National Homebrew Club Ireland

I won this kit in the raffle very generously sponsored by HomeBrew West - thanks HBW! I haven't put it on yet as I only received it yesterday, but it's next up once my Aussie Blend Pinot Grigio clears - which is taking way longer than it should! Hopefully this weekend......

These kits seem to have a mixed reputation so putting them out for review is a good idea - gives potential purchasers here some real life experience of them. So, here's what I got:

(http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g159/invites/Milky%20Stout_zpspdu1sf0y.jpg)

Initial impressions are mixed. The bag of lactose was not included in the kit box itself, just packed in loose with other items in the order. It is possible, however, that promotional kits may not have full retail packaging. The tins themselves have some dried on extract on the outside, partially wiped off. The yeast sachet is only 7g, less than the standard 11 - 23g for 'premium' kits these days. Interestingly, the instructions specify rehydrating before use. Speaking of instructions, there is no information in them on what to do with the lactose. I presume it's just added in at the start with everything else! On the plus side, the instructions do say to condition the beer for at least a month before drinking, rather than the usual 'drink 2 days after brewing' nonsense.

Anyway, I'll update this when the kit is on!

OK, finally got the kit on at the end of last week. So here's what I did......

The first rule of homebrewing........well, I'm sure you all know what it is!
(http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g159/invites/Milky%20Stout/first_rule_zpsrtoogefv.jpg)

The instructions state that the yeast should be rehydrated in 30C water for at least 30 minutes prior to adding to wort. So first job - rehydrate the yeast! Pic of this didn't come out too well I'm afraid.

Next, we add our tins to water off the boil (without switching on the hob, less the tins explode).
(http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g159/invites/Milky%20Stout/tins_heating_zpsowotwlc7.jpg)

While our wort concentrate is softening, let's get all our equipment ready. I don't have too much to do as, while bottling my previous brew (wine actually) the night before, I sanitised the fermenter ready for action the next day. So, there's just a few bits, including my trusty 'drill paddle':
(http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g159/invites/Milky%20Stout/drill_zps5oyjqty7.jpg)

This makes light work of most mixing jobs. Gotta be careful using it though, in case you scratch the FV! Aldi have proper paint mixing drill attachments on offer this coming Thursday (18/6/15) - I'm picking one up for even greater ease of mixing.

OK, wort softened for 10 minutes or so, so let's open the tins (ring pull - handy). The instructions suggest mixing with hot water on a hob but I'm not sure that's necessary so I just add the concentrated wort to the FV. The two tins were a slightly different shade which surprised me somewhat. Normally, I'd rinse the leftovers in the tin straight out into the FV, but I'm slightly worried about temperatures. Instructions recommend wort is inoculated at 20 - 24C and I'm hoping to end up at the lower end of this, which happens to be room temp. As such, rather than washing out into the FV, I do it into a pot so I can dissolve my lactose in that, rather than adding the lactose to a second lot of hot water. Even just the dregs in the tin washed out with 1.5L or so of boiled water makes a surprisingly rich wort:
(http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g159/invites/Milky%20Stout/tin_washout_zpsbiztnq2z.jpg)

Next, we add the lactose while stirring and heating gently. The instructions give no information on the lactose so I've had to hit the net in search of guidance, which suggests the lactose can be hard to dissolve. Thankfully, it's not and dissolves readily, even at this high concentration.
(http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g159/invites/Milky%20Stout/lactose_addition_zpsmbcfxr0f.jpg)

Quickly add it to the wort in the FV and swirl it well to mix it up. Hmm.....some is still staying on the bottom so I add cold tap water (and a kettle of hot) to about 15L and have at it with the drill powered paddle. It takes quite some time to get it all mixed up - much longer than I've found before. Check my temperature - hmmm.....a bit high, so it's cold water all the way to 23L and another attack of the paddle.... The 'head' produced is much smaller than that seen with Cooper's stout.
(http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g159/invites/Milky%20Stout/all_mixed_up_zpsi69ijjf1.jpg)

Temperature is 24C, right at the top of the suggested range and well higher than my aim of 20C. If I was just adding dry yeast, I'd consider leaving the wort sit until the morning and adding it then. However, the yeast is already rehydrated so no choice - I have to add it tonight! It should be fine (and still within Gozdawa guidelines); I'd just have preferred a lower starting temp to avoid a significant temp drop after the first day or so.

