St Peters Brewery Cream Stout Beer Kit

I'm new to homebrew but have to say I really rate this kit. I've just barrelled my second batch. The first batch was finished far too quickly as it proved too delicious to resist! I'm determined to be more disciplined this time and let it mature properly. I have a couple of pressure barrels and reckon I'll always try to have a barrel of this on the go. After the last batch ran out I bought a few stouts from the shop and decided my homebrew stout tasted better! I think it probably does come out a little weaker than the claimed percentage. I added 250g of brewer's sugar to bump up the strength a bit this time and it tastes fine. Will probably try a little more brewer's sugar each time until I get to a decent strength whilst not making a headcracker. I did test gravity etc the first time but couldn't be bothered second time - just made sure it didn't drop below 18c during fermentation and waited a few days to barrel after the valve stopped bubbling to give the yeast a bit more time to mop up any more complex sugars hanging around. Also this second time I weighed my fermentation vessel to get the correct final volume, rather than relying on the indicator on the side of the vessel - turns out I probably added a few litres too much the first time.

I have only just barrelled this. I always taste a thimble full of it, just to test, really. Wow, despite it still being a green beer, the taste was really very good. Strong, clearly a stout with a tiny sweetness aftertaste. Lovely. I made an adjustment to the instructions, in that I brewed this to 3.25 gallons and used a Nottingham Yeast. I also used a fraction of a Campden Tablet (to clear Chlorine and Chloramine). Other than that - it all came out of the tins! St. Peter's kist are all very good. This one, however, exceeds all expectations.

arrived damaged. both cans damaged and leaking!!!

Couldn't get near the 5% stated but doesn't take anything away from a really pleasant HB stout.

I have made many beers from homebrew kits but had never tried the St Peters stout, I brewed and left to mature for three weeks, result, delicious high quality stout, has a Guinness type taste with a chocolatey aftertaste, it is very moreish!!!! This is one of the best brews i have ever made and i would strongly recommend. Further to the above, when i made this beer i stored it in a pressure barrel and drank it all within a few weeks !!! However, i also filled a couple of beer bottles, capped them and left them to mature, a year later i have opened one, it is truly superb, deep flavours, thick creamy head and a wonderfully strong aftertaste, one of the nicest beers i have ever had anywhere, if you only brew one beer this year, make sure it's this one and put away a few bottles for next xmas, you won't regret it.

Tastes great and is value for money, was easy to brew and is a smooth pint.

I decided to start home brewing again recently and I bought this kit for my first attempt hoping to replicate a creamy stout like Draught Guinness. In hindsight, I made some errors when mixing the kit. I didn't read the instructions properly and added too much water (4.5 pints too much!). The location of the fermentation bucket was in the garage where the average temp was 14-16. It fermented ok but I think it needed to be warmer. With the extra water and lower temperature, I calculated it to be 3.2% ABV before bottling. I have since bought a heat belt and made a insulation jacket from an Immersion heater jacket. I left in the primary vessel for 2 weeks then decanted into a second bucket for a week. I used 2 x Wilko's carb drops per 500ml when bottling. 4 weeks after bottling, it has decent creamy head and tastes like proper stout. My work mates are impressed. It did have a bitter taste but that has gone with conditioning which is just as well as I have 30 x pints of it left! :-)

Sorry to say I pitched the yeast far to early and at the wrong temperature, kit does not explain that you should allow the tempt to drop to approximately 24 to 26 before pitching the yeast. Pitching early basically ruined or killed off the yeast. Although I must say I should have realised this myself but, directions should be made clear on the kit. Might try again sometime.