# How Did Your First Brew Taste?



## stef (26/9/10)

Cracked open the first bottle of my first brew the other day... it wasnt great!

Just a kit from the LHBS (Cascade premium lager), with reasonable quality ingredients (different yeast etc) but still just a kit beer. It didnt taste like beer! Only been bottled for a week, which i know isnt long enough, but i was curious. I dont think anything went wrong in the actual brewing- kept at consistent temp (15 degrees, in an under ground cellar), i was pretty damn thorough with cleaning and sterilizing (paranoid about getting it infected) and it didnt smell smell or look off or infected.

Wasnt carbonated, overly bitter, generally had a pretty puckering flavour and a strange, very orange colour. Hopefully it gets better with age! I'm planning to try another brew later in the week with a couple of additives, but i gotta say i'm not as excited about it now...

Anyone else had similar experiences with their first few brews?

Stef.


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## manticle (26/9/10)

First one was OK - overgassed and not what I'd hoped for. You can't expect your first straight kit brew to give you perfect beer. Keep at it.

You'll notice a big difference after a few more weeks too.


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## BjornJ (26/9/10)

My first beer was the Coopers Lager that came with the homebrew kit.
Watched the DVD and read the printed instructions, so pitched yeast as soon as the wort was under 28 degrees.
Fermented in the cupboard in mid-January...
I called it the "scando lager" and it tasted like a mix of unleaded fuel and ...something else you wouldn;t drink.


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## Lecterfan (26/9/10)

I know you didn't necassarily intend it, but this is actually a pretty awesome idea for a thread. I've finished in the veg garden for the day so am just onto my second beer for the day and have enthusiastically dug out my old brewing notes.

Nowadays I type a paragraph at the bottom of Beersmith, but this one beer has 3 pages of notes!!!

05.10.2005 It was a LHBS Stout with a stout improver/brewcraft type mix, used the kit yeast. I was racking and bulk priming from brew 1 onwards as that was what I learned vicariously through the two major homebrewing influences I had. My notes say it was flat for at least the first month in the bottle, but the last note was around 4 mnths in the bottle and it had a good head, was carbed nicely for a stout and didn't taste like total shit.

As Manticle said, give it time. It might not be what you are after but a few more weeks in the bottle will do it the world of good.

But if you like the process, don't wait until you've drunk all the first one before brewing the second. Get stuck in! Your doctor will hate it but your wallet and taste buds will thank you (eventually).


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## Nick JD (26/9/10)

It was 25 years ago - can't remember, probably pretty bad, but I drank the lot regardless being young and drunken.

It's difficult to make kit beer that tastes like "bought" beer. Actually, damn near impossible. 

The main reason is because beer is not made from dehydrated malt and chemical hops with a kg of sucrose. It's like trying to make espresso coffee with Nescafe Blend 43 ... not gonna happen.

A well-made kit beer is very drinkable though, but it needs much love, attention and time to get better. 

Perhaps check out doing "extract" using real hops and some steeped grains. It's pretty easy and the improvement over kits is significant.


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## DU99 (26/9/10)

my first few brews where very little carbonation,tasted ok..my problem was i got over zealous with the bleach..have changed to "napisan" and idophor.....


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## Sydneybrewer (26/9/10)

The first ever beer i made tasted like burning... I was given an extra lager tin so my first was a 2 can coopers lager 1kg table suger and fermented at 30+ degrees and i even had it sitting in the sunlight through the window in order to maintain the temp 30+


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## DUANNE (26/9/10)

my first beer was very ordinary. i actually had a beer from my third or fourth batch a couple of days ago and it was overcarbed and very apply in flavour. even after 3 years sitting in the back of a fridge it still tasted bad. thank god i know a bit more about proper cleaning and sanitation now.


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## govorko1974 (26/9/10)

My first brew i thought at the time was ok...although only just done my 5th brew have learnt so much from this site that i tried the last bottle of it the other day....had one mouthfull and tipped it down the sink....it was RANK...no idea how i drank 29 of them before then...keep at it..get a fridgemate and you will find your beer improved thru the roof


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## Newbiebrewer (26/9/10)

Yeah my first was a coopers lager, with tasted like crap because I had it fermenting pretty hot. Definately not the best brew, however it was an improvement upon the commercial offerings.


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## Dazza_devil (26/9/10)

Thanks to AHB my first beer was very good, no complaints at all. 
A Munton's Nut Brown Ale kit with a bit of dex made up to 20 litres.
I read up on here for almost 12 months before taking the plunge and investing in the necceassary implements to brew.
There's no better place to learn how to brew than here.
Cheers.


