Now when it comes to beer kits I have 2 sorts. The ones I keg and the ones I bottle. The keg beers are kind of for events and gatherings and the bottled beers, being more of a faff are for certain types of beer. So stuff I bottle is stuff I want quite carbonated, cold to drink... or beers that keep.
So the first two cold or carbonated are easy to get your head round. It's just easier to get a bottle in the fridge without pissing if your wife than a keg... but the ones that keep?
So hoppy flavours degrade with CO2. A hoppy beer doesn't keep in a bottle too well. Sure it matures a bit but after a few months the flavour changes quite a lot. This isn't always a bad thing but if it was a hoppy beer it just won't be the same. Enter IPA. Indian Pale Ale is brewed more robust so it could survive to trip from the uk to India back in the day, so it can handle being stored a bit. Double IPA is the next step. Coming in more like 8% it can be stored a long time. I keep coming back to Evil Dog and iImperial Red IPA because they are very strong beers that bottle and keep realistically as long as you might want. Now if I kegged one of these, I would feel compelled to drink it and not being an alcoholic, that's not an ideal solo challenge. It makes more sense to bottle it and keep it, not so much for a zombie apocalypse, although in that event, I'm sure it would take the edge off the situation, but as a strong beer to have once in a while. It's also great to get out if someone tasting your beer is over confident and needs to fall over.
So the kits themselves are premium kits with premium price. The two I have mentioned makes a strong beer but I do add extra brewing sugar to 'up the alcohol'. The kits do not require any additional fermentables to work and I'm guessing the lower alcohol ones really won't benefit from adding anything. They are really reliable high quality kits that produce a beer you could bottle and sell in Borough Market in London for £12 (or more) a bottle. The two stronger beers I am focusing on kind of vie with Belgian ales in terms of strength and character and generally these kits are 19-25 pint kits whereas these Bulldog kits are full brewing bin '40 pints'. So for stronger beers not only excellent quality kits but also economic.
I have also made Raj's Reward which is probably the best tasting 'straight' ipa I have made from a kit. It's delicate and nuanced. A million times better than I expected in fact. It's the kit that got me back into brewing... which is a testament to how easy these kits are to make. I honestly felt like I could open my own pub chain after making it
Evil Dog is straw coloured and kind of has that Tenant's Super feel to it in the mouth. I like it quite cold, although you can over do it. It's proper stuff and I tend to sip it more than gulp it because it's tasty and there's a lot going on. I brew it over strength and if you were tasting it on the back of your throat you would be horizontal quickly. I've found people who are seriously into Belgian Craft beers like Evil Dog a lot and I'm sure if you put it into a fancy glass it might pass as one. In that sense it's an inexpensive kit because these are 40 pint kits.
The imperial red is an amber colour. Its hard to describe its flavour but its quite full with a lot going on. It works well as a winter beer even if it's not dark. Probably the best way to describe it would be to urge you to make some and taste it for yourself.
As I said, I'm not an alcoholic, which I think is helpful if you are making beer. This is one I bottle, it keeps and adds variety for guests. People with that condition do gravitate to these double IPAs which does tend to deter people from making them which is kind of a shame. Theres room for strong beer but its probably best to respect it and not treat it as a session ale. I will make one batch a year and as they keep so well there's always a bottle of either ne knocking about.
These kits aren't cheap, so its kind of fitting that they make these two brews that keep. These kits are very high quality though and easy to make. They are super reliable too. My results from them are consistent. I make these every year and even though they are a lot more expensive than they were, I'll still get them because there aren't really alternative kits available. I really should try the other kits but I've kind of got stuck making a bunch of favourites each year and unless I can get more friends... I might never get round to it
