Brew Community

Put this kit down with 1.5kg Coopers
Pale malt tin, and 750g BE2 because no
LDME at the supey (i really should have
just waited a week or so) and 12g
Cluster (steeped 20 mins for aroma), and
recultured coopers pale yeast.

After 3 months is an awesome beer, and
only going to get better. Very yeasty,
malty, and the cluster adds a little
character. Needs maybe a month to smooth
out more edges, but gee this is a good
kit beer – Rating:4/5

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Brewed with 1Kg Dextrose, Safale yeast
for two weeks at 12 Deg C . Bottled and
left for two weeks before tasting.
A very nice if ‘sweet’ beer. I’d
suggest trying this with maybe 500 grams
of Malt Extract rather than sugar. I
found after extra maturation things do
not improve that much, but I do find it
a very safe enjoyable beer. – Rating:3/5

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Kit + 1kg white sugar. fermented for a
week at 18*c. SG=1040 FG=1020(expected,
as with default ingredients only makes
~3% alco). Left bottled for a few weeks
and opened one for taste. Sweet, with
some spice to it but the ginger taste is
a bit weak. This kit could be improved
into a great ginger ale by adding some
additional ginger and cinnamon. – Rating:3/5

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Can + Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 + I
decided to culture yeast from 2 stubbies
of CPA into a 1L starter for 2 days. At
full krausen I dumped it into the mix.
Also boiled 20g Pride of Ringwood hops
for 30mins and 10g at flame out. Primary
for 18 days at 19C, SG 1049 FG 1009.
After 3 weeks in the bottle it’s nicely
carbonated but lacks head and tastes a
little on the weak side. It does show
hints of the classic CPA, mostly I think
due to the PoR addition, but the 500g of
dextrose in the BE2 hasn’t helped. I
would do the mix up to about 20L and
probably just add 1kg of light malt
instead of the BE2. – Rating:3/5

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Never used a brewcraft kit before but
will make this again. Used brewcraft #74
Irish Stout converter pack, 250g steeped
and strained Crystal Grain, 200ml
Treacle, 100g corn syrup, Fuggles teabag
(from the pack) and 2x kit yeast (had a
spare). Puratap water to 21 litres.
Temps around 18 degrees. Drinkable
almost immediately and getting better
with each week. Mild for a stout which
is what I wanted. Like some of my aged
porters but without the agony of
waiting. Highly recommend! – Rating:5/5

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Brewed with 500g dex 500g LDME can
yeast. Kegged after 2 weeks in primary.
After 2 weeks in the keg the clarity and
taste was much improved. The best beer
of my short HB career to date. The 19
ltr keg was dry after 1 week. Time to
make another one. – Rating:4/5

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Brewed with 500g dex, 500g liqiud malt
extract. After 2 months taste was
simple. Maybe in need of some more hops
or a mini mash with some grain. Not
quite VB but initial taste is similar,
no real VB after taste. Overall a good
base for partial in my opinion. – Rating:2/5

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Winston-Salem’s Foothills Brewing adds a couple more Great American Beer Festival awards to their tally this year. Head Brewer Jamie Bartholomaus brought home Silver Medals in both the Bock category and the Baltic Porter category.

Foothills Baltic Porter and Gruffmeister 8 Maibock were the beers that secured the medals for Foothills.

Congratulations to Foothills Brewing, Jaime and everyone else who helps Foothills get beer into our glasses!

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The first official gathering of the Triangle Beer Meetup will be on August 22 at Horniblow’s Tavern in Raleigh. Horniblow’s is the brewpub in conjunction with Big Boss Brewing Company. They will be putting on a private beer tasting as well as brewery tour for all meetup members. After the tour we will congregate back in the pub for drinking and socializing. The Triangle Beer Meetup was established to enhance the beer drinking experience for everyone in the area. We will be meeting monthly at various establishments to enjoy some of the best beer the area has to offer. Future events will include beer dinners, beer tastings, etc. For more information, go to: beer.meetup.com/168.

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Five NC breweries are bringing back GABF awards.

Ham’s, Carolina Brewery, Foothills, Natty Greene’s and Duck-Rabbit all won top three honors (in separate categories of course).

Here they are listed with awards, breweries and categories for each.

• Category: 18 Münchner-Style Helles – 32 Entries
  Gold: Sunfest Lager, Ham’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, Greenville, NC
• Category: 36 English-Style India Pale Ale – 26 Entries
  Gold: India Pale Ale, Carolina Brewery, Chapel Hill, NC
• Category: 47 English-Style Brown Ale – 44 Entries
  Silver: Old Town Brown, Natty Greene’s Brewing Co., Greensboro, NC
• Category: 63 Sweet Stout – 18 Entries
  Bronze: The Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout, The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery, Farmville, NC
• 2006 Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am Competition – 35 Entries
  Gold: Baltic Porter, Foothills Brewing, Winston-Salem, NC
  Brewmaster-Jamie Bartholomaus; AHA Member-Tom Nolan

Congrats guys! Keep brewing those great NC beers!

The rest of the winners and awards can be found here.

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