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## pk.sax (26/9/10)

My first one was a coopers lager too, real recent  it tasted crap (rough n bitter cuz of the hop tablet) 2 weeks bottled, now, its smoothed out and actually makes for a rather easy drinking beer. Second one, I opened one yesterday a week into bottling - taste crap cuz of the unfermented sugar. I'm kinda wishing i'd hopped it more aggressively :S it tasted quite OK out of the fermenter b4 priming.


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## jakub76 (26/9/10)

At a week in the bottle it's still active, give it another two weeks and you'll be happier...another 4-8 weeks and it'll be about as good as it's going to get.

My first was a Coopers Bitter kit, I was 15 and happy to be drinking any beer I could get my hands on. I had a friend tell me it was better than commercial beer, I wasn't so sure but it certainly buoyed my enthusiasm. 

Making more robust and flavourful styles allows you a lot more grace while you're perfecting your process. I spent several years happily brewing bitter and stout kits with minimal additions before exploring extract or AG brewing.


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## lordofthebottleshop (26/9/10)

DU99 said:


> my first few brews where very little carbonation,tasted ok..my problem was i got over zealous with the bleach..have changed to "napisan" and idophor.....



Oh I've been there, many times. That crisp, clean, bleach flavour is only slightly better than sea water :icon_vomit: .

My first brew was the coopers can that came with my home brew kit, and 1kg of LDME. I have to say, it was a bit ordinary. Best thing I can suggest before getting too complicated is getting one of those bags of finishing hops from your LHBS, and dry hopping it. Once you taste what a little bit of hops will do, you'll dive headlong into the more advanced extract and grain recipe's. :icon_cheers:


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (26/9/10)

lordofthebottleshop said:


> Oh I've been there, many times. That crisp, clean, bleach flavour is only slightly better than sea water :icon_vomit: .
> 
> My first brew was the coopers can that came with my home brew kit, and 1kg of LDME. I have to say, it was a bit ordinary. Best thing I can suggest before getting too complicated is getting one of those bags of finishing hops from your LHBS, and dry hopping it. Once you taste what a little bit of hops will do, you'll dive headlong into the more advanced extract and grain recipe's. :icon_cheers:



+1 - I started off doing Brigalow brews that come with the kit. Tried the better kits (such as the british brown ale from I can't remember whom). Then moved on to soaking grains for my stouts and that made a massive difference. Then onto extract plus hops plus yeast plus grain - this made the single largest jump in quality I experienced and did this for close to 10 years.

Finally moved on to all grain after reading the BIAB guides (according to some, it isn't really BIAB if it isn't the official way, but stuff that). There is a fair jump in quality, though not as big as the quality jump between kit and kilo to extract plus hop plus yeast plus grain. But the big difference is that going AG is more satisfying, you learn and try to learn more about the brewing process again, and most importantly the range of grains gives you so much flexibility that you'll never get with extract.

So the jump in quality wasn't quite as big (Though it was there), but the jump in ability, flexibility and range of beers I can brew is massive.

Goomba


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## white.grant (26/9/10)

I still have the notebook with my first beer recorded. A coopers draught back in september 89. According to my notes when I opened the first bottle on the 14th of october I was very happy with it. It was carbed, clear and alcoholic.

Fair enough to say that I have learned a lot since then. 

cheers

grant


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## warra48 (26/9/10)

My first batch was brewed way back in 1973, and at the time I thought it tasted OK, not unlike Tooheys New of the time.

However, of my more recent renewed homebrewing, I used a Munich Lager kit for the first batch with a Saflager yeast, fermented at 28C in late January! 
It wasn't a real success, definitely showing a cooked character. I learnt the lesson of temperature control very quickly.

My second batch was as JSAA clone, also a kit brew, and it was much enjoyed. All my tasting notes on that one were very positive.



Edit: spelling


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## Swinging Beef (26/9/10)

My first brew in around 1995 was kinda good, and similar to Thooeys New, which is what i wanted at the time.
But from then they went down hill for about a year as I sought to "improve" them.

I took a several year leave from brewing then got back into it with a bun dance straight to full boil extract for a year then full mash for the past two.

Dont be to hard on yourself, see if you can get a more experienced brewer to taste it and give you some tips.


