Newbie beer kit info needed

[MacStill]

I'm after a decent beer kit to try my hand at, have never tried to make beer but love drinking the stuff and I'm not that fussy as long as it's not goats piss.

I tried a ginger beer about a year ago and it was awful so it went down the sink, My beer of choice these days is XXXX bitter so anything that's close would do.

Help me out here :)

[busman]

lol, I suspect you'll find homebrewing much the same as home distilling - after making your own for a while you'll go back to the commercial stuff, promptly spit it out, and ask your mates how they suppose the people at XXXX get the cat to squat over the bottle! I homebrewed for a couple of years, started out with the kits before moving on to extract and partial-grain brews, and I can no longer touch anything manufactured by Tooheys (except Old, the black stuff still rocks), CUB, Hahn, XXXX, or any of the like. However, to answer your question, if you want to start out "kit 'n' kilo" brewing, Coopers kits are the best (IMO) and you can buy them at pretty much every Coles, Woolies, Kmart and Big W in the country. Use dextose or dry malt though, not white sugar!

[MacStill]

OK so next trip to woolies I'll get a couple cans of coopers to try out, as long as I stick to directions on the pkt I'll be right hey?

I'm just after something to drink before I get stuck into the rums too early, a nice breakfast beer for my corn flakes would be awesome :lol:

Dextrose.. check! easy done

Dry malt? is that the shit at woolies in a can or sumptin else?

I really need to stop drinking rum at midday so any help will be muchly appreciated, and perhaps my rum might even get to age a little longer than 2 months :oops:

[maheel]

http://craftbrewer.com.au/shop/default.asp?CID=88


if you want real beer grab one of these....

with beer temp control of the ferment is a #1 priority........ makes alot of difference

or if you got a big pot do some BIAB all grain beers :yum:

[busman]

nah dry malt is is a powder, the results are good but it's a prick of a thing to use 'cause as soon as it comes into contact with any moisture it clumps into sticky little balls of toffee-like bastardry. You can get it at any HBS but I haven't seen it in too many supermarkets. Any of the Coopers "Brew Enhancer" range (which you CAN get at the supermarket) will do the trick as well (they're just varying combinations of dextrose/maltodextrin/dry malt)

Follow the directions on the tin and it'll work out fine. Pay particular attention to sanitising everything though 'cause beer isn't high-octane enough to keep itself sterile. You can buy all manner of expensive shit to do the job, but I used to just use good old boiling water, never had an infection 8-) I like the theory that if you wouldn't put something in your mouth, then you shouldn't put it in your fermenter/still/bottle/whatever either, so I avoided using the chemical shit.

Damn you Maheel, I was going to suggest fresh wort kits might be the next step :lol: :lol:

[MacStill]

Thanks guys I appreciate all the info ;)

Maheel, Being my first attempt at beer I'll just stick with the coopers stuff from the supermarket, it's cheap and if it fails I wont be out of pocket too much.

Temp control is going to be a bit of an issue now I think, the days are about 20 to 25c and the nights vary from about 4 to 12c and all I got is one of those heat pads.... not allowed to ferment in the house anymore after a molasses wash got a bit excited :lol:

[reknaw]

not allowed to ferment in the house anymore after a molasses wash got a bit excited :lol:

Your wife sounds like mine, there is a lot of stuff I'm not allowed to do either, once the new bub comes the list is going to get even longer :D

[MacStill]

Nah she's good value mate, it's my own stupid fault for not keeping an eye on the molasses wash after I pitched the yeast........... brown sticky mess on the wall, floor and rug is not going to go down well in any relationship :lol: :oops: :lol:

[rumby]

I have been making my own beer for about 10 years, I would recommend buying evything seperately, it might cost a bit more, but some of the extra you get in a kit is either shit or useless. I would recommend getting a 60l fermentor rather that a 30l. Making up the brew wont take any longer, but bottling it will. I figure if I am cleaning 30 bottle, whats 60 bottles,(as this takes longer, i get to spend more time down stairs drinking... I mean brewing), as cleaning is your biggest issue and most be 110 %. For the fermentor, they is a place in Brisbane that spud & I get out fermentors they doe sell 80l containers with a tap for $ 22, my last fermentor (60l) from the home brew shop cost $65.