So, let's add the yeast, give it a quick paddle, stick it in my 'brewery' (AKA kitchen cupboard) and add an airlock. For the eagle eyed, my FV was supplied with a seriously dodgy scale and I'm bang on 23L, not over 25L as the scale suggests!
(http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g159/invites/Milky%20Stout/FV_in_place_zps83m5cx9f.jpg)

OG was 1.051. I'm not 100% sure about the effect of lactose on this, but my reading suggests that this level of lactose adds about 0.01 to the reading, making my 'real' (the lactose isn't fermentable) about 1.041. This won't be a strongly alcoholic stout! The instructions don't give any guidance on OG or alcohol, so I'm not sure how that compares to what should be expected. And now the waiting begins!

Last night (Monday) was four days into the fermentation. Temperature initially rose to 24.5C, before dropping back to 20.5C over a few days. Bubbling was never manic (topping out about 15 / min) and stopped by end of Day 3. Took a sample last night and gravity was 1.032 (so, about 1.022 after accounting for the lactose), so a decent way to go yet - and we'll need a low FG to hit even 4% ABV. A sneaky taste revealed a hefty sweet treacle taste to the sample.

@Drzava, one of the cans is probably just LME, the other is the 'stout' with your dark malts, hops etc.

Quote from: johnrm on June 16, 2015, 05:34:09 PM
@Drzava, one of the cans is probably just LME, the other is the 'stout' with your dark malts, hops etc.

That's probably it alright.

This seems to be sticking, or nearly anyway. Only dropped 3 gravity points from Day 4 to Day 9 (Saturday) morning (airlock stopped on Day 3). Temperature was 20.5 / 21C the whole way. Gave it a gentle stir then and was rewarded with some short lived bubbling, which was presumably just liberated CO2 rather than new fermentation. Dropped another point (to 1.028 - so about 1.018 adjusted for the lactose) in the following 36 hours. Will leave it now until tomorrow (Day 12) but I can't see this hitting a FG of 1.02 (1.01 excluding lactose) inside two weeks (8 - 9 days fermentation claimed in instructions). There's no information with the pack on gravities, but that would give me 4% which is presumably around where it should finish.

Taste is still a treacle bomb.

Another 2 days and only a 1 point drop (to 1.027 / 1.017 w/o lactose) so it seems pretty stuck. Added a tbsp of dissolved yeast nutrient and gave it a stir.

Went back up to 1.028 (so 1.027 reading may have been slightly off) and hasn't moved since. So, gravity has hardly dropped in a week so I think it's officially 'stuck' (presumably it's not meant to finish at 3% ABV?). I drew off some wort last night and rehydrated some Muntons yeast in it for a couple of hours before adding back into the fermenter - no sign of bubbling this morning, but hopefully it'll get things going!

Taste it and if you think it is too sweet than add some sugar to raise the sg and allow it to ferment it out. Might help as by having more alcohol you will lower the sweet taste. :)

It still has a strong treacle taste, but has definitely become more 'stouty' over the last few day.

Do you have a second hydrometer to make sure it's reading right

Quote from: auralabuse on June 26, 2015, 03:36:39 PM
Do you have a second hydrometer to make sure it's reading right

No, but it reads correctly in water so I presume it's OK.

Still stuck on 1.028 (~1.018 accounting for lactose) and has been effectively unchanged for a week despite prodding, yeast nutrient, and new yeast. Unless anyone has any ideas, I guess the only move is to bottle it despite the lowly 3%. Re adding sugar: as a review post, I suppose I should keep it as close to the instructions as possible?

I would add the sugar, if the kit on its own didn't produce the desired beer and the addition of sugar leads to a better brew the readers of the review would appreciate the advice

I think adding the sugar defeats the purpose of a review kit. The whole point is to see if the kit as a whole can perform and create a good beer. Which doesn't look like it in this case.