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## flyinhi (26/9/10)

my first brews were very unrefined k&k brews, made following the can instructions, usually watery, undercarbed, and fairly tastless. I know they got better with a few refinements, coz my brewery back then was my ol mans shed, it didn't take long for the judging panel (read: my dad and his mates) to rip through a good batch on a friday night, the crap ones somehow lasted longer?? :lol:


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## boriskane (26/9/10)

first brew was:

munich lager kit + 26C fermentation temp + ale yeast= cider


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## Shed101 (26/9/10)

I got some horrific bag thing for my 17th or 18th birthday, back in Blighty. There were instructions on the side ... add some water, leave in a shed for a week, or something. 

Strangely enough I more or less followed the instructions, tried it and it did resemble real ale... kind of. I don't think I drank it all.

But in those days, drinking at home was for alcoholics and people with no mates, and I had a good half dozen pubs within walking distance full of heart cheer and superb beer, so homebrewing stayed off the agenda for another 15 years.


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## stef (26/9/10)

good to see a load of responses and lots of help/encouragement!

I'll definitely be going to extract or at least doing a bit of seeping & dry hopping with my next batch. Sounds like that is a big quality improver.


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## michael_aussie (26/9/10)

My first was a Newcastle Brown from Brewcraft.
I pitched the yeast in the kitchen, and then walked it out to the shed, and must have washed all the yeast onto the air=space above the beer because nothing happened for 2 days, so I sent SHMBO to the LHBS to buy some more yeast.
Pitched a second time, and it came out fantastic.
I wasn't expecting anything special after hearing stories about HB tasting like crap.
I was then hooked.


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## dago001 (26/9/10)

My first beer was a coopers draught and a kilo of sugar in the mid 80's. Cant remember much about it but we drank it and many more. I can say that it was bloody cold where we live so most beers were fermented at around 21 degrees. 
I started again last year after a 23 year hiatus. Brewed a Munich Lager with 50% dex, 25% lmde, 25%ddme, w34/70 saflager yeast at 14 degrees. did a lot of reading here first. Was a good beer after 1 month, better after 3. Found the last bottle the other day, just over 12 months old. Compared it against a Samuel Adams Dark Lager (one of my favourite beers) and preferred mine. Now brewing all grain, but am thinking of putting a few kits down and keeping for a year to see what happens.
Cheers
LagerBomb


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## ekul (26/9/10)

My first home brew i made was when i was 15, needless to say every single one of those 30C fermented 'lagers' went down with gusto! Sadly mum realised that i was drinking it all after 15 tallies exploded in the wall of my room (got really hot in there) so she hid the kit. Probably some of the worst 'beer' i've ever tasted.

Later at uni i started brewing again. Me and my mates were too lazy to clean bottles so we used to drink it straight out of the fermenter. Didn't taste real good but it sure did the trick. Again these 'beers' (i'm not sure you could actually even call it that, fermented wort) tasted horrible.

Over the years i'd put down a brew but none of them were really that special.

A few months ago i decided to give it another crack after stumbling upon this site, the first beer i made actually tasted like beer, albeit not a great one. Now my beers are tasting great (in my opinion anyway  )

Keep at it, the natural progression is "uuurrg, what is this?" --> "i spose i can drink this"---> "Mmmm, i made beer" ---> "$40 a carton? I think not my dear man"


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## breadenhound (26/9/10)

My first ever brew was a Woodstock clone... I was 18 at the time and preferred bourbon & cola over beer *sigh*. To this day I can still taste the vegemite and cola - I was too impatient and bottled the lot before it had finished primary fermentation. Big swelling bottles = big swelling tummies!

I have switched to promite.


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## RobH (26/9/10)

My first homebrew was in 1994 - the year I got married & the year that we where the brokest we have ever been. So I decided to give homebrewing a try - the only thing that gave me the idea (apart from being broke and wanting to get my beer cheaper) was seeing the Wander starter pack in k-Mart (I think it was K-Mart)... used whatever came in the starter pack, followed the instructions & of course kept it at over 26 degrees ... used the "whack-it-with-a-hammer" capper & busted two bottles while bottling... it tasted like crap, but I don't remember tipping any of it out.

Didn't try HB again until about 3 years ago.... again yuck. Wasn't until I started again afresh last July with brand new fermenters & this website as a guide that I started making decent brews ... & have continued doing ever since  ... some still turn out iffy, but I just put them aside & brew another batch. Mot recent iffy brew just tasted strange ... that was 4.5 months ago & not it is halfway decent ... certainly can drink a bottle and enjoy it now.

