FREE BEER!!!- Winners of the Festival Beer Kits announced! Thanks to all who entered

marko

We have teamed up with the manufacturers to offer you the chance to win one of these premium new kits, to enter you simply need to tell us a bit about your favourite brew you have made, give us details of what it was, how you made it and most importantly, how it turned out! Please also add a photo of your favourite pint so we can all see the results of your hard work, Just post your entry in this thread for us all to enjoy. and we will choose 5 of the best entries and send the lucky winners a free Festival Premium Ale Kit for you to brew next.

If your having any problems posting your pictures just email the pic to sales@home-brew-online.co.uk with your forum account name and we'll stick it on for you. Any other questions just message me. Competition rules; Only one entry per person. The closing date for entries is 30th September 2012. Home Brew Online reserve the right to withdraw the competition at any time and our decision on the winners is final. Good Luck Everyone

 

 

HBO_Staff

“Heisenberg’s Uncertain Stout”

Heisenberg’s Uncertain Stout
Nick Stokes review of Coopers Original Series Stout

This was a Cooper’s Original Series Stout kit, with 1kg of medium dry spray malt, a 454g tin of black treacle and 500g of grated fresh root ginger.

The beer was inspired by some gingerbread that my wife made, bizarre as that sounds! She had followed a recipe which included black treacle, and when it came out of the oven it smelt great, and I thought to myself “I could drink that!”

The name refers to the fact that, although I fancied that the treacle and ginger flavours would work together, and I know I love treacle stouts, I wasn’t 100% sure how all the flavours would work together. I had also been advised to not bother with the ginger, as it would be an extra flavour which would just confuse things. I decided, however, to carry on regardless!

The name was inspired by Werner Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, which states that the more precise the measurement of one attribute of a particle is known, the less precisely another attribute can be measured; for example, the more accurately the particle’s momentum is measured, the less accurately can its position be measured. This seemed appropriate because I knew how well certain combinations of flavours to be found in the beer worked, but was uncertain how well they would work in combination!

In the end, I found that I needn’t have worried; the beer was a triumph! A rich, pitch black treacle stout, with subtle hints of ginger and a lingering heat that made it an excellent winter warming beer. It didn’t make it to new year!

I hope this was an interesting read for you!

LorraineAllison

My favourite wine making came this year as i scooped all the tiny redcurrants lovingly washed and de-stemmed them and made a batch of wine and the same with the raspberries, and the rhubarb.

I was so impressed how clear and tasty the wines were and enjoyed a couple of glasses thinking I made that.

We invited one of our neighbours around who also has an allotment and makes his own brew.

He enjoyed the wine so much, that he and partner downed nine bottles of the redcurrant and raspberry and now I have only one bottle left of the stuff.

IainandDawn

Barrel of beer! Barrel of baby!!

We're newbys... first brew AND first baby!! AND both are due to be ripe and ready in 3 weeks time.

The question is which one will come first AND can Iain hold off drinking the beer so that it matures properly in the pressurised barrels!

I decided this year to turn my hand to wine-making and have enjoyed using birthday money to get prepared and set up my ventures: rhubarb, grape, gooseberry, blackberry and a white wine kit. Roll on 6months time when i will be able to drink them (i'll be freezing breast milk supplies!!)

Iain jumped on the band wagon! He was bought a Wherry kit and set it going and to date (it's just gone in the barrel) he's had 3 samples! It'll never last until fruition at this rate, he says it's delicious already!!

SO what are you backing? Beer or baby first?

(If he wins a festival pack maybe that one will last until it's good and ready and we can toast the wee one's arrival with some decent homebrew!)

 

RobinGJ

Now I am not sure if this is the same brewery, but my first and most loved pint as a lad was served at our local in Chester and was called Festival bitter, this would have been some 23 years ago, but if the same brewery then the lucky winners are in for a real treat.  Unfortunately the pub changed hands and I never found by beloved pint anywhere else!  But no need for the Kleenex, I soon learnt there were plenty of other good ales out there and took it upon me to try as many as I could - happy days!

It's been a long, long time since I made my last home brew and all's I can remember (not due to the affects of the home brew!) is having to open the bottles very slowly to release the pressure otherwise it was beer fountain time.  My preference was mild and stout and I made many a barrel in my younger years - I did try making tea wine once, but the less said about that the better!

A couple of friends have re-inspired me to give home brew another try, so if I am lucky and win a kit I dare say I will be visiting your store to stock up on kit.

Afraid I have no pictures of my home brew of old but the image posted of the Coopers Original Stout brings back many memories.  Cheers all!

HBO_Staff

This was Cooper's Lager, brewed in my brand new Cooper's kit during October 2011. It turned out ok but nothing special - although the mother-in-law seemed to like it! Tasted a bit flat - maybe I didn't leave it long enough in the bottle, but was too keen to try it. So why was it my favourite? Well, it was my very first attempt at home brewing - and it's always the first time you remember most, isn't it?

