61 Would-be extract recipe kits

When I worked for Muntons’ since closed US Sales Office, almost all of my efforts were to grow our presence in the craft beer market. I did exhibit and speak at some homebrew events, most notably Homebrew Con, but otherwise I didn't focus too much on the homebrew side of the business.

One homebrew-related project I spearheaded that never really got off the ground was a range of recipe kits for the American market using Muntons range of malt extract. As opposed to hopped extract kits, these kits are the type of recipe kits an American brewer would buy at a local homebrew shop. 

The "iconic" Red Can Range.

The kits would have included a mix of liquid and dry extract, most would included steeped specialty malt or grains for a partial mash, as well as hops and style-specific dry yeast. 

At the time we were trying to set up a new distributor for our malt extract as other distributors like BSG and LD Carlson discontinued our products. The idea was the kits would help turn over the extract, as well as give our distributor an offering similar to the Brewers Best kits produced by LD Carlson. As such, a lot of the recipes used Amber and Dark extract to help ensure those items turned over and freshness could be maintained. 

A lot of these recipes were based on my own brews, either extract batches or all-grain recipes converted to extract. Scanning the list the range included recipes inspired by batches like Broken Fist IPA, OG Sam Summer, Summer Somewhere, Cerveza Ambar, Welcome as You Are, Celebration Clone, Derby Wharf Porter, 'Murica Brewed the Easy Way, Curly's Milk Stout, and Pa's Lager. I adjusted the recipes to use full cans of LME, full 500g/1.1lb bags of DME packed by Muntons in the UK, and hops in full ounce increments. I wanted the kits to be as easy for our distributor to assemble as possible with ingredients they could pull off the shelf. 

The kits and new distributor never got much traction with homebrew shops. Our partner ended up exiting the homebrew space all together. I had a lot of fun designing these recipes. It was sad the range of kits never took off. Just one of many things we tried to keep a fading brand relevant in the US. 

Instead of letting these recipes die on the vine, I posted the recipes to HomebrewTalk in a BSMX file. To view the recipes, just download the file and import it into BeerSmith, Brewers Friend, Brewfather, or the recipe software of your choice. 

I have four extract recipes in the pipeline. Maybe next time I'm looking for inspiration I'll scan these recipes and give one of them a go.

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