As someone else said in these forums somwhere, never tip it out, just brew another batch & every couple of weeks or so try a bottle to see how it is.


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## philw (26/9/10)

My first Homebrew was Coopers Pale with brewers enhancer 2 April this year 


was nice I thought for a first time just wish it was more carbonated


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## MaltyHops (27/9/10)

ekul said:


> ...
> Later at uni i started brewing again. Me and my mates were too lazy to clean bottles so we used to drink it straight out of the fermenter.
> ...


 :lol: x10


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## Ade42 (27/9/10)

was the lager kit that i got in the coopers box. made it to spec, brewed at 29-30c, tasted pretty great at the time, the old brain telling me that it was good when it was quite the reverse, ive still got one 2 years later, a few months ago i had one of the 2 Id found from my first batch. horrible, pure brown vomit-water. Its only since ive got a fridge for brewing that im now making very respectable brews.


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## j1gsaw (27/9/10)

my first brew was the can of lager goo that came with the brewcellar kit... fermented with packet yeast and kg of dex, at about 30 degrees in the garage. oh delicious... :icon_vomit:


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## flano (27/9/10)

1989
my mate and I decided to make beer for our surfing trip up to Byron.
We got a kit form the LHBS, coopers ...probably the only one they had back then.

We ( in our wisdom ) decided to add a couple of extra tablespoons of sugar to each bottle,
just to make sure the alcohol level was good and strong.
Of course we did it at my house . My mum was not overy impressed with the concept of 17 year olds making beer.

There is still to this day tiny little shards of glass to be found in her garage.

no beer went north that year.


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## argon (27/9/10)

My first was the coopers lager ( I think) that came in the box with the kit I got for my birthday a few years back. 

Took me about 9 months after getting it before I put it on. Did exactly s the I instruction read... Horrible stuff apples galore truly terrible. I feel as though the kits and instructions within are purposefully horrible. Never had a decent or good kit beer AFAIK. 

2nd batch was kits and bits, 5th batch was a partial, 6 batch was AG... Up to about 30+ batches last 15 or so are doubles.

Now doing some fantastic beers imho


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## Bongchitis (27/9/10)

Ahhh the good ol days of blissfull ignorance. My 1st was a Coopers lager + BE2 + Lager yeast 34/70 (mistakenly purchased after bad advice from Manfred), fermented in the high 20's. My missus hated the bloop bloop in the middle of the night and the beer was well......... a little fruity <_< :icon_vomit: 

My brother and I drank it anyway!


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## petesbrew (27/9/10)

Bongchitis said:


> Ahhh the good ol days of blissfull ignorance.



+1.
Learn the moves off Merc with the Coopers video. Brewed up the oopers draught or lager supplied with the box.
It looked like beer and tasted like beer. I was pretty happy.
I've brewed lots better since, and yes I've also made more than a few that were worse!
Honestly, even the bad ones are worth it for the experience. They train your tongue for bad flavours, and how are you going to learn if you have no bad experiences?


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## JunkzOr (27/9/10)

Well.. I too am a new brewer (I just pitched my 3rd batch last night actually!) and my first brew was the k&k that came with my brewcraft brewery. It was a munich lager and being my first brew and being a little paranoid and possibly a little overzealous I a: put too much water in (over 24l total lol) and I had'nt screwed my tap in properly and after the first night I had lost some of the goodness to leakage.

It sat in the fermenter for 3 weeks and temps were between 15 and 20c before bottling the standard PET, drops method. After 2 weeks in the bottle it tasted overly yeasty and undercarbed and not very pleasant at all. A month in the bottles improved it significantly though into a rather plain but very drinkable beer.. I only have 1 bottle of it left hehehe.

2nd batch is bottled and is a CPA k&b and yesterdays batch was a Muntons highland heavy. Having a ball making some different recipes and trying subtle additions to improve on the kits.


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## RdeVjun (27/9/10)

Actually, I'd challenge the manufacturers of said kits, suppliers too for that matter (who should know their product), to actually use their own stuff, follow their own instructions and make a drinkable beer, and one which won't put off most of the people who actually try it. Honestly, they're doing such a disservice, some more R&D into recommended process wouldn't be too hard, would it? I mean I think we know what's got to happen, just change the temperatures in the instructions FFS! Their feedback must be blistering, probably much like the beer...

My brother took off overseas for a bit and while he was gone he gave me his fermenters and a Morgan's Bishop's English Bitter with BE2, I followed the instructions but kept it around 20C- was superb, I really enjoyed it and have a soft spot for that can. That was two and a bit years ago now, but it sat unopened for a few months.


