has been my favourite so far. Maybe because I'm a cheapskate!

Here's a copy of my notes that I keep on Google docs. Sorry about the formatting. I'm on the mobile now. Favs so far:
St Peters Ruby red, brewferm grand cru, young's barley wine. Cooper's blonde goes down better with ordinary beer drinkers at parties
Worst so far
Muntons export stout - think I oxidised that
Finlandia winter ale - just yuck but I've a few set aside incase is ages well.

Brew No	Date	Brewery	Type	Fermentables	Yeast	O/G	F/G	Prime	% Alc	Bottled DAte	Rating	Notes	Price Kit / ferm	Total Volume	price/500ml
1		Coopers	Canadian Blonde	Brew Enhancer	Kit	1	1	Carb Drops	0.0015		7	Nice light, bit bananay		20	0
2		St. Peter's	Ruby Red Ale	n/a	Kit	1	1		0.0015		9		24.29	20	0.60725
3	41036	Coopers	Brewmaster IPA	Extra Light SM 1 kg	Kit	1040	1009		0.0423350164970958	41046	6	Bit bitter for my taste, but drinkable	18.1	20	0.4525
4		Coopers	Canadian Blonde	Extra Light SM 1 kg	Kit	1039	1007		0.04373599361432	41090	6	next time don't use all SM	19.44	20	0.486
5	41146	Coopers	Brewmaster Wheat	Wheat SM 0.5kg Brew sugar 0.48kg	Kit	1039	1010	5ml t.s per bot 50g t.s. per keg	0.0396626770271964	41154	6	didn't boil sugar this time for bottles / didn't taste all that different from Coopers Blonde after 1 month	19.44	20	0.486
6	41161	Brewferm	Grand Cru	.375 Dex / 0.16 Golden syrup	Kit	1070	1010		0.0789572628148891	41175	8	Didn't use dme after reading forums. Using SG reading corrected for temp	12.44	10	0.622
7	41253	Finlandia	Winter Ale	Med Spraymalt 1kg	Kit	1040	1013		0.0354255438789409	41204	4	Short brewed to 20L/ no head retention sour aftertaste , add cloves to taste	16.95	20	0.42375
9	41294	Muntons	Export Stout	Dark SM 1 kg	Kit	1045	1015		0.0392841553906591	41314		22l / sg 1.011+.05 30/jan / added 50g treacle to 4.5l after one week in prim. t.s is okay but base stout is muck. massive iron after taste. prob oxidised	23.45	19	0.617105263157895
8	41244	ST. Peter's	Golden Ale	N/a	Kit	1048	1011	heaped 2.5ml dextrose	0.0486421515231191	41266	6	Quite hoppy, didn't leave much too much time to condition in bottles, still have 4x500 and minikeg conditioning	25.95	18	0.720833333333333
10	41315	Young's	Harvest Barley Wine	1kg light Spraymalt , 300g dextrose	Kit	1066	1014		0.068159688412853	41350	8	Good head and taste from dregs bottle one week on! def do again	17.44	13	0.670769230769231

#DIV/0!

12	41308	Lidl	Cloudy Cider	4.5L lidl cloud apple juice	Lalvin K1	1046	1004	5g sugar/500ml 2.5g sweetener	0.0556003832770185		6			4	0
16	?	finlandia	dark ale	1 kg dme	kit
14		ST. Peter's	Ruby Red Ale	n/a									26.95	20	0.67375
15		Brewferm	Wheat Beer	Spraymalt Wheat 500grm 500 dex	Safbrew S-33								24.61	14.5	0.848620689655172
13	41365	Bards	Amber Export	Light Spraymalt 1kg + .5 dex	kit	1045	1012	heaped 2.5 caster	0.0433406714364337	41379		dry malt package . sneaky taste afer one week - sweet and malty. resonable head.	24.32	15	0.81
17		Lidl	Cloudy Cider		Young's Cider Yeast								25.55	20	0.63875
18		Woodfordes	Wherry	n/a									26.95	20	0.67375
19		Brewferm	Pils	Extra Light Spraymalt and 500g dex?									21.85	20	0.54

The Young's kit worked out quite well and is going down a little too easy.
I tried a Finlandia 1kg kit since then (only €6.45) and it's not bad at all, even though it's still quite young. :)
Back to the Coopers for a while though, got a lot of bottles to fill

MYOB from Homebrew company. Wheat beer Ive made 3 batches in past month. Done one with a lime in fermenter and it is unique and really pleasent to me anyway, ill have it at the Lucan meet for yis to try.

MYOB mild, my house ale! I brew 1-2 batches a week and most are all grain brews however I have session beers that are designed for my mates / family / homebrewers who want to lash a few pints of it so I make them 3.5 - 4% alc and normally try good kits.

The to kits above are still available from Homebrew company for 7-95 for a  1.8 kg kit and very good yeasts included.

Ive use finlandia and have lagered the lager and was superb, no mods just kit and glucose. I got some of the 1kg kits and made a nice light ale too by using glucose, notty yeast, and a few dry hops.

Can anyone recommend a good British real ale to try out? Only bottled my first kit a few weeks ago, coopers Mexican cerveza. Not bad taste but very flat. Bottled it in coopers 500 ml bottles with 1 carb drop. Hoping it will improve after a couple more weeks?
The real ale I'm looking for is more for my dad who always gives out you can't find good real ale anymore.

Any of the Woodfordes range, Wherry is excellent as is Nog, but I've never had issue with any of them and they were practically the only kits I ever did.

Also the Brupaks Beers of the World (http://www.homebrewwest.ie/brupaks-beers-of-the-world-10-litre-beer-kits-140-c.asp) kits are awesome quality, but lower volume and higher cost.