Picked this kit up recently. Not my fave style of beer but it was going reasonably cheap as it was 6 months out of date, so I chanced it anyway. Hpefully it's good to go. Have a 'reserve' pack of yeast ready just in case.
I won't go through the preparation in detail as others have done this before for other Bulldog kits - suffice to say the large bag of wort is dead easy to work with.
OG was 1.052 which is well above the manufacturers' target of 1.039 - a target which other reviews have reported accurate. I also got a rather high OG with my last brew - a Finlandia cider kit. I was thinking that, frankly, I just a bloody great brewer; however, from reading around it seems more likely that I'm just not mixing my wort / water up well enough. I'm taking samples from a tap which would tie in with this (heavier, higher sugar, wort sitting at the bottom). Frankly, I'm surprised - I've been mixing up using the usual paddle stuck into a drill and whizzed in the centre of the bucket. This gets a good swirl going and loads of bubbles on top so I assumed it was mixing things up very well - obviously not... I'll have to pick up a paint mixer!
Anyway, will report back on how this kit goes.
Bottling this tonight hopefully. I mentioned in another thread that I got to the bottom of my high OG readings - my FV scale was 3.5L out of calibration at a full fill! So I actually only brewed about 19L.Fermentation went pretty quick, and bottomed out at 1.010 on day 7. If adjusted for the volume error, this changes to 1.008, the stated FG in the instructions, so it was ready to go at day 8 (Wednesday) as claimed. If this kit is anything to go by (and bear in mind it was 6 months out of date), the Bulldog kits are pretty good. I've given it a couple of extra days to clear out somewhat (it's still a bit cloudy). Colour is more amber than the expected golden, but I've seen others with the same issue. Tastewise I'm very happy - even from the FV, it tastes pretty damn good - and of my three brews to date, is the one which tasted most like what I expected.
Had a taster last night and it's tasty! Deep amber colour with little head. Yeast still unstable. Taste has evolved somewhat - best comparison would be a sweeter Hoegaarden with a bit of added lager 'bite'. Not quite a cerveza, but this may be due to my accidental short brewing. It'll be lovely in the sun though!
not bad for 6 months out of date ;)
Had a few of these now and it's really nice. Final alc 6%. The Hoegaarden taste has slightly mellowed but is still there, mixed with a citrusy and lagery taste. Still somewhat cloudy. Head doesn't last.