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## JestersDarts (27/9/10)

aah foggy memories of my uni days, but thats when I started homebrewing..
kits only, maybe added some magical "brew enhancer" fairy dust.. but who knows what that did..
fermented out in the darts shed in a dead fridge with a light on, pretty steady 26 degrees for a nice fast ferment. Did about 8 batches, and bottled every single one of em - no mean feat without a proper set up - moving sharehouses and the like.

Made a Coopers Mex Cervesa and bottled them in 1L litre green San Pellengino bottles.
.. Called em "San PellenGringos"...once you got through one bottle, the rest were fine because you could no longer taste anything..

Had the exploding bottles and all that... I remember being out the back of one place that I used to live at, on a warm summers evening, and a cool change rolling in, and you could feel the temperature drop in minutes. behind the garage door, I heard one loud BANG!! a few seconds then BANKGBANGBANGPOPBANGZINGBANGPOPPAW!!

I opened the garage door to an obliterated batch of homebrew, in a puddle of cidery beer, smashed pellengringo bottles everywhere with TWO surviving bottles in the middle. 

I felt like a bomb disposal technitian picking them up and taking them to the bin..


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## pcmfisher (27/9/10)

Scenario-
Your first brew was a coopers lager + white sugar @ 28deg. 
You taste it and think it tastes pretty good.
It must be good because it comes from coopers and you follow the instructions to a tee.
You continue making it the same way for the next 20 years because it tastes just great.
Is you beer actually good??


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## warra48 (27/9/10)

I have a sneaking suspicion the kit instructions aren't actually meant to provide decent beer. After all, they surely must know that fermentation at up to 28C will never make good beer, so why continue to print those instructions? 
Surely it wouldn't be too hard to provide some basic ideas on temperature control, such as wrapping the fermenter in an old towel, block of ice on top etc., or even a dead fridge with frozen pet bottles of ice. 
Or, horror of horrors, they might even give some links to homebrew sites such as ours.

Maybe they want you to go back to store bought beer, as no doubt they make more on it than they do from home brewers?


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## DU99 (27/9/10)

> kit instructions aren't actually meant to provide decent beer


look at the coopers/baccus and barley temps for lagers..around 20..and we have learnt that lager you do at colder temp..


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## Sydneybrewer (27/9/10)

as bad as my first beer was me and my mates still drank them all, you couldnt really taste anything after a couple anyway the alc was so high around 8% i believe going through some calculations... we just thought it was good because it got you drunk after a few of them, although one of those mates has vowed never to try homebrew again after one big night, and a big next day vomiting from sun up to sun down.


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## marksy (27/9/10)

My first one was alright. Think Dad and myself tried to make a Draft of some sort. What ever it was it was the start of my never ending goal to make the perfect beer I can and Im still trying 7 years later


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## Lobby Lobster (27/9/10)

ekul said:


> Later at uni i started brewing again. Me and my mates were too lazy to clean bottles so we used to drink it straight out of the fermenter.



Ha ha.

Mine was a Wander kit back in the early 90's. 

Pretty ordinary but we were doing everything wrong. White sugar, stirring with a wooden spoon...

Apparently we gave some to a mate at a party and he put them aside. A year or so later he pulled them out and reckons they were the best beer ever. So the story goes...


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## .DJ. (27/9/10)

How did it taste? No idea

How did I THINK it tasted? Like Crown Lager... I was stoked! I shudder at the thought now!


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## Lecterfan (27/9/10)

pcmfisher said:


> Scenario-
> Your first brew was a coopers lager + white sugar @ 28deg.
> You taste it and think it tastes pretty good.
> It must be good because it comes from coopers and you follow the instructions to a tee.
> ...




:icon_offtopic: I won't start (because I find it hard to stop)...but that is an awesome philosophical question. A critique on the subjective nature of this little hobby/way of life we have. Post-modern death of the author styled brewing. 

I'm done, please ignore me.


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## Bubba (27/9/10)

I remember it well.
A mate and me got a kit from the supermarket and thought the golden rulkes back then were...

*The cheaper the brew, the more proud we were, hence the cheapest ingredients such as 1k home brand table sugar
*Ferment as quickly as possible, and as hot as possible
*Temp control meant to keep it over 25deg or your yeast will fall to sleep, so make it hotter!
*Don't deviate from the recipe, apart from adding more table sugar to get a higher alc%
*Dont add anything else, keep it simple
*If the can said 5 days to ferment, then don't leave it in the fermenter a minute longer...in fact maybe 4 days will be better!
*Keep all tallies in the garden shed where snails, slugs, dust, spiders etc can live in them till they are ready to be filled.
*Sterilising means the same as cleaning doesnt it.

