The Thrifty Shopper Blogs

Starter Kit Builder

February 16th, 2010

starterkitbuilder

The Thrifty Shopper is proud to launch the Starter Kit Builder.

Our Starter Kit Builder helps you choose the perfect Starter Kit for your budget and experience. Don’t worry about the actual parts just choose on price and how you wish to serve your drink.

To help you get started we have heavily discounted the items when you buy them as a kit and we’ll even give you free shipping.

There are just 4 quick and easy steps:

Step 1 - Answer a few questions to help us recommend the right kit.
Step 2 - Select one of our fermenter bundles; Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum.
Step 3 - Select a dispenser; Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum.
Step 4 - Select a Beer, Wine or Cider kit from our comprehensive range.To make things even easier we will make recommendations along the way. If you are happy with the price just click on the select button.

Please remember - all of the combinations in this Starter Kit Builder contain everything you need to brew fantastic quality beer or wine. The Bronze options contain the most basic and cost effective equipment whilst Platinum contain the best quality and most comprehensive equipment.

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Brupaks Pride of Yorkshire - Colne Valley

February 15th, 2010

Refill Kit: Brupaks Pride of Yorkshire – Colne Valley
Price: £19.50
Rating: 9 out of 10
Review:
I’m a big fan of Brupaks, I’ve been happy with everything i’ve brewed from the range so far. The Colne Valley refill is a Colne Valley Beer Kitstwo tin kit. No added sugars are require, the box contains everything you need.
The Brupaks kits are a little bit different than most kits on the market. They contain a sachet of hops that you brew in water (like a tea bag). This hops ‘tea’ is then added to your fermenter. The extra step is easy to do and very worthwhile particularly if you’re making an English style bitter or ale.

Colne Valley is an excellent bitter with a floral hoppy finish. It’s chestnut in colour and a good strong head.

I found that the kit clears and conditions remarkably well.

Primary Fermentation: 7 days
Secondary Fermentation: 14 days
Conditioning: 14 - 21 days

Fermenting Equipment: 
25Ltr Thrifty Fermenter, stirrer, steriliser, siphon tubing.

Dispenser:
A basic white barrel, kept off the floor so it never gets too cold – the way I like my bitter.

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Coopers Wheat Beer Review

February 15th, 2010

Refill Kit: Coopers Wheat Beer
Price: £11.30
Rating: 8 out of 10
Review:
The Coopers range is very popular around the world. They are single tin kits that need up to 1kg of fermentable sugar Coopers Wheat Beeradded to them to produce a 23Ltr brew. TheThriftyShopper.co.uk will recommend the best type of fermentable sugar for each beer style. For this kit I used 500g of light dry malt and 300g of dextrose.

I was very keen to try this kit as I’m a big fan of wheat beers (Schneider Weissen Original being my favourite commercially produced beer). The results were really good, i was very impressed. I didn’t get the banana aroma’s of some Bavarian Wheat Beers but i did get a wonderfully creamy, cloudy and refreshing wheat beer.
The only thing i’d change about it is the strength. I like a strong beer and this first attempt lacked a little something. Next time i brew this kit i’ll take SG readings and up the malt to 700g. I’ll let you know how i get on.

Primary Fermentation: 7 days
Secondary Fermentation: 14 days
Conditioning: 14 days

Fermenting Equipment: 
25Ltr Thrifty Fermenter, stirrer, steriliser, siphon tubing.

Dispenser:
Ibrew dispensers with tap-a-draft

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ibrew Stout Review

February 15th, 2010

Refill Kit: ibrew Stout
Price: £9.99
Rating: 7 out of 10
Review:
ibrew StoutThe ibrew kits are a good is place to start for a beginner who wants a very simple process. The brew duration is fast as well; they are drinkable in 21 days. The ibrew stout is a traditional porter style stout. Taste-wise there’s liquorice flavour followed by coffee and toast. Nice and silky in the mouth.

I would recommend priming your dispenser with this kit. You might also like to try injecting N2O rather than or as well as CO2 carbonation.  

