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Adding to ingredient kits
is this common practice? I wouldn't want anything powerful at all, just a hint of something or other, ya know, to kinda give it a personal twist.. before I start moving on past the ingredient packages.
I've read a lot about additives, but if anyone has one that is specific to amber ingredient kits, I would love to hear your thougths.
Thanks! my kit gets here on wednesday.. wahoo!
Probably the easiest and best addition to a style like this would be to add specialty grains. I generally heat cold water up to 150 F and steep crushed grains for about thirty minutes. For an amber I would probably use a light crystal somewhere between 15 L and 45L (L is a for Lovibond a unit for measuring color.) You could try using a pale malt grain and maybe even toast them in your oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Fat Tire Amber Ale by New Belgium Brewing Co. has a very toasted grain flavor and is excellent. I'm not sure if I would use any flavor additives such as fruit etc. Just doesn't seem right for the style, but that's just me. Whatever you use to "personalize" your kit I would do it fairly sparingly. It's nice to get a hint of the flavor of something and want more for your next go around then to use too much of something and not enjoy your beer.
I assume you mean a regular kit like Cooper's, Munton's, and so forth? Not extract?
Like Andrew said, steeping specialty grains or even a little spice can do the trick. As for fruit, the last time I made my blueberry beer, I used crystal 40L I think.
Try some crystal 10L to 40L or maybe some munich. Both need to be steeped as he explained.
I'll look further into these. Thanks!
On one of my first batches of beer, I added some clove, just to see what would happen. I was a new brewer then and didn't take notes, so I don't remember how much I added, but it was less than a tablespoon full. The first few bottles were all cloves. Then I got sick and stopped drinking for almost a year. I kept that beer the entire time. When I started drinking beer again, the cloves had mellowed considerably, and the beer was quite good. The timing was great as it was Christmas when I started drinking it again, and the cloves just seemed to fit right in.
Basically, if you are willing to risk a batch to be something that might be a bit "different" to drink, you can add quite a variety of ingredients and see what you get.
I'm just tried that with my last batch. I brewed the Brewers Best IPA and added more malt extract and more hops to boost it. Right now its in the secondary fermenter and I'll probably be bottling soon. I've been testing it along the way and so far so good but we'll see about the final product. Hope your experience goes as well as mine.
I'm gonna wuss out and just follow directions.. I dont wanna leave a sour taste from a bad first batch. 
Why would you have a sour taste? Unless your beer gets skunked from the sun (and you will definitely know), or you actually use all grain with sour mash, don't worry about it.
I am actually going to be trying my first sour mash here in the next few months.
And no, I'm not talking about whiskey.
You could probably just follow the kit exactly and brew a fairly good beer maybe even a damn good beer, but don't be afraid of adding ingredients. With a little research to see what others have used in similar styles and procedures they've used it is usually very simple. If you can make tea you can steep grains. No mystery and very simple way to add complexity to your beer. Enjoy and don't worry it'll more than likely come out good regardless what you decide to do.
There is always your next batch too.... my second batch was loaded with "extras". You can really go wild with what you put in your beer.... be creative!
the plan is: run the first batch straight up, see what I want more of, and add that second batch.
First brew is scheduled for tomorrow....
Mmm, I just had an Imperial Amber from Troegs and it was frickin killer! They boosted the alcohol and threw in a ton more hops, good rounded bitterness with plenty of hoppy aroma paired with the malty amber. So don't ever be afraid to add a little of this or a little of that...
DT
I was loaned a book a couple weekends ago called"great beer from kits" by Joe & Dennis fisher.
their are a number of diff. brew recipes to make using kits.
I don't know how common it is, but I bought a kit last weekend just to get the ingredients.
I am wondering if it would be better to use a liquid smoke, or smoked grains to give brew a smoke flavor, and i plan to just add some to an extract kit, probably a Brewers Best stout. as this would be only my second batch, any advice would be appreciated.
Well.. my first brew went great so far.. its now fermenting.
The specific gravity was about 1.050
does the color develop much as it ferments? I like the color as is, but does it change?
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