Hence we had a fermenter of home brand gooop, 1-2k of home brand white sugar, kit yeast in the fermenter in the shed at 25-plus 35degree heat, fermented for 4-5 days max, bottled as quickly as possible and consumtion commencing in as little as 1 week in bottles that had been questionably cleaned.

Many bottle bombs, opening up a tallie that gushed out to meet you, finding a bug stuck to the inside of your bottle, and basically beer that tasted like cats piss that got you absolutely munted...man were we happy!

Needless to ay things are very different now, and after a 10 year break from my first 5 uears brewing, the last 18months has been a real eye opener in terms of how easilly you can make a big difference to a simple brew!


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## jyo (27/9/10)

My first beer was in January of 2002. It was a BeerMakers Lager with 1.25kg dextrose. Fermented at 27 plus degrees because my uncle told me you have to keep it really warm. I used to actually use a heater belt overnight in Summer if the ambient temps dropped below 20 :lol: 

Thinking back, I remember it tasted a bit like Carlton Cold (shudder, cringe), which I used to buy shitloads of at the time, but with hot alcohol flavours...and funked up yeast. In my brewing notes it says "Tastes ok". :blink:


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## Online Brewing Supplies (27/9/10)

jyo said:


> My first beer was in January of 2002. It was a BeerMakers Lager with 1.25kg dextrose. Fermented at 27 plus degrees because my uncle told me you have to keep it really warm. I used to actually use a heater belt overnight in Summer if the ambient temps dropped below 20 :lol:
> 
> Thinking back, I remember it tasted a bit like Carlton Cold (shudder, cringe), which I used to buy shitloads of at the time, but with hot alcohol flavours...and funked up yeast. In my brewing notes it says "Tastes ok". :blink:


Yummy :icon_vomit:
GB


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## jyo (27/9/10)

Gryphon Brewing said:


> Yummy :icon_vomit:
> GB



I know. It's no wonder homebrew has such a bad reputation. I would offer it to friends and wonder why their faces would contort


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## bruce86 (6/11/11)

hahahaah i have just layed the first one down a thomas coopers larger from brewers kit at 24-26 deg. guess i can right it off already lol


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## jbowers (7/11/11)

Pretty bad. Honestly, it took a fair few brews before I produced something that I was even mildly happy with. Brewing fresh wort kits was the best decision I ever made - such an improvement over extract.

Got my first AG brew mashing now. Let's hope I'm not back to square one flavour-wise....


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## mr_tyreman (7/11/11)

Dr Smurtos Golden ale

First ever brew

All grain recipe

poured out in the garden

.....Convinced i could do better i stuck to brewing, and couldn't be happier


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## mckenry (7/11/11)

My first beer was a Wander Draught. Was a bit scared hammering on the lids, so the entire batch was flat. Plus all the terrible advise from my next door neighbour made my first few batches pretty ordinary.


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## Dribs (10/11/11)

bruce86 said:


> hahahaah i have just layed the first one down a thomas coopers larger from brewers kit at 24-26 deg. guess i can right it off already lol



If you used the kit yeast, expect a sour apple twang taste. If you're a student/unemployed it is still drinkable. 

My first one being the lager that came with the kit tasted like equal parts apple juice, Tooheys New and camel piss. This was due to the temp being around 26.


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## Dave70 (10/11/11)

Like a Coopers sparkling ale kit fermented at 26 deg with an extra 2kg of brown sugar to help it along.
Bottled the nanosecond the airlock stopped bubbling. Consumed after about a week.

The beer taste was incidental. All I can recall is choking on pieces of insufficiently chewed BBQ fare then spasmodically dry retching bile as I lurched foward with my hands on my knees. 

Twas many a year before I returned to homebrewing.


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## Mayor of Mildura (10/11/11)

Mine was the coopers lager from the kit. mmmm tasted like apple cider.


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## [email protected] (10/11/11)

Coopers heritage lager with dex and kit yeast fermented anywhere between 22 and 25.
I remember at the time thinking it was ok for a first shot.
I knew nothing about off flavors, but twangy apples was about the only flavor it had.


