[Review] HBC Irish stout + Blonde + Hefeweizen mashkits

[LordEoin]

I brewed all three of these in the brewing demonstrations at Beerfest.
HBC donated the Stout to the cause - Cheers buddy! <3

We're all pretty familiar with the brewing process etc and I didn't take any photos as i went so this review is more about the general quality and the resulting beer.
I didn't take gravity readings, and any brewing related bits are off hazy memory.
I was aiming for 20liters on each of these beers because I had to take them home in 20L bottles.

Irish Stout:
Everything was milled perfectly and I had no problems with mashing or fly sparging
i was surprised by the hops as there was a 60 min and also a late hop addition.
They could easily have left the late addition out and still be true to style. But I'm glad they didn't it's super.
Yeast was US05 (i think) and fermented out cleanly at 18C
I kegged and force carbonated.
The resulting stout is great. I prefer it to any commercial stout out there. 10/10 in flavor and body
If you had this on mixed gas it'd be perfect, but even on just co2 it's still a cracker

Blonde
Again the milling was perfect and no problem with mashing and fly sparging
I think there were 4 generous hop additions (might have been 3, but i remember thinking that it was more hops than I would have put in a blonde)
yeast was US05 again I think.
The resulting beer is great. i was expecting something along the lines of Smitwicks blonde, but it turned out with far more body and flavor. it's a lovely full beer and more akin to a more expensive stronger belgian blonde ale. Brewing it to the recommended 23liters would lighten it up a bit, but shut up you girl and get yourself another shirly temple. This kit brewed to 20L is lovely!

Hefeweizen
I got a stuck mash on this one and had to batch sparge (stir, sit, drain, fill, repeat), if you have some oat hulls I'd add them to the mash too.
One early hop addition, which is normal for the style. as it relies more on the yeast.
The yeast was WB06 - I love this yeast!
Both my fridges were full with the stout and blonde so this just sat out in my desk for 2 weeks at about 28C
I've brewed many beers around this temperature with WB06 and it makes them fantastic with  big fruity banana notes
This is a great beer kit for anyone who doesn't have temperature control because the yeast is so forgiving and flexible.
16-19C = clove.  19-22C = clean.  22-28C = banana. (rough temps off the top of my head) You can even switch temperature mid ferment to get a variety of flavors. (eg a couple of days at 18, then finish at 26)
Anyway, back to the beer. It's lovely. It reminds me of fransiskaner or paulaner.
i asked M'lady to try it and see if she can taste banana, she said "I can smell the fucking banana from here"  (she's not a beer lover)

Overall, another 3 fantastic mashkits and I can't recommend them enough.

[Greg2013]

Many thanks for the reviews of these kits me Lud,i have done the stout myself and i have to agree it is one of the best kit stouts i have ever tasted,all the HBC mash kits i have done have been top notch especially the Kraken,wow now that was a beer.