Can You Use A Beer Ingredient Kit with a BrewDemon?

[RedLowRyder]

Greetings group,

I have read through some forums and searched the web, but have not found much. I was wondering if you can use other company beer ingredient kits in a BrewDemon. I really want to make a Belgian Strong Dark Ale and BrewDemon does not have a kit for one.

Appreciate it.

[Beer-lord]

Welcome to the Borg.
Sure you can. The fermentor is only the vessel. You can use Brewdemon, Mr. Beer or any kit in the BrewDemon 'bucket'. Nothing really changes, it's all about keeping the volume the same. If you're brewing 2.5 gallons of one kit its the same as 2.5 gallons of another.
Have fun and share your brewing adventures.

[BlackDuck]

+ 1. And welcome to the Borg.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[philm00x]

Welcome to the Borg! As you've surely read already, yes you can use another company's kit as long as you keep the volume the same.

[John Sand]

Welcome! Yes, we have all used BrewDemon or MrBeer fermenters for other brews. I used them for a long time for BIAB batches on my stove.
We have some really good brewers of Belgian styles here. Maybe they can help you with a recipe. (Mashani and BigPapaG?)

[bpgreen]

Welcome.

You can probably find more variety in 5 gallon kits. You just need to split a 5 gallon kit in half (or use two fermenters.

Some kits are easier to split than others.

I buy most of my ingredients in bulk to get better prices and then just make my own recipes. Some stores last the ingredients that are in a kit, so you could scale the Trevor and bit the ingredients yourself.

[mashani]

TIP:

If you get an ingredient kit with all the grains crushed together and it's for 5 gallons, but you only have a 2.5 gallon fermenter... then do this:

Steep/mash the grains as the kit describes.

Pour half of it into a separate pot and then bring it to a boil, then put a lid on it and turn off the heat. Let that sit on your stove to cool down.

Use the other half, plus half the hops and half the extract that came with the kit to make your beer.

When your all done, take that pot that has the other half of the steeping grains (which has now cooled to a reasonable temp), and pour that liquid a container that you can put in your fridge or freezer.

Put it in your fridge or freezer (if not going to use in a week, do the freezer).

Then when you are ready to make the other half, just pull it out, defrost if required, and use it.

I don't use kits too often, but I do the "mash up a bunch of stuff then divvy it up and freeze it" all the time. It works great.

I would suggest putting whatever left over liquid extract and hops you have in the fridge too. Sealed up of course.

[RickBeer]

Or use two fermenters and split a 5 gal recipe between them.

[Jon]

TIP:

If you get an ingredient kit with all the grains crushed together and it's for 5 gallons, but you only have a 2.5 gallon fermenter... then do this:

Steep/mash the grains as the kit describes.

Pour half of it into a separate pot and then bring it to a boil, then put a lid on it and turn off the heat. Let that sit on your stove to cool down.

Use the other half, plus half the hops and half the extract that came with the kit to make your beer.

When your all done, take that pot that has the other half of the steeping grains (which has now cooled to a reasonable temp), and pour that liquid a container that you can put in your fridge or freezer.

Put it in your fridge or freezer (if not going to use in a week, do the freezer).

Then when you are ready to make the other half, just pull it out, defrost if required, and use it.

I don't use kits too often, but I do the "mash up a bunch of stuff then divvy it up and freeze it" all the time. It works great.

I would suggest putting whatever left over liquid extract and hops you have in the fridge too. Sealed up of course.

What I used to do was split the grains by scooping 1 cup at a time, alternating between two containers. One I'd mash, the other would go back into the plastic bag, get tied off and put in the fridge until I brewed again (usually the next week). I also never considered mashani's method because I didn't ever think of it!

[RedLowRyder]

Thank you everyone. I did the BrewDemon Evil Pilsner and it was pretty great. Me and my wife both aren't super fans of pilsners but it was pretty tasty.

Anyone on here ever made a Belgian Strong Dark Ale? If so do you have a recipe you liked or a kit that was good?

Cheers!

[mashani]

Anyone on here ever made a Belgian Strong Dark Ale? If so do you have a recipe you liked or a kit that was good?
Cheers!

If you want to take a stab at boiling some hops then take a look at this kit. It is a kit that would be very easy to split into 2 batches.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/northy-12-belgian-quad

I can tell you that it is a solid recipe. It will turn out similar to St. Bernardus Abt 12, *if* you use the Wyeast 3787 liquid yeast option and make a starter, and get your fermentation up to around 78 degrees. It will be close enough that it will make anyone who likes that beer very happy. Yes, it seems expensive, but if you consider how much Abt 12 costs for real, it's actually "very cheap".

If you use the SafeBrew BE-256 (formarly known as Abbaye) yeast it won't be as close to it but it still should be good (I really like the dry Abbaye yeast). If you can't make a starter then I suggest you buy at least 2 packs of 3787 and then let me know you are going to try it without a starter and I will explain to you how to feed the candi syrup instead of putting it into the boil like their recipe calls for.

If you are doing it as 2.5 gallons, you can just get one pack of yeast for now, and get another later, but only if you are going to feed the sugar (I can explain that if you go that route). Just do not follow the recipe as they describe without using either the dry yeast, or making a yeast starter. Even if going with the dry yeast, I'd actually personally buy 2 packs of the dry yeast if I was doing it as 2 separate 2.5 gallon batches anyways. Pitching a large amount of Abbaye is not a bad thing, especially in a beer like this.

If you don't want to boil hops yet and want to go with a brewdemon or Mr. Beer HME as your base, I can cover you there too. You will need to buy some of the candi syrup that you see in the recipe above however, and also pick up a real Belgian yeast from somewhere. Don't try it with dark sugar rocks, it will not turn out as good. The D-180L is the real deal, and it will turn out best using it.

If you have some other "brand" of strong dark / quad in mind that you have had and liked / prefer over Abt. 12, then if you name it I can likely give you some other ideas.

Oh and also if you are impatient and would like to drink a beer like this sooner then the conditioning times described in the recipe there, then also, that comes down to pitching a lot of yeast, and feeding the sugar instead of putting it into the boil. Which again I will explain if you want to go that route, or some other folks here like our BOTM and others can also explain it.