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## ekul (10/11/11)

My first brews were great, i was 15. I couldn't buy alcohol from the bottlo, but i could buy sugar and coopers cans. The best brews were the apple cider ones because they were meant to taste like apples.

Once i could buy booze i didn't start again till i was a student. We had a fermenter sitting inthe front room. We bottled some of it, but mainly it was drunk straight out of the fermenter after all the goon had run out. Again, didn't taste great but it did the job. Stopped doing that as soon as i could afford goon.

Started again when i was living with my girlfriend at the time in this litttle hippy house where we grew all our own vegetables. Tried everything in that stupid book they sell at woolies with the homebrew kits, but still didn't make a decent beer. Best beer i mad was when my aquarium heater broke and beer fermented at ambient (17-18C). I attributed the better taste to the brigalow hop tablet i'd added and not the fact that every other brew i'd fermented had been at 25C. In that house i never made a drinkable beer again so gave up.

A few years later i moved to bundaberg and started brewing because i was going to teach my sister (she had just started uni.) While doing research I found this website and discovered a few things.

A. Brewing at 25+C is a bad choice
B. Washing the fermenter with hot tap water does not kill bugs.
C. Homebrew can actually taste nice

Anyway since discovering this website i haven't stopped. And i don't think i will ever stop brewing unless i stop drinking beer.

That first beer i made after discovering this website was a can of coopers australian pale ale, a kilo of sugar and the kit yeast. Turned out OK. It was bettein the top 3 homebrews i'd ever tasted and the best i'd ever made. Wasn't so good that i stopped buying beer, but it made me think it was possible. Nowadays the only time i buy a beer is to steal coopers yeast, to try a style of beer i want to make or when i'm at the pub.

Anyway, to any nembie that thinks their beer is tasting not too good, keep going. Once you'll crack it you'll never WANT to buy beer again.





mayor of mildura said:


> Mine was the coopers lager from the kit. mmmm tasted like apple cider.


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## lagers44 (10/11/11)

I can't even remember what my first kit tasted like, it was 29 years ago and because I was only 17 my dad wouldn't let me drink it so I spent that first year brewing for him, I enjoyed the process to much to care. I have to say though that I do remember the first coopers kits they were 15 or 20L goon bags in a cardboard box, pour into fermenter top up with water & add yeast ( the precursor to the FWK ).
A few years later they went to the tin of goo.


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## Spork (10/11/11)

First one ever was over 20 years ago. Can of goop and some white sugar. No temp control, but late spring (IIRC) or early summer in my mates spare room, in Tassie, so prob wasn't as awful as it could have been. Bottled and drunk too soon, but we were unemployed so we drank it.
Back then there was a "sheltered workshop" nearby where we could buy bottles already cleaned. From memory we didn't bother to clean / sanitise ourselves...

We did 2-3 brews. I didn't brew again for about 24 years.


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## QldKev (10/11/11)

Mine was like lady juice.

Didn't taste that great, but I kept going back for more


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## Liam_snorkel (10/11/11)

My first brew was a coopers stout when I was 16, for schooles. 
brewed in the back yard shed (no ventilation) in oct/nov so it would have got pretty hot. Pretty sure the krausen shot through the air lock. 
Bottled it in 1.25 and 2 litre coke bottles because that's all I had. 

I remember dad being all "shh shh don't let mum find out, we'll both be in shit". she did, and predictably went off her nut.

Rocking up to schoolies with 20 odd litres of stout was wicked, can't remember what it tasted like but I didn't care, it was booze.

I remember one of the girls thought it was coke and tried to mix it with bacardi hahaha.


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## nzefactor (10/11/11)

I Think it was a lager goop tin fermented in a 28C garage for 2 weeks. Chilled to sub-arctic temperatures the end result was drinkable...I think.

Some of these posts are fantastic. Qldkev's is going to be hard to beat :lol:


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## nzefactor (10/11/11)

Liam_snorkel said:


> My first brew was a coopers stout when I was 16, for schooles.
> brewed in the back yard shed (no ventilation) in oct/nov so it would have got pretty hot. Pretty sure the krausen shot through the air lock.
> Bottled it in 1.25 and 2 litre coke bottles because that's all I had.
> 
> ...



kudos for being a young bloke at schoolies drinking stout! Pretty sure 99% of the kids along the coast these days would think a stout was a breed of dog.


