Muntons Premium Gold - Scottish Heavy

Muntons make a series of kits for use with the "youngs"micro brewery system.So far we have used the "Santa's winter warmer"(naff name, great brew) and the "Imperial Stout".

Both of these kits were easy to make giving a good quality beer at the end.

They are a little more expensive than the other kits, but the taste, clarity and the quality of the beer is very good.

Follow the instructions carefully and your get a good beer for less than 75p a pint.

I am big Ale fan and now a convert to making my own, go on you too can father your own Ale.

I've been brewing Muntons beer kits for over 20 years now. I've tried other makes but these seem to give the best results. The Premium Gold range kits are of the type that requires no additional sugar and so the resulting beer does not have that 'watery' quality that some cheaper kits have. This type of kit is generally pretty expensive compared with the type that you add sugar but by the time you add the cost of sugar to a conventional kit(or dried malt extract if you prefer) the extra cost is worth it.

I try and use a fresh brewers yeast which seems to give better results than the dried sachet supplied with the beer. Two stage fermentation (where the liqour is transferred to a second, airlock protected vessel for 'anaerobic' fermentation following the initial vigourous fermentation) also seems to give better results.

The finished beer is a nice clear dark amber colour and the head is excellent (I use one of those sparklet type attachments fitted to a King Keg top feed barrel). The flavour is a liitle more bitter than I prefer but easily worth it for that special flavour that good home brew beer posseses (can anybody recommend a 'less bitter' no sugar kit?)

In spite of all this 'technology' that is now available to home brewers, I still find I get variable results - I guess this adds to the challenge.

I live in a hard water area which I believe is not good for optimum bitter production. I've tried looking for tips on the internet regarding additives for the water which may improve its condition for bitter production but without much success. I seem to have heard that addition of an acid can help but an experiment with lemon juice produced... beer with a lemony flavour. Surprise, surprise ;o)

Nope, that fool proof method for producing home brew is still out there eluding me - if anybody else has any tips, they would be much appreciated.

My value for rating is based on the ridiculously low price that Trevors Home Brew (Middleton, Manchester) sells these kits for.