Review of Malt Shovel micro-brew kit

[Matthew]

Hi Oliver and Geoff,

Love your website, the forum and Q&A sections have given me some great tips and I'm looking forward to, err, borrowing some some of your recipes.

Thought I'd save you $90 and submit a review of the Malt Shovel Craft Brewing Kit. I was given one as a gift and it has marked my first foray into homebrewing.

The Malt Shovel Craft Brewing Kit is certainly a smart little number. At 11.5 litres, the fermenter is shaped and coloured to give the appearance of barrel, with a conical bottom to contain sedement, a snazzy silver seat (that also serves as a location for a heater pad) and matching silver lid, it is a little more pleasing to the eye than most brewing vessels. The Craft Brewing Kit is well stocked, and provides the fermenter and seat, screw-in tap, hydrometer and test tube, two piece barrel-type airlock, brewers bottler, stick-on thermometer, sugar measure, two sachets of Malt Shovel no-rinse sterilizer, one can of Pale Ale Craft Brewing Mix with yeast, and a comprehensive instruction sheet.

The Malt Shovel kit makes for virtually fool-proof brewing, and so is fantastic for the beginner. One sachet of the no-rinse sterilizer provided is sufficient to sterilize the fermenter, tap and lid, and the other sachet does an entire batch of bottles and caps when the finished product is ready to be bottled. The entire Malt Shovel range of brewing mixtures are all-malt, with no sugar or extra ingredients required to be added, so the instructions for brewing can be summarised as: "Empty can of brew mix into fermenter, fill with water, wait a week, bottle, enjoy!"

Malt Shovel offers a reasonably wide variety of brew mixtures, including Pale Ale, Deep Roast Ale, Two Row Lager, Nut Brown Ale, and Oatmeal Stout. All are designed to make 11.5 litres of beer. It is here that the inherent problem with the Malt Shovel brew kit is discovered. The 1.7kg cans of Craft Brewing Mixture aren't particulary cheap (relative to other brew kits) at around $A17, and should one want to use a standard-sized fermenter to make more than 11.5L, one needs to buy two cans. On the flip side, should one wish to use his Malt Shovel fermenter to try different brands, one willfind that almost all other brands of brew mixture are intended to make 20L or more, meaning our intrepid homebrewer can only either make double-strength batches, or chuck half of each future can out (criminal!).

I have so far brewed the Deep Roast Ale and the Pale Ale kits. I found that neither brewed down to the F.G. of 1014 that their instructions advised, and both took a lot longer than the 4-7 days advised (though this may have been due to the cold Sydney weather in July). I ended up bottling the Deep Roast Ale with F.G. at 1020 as it took two weeks to get there from S.G of 1042 and had not moved in four days, and the Pale Ale started at the same S.G and was bottled after three weeks at F.G 1016. I've tasted both after three weeks, the Deep Roast Ale is quite immature and a little over-carbonated. I'm fairly certain I bottled it way too early and I'm not sure it will ever mature. If it's still bad after 2-3 months, I'll throw it out (hey, it was free anyway). The Pale Ale is maturing nicely, it has a lovely head on it and a strong fruity aroma. It has a slight metallic taste which I'm sure will dissapear with more time in the bottle.

In summary, the Malt Shovel Craft Brewing Kit makes a very attractive, if slightly expensive, gift for the time-challenged beer enthusiast, and a wonderfully easy introduction to the world of home brewing. However once the "just-add-water" kits have been mastered and the tinkerers among us want to try different styles, I feel that most will leave the little Malt Shovel unit in the cupboard and upgrade. Personally I've bought a 25L fermenter and plan to use the Malt Shovel unit as a bulk-priming rig and to make the occasional small batch of apple cider or double-strength stout.

Cheers,

Matthew

[Matty]

I've seen a few posts here and their about the malt shovel kits not needing extra ingredients and being all malt, making an 11ltr brew. Aren't Coopers and most other kits all malt? Couldn't you make an 11ltr Coopers brew with no extra ingredients other than the kit and yeast and water? I have heard that some kits are a confectionary malt tho.....

Cheers,

Matty

[thehipone]

It pretty much has to do with the hopping rate. The coopers and other "add 1kg sugar" type kits do contain all malt, but are hopped to the point where they deliver the target bitterness in 23L. If you did a 23L with an MSB kit plus sugar, it would probably be underhopped.

The MSB is a just add water kit. THe others are add water + fermentables.

[Dogger Dan]

thehipone has hit the nail right on the head

Dogger

[wombat]

some kits are inherently underhopped though because of the expected use of adjuncts. i'll bet you can make a decent beer with say a can of bilo lager but using a decent yeast instead of that crap that comes with it. i only use bilo lager as an example because it's the lowest hopped kit i've ever tasted. then you'd have a $7 brew. i think that recultured pale ale yeast, a couple of grams of dry hopped pride of ringwood and the bilo lager can together in an 11.5ltr batch could make a pretty decent pale ale. just my 2 cents. i personally would rather just brew to 23ltrs than f*** around with 11.5ltr brews
-wombat

[wombat]

i just made myself a malt shovel brew kit - they come free with a esb fresh wort kits if you know what i mean

just make a hole in the cap and put a rubber grommit in there and pull out that plug in the bottom. there will be a solid plastic wall behind it, but not to worry, just get a soldering iron and make a hole in it. then, just get a dodgy old set of scissors and make the hole big enough to fit in the new tap you just purchased from the brew store.

much cheaper at $30 with free brew included (for your real fermenter) than $90 with an 11.5L mix can.
-wombat

[Evo]

Have you used the ESB Fresh Wort before Wombat ? If so, what do you think ? I've given it a bash and wasn't OVERLY impressed, but my mates loved it.

