homebrewandbeer.com

Have just put on my second ever brew (started late, my bad).

My basic question is, are Brewmaster enhancer kits worth the money? I've put on a German lager can with a No. 60 enhancer, and, basically, was I duped by marketing?

I plan to start experimenting a little more with more experience, so go easy on me.

That was me. Apologies.

I have never used Brewmaster enhancers however have use other brands. They can be a good place to start to get a feel for what different ingredients do to your beer. You need to find out exactly what is in the enhancer kit though.

Once you work out what you like and what works for you, you can start making your own mixes of Brewing sugars, malts and hops.

The only enhancers I would not recommend are ones that do not tell you quantities of what is in it, you may have to ask if the enhancer is made up by a home brew shop but they should tell you.

Andrew,

Generally you'll end up with a better beer with a brew enhancer than if you use, say 1kg white sugar or dextrose. The beer should have more body and more flavor.

So, no, you haven't been duped by marketing

But as Shaun says, after a while you'll get a feel for what you like in a beer and should be able to come up with your own malt/maltodextrin/glucose/hop/etc mix and buy all those ingredients from the homebrew shop.

Cheers,

Oliver

VAlue for money not sure, you would have to break down eth costs of individual ingredients. Good place to start.

Brewmaster and Brewcraft I think are the same thing. Brewcraft lists the ingredients, but not the respective quantities. Makes it very hard to tweak a recipe to your own tastes. Coopers Brew enhancers do list the ingredients by weight.

If your local HBS makes them then they may not be thoroughly mixed which will means you have to use a whole pack, not 1/2 etc. again making it hard to personalise.

I would suggest buying a selection of malts (light and dark etc), dextrose/glucose, corn syrup and experiment.

I used the Brewcraft pale ale enhancer kit with a tin of Cooper's Pale Ale for a recent brew. Similar to yourself, it was the first time I ever added extra ingredients to a kit (apart from brewer's sugar) and it was the first time I did a boil. It's still a bit young in the bottle but I was impressed with the results.

Worth the money I reckon, and a good introduction for beginners.

Have used a few brewcraft kit convertors before was impressed with the results beer came out like it was ment to perfect clone beers

Excellent.

Could well actually be brewcraft now that you mention it. Bottling tommorow. Then on to a nice Czech Pilsner.