Also kudos to Drzava, too many review kits have been given out to never be heard from again.

What about bottling a few litres to give a review of the kit as intended then adding some sugar to bump the ABV so Drzava doesnt end up with a load of 3% stout?

Quote from: Drum on June 27, 2015, 11:11:32 PM
What about bottling a few litres to give a review of the kit as intended then adding some sugar to bump the ABV so Drzava doesnt end up with a load of 3% stout?

Yeah, good idea

Quote from: armedcor on June 27, 2015, 10:58:53 PM
too many review kits have been given out to never be heard from again.

If a review kit has been given out and there is no review then I thought there was a ban on getting any more?
Who What When?

No direct finger pointing on my part but its easy enough to go through some of the raffle threads and see theres no where near the amount of reviews in comparison to the amount of winners.

On that subject, I should be pulling the first pint of the Brown porter all grain kit from the hbc competition in a few days, just force carbing at the mo. Will be doing a full review from opening the parcel to pulling a pint and tasting.  It's a tough job

OK, following the advice here, I bottled about 7.5L last night (plus 35g brown sugar in 100ml hot water to give 2 vols CO2). SG was still 1.028. I added 300g brown sugar (in 250ml water) to the remaining 15L or so - just stirred it into the primary rather than racking off. It's bubbling away this morning. This is equivalent to 1lb sugar per 23L kit, which various fora suggest as raising final ABV by 1% without impacting taste too much, and I think 4% is about right for a mild stout. This brought the SG up to 1.034. I'm away for a few days from Thursday so, all going well, will bottle the rest on Sunday.

First time using a bench capper too last night - after a shaky start, found it much faster than my hand held capper.

Finished off this kit last night. FG was 1.025 so the kit fermented further with the sugar added, even after all that sugar had been used. Final ABV 4.2% if I've calculated it correctly (I may not have!). Sample taste after the sugar addition was a bit cidery, but that has lessened. Put 5L into a minikeg (primed to 1.2 vol CO2), and bottled the rest at 2 vols. Final count across both bottlings was 44 bottles equivalent. Lots of trub, and a difficult to remove krausen ring, even using Bruclean which I've found very good.

PET carb checker of the first batch (straight kit) carbed up quickly. Kit recommends leaving for 5 weeks minimum, so I'll report back in a month or so! If anyone has any questions on this kit, just ask!

An update. I had a shnakey sample (in the name of brewing science) of both batches (straight kit, and boosted with some sugar) after 1.5 - 2 weeks in the bottle. Both were terrible - pouring exactly like Coke, i.e. big fizz which immediately disappears. Taste for both was similar - a rather unpalatable fizzy treacle. However, that wasn't doing the kit justice as it recommends a week carbing, followed by a month resting. I had a sample of the 'straight' batch last night after four weeks in the bottle (so, a week less than advised). Pours same as before - big load of 'soft drink' fizz, which vanishes straight away. Colour is good - a deep, deep ruby a la Guinness etc, rather than the darkest brown of Coopers Stout. Still a fizzy treacle taste (that doesn't sound very nice does it?!); however, this had lessened a lot and, while still sweet (that'll be the lactose I'm guessing), there was some nice bite at the back of the palate. So, while not great currently, there could actually be a decent beer lurking in the bottles! I reckon it'll take some serious aging before it's ready though - probably 3 months minimum, and likely closer to 6 months. I'll chance a bottle of both batches in about a month to see how it's developing.

Hmmm... not too promising

Three months in the bottle now for both batches. And I'm afraid there has been little improvement, aside from reasonable head formation. Taste is still 'fizzy treacle', with the 'straight' kit a bit better than the sugar enhanced version. Gave a drop to a friend; his verdict? "Disgusting". I wouldn't go quite that far but it is very disappointing. At this stage I think it's highly unlikely there will be any miracles with the taste in the future. I'm going to hold onto a few bottles to test around Christmas but the rest is for the drain unfortunately!