I now only make an beer that is very close to tooheys old, and this is all I drink. Morgans has a mixture, buy 1kg of dextrose and 1kg of a body brew with is approx 50/50 dark & light malt, (this seems to give the beer a good head and a bit of body).

Carbon drops I find make the beer too gases, use sugar for priming and if you can let the beer sit for a minium of 3mths

Some of the guys on this site that make there own from stratch, which is very impressive, and I would love to, but as I now drink a lot more rum, cant get inspired to make my own from stratch.

I have only ever had one bottle explode, and my missus reckons it was the one time she helped bottle it and put to much priming sugar in.

[bundy]

my recipe
coopers draught from woolworths
safale 05 yeast, not yeast that comes with tin
pride of ring wood hops, looks like a tea bag.
follow instructions on tin and hops

[busman]

I used to bulk-prime - rack the finished beer into a second fermenter, add the total amount of sugar/malt/dex/whatever you are going to use for priming, then bottle. That way, every bottle ends up tasting the same, with the same level of carbonation. It's a black art though, it's very easy to get a whole batch of under-carbonated or a whole batch of over-carbonated beer. I tended to err on the side of slightly under-carbonating, partly so none of them ever let go (and none did 8-) ), and partly because over-carbonated beer will NEVER get any better, but if you're patient, a beer with a little less than the optimum amount of primer will improve with time. Taste better too.

End of my $0.02 :lol:

[tipsy]

as long as I stick to directions on the pkt I'll be right hey?

Don't listen to what they say about temperature.
They used to say ferment at 27c, it will be much nicer beer if you can keep it to 18-20c.

[rumby]

As the weather is getting colder it is the ideal time to be brewing stouts etc, I would save the lager/draught (XXXX) for the warmer months.
Sit the sryup tin/s in hot water for ten minutes before opening & pouring into the fermentor.
Dextrose is a lot better then white sugar.
Invest in a pad or a heating chord (for winter).
Crown seal bottles (which are really hard to get) seal better, but it doesnt really matter.

[maheel]

brown sticky mess on the wall, floor and rug is not going to go down well in any relationship :lol: :oops: :lol:

dont drink so much, that way you will stop shitting yourself when laying unconscious on the floor

[krusey]

hey mcstill since your a xxxx bitter drinker you should try the Morgans Qld Bitter it's based along the lines of xxxx and to make it oh so good in my opinion you'll need to make it 500grams of light dry malt 500grams of dextrose and 250grams of corn syrup and it will be pretty nice, just remember with making beer you need to be anal on cleanliness, if anything could possibly come into contact with your brew it needs to be sterilised and if your bottling just use carbination drops they should never explode like charging with sugar, but just remember for beer Clean clean clean

[Frank]

Hey McStill
as I have been kit beer brewing for the best part of 20 years here's my add to the already varied and no doubt sage advice above....
1. use 5Star's magic new filter word search to look up recommended/suggested kits on another thread in this esteemed forum ;)
2. if its clean, clean it again! Beer yeasts seem to get infected easily and you cant 'distill it away'....
3. during our subtropical attempt at 'winter' (eg right now) you may really want to consider NZ (eg blackrock) and/or UK (eg Muntons) kits as these are usually far better quality kits and the yeasts are set up for 18-22C, whereas the Aussie kits bubble away happily at much higher (ie typical for most of the year) temps, without (IMO) the finished product being better for it.
4. dont use white sugar (just don't) and aim for 4-5%ABV if you want 'super' as opposed to low strength beer else it'll probably end up tasting like treacle/syrup/worse than XXXX :shock:

[Jimmy1]

Mcstill
Did you end up putting a brew down, what kit did you go for and have you sampled it yet
Jimmy

[Kimbo]

Just put down my first K&K, Black rock Pilsner Blonde. This was recommended to me
I'm not much of a beer drinker but i got given 1.5kg of Dex. so i thought i would try my luck and have something ready for summer ;)

[Frank]

Nice start Kimbo
Blackrock are pretty good kits IMHO (just make sure it ferments out fully at the lower end of temp range) and that amount of dextrose should give it a decent ABV% too :shhh: . It'll be a thirst slaker come Xmas or thereabouts for sure.

[Kimbo]

Will do Frank, thanks for the advice ;)