coors light beer package anyone know?

[chrisber]

hey, i bought a wine making kit and u can use it to make beer too.

can anyone suggest a kit to make a beer that would be similar to coors light?



also how long does this beer last? something that can be kept for months?

new to it all.

 

[Wade E]

There are a few beer kits and it depends on how much work you want to get into to do this. There are no boil kits(a few out there) but RJS's Brew House is the best and comes out very good, Then there are partial boil kits which will are very good also like Brewers Best and Muntons. Then there is All Grain kits you can buy but you will have to do a lot of reading up and invest in equipment like mash tuns, turkey fryers, Wort chillers and more like I have. You can make some of this stuff yourself though. Here is a picture of my mash tun. Let me know which way you want to go and Ill try to help you with something similar although a light lager is very hard to duplicate but you can make some very good beers even with the no boil kits.

 

[cpfan]

I would look for Brewers Spring "Light". It's a Vineco product, but it sounds like it will be available to Wine Kitz stores soon (maybe even now). When I had my FoP in BC, one customer loved that beer kit and said it was just like Coors Light. I haven't made the "light", so no opinion.

Another choice would be Spagnols Brewhouse "Light Canadian Lager". The afore-mentioned customer did not like this as much as the Brew Spring Light.

Winexpert has a Barons brand that should have something appropriate.

The above three brands are simple to make. Start in a primary by pouring the provided wort into a primary, stir well, and sprinkle the yeast on top. Follow the instructions, because BH and BS (and probably Barons) have an additive that goes in before the yeast. After about 5 days, rack to carboy. After another 18-24 days, rack to primary, stir in priming sugar, and bottle. (Again follow the instructions.) Store at a warm temperature (18+ C) for two weeks. Refrigerate and drink.

Great stuff. We usually make the Mexican style ones. Drinking BrewSpring Mexican Lager at the moment and will be starting another one soon. The BH kits cost me a bit more and aren't readily available where I live. Not sure what a Barons kit will cost me but would like to make their Dutch Lager again.

You can get into grains and extracts and boiling and whatever after a while, but this is the quick easy way to good beer.

BTW, three important points. 1) Avoid Coopers beer cans. 2) Don't use K-meta as a sanitizer. Use iodophor or something stronger. 3) All of these use ale yeast, not lager yeast despite what the variety name might be.

If you have any q's about Brewhouse or Brewers Spring ask away. I made them for 6 years when I had the FoP. They are so simple and pretty good.

Steve

 

[twissty]

THe easiest and least expensive is to use a canned kit.
They have done all the boiling and hopping for you.

The basic instructions are to dissolve the contents of the can in hot water, add 1kg of corn sugar, then fill your primary to 6 gallons with cool water. Pitch the yeast cover and let brew.

When it's clear, you bottle, adding 1/2 tsp of sugar to each bottle and cap with a beer cap. (no wine bottles). 2 weeks in a warm place to carbonate, chill, get drunk, repeat...

If you replace some or all of the corn sugar with Dry Malt Extract, and transfer to a secondary fermenter after 4 or 5 days, things will turn out better.
When racking, you need to be as gentle as possible and avoid splashing or aerating your beer. It oxydizes really easily.

Bottling gets old really fast, and a kegging system with forced carbonation is the way to go.

I've had good luck with muntons, Cooper's, Morgan's, Canadian adventure, and Beer maker's choice brands. I wasn't impressed by the baron's kit that looks like a boxed wine kit.

Be certain to check the expiry date before you buy one. If it's even close, pass on it.

Although most come with ale yeast, there are some that have hybrid strains that do give lager characteristics when brewed at lower temps. Coopers is one brand that has reccomends lower temps for lager kits.

The technology is evolving and improving. Most people who badmouth these kits probably havent made one in the last few years, or last made one as a beginner before they really got a handle on good brewing and sanitation techniques.

It's nice to be able to start a batch in 10 minutes instead of needing a whole day to brew.



For a coors light type, try a Munton's blonde or morgan's canadian blonde.

Shelf life can be 1 year, depending on your level of sanitation and storage conditions.

 

[cpfan]

Interesting that Twissty prefers the cans and I prefer the wort-in-a-bag. To each their own.

Having made both styles...the wort-in-bag is easier to start. Getting the malt out of the cans takes longer than starting a wort kit.

The canned kits can be improved as twissty has indicated but most people use corn sugar or even worse table sugar. Also by racking beer from Coopers an extra time you will get a better result, but most people are in a hurry to bottle.

I got a lot of feedback on both styles when I had my store. Consistently heard that the Brewhouse and Brewers Spring made better beer than Coopers if you followed the instructions. But they complained that three weeks to bottling was too long, and the kits cost more.

