The Kit Modification Thread

I'm not sure if a thread like this exists already, but I thought it would be a decent idea to collect all the modified kit brews that people have tried and can recommend. I for one would like somewhere to browse what others have done to either repeat or spark some ideas.

Maybe this can be moved to the Kit Reviews section instead?

I'll kick things off with a couple of very simple dry hop additions that I've tried:

Kit Name: Wilko's Golden Ale
Brew Length: 11.5L
Additions: 25g Citra hop tea. 25g citra dry hop.
Yeast: US-05
Description: Using just one of the two cans from the Wilko Golden Ale kit I made as usual and added a 25g hop tea when mixing the wort. I used US-05 (dry sprinkled) in place of the kit yeast. After 1 week, when the ferment had died down, I added another 25g of citra as a dry hop and then bottled 1 week later.
Result: A 4.2% very hoppy and easy drinking ale. It was almost a completely different beer when compared to the kit brewed as intended.

Kit Name: Festival Golden Stag
Brew Length: 11.5L
Additions: 25g Mosaic hop tea. 25g Mosaic dry hop
Yeast: Kit
Description: Using just one of the two cans from the Festival Golden Stag kit I made as usual and added a 25g hop tea when mixing the wort. After 1 week, when the ferment had died down, I added another 25g of mosaic as a dry hop and then bottled 1 week later.
Result: A 4.5% beer that has received favorable comments from friends and has been preferred to Citra by Oakham Ales. Very hoppy with a delicate grapefruit smell.

Great idea Zod! I'm very interested to see what kit modifications work well and which hops go with which kits.

Mosaic is a great hop. Try adding summit and mosaic dry hop. You will be pleased

will be following this thread with interest

Will just throw this in here - nice link of some kit mod 'recipes'

http://www.aussiehomebrewing.com/AleRec ... cipes.html

Got a coopers english bitter been fermenting for 7 days now, any ideas for dry hopping I have 100g of fuggles any suggestions for anything else or will that be ok

Thanks in advance

And another :-

http://www.aussiehomebrewing.com/Custom ... opers.html

Atb. Aamcle

www.frankenbrew.co.uk

Kit Name: St Peter's I.P.A.
Brew Length: 20L
Additions: 50g Citra hop tea. 50g Mosaic dry hop.
Yeast: Kit, re-hydrated
Description: Made the kit as per instructions (including the goldings hop sachet) with the hop tea added at the start and the dry hop added when fermentation had finished. The dry hop ran for 5 days before cold crashing for 2 days before bottling.
Result: A 5% golden and clear beer with a big hit of citrus and grapefruit from the 100g of hop additions. The 38 bottles of this will not last long as this is better than the Wilko's and Festival kit mods I've posted earlier - both of those went down very well with friends so expect the same from this.

I've done a wilko golden with 500g light spraymalt and 50g citra. That came out at 4.6% and was a really nice hoppy ale, much improved on the original which is a bit wishy washy.

I've also done a wilko real ale with 650g light spraymalt and 50g citra. That one came out at 5.9%. I've got a wherry that I'm drinking alongside, wilko real ale is reportedly the same or very similar to wherry and I much prefer my adaptation. The wherry is nice, but a bit bland compared to my hoppier version.

I might try a single can kit next to get a bit more control over ingredients

I currently have some wilkos kits I could try a bit of modification on. A hoppy copper bitter, a dark velvet stout, and a golden ale. If anyone could guide me as to some ideas for these and maybe a good place to buy hops from on the internet that would such a huge help.

Cheers Zod

I brewed an out of date fixbys gold 2 can kit a while back. To try to ensure it would be ok i did a mini mash.
Mini mash with 300g of dark crystal brought up from tap temp to 93degrees, then removed, boiled for half and hour 2 lots of fuggle added 20g each at start and end of boil. Finished with irish moss. This was then added to the fermenter with kit contents and topped up to the correct mark.
Racked onto Nottingham yeast cake, reracked into clean FV 10 days later.

This took a while to 'come good' but made the kit significantly darker. A nice beer with a small step towards all grain!

Kit Name: Wilko Hoppy Copper
Brew Length: 20L
Additions: 500g light spray malt. 500g medium spray malt. 100g Amarillo dry hop
Yeast: Gervin
Description: Simply replaced the 1kg of required sugar for the spray malt and threw in a 100g Amarillo pellet dry hop for 5 days. Primed with only 60g of dextrose for a very lightly carbonated beer. Result is very pleasant. A velvety smooth taste and the 100g of Amarillo is not overpowering, in my opinion. Think it has benefited from reducing the brew length from 23L to 20L. I would certainly make this again.

Kit Name: Wilko Hoppy Copper
Brew Length: 20L
Additions: 1kg muntons brew enhancer, 7lbs very ripe strawberries, 20g citra pellets dry hop
Yeast: Gervin
Description: Simply replaced the 1kg of required sugar for the brew enhancer. remove stalks, greens and any mouldy berries and then steep in boiling water. Drain and liquidise and add to brew. Buy a huge bunch of flowers , which you will need to apologise to the wife because in the morning you will be cleaning up the pulp which has spewed from the FV. It might be best to add the liquidised berries after fermentation has slowed down??? I racked this into another FV, on top of 20g citra pellets, after a week because there was pulp and mess all over the original fv which I had to place in a trub to collect the overflow!!!! Bottled cloudy but tasty and I will update.

Strawberries and Citra? Sounds great.

just done a youngs scotish heavy with 50g of cascade added in secondary bottled 10 days ago had a taste today and very nice it is to, good citrus smell and taste think this one will be nice in a few weeks

Thinking of doing this kit in the near future, any comments welcome
Wilko velvet stout kit
with 500 grm dark spray malt,500 grm beer enhancer, half tin of black treacle oe around 225gms along with 15/20 gm of goldings hops boiled for 15 mins and added at start of the brew.
Thanks

Hi I dont know if this is the right place to put this but I would like to try Moding a kit. I have done several kit with mostly good result but would like to jazz things up a bit. I have recently acquired some hops & grains all are second hand so not sure if any good, some hop packs are still vac packed. I also bought a can of Wilko's Hoppy copper bitter & velvet stout. I could list all the hops but it would take a while but can do if it would help. I also have a big bag of lactose. Any ideas i would be great full

currently doing this one again - my friends really enjoyed it last time

Kit Name: Festival Golden Stag
Brew Length: 21L
Additions: 50g Mosaic hop tea. 50g Mosaic dry hop
Yeast: US-05
Description: Made as usual and added a 50g hop tea when mixing the wort. After 1 week, when the ferment had died down, I will add another 50g of mosaic as a dry hop.
Result: A 4.5% beer that has received favorable comments from friends and has been preferred to Citra by Oakham Ales (less bitter and more fruity). Very hoppy with a delicate grapefruit smell.