Fermenting Equipment:
Ibrew Stout System

Dispenser:
Ibrew dispensers with tap-a-draft

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Coopers Mexican Cerveza Beer Kits

December 15th, 2009

Coopers Mexican Cerveza Beer Kits

Mexico is known for its arid lands, dusty conditions and oppressive heat.  So it’s not surprising that the people of Mexico are expert at quenching a thirst.  The Coopers Mexican Cerveza beer kit (beer) emulates the style of the finest quality beers exported from Mexico.

coopers-mexican-cerveza-beer-kitThis premium beer is light in style with a fresh clean taste, ideally served ice-cold with a wedge of lime or lemon. 

For the best results, we recommend the use of 1kg Beer Enhancer with this product.

This 40 Pint kit is Currently £11.30 from  TheThriftyShopper.co.uk

The Coopers beer kit range includes a massive range of beers from around the world. There really is something for all tastes. The kits are really easy to make and the instructions are easy to follow; a great range of beer kits for the beginner or experienced brewer.

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Cantina Wine Kits

November 20th, 2009

Cantina Wine Kits

Cantina Wine Kits offer the ideal belnd of speed and quality. The kits are based on a specialised wine yeast and nutrient that helps produce a fatastic wine in under a week. What’s more - no added sugar is required.

These kits are excellent quality and are in our opinion the best one-week wine kits on the market.

There is a decent selection of grape varieties available and The Thrifty Shopper has tried them all. Our particular favourite is the Cantina Gold Pinot Grigio;

The Cantina Gold Wine Kit Range;

Cantina Gold Pink Chardonnay 30 Bottle Wine Kit

Cantina Gold Pinot Grigio 30 Bottle Wine Kit

Cantina Gold Cabernet Sauvignon 30 Bottle Wine Kit

The Cantina Wine Kit Range; 

Cantina Chardonay 30 Bottle Wine Kit

Cantina Pieselberg 30 Bottle Wine Kit

Cantina Italian Red 30 Bottle Wine Kit

Cantina Italian White 30 Bottle Wine Kit

Cantina Rose 30 Bottle Wine Kit

TheThriftyShopper.co.uk

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Cellar7 - New 7-Day Wine Kit Coming Soon

November 19th, 2009

Cellar7 Wine Kits
We hear on the grapevine that a new 7-day wine kit is about to hit the shelves. From what we’ve learned the kits will contain a high performance yeast and nutrient and look set to take on The Cantina Range in the no-added sugar wine kit market.

We expect the range will offer a good selection of grape varieties and will be competitively priced.

We hope to be able to test this kit very soon and will publish our feedback on this blog and in The Thrifty Shopper Learning Zone.

We will of course be taking the full range and as soon as the wine kits are availble we will let you know.

TheThriftyShopper.co.uk

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The St Peter’s Beer Kits are Here

November 17th, 2009

We are very pleased to announce the launch of the St. Peter’s Ruby Red Beer Kits.

st-peters-ruby-red-aleThese kits are in stock and ready to ship  - PLUS FREE Delivery this month on ALL Orders.

This St. Peter’s beer kit is a delicious tawny red ale with subtle malt undertones and a distinctive spicy hop aroma. The St. Peter’s Brewery in Suffolk is one of the leading lights of breweries in the UK in our humble opinion. Whenever we are in London we visit their City based pub, The Jerusalem Tavern for a pint or two. One of their best brews is this Ruby Red Ale - Click Here to get started.

St Peter’s Brewery in Bungay are proud of their surroundings and drew their name from the Great Hall at St Peter’s near Bungay Suffolk, which dates from around 1280 and is the centrepiece of the St Peter’s brewery site. In 1539 the East wing was added using materials from the nearby Flixton Nunnery, which was one of a dozen Monastic houses given to Cardinal Wolsey by King Henry VIII to finance the building of a school in Ipswich, Suffolk’s county town Then as today, Suffolk barley was carefully malted to brew beers and that tradition lives on today in the St Peter’s brewery.

