Mickey Finn's Dry Irish Stout, Beer Making Extract Kit

I picked this up so I'd have a stout for St. Patrick's Month, and was a little leery of it considering the price. I'm used to paying about $50 for a 5-gallon kit and anything less than $40 being okay (It's hard - without trying - to home-make a BAD beer at any price) but not great. For less than $30 I expected this to be passable.I was wrong! This is a solid, well bodied and complex dry stout with a fantastic head and solid black color. Goes great with chicken wings :)I fermented it in a bucket for 3 weeks (was going to do 2 but I got sick and didn't want to expose it to my germs), no secondary, and kept it in the bottles for about 2 weeks before it was great. I got antsy (as I always do) and opened a bottle after about 6 days and it was assuredly not ready - bitter and not much head. But now, 10 days after that this is a solid beer that will go in my regular rotation.

This kit arrived and stated to refrigerate if not made within a couple days. The directions were easy to follow. There was a mix up in the household and the windows were left open during the first 24 hrs and the house went to 83 degrees and fermentation bubbles in my stopper ceased. I cried that the beer was ruined but I decided to turn the ac back on and continue as directed. When I first sampled this beer it was really bitter so I decided to keep it in storage. I tried it a week later and it had mellowed some. After a few weeks it was a really good dry Irish stout beer. It has held up and aged well since last summer being stored in a closet but now it is time to enjoy. Lesson learned: If it doesn't taste right immediately then give it time and drink again.

This was the first kit I bought. I was looking for a stout that would be similar to my favorite that you can only get in the Republic of Ireland, and this hit the mark! Perfect color and body, and the flavor was spot on, perfect balance- not sweet/ not hoppy. I've heard that a stout isn't a good beer to start out with, but this one turned out perfect. Just follow directions and use clean equipment. Don't forget to add the priming sugar before bottling! Happy brewing - Sláinte agus slán go fóill