BBC Good Food

BBC Good Food

We're delighted to have been featured in the BBC's Good Food reviews section as one of the best beer making kits of 2021.

Here's what they had to say about our BeerWorks Strong Pale Ale kit:

"The BeerWorks Strong Pale Ale kit is available from Love Brewing. Classed as a complete starter bundle, the kit says you can make 25 litres of beer. For the price it works out at about another 40 pints, making your beer a pocket-pleasing £1.19 per pint. There are lots of styles of beers to choose from online.

This is a traditional style kit: functional and not hugely aesthetic, but instructions are comprehensive. The kit is large (including a 5 gallon bucket), so you need some serious room in your home. Everything you need is provided, including hops for ‘dry hopping’, malt and yeast. Instead of a classic beer barrel, the kit includes two boxes of plastic bottles and an easy start siphon to transfer the beer into the bottles. The bottles all have to be rinsed, sanitised and primed with priming sugar before you add the beer. We also rinsed the bucket and lid and meticulously sanitised all areas that will come into contact with the beer with a clean cloth. You’ll need to store the kit somewhere that isn’t too warm – between 20-25’C.

The kit requires there’s a 10-day fermenting time (including dry hopping on day 5) plus another secondary fermentation for around 7 -14 days (in bottles) after you’ve primed and transferred the beer from the fermenting bucket. To make sure you get crystal clear beer, it’s advised to let the bottles sit in a cool place for a further 3 weeks to clear and condition fully.

You’ll take hydrometer readings at the start of the process and after fermentation to calculate the final strength of the beer. The more sugar in the wort, the higher it floats. Love Brewing ask you to take three readings, to get them right.

The priming of the bottles took some doing, but it was worth going the extra mile. This tasted lovely: malty and sweet with a pronounced bitterness, which offered a more than decent ‘pub at home’ experience. Definitely the most drinkable of them all!"

BBC Good Food August 2021