wrendalar - kool are these the first prehopped kits you have made. im sorry i forgot to mention you only have to get over the 40$ mark they sell other stuff for a buck to meet the threshold./ the first time i ordered 4 kits and to get over the hump i added a 25 cent demijohn cap. the second round i added wine yeast for a buck. you dont need to get a whole extra kit but now you have a lot of beer i hope you have a lot of drinking buddies or a forgiving liver . lol.
noah mr beer kits are a whole nnother thread . bobby M prolly hates those too. lol. the small tins of extract are light on the grain and prolly not worth it. the 5 gallon kits from the same company (diybeer / coopers) are better but expensive unless on clearacne . the fermentor (LBK) is a thing of beauty.
lbk benefits
1 its got a wide mouth to easily access all areas for cleaning.
2its got this genius airlock which is a little less open then an open fermenter vessel. ( the haters hate this cause there's no airlock). a seal is formed by having the co2 run out the threads in the cap of the lbk. condensation in the threads creates essentially an air/ water barrier similar to an airlock.
3 its tinted to keep light out.
4 its light plastic and small 2.25 gallons. you can do small 2 gallon stove top biab batches/ experiments.
5 its got a spigot
6 its got a yeast trap below the spigot to collect the cake .
7 its very low profile. this is perhaps the biggest plus. you can cold crash it in a regular kitchen fridge. you can brew lagers in a 1.7 cu ft dorm fridge with just a 20 dollar ink bird.
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the problems with lbk
1its got this genius airlock that lacks a bubbler you cant see it bubble you cant record beer porn. its essentially an open fv. if you cold crash there's is the potential of sucking o2 back into the fermenter..
2 its tinted you cant see into it well to watch yeast do the floaty dance and record more beer porn. see above
3 its plastic - scratches scratches scratches. the infection will come eventually. also its small you cant do anything bigger than 2.25 gallons with only one lbk
4 the spigot can trap bugs
i love my lbk
i have 2.25 gallons of ahs mexican pilsner in the lbk right now DA resting at 70 degrees right now . its partial mash biab, it may taste better than the abc pilsner no boil kit that i threw on last Wednesday but it took me over 4 hours to brew.
if you have two lbks you can do split batches with 5 gallon kits. theres a great sale at abc where you get 1.8kg which is exactly two mr beer tins. they are selling for 10 buck and forty $ free shipping threshold. if you are making mrbeer kits get these instead at 10 bucks for almost 4 lbs of malt it cant be beat.
bobby m - welcome . have you ever fermented a prehopped kit before. these aren't your daddys kits anymore. the days of buying a can of 2 year old muntons that's been sitting on a 75 degree hardware store shelf are a long time ago.
yo kat -