There are two things that you need before buying this kit. A knowledge of what you are doing, and two brewing vessels. I made this up with light spraymalt and the brewing was extremely vigorous. Racked off into another vessel after seven days and there was a least two inches of sediment but the beer was still very lively, frothing over the top. Still very, very cloudy though. Activitity died down after another four days at which point, the instructions advise you to check the taste and aroma and adjust with the sachets and give it a good mix. This is where the need for a second vessel is apparent as you would not want to distub the sediment. Also, if this was your first brew, I think you would be tempted to just add in the sachets not knowing what to judge the beer against. I kept the flavour one back and added the aroma only. At this point you need to add the finings as the beer is still very cloudy and there was at least another inch of sediment at the bottom of the vessel. I bottled up instead of using a keg. I will keg it next time I think. It has been two weeks in the warm and two weeks in the cool and some of the bigger bottles are not clear yet but the two smaller ones that I have tried are very good indeed. The immediate fizziness has gone and this is now more of a smooth German type lager, maybe Lowenbrau. No doubt this will improve with age. This is really one to store and keep. That factors back into the equipment issue.
Written By: Forbes Massie (08 April 2010)