I have never made a Muntons kit, but have heard good things about them, especially their higher end lines.

Steve

 

[Wade E]

Both of those np boil kits can be improved by getting a liquid yeast also like a wyeast smack pack and you will get a truer style this way or can change the profile.

 

[moose-1110]

First of all, I can not believe that you would prefer Coors Light to regular Coors, but in saying that , wine is very close to beer in that it is all about the taste, keep on trying something until you find what you like

 

[twissty]

Interesting that Twissty prefers the cans and I prefer the wort-in-a-bag. To each their own.

Having made both styles...the wort-in-bag is easier to start. Getting the malt out of the cans takes longer than starting a wort kit.


Steve

Maybe I need to try one again. I can't remember the exact variety I had, but it was a Baron's kit and I followed the instructions exactly.
It had a packet of bentonite clay, which struck me as an odd additive for beermaking.

Getting the malt out of the can is a bit of a pain, but its nothing compared to mashing, sparging and boiling.

Trying a liquid yeast is on my to-do list, but I live in the boonies and beer ingredients are not always easy to come by. Even dry malt extract is a challenge to get.

 

[cpfan]

Twissty:

You really should update the Location field in the control panel so that we know where you live.

In Canada, very few stores will carry the DME, mainly because beer is only about 10-15% of the industry (at least thats what I've been told). Some stores around here won't even order me a beer kit to make at home. Plus most of the distributors do not carry DME. And even fewer carry liquid yeasts. I'm lucky a local store carries liquid wine yeasts but not much in the way of liquid beer yeasts. Might get him to order me something this spring.

I've only made two Barons kits ... both the Dutch Lager. But the Brewers Spring is very very similar, and we like the Mexican Lager. And yes both have bentonite. Brewhouse does not include bentonite.

Steve

 

[twissty]

I'm in Northern Ontario, Sault ste marie area. The homebrew stores in The Sault carry a pretty good selection as far as winemaking stuff goes. They have a fairly large Italian community there and winemaking is part of thier culture.

Beermaking supplies are pretty much limited to canned kits and corn sugar, with the occasional dusty bag of DME. and some dubious looking hop pellets in little packages.

I work in a small grocery store, and we carry some beer and wine kits. I have an account with ABC cork, But we only get 2-3 orders a year from them. The last two times i've ordered from them, they have been out of stock on DME.

You'd think that with the price of beer here, homebrewing would be much more popular. My guess is that the work involved in bottling is what turns most people off.

 

[cpfan]

When I ran an FoP, beer drinkers would show up every time there was a liquor store price increase. Don't remember any of them ever starting a kit. The price was right, but they didn't want to wait three weeks, or pay up front.

Do you get anything from RJ Spagnols? They used to carry DME.

Sounds like your local stores are friendlier to home wine makers than the ones around here. A couple seem willing to order, but don't carry much stock. I'm lucky that the Vineco factory store is about 20 minutes away. Sorry they don't carry beer supplies (except Brewers Spring and Brew Canada kits) or I'd offer to send you some.

BTW, ABC used to get their DME from England, and would run out before ordering more. Their salesman told me that.

Steve

 

[twissty]

I guess planning three weeks ahead is a bit much for most beer drinkers

We only carry product from ABC, as thats what our head office authorizes.
Last time I placed an order, the lady on the phone told me they were waiting for a container from England, so spraymalt wasnt available.

We have thier "winemaker's choice" line of wine kits, which are actually very good. $42 for a 23 litre kit is pretty hard to beat. I'm pretty sure they package that brand just for department stores and the grocery business.

Without DME, I've been experimenting with honey and rice as replacements for sugar in a few kits and i've had some pretty good results.

 

[cpfan]

I heard that honey takes longer to ferment. I did a couple of Brewhouse kits with honey added for a customer and didn't notice any difference. Have you noticed anything?

By rice do you mean dry rice, cooked rice, or rice syrup (from Asian markets)? That was something that the above customer wanted to try, but we never did.

Steve

 

[twissty]

Honey does take a little longer to get started, especially at this time of year, but it ferments out very dry.

I'm brewing in my garage and the temps are around 50ºf. I know these kits have ale yeast, but for the most part they seem to do ok under lower temps.

For rice, I just boiled about a pound of rice in about a gallon of water for about 45 minutes. I strained the liquid into the fermenter, then rinsed the rice a few times, pouring the liquid into the primary. I added a light lager kit and about 1 lb of corn sugar. It cleared very quickly and I got a nice light colour. I should have used a hydrometer, but I got lazy.

It made a nice contrast to the amber ale in my two-tap kegerator over christmas.