Kit vs. Extract vs. All-Grain III: Battle of the Blondes
After the inconclusive previous rounds of testing for Kit v Extract v All-Grain (round 1; round 2), it was decided to have a third round, for the purpose of answering such crucially important questions as:1) Can you tell the difference between them?
2) Which tastes nicest?
3) Do old kits taste different to new kits?
4) Do beards really help?
In order to make it completely bullet-proof we went for a beer where off-flavours had nowhere to hide: a light lager-like ale. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, quite a lot apparently. For example some people who were supposed to brew cancelled and
a) binned their brew
b) kept very quiet and hoped no-one asked about their beer
c) claimed it was so good that they drank every last drop.
Fortunately, no-one’s dog drank their homework! Still, never mind, surely that was an end to the madness… not quite; some numpty gave people the wrong beer for part of the taste test – they got a hacked kit instead of an unhacked kit [editor’s and kit-brewer’s note: it probably didn’t make any significant difference].
The Beers
- Extract: Brewed by Brian_C
- Fresh Kit: Cooper’s Australian Lager + 1 kg table sugar. Brewed by TheBeerNut
- Hacked Kit: Cooper’s Australian Lager + DME and hops. Brewed by IrishParty Ale
- Non-Temp Control AG: Brewed by Saruman
- Old Kit: Young’s Lager. Some months out of date. Brewed by Irish Party Ale
- Temp Control AG: Brewed by SBillings
- Trappist AG: Accidentally warm-fermented blonde ale. Brewed by SBillings
So on to the outputs; I’ve put them in 2 tables thusly:
| Extract | Fresh Kit | Hacked Kit | Non-Temp Control AG | Old Kit | Temp Control AG | Trappist AG | Score | |
| BaconSarnie | Kit | AG | Kit | AG | Kit | AG | Extract | 4/7 |
| Brian_C | Extract | AG | AG | Kit | Kit | Kit | AG | 3/7 |
| Irish Party Ale | Extract | Kit | Hacked Kit | AG | Old Kit | AG | Trappist AG | 7/7 |
| Irokie | AG | AG | Hacked Kit | Extract | Old Kit | AG | Kit | 3/7 |
| Microgirl | Extract | AG | Kit | Kit | Kit | AG | AG | 5/7 |
| MrsBeerNut | Kit | AG | AG | Kit | Kit | Extract | AG | 2/7 |
| Rossa | AG | Kit | Hacked Kit | Extract | Old Kit | AG | AG | 5/7 |
| Saruman | Extract | Kit | Hacked Kit | AG | Kit | AG | Trappist AG | 7/7 |
| SBillings | Kit | AG | Extract | Kit | Kit | AG | AG | 3/7 |
| TheBeerNut | Temp Control AG | Fresh Kit | Extract | Non-Temp Control AG | Old Kit | Hacked Kit | Trappist AG |
4/7 |
Rating (1 is best):
| Extract | Fresh Kit | Hacked Kit |
Non-Temp Control AG |
Old Kit | Temp Control AG | Trappist AG | |
| BaconSarnie | 5 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 4 |
| Brian_C | 4 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 2 |
| Elizabeth | 2 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Irish Party Ale | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 7 |
| Irokie | 1 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 3 |
| MrsBeerNut | 2 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 |
| OtherHalbe | 4 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
| Rossa | 4 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 5 |
| Saruman | 4 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 2 |
| TheBeerNut | 1 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 2 |
| Overall | 1 | =4 | =4 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 3 |
Conclusions
1) Can you tell the difference between them? No. Most people spotted the old kit beer, but apart from that random selection would have been as effective.
2) Which tastes nicest? The Extract takes the prize! Well done Brian. Before you throw in the studies for a life on the high hops however, a word of caution; the results are pretty mixed, with only the kit beer being consistent (in getting bad results) the spread of results means that we can’t really claim the results are definitive.
3) Do old kits taste different to new kits? Yes. Completely. The old kit beer was the most recognisible and was the only beer to garner a sufficiently ‘different’ score to be statistically significant.
4) Do beards help? Unless Saruman had a fake “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” beard in his pocket, I’m afraid we have to say ‘no’ to this one.
Finally, the one thing that certainly didn’t go wrong was the hospitality on display from our host TheBeerNut. Hats off for his top notch glassware, pork pies, scotch eggs, cheese, bread and bonhomie.
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