Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hello all,

Thinking was.. need a clear bright tasty number for Bathurst...it's a long day and a heavy IPA or Ale too hard...a Cerveza, Kit, a little maltin for head & body retention, Dex a dose of late boiled Saaz... started the keg yesterday pre the old school supercar race...bloody nice this is!

One problem.... between two of us we've finished the keg...bugga!

A thirsty
bt1

Jeez you do dribble a bit when it comes to beer talk... However I think I could learn more than a thing or two from you. I am hoping to do some beer brewing this summer but wouldn't know where to start. I am currently waiting for one of my fermenters to free up then I will begin. I am thinking just a kit to begin with, don't know the first thing about hopps etc.

Give me a style or type/brand of beer u like and I'll give you a few ideas...

btw it's real simple stuff no biggy.

bt1

I have really been into Great Northern, I guess you would call it a summer lager. That and Hahn Super Dry are my first picks.

Whenever google Hahn Super Dry I get forum posts somewhat similar to when someone asks how to make Bundy on here. :))

I have been making beer for about 14 years. I used to get into the boiled grain, different hopps etc... These days I just use kits. The ratio of benefit to effort didnt seem worth it. Kegs are definitely the way to go. Makes brewing and gassing a 5 minute job.

Same here still do a bit layed back now just a kit and no 2 brew enhancer
Used to use 50 litre kegs now use 19 litre ones sold all the excess ones now I could use a few bugger

Bloke,

It's all personal taste and every beer drinker has a different pref but there are kits that suit specific styles.

thinking is your wanting a dry finish Lager, clear not overly malty or dominated by hops = suggest a kit for ease and starting point..Coopers Cerveza as a base.

Clean, bright, same body/mouth feel, low/pale straw colour, about same alco volume.

The two Morgan's kits, Black Rock stuff this style I found a little disappointing.

So the kit you can get at supermarkets, BigW, Kmart , Dan Murphy's @ a tad under $12. The instruction say add a Coopers BE2 pack which is a pre packed sugar/malt combo.
BE2 is 1kg in weight, 50% Dextrose, 25% DME, 25% Malto
By using more Dex you'll naturally get a dryer tasting beer cutting back on Malto first then LME. Will need some LME other wise reckon it could be too thin a taste....say

75% Dex=750gm and 25% LME=250gm.
As you'd know if it's super dry tasting two things assist here, dry beer enzyme sachets $2.50 and a cooler longer ferment time = 2 weeks <18c as lager is slower.
K got the recipe decided...

Requirements
Access to a sink, bathtub, laundry sink for 2 weeks
1 Coopers Cerveza kit $12
1 Coopers BE2 pack or mix and match DEX and LME approx. $5 see notes above
1 Dry enzyme sachet $ 2.50
1 Finings $1.50
Fermenter 30lt+
Steriliser soln.
Good thermo
tea towel or cloth



Process(short)
Sterilise the crap out of every thing that comes in contact with beer....Starsan, No rinse etc
If using tap water add 19lt to fermenter night before to piss of chlorine.
Aerate the water with a paint stirrer, paddle, stick blender
Boils a kettle full of water...stand aside
Open can poor in bulk of tin.
The instructions bullshit on about dissolving in 2lt boiling water = bullshit cos you won't make pitching temps 21c. So use just as little boiling water you need to rinse out can. add to fermenter.
Whip the fermenter up with a paddles so its swirling rapidly. Progressively poor in DEX then LME...it self dissolves mostly.
Using the hot water remaining in kettle and additional cool water , adjust volume to 23lt at 21c
Get into it with paddle to aerate, mix and ensure all dissolved nothing sitting on bottom of fermenter.
Gently swirl fermenter again, add yeast.
Tea towel over it for 30 mins - 1 hour.
To avoid yeast shock I wrap fermenter in a windcheater for first day, gradually allowing fermenter to drop <18c ... simply sit in bath tub or laundry sink and add more cold tap water to bath.
Allow to sit and ferment until kegging or bottling - 4 days, post the active ferment phase.
on day -4 and -3 we're going to increase temp to around the 21c mark dicetly rest...good for lagers

day -2 Cos you want it bright and clear add 1 sachet of dissolved in hot water finings
Boil in 250ml of water 5 - 8gm of Cluster hop pellets for approx. 15min. Short boil = more aroma, longer boil = increased bittering. Can do both so a 20min boil for x gms and a short 5 min boil for x gms.
Poor in strained hop "tea" you made, gentle stir, poor in finings, reseal fermenter
There are hundreds of variation on hopping methods, dry hopping for instance but the method here suits the style you mentioned.
Filter if you have one if not the finings will do most of the clarity job for you.

That's the hard part done.

If you want to discuss kegging/ bottling let me know.

bt1

Wow, thanks bt, that is fantastic. :clap:
I don't have access to a sink/bath so I may need to work out another method of keeping it cool or perhaps try a different style of beer.
I have got iodophor I use for sanitizing.
Bottling, I have previously used carb drops, but I am thinking of perhaps racking to a secondary fermenter and bulk priming.

Dom,

can use a 75lt storage box to sit fermenter in... bout $15 from kmart last time I checked.

I bulk prime straight to keg... 90gm IPA. APA's, Ales - 100gm Lagers which is under done but allows me to tweak final carb level with gas.
Table sugar...courser bubble
Dex = mid / finer
LME = super fine but carries flavour... suits heavier style beers.

cheers
bt1

I have some books here on how to blend kits to get a very large range of clones. Name one (and/or some like it) and I expect i will likely find the clone recipe for ya :handgestures-thumbupleft:

crow wrote:I have some books here on how to blend kits to get a very large range of clones. Name one (and/or some like it) and I expect i will likely find the clone recipe for ya :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Are those books available online mate?

we just finished brewing 100lt of beer while watching the race, took the first runnings for a 12%barley wine and the second runnings for a 6% ipa

something bitter, maybe even a a tad sour would have suited that race but anyways....
@ kimbo not sure, couldn't find them. One not bad one is brewing Crafts by Mike Rodgers-Williams. The book supports Still Spirits through and through and therefore all the imfo on wine and spirits is only good for comic relief but most of the book is about how to make clones using kits and easy to get extra ingredients :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Kimbo,

try these...

http://www.ratebeerkits.com/

And AHB has a dedicated kit section, plus recipes, plus processes

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/
bt1

Some of you guys really get into the kits. Personally I can't drink them and could never produce anything near the quality of good craft beer with the kits. That's why I got into all grain in the first place. It's interesting seeing what you mix with the kits in your recipies.

Cheers guys :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Yeh agree wed...yet to fully explore....but

a BIAB partial and the plain un hopped malts light, amber & dark seem to avoid that "kit" flatness... so far...

If your a Pilsner IPA/APA brewer we'd all welcome a few all grain faves

bt1

The worst thing with most kits generally is the strain of yeast. One they use a dork proof yeast so it cam handle folks who won't follow the directions to close and in cooperate case Oi think they are quite happy with it not being as good, use the yeast sediment out of a few coolers beers and tulip will be amazed at the difference :handgestures-thumbupleft: . All grain

I just did a Sierra Nevada pale ale all grain clone which came out really good if you like that style?

wed,

would most appreciate recipe, temps hop timing/amounts.

I'm currently stuck in a AG rut for WM Bohemian pils + cara pils.

bt1