[wombat]

i have an american pale ale fresh wort fermenting with a white labs wlp001 californian ale yeast right now in the big fermenter. i'll let you know what i think in a month or two ok
-wombat

[wombat]

i mentioned before a couple of posts back that one can of bilo lager with nothing added may very well produce a beer worthy drinking...

well, today i grabbed my new 15L fermenter with the intention of producing my first ever 11.5L brew. i originally made this fermenter up out of the fresh wort just as a one of those "because i can and it's free" things and to produce some all grain beers as i don't have the capacity to brew 23L of all grain brew yet.

ok, so yesterday i went into the local bilo with one thing in mind - to purchase a cheap arse can of bilo lager and make it drinkable somehow. so, $7.05 later and i have myself a can of this fine *cough* kit brew.

as soon as i arrived home, i grabbed out the bilo yeast and put it far away from my brewing equipment in the "yeast nutrient" compartment in my fridge then i figured i'm going to need a pretty special yeast for this, so i pulled out one of my refridgerated white labs wlp001 californian ale yeast starters and got it going. plus i checked how many grams of cascade hop pellets i had remaining - 80g - so i was ok.

today, i boiled up part of the bilo lager can to 2L of water and added 10g of cascade hop pellets and boiled for 10mins. then i shut off the heat and mixed in the rest of the can. it was all added to the fermenter and a further 10g of cascade hop pellets were added on top of the hot wort. i let this stand for a minute or two and then filled it up to 11L, mixing and aerating the wort as i went along by shaking the fermenter around semi-violently until it was filled. i then pitched my yeast starter and capped her up.

SG was just on 1050 and i'll let you all know how it goes as soon as i can
-wombat

[NRB]

What's an "esb fresh wort kit"? Where does one acquire one and how much are they?

[wombat]

http://www.esbeer.com.au/category24_1.htm
any good home brew store should stock them.
-wombat

[Evo]

Hey Wombat,

Yeah, I made exactly that brew a coupla months back. Same yeast, temperature control etc. Gotta say I wasn't over the moon with it. Tasted "grainy" for want of a better adjective. That said, everyone else loved it. Maybe just not my cuppa tea.

Sure is the easy way to brew though. And they're $30 plus a $5 refundable deposit on the drum. Comes with a packet of Saflager/ale/wheat as well.

[wombat]

cool, i'd refund the drum except they make too good a fermenter
i was really hesitant to put this one down except that every brew store i ran into just kept raving about them to the point where i just figured - gee that container looks useful and it has a tap fitting in the bottom... maybe i should ferment this zero effort brew

i plan to try them all, but only when i need another fermenter or i'm too lazy to plan a brew myself

i must say, they really lack the excitement of actually brewing beer, but they don't present badly as a "swill" beer option.

it will have to taste damn good to replace my previous low effort "swill" beer option - thomas cooper's premium sparkling ale. i made this kit before, following the instructions exactly, and the result was fantastic for a K+K. well, i sort of made two modifications, but they were obvious ones. i just made a one longneck yeast starter from a cooper's sparkling ale and added it to the fermenter alongside the yeast they gave me in the back (in retrospect, i should've made a two longneck starter). also, i added 10g of fresh pride of ringwood hop pellets to the fermenter on top of the hot wort and let sit for a minute just before i filled the fermenter up to the top with cold water (again, in retrospect, 20g would have been much better). the reason for the liquid yeast assistance was more "why not" mentality than anything else, but the fresh hops addition was just common sense. well, real sparkling ale has a tasty p.o.r. aroma, but the can simply cannot without adding it yourself.

the sparkling ale is so far ranked as one of the best brews i've ever made and i can't take any credit for it - damn

6.9% alcohol and tasty tasty malt flavours... mmmm.... sparkling ale.
the fresh wort will have to be good to replace this as my in-betweener.

oh yeah, for those interested - don't be talked into only adding the 1.5kg cooper's light malt can and nothing else to the sparkling ale because the result is completely inferior. follow the instructions exactly and it'll all be awesome the only mods you should make are the hops and perhaps a liquid yeast if you're game - it wouldn't be sparkling ale without that pungent cooper's pride of ringwood aroma and high alcohol content

man this was a long post. sorry for changing the subject too - i just had surgery and i'm on a lot of pain killers lol

cheers
-wombat

[Evo]

JEE - ZUS ! Are you my alter ego Wombat ? Have I had too much Coopers Sparkling Ale clone ?

My beer after the Fresh Wort American Pale Ale brew was a Sparkling Ale clone. I brewed mine in pretty almost exactly same way but using a double long neck starter. And mine turned out at bang on 6.9%. Spooky !

Yeah, wasn't overly impressed with the Sparkling Ale copy to start with. I kegged mine and tasted it not long after that. Had a kinda funky flavour to it that I originally put down to the P.O.R. hops, but now think maybe it was the high alcohol content (the real C.S.A. is 5.8%ABV). It has now mellowed out into a bloody nice and drinkable brew (which is a bit of a worry at 6.9%).

Oh, and BTW, what do you mean you can't take any credit for it Wombat ? Of course you can

[normy]

My malt shovel pale ale was plopping every 2 seconds then temperature caught me out and dropped from 25 to 22.5 ,next day the plops had nearly stopped.s.g 1.018
2 days later I added 50 gm of dissolved dextrose to brew and its plopping away again . will let you know what final sg ends up at

Normy