Cheers,

Jonathan

 

JohnB

My son and I are quite new to home brewing but we've enjoyed both the brewing process and the consumption of the end product! With extreme care on hygeine we've been very impressed with the quality we've been able to achieve with a simple brew kit. But, as confirmed hop heads, we've felt that we could add a little something to the standard recipes.

We chose Cooper's Australian Pale Ale as the base as it doesn't have any dominant characteristics which might mask what we were hoping to achieve. A first batch had been brewed using beer sugar and, whilst perfectly acceptable, was a little thin. We wanted to increase body, mouth feel and head retention so substituted sugar with 50% brew enhancer and 50% light spray malt. These were added to the Cooper's can in the normal way.

Hopping was always going to be fun but we resisted the temptation to throw 'the kitchen sink' at it. After some background reading and lot's of discussion we settled on a combination of hop tea (flavour) and dry hopping (aroma). The tea was made by boiling 15gms of whole Chinook for 15 minutes. We hoped this would give some depth of flavour without too much added bitterness and the hot tea was added to the fermentation vessel and water added to 23 litres at around 21Deg.C. Yeast was pitched, lid was added and we left it to ferment for 2 days. On the third day, we added the dry hop muslin bag which we'd stuffed with 30 grams of Chinook and 30 grams of Citra (told you we were hops heads!).

We'd previously read that if dry hops were left in the fermentation vessel for too long they could impart a musty or very bitter edge so we decided to err on the side of caution and leave them in for only four days.

By day 10 the present gravity had stabilised at around 1009. This was a little higher than expected but, as a bonus, might produce a light residual sweetness. This brew was kegged, left warm for a few days for secondary fermentation and then moved to a cooler place to condition. A month later (how did we resist?) we decided that it was probably fit for drinking and actively cooled the keg with damp towels.

So how it did it taste? From an entirely biased perspective we were very pleased. With the additives (hops, spraymalt, enhancer) it wasn't a cheap pint except by pub standards but the flavour was spot on. Loads of citrus and fresh grapefruit with a light bitterness and good body and mouthfeel. Head retention wasn't quite there but we're looking at that for the next brew. The beer has continued secondary fermentation in the keg and, even now, when it's 2/3 empty we can draw a lively, well carbonated pint.

So there it is - our favourite brew. But somehow I think the next one might be even better! We're planning a single hop Motueka again using the Coopers kit as the back-drop.

dogmangunny

My first brew is my entry. A pint of Wherry! Purchased for me by my wife as a birthday present. Despite bumbling my way in the dark a few tips from HBO guided me out of the dark and in to my first successful pint. Now my wife has the bug and brewing wine! Next brew will be Nelsons Revenge and then maybe a Festivals if I win!

dogmangunny

HBO_Staff said:

Dogman Gunny entry; Woodforde's Wherry. It went very well with a medium rare steak!

Did the picture not download?

dogmangunny

Did my picture not come through or are you having problems putting it on the forum?

HBO_Staff

The picture of the beer with the steak is the only one we have which is above

dogmangunny

Ok. Not showing up on my screen.

carl_s

below is a pic of my canadian blone coopers kit i used 700g of youngs brewing suger and 500g Muntons light spray malt (DME) and the rusults where epic 6.3% corbonated/cleared well. Have done 4 cooper kits this is the best sofar and the pint below was left for 3months coopers do get better with age will defo buy again.....

stewie

I started brewing 13 months ago, found a sharp learning curve after the first ok batch, some research on the forums have turned up with this beautiful smooth crisp canadian blonde.  After 9 weeks in the bottle it just gets better and better. I should have done this years ago! Thank you Home Brew Online 

HBO_Staff

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR THEIR ENTRIES TO OUR FESTIVAL BEER KIT COMPETITION BOTH HERE ON THE FORUM AND BY EMAIL, NO FURTHER ENTRIES WILL NOW BE ACCEPTED. JUDGING WILL TAKE PLACE SHORTLY AND THE WINNERS ANNOUNCED AND NOTIFIED.... GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

HBO_Staff

And the winners are...

A big thank you to everyone who entered the Festival Beer Kit Competition. There were some great entries given here on the forum and also to the website, and it was great to see some of the results of your hard work. The winners all have a Festival Kit on their way to them so they can now try one of the newest kits on the market, which includes all the malts, sugars, hops, etc, they just need to add water to make 40 pints of great home brew beer. It has been a hard decision with the very high quality of the entries, but there were only 5 of the Festival Kits to give away and they are going to;

1 - Nick S - “Heisenberg’s Uncertain Stout”
2 - John B - Hopped Australian Pale Ale
3 - Iainand Dawn - Birth of Woodfordes Wherry
4 - Stewie - Canadian Blonde Lager
5 - Dogmangunny - Birthday Woodfordes Wherry

Again a big thank you to all who entered and our suppliers 'Ritchies' for their generous sponsorship of the competition, winners will be contacted individually shortly.

New competitions and giveaways will be coming soon with the launch of the new look website very soon!

Thanks and Happy Brewing!