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St. Peter’s Beer Kits NOW IN STOCK with FREE DELIVERY

October 29th, 2009

st-peters-home-brew-bottle1

 NOW IN STOCK;  ORDER HERE

Word has reached us that St.Peter’s are about to launch a 40 pint Ruby Red kit. We expect it will be a two tin 3.6kg kit and we understand that the distinctive St. Peter’s oval shaped bottles will be available for sale to give your brew a really authentic St. Peter’s look as well as taste.

We’ll of course stock the full range on the site http://www.thethriftyshopper.co.uk as soon as they are available we’ll let you know.

We’re hoping that the Ruby Red kit is the first of many St. Peter’s homebrew kits. TheThriftyShopper are great fans of the St. Peter’s Brewery and we pay a visit to The Jerusalem Tavern whenever we are in London. It’s a beautiful little pub, packed with history as well as fantastic beers. st-peters-pub-frontage 

The brewery itself is housed in listed former agricultural buildings which were last used in the late sixties. These building then became derelict but offered a superb site for a working brewery and a visitor attraction.

St. Peters now produces 15,000 barrels of real ale per year (83,000 pints a week).

St. Peters homebrew kits COMING SOON – we’ll keep you posted.

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Homebrew Taste Test

August 7th, 2009
The Enthusiastic Tasters

The Enthusiastic Tasters

We are always talking to people about how good homebrew wine and beer are, but the real test of this is how they fair when compared against a branded bottle bought from the supermarket – and what better way to measure this than by a blind taste test.

Thrifty’s Paul is the in-house wine making expert and he set a few of the team a challenge this morning; could they spot the supermarket purchased wine?

The test consisted of three chilled white wines in clear bottles marked A, B & C:

Bottle A was a Solomon Grundy Medium Dry White - Made from a 30 bottle kit for £20.99. Brewed for 9 days. 73 Pence a bottle.

Bottle B was a Blossom Hill California White - Purchased yesterday from Paul’s local Co-op for. £4.04 a bottle.

Bottle C was a California Connoisseur Gewurztraminer - Made from a 30 bottle kit for £34.25. Brewed for 28 days. £1.14 a bottle.

Here’s what they said;

Matt, Managing Director
Bottle A - “Very palatable wine, it has a slightly sulphurous nose but very palatable”
Bottle B – “Slightly acidic taste, nose is good, average taste, a decent quaffing wine”
Bottle C – “Good nose, good taste, a lovely wine with a full flavour”       

Darren, IT Guru
Bottle A – “Not a lot of flavour at first but I am getting a bit of a floral taste at the end”
Bottle B – “More taste in this one and a better aroma”
Bottle C – “Really good, loads of flavour, quite floral….can I have some more?”

Vanessa, Accountant
Bottle A – “Nice and smooth, the nose is not great but a very drinkable wine”
Bottle B – “This one is a bit sharp, quick drinkable but acidic”
Bottle C – “This is a bit too dry for me, it’s nice, but not one i’d choose to drink”

Russ, Warehouse Manager
Bottle A – “A little bit tart, quite nice but it’s not one i’d buy again”
Bottle B – “This is a good quaffing wine, it’s the kind of wine that my wife and I would buy”
Bottle C – “This one is really easy to drink, a good quality dry white”

The Result
So, which did our guinea pigs say was the bought wine?

Matt went for ‘C’ the California Connoisseur Gewurztraminer
Darren went for ‘C’ the California Connoisseur Gewurztraminer
Vanessa chose ‘A’ the Solomon Grundy Medium Dry White
Russ chose ‘B’ Blossom Hill California White

The Winner
The winner is home-made wine – the California Connoisseur Gewurztraminer  from The Thrifty Shopper weighing in an £1.14 a bottle.

For your reference - the equipment Paul used to brew these two homebrew wines;
The Beaverdale Starter Kit

25 Litre Fermentation Vessel

If you have any questions about homebrew or would like to try making wine at home please visit The Thrifty Shopper or email us on info@thethriftyshopper.co.uk

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