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## rehab (10/11/11)

No awesome story in terms of disaster *apart from almost frying it in my blanket near the end which only served to finish the yeast clean up and maybe flatten the beer a little*
My first was September this year. 
Muntons IPA with nothing else apart from a useless blend of #20 (which added dextrose and f all malt so thin ass beer for me) but in terms of beer it tasted like a beer just not one I would enjoy. 
It didn't really change too much for the better as it went on and I have 3 bottles left and may serve them to drunk people who run out at mine whilst OTP. 
I really shouldn't complain as I have read the previous pages and am glad I didn't infect or end up with K+K gasoline! All I can say is the Toucan that has followed (with a hint of Amarillo) is much more impressive and if I can keep improving *with the help of people on this site* I will be a happy man.

Can't say I will stop buying beers as the good ones give me something to aim at.

Great stories though.

Cheers all B)


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## Truman42 (10/11/11)

My first brew was about 8 years ago when I was living in Broome. 
The local radio station had a competition and if you phoned up at the right time you won a Coopers home brew kit, but you had to brew a batch and it was to be judged at Matsos brewery a month later.

I did a Canadian blonde (from memory) and added honey to it. It was mid October, the start of the build up to the wet season and bloody hot. 

The judging was done by local identities and I remember the look on his face when he took a sip of mine. It was like he had just drank cats piss.

After that I put the kit away and didnt attempt another brew. The heartache of losing was just to much to bear. :icon_drool2: 

Until 3 months ago and now Im hooked again, especially with BIAB.


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## Bigbrownrosie (10/11/11)

Just drinking stubby number 3 from first brew now, 3 weeks after bottling. I thought it was Cascade, supplied with the fermenter kit, followed the instruction pretty closely....what is it with the apple flavour?
Tried the first one last week, after 2 weeks in the bottle...pretty ordinary, not much taste, and not much bubbles...
The ones tonight are much better - a bit more fizz, and lots more flavour, even if it is quite 'apple-y'.


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## DUANNE (10/11/11)

my first home brew was back when i was fifteen or sixteen and i learnt of a mates old man. i had an old dead fridge and a light globe as temp control. the thing is though back then temp controll meant keep it over 20 degrees or else it would fail. by god i made some awfull beer. i done about five or so batches that no one could drink and threw it in.


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## bruce86 (10/11/11)

Dribs said:


> If you used the kit yeast, expect a sour apple twang taste. If you're a student/unemployed it is still drinkable.
> 
> My first one being the lager that came with the kit tasted like equal parts apple juice, Tooheys New and camel piss. This was due to the temp being around 26.




hahahah cheers. yeah next brew will be a lot cooler and have some hops etc in it.


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## PhilipB (10/11/11)

looking to bottle my first bre 2 morrow, so will let you know at christmas.


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## nzefactor (10/11/11)

Truman said:


> My first brew was about 8 years ago when I was living in Broome.
> The local radio station had a competition and if you phoned up at the right time you won a Coopers home brew kit, but you had to brew a batch and it was to be judged at Matsos brewery a month later.
> 
> I did a Canadian blonde (from memory) and added honey to it. It was mid October, the start of the build up to the wet season and bloody hot.
> ...




Being publicly shamed for your first kit brew. That's harsh.


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## Wimmig (10/11/11)

I first pitched one of the FWK's. Some cans, now extracts & partials. Honestly, if i had of started with bottles i think i would have quit long ago.


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## Braumoasta (11/11/11)

My first brew only about a year ago. Luckily I had read up on this site and others about appropriate temperatures and brewing techniques. It was a Coopers Australian Pale Ale, to which I added some dried malt extract. I loved it, as did everyone else who tried it. 




efactor said:


> kudos for being a young bloke at schoolies drinking stout! Pretty sure 99% of the kids along the coast these days would think a stout was a breed of dog.



+1 I was thinking the same thing myself. :icon_cheers:


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## 1975sandman (11/11/11)

First brew was a few years ago when living in Wagga Wagga. It was SWMBO's idea to buy a Coopers homebrew kit! And she doesn't even like beer! :lol: Pretty sure it was a Coopers lager kit, fermented as per instructions. Thought it tasted okay at the time. Did just come off years of drinking XXXX though.


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## J Grimmer (11/11/11)

My first one was cascade porter in 2007 i bough my home brew kit from a hbs and they let me pick a kit etc, I remember thinking this will be like JS porter the end result was nothing like it but was hooked on the process and still brewing today.


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## Samuel Adams (11/11/11)

My first brew was absolute swans piss !!

Got my Dad's kit off him after he hadn't used it in years to try and make some cheap beer & save some money after just buying a house.
He had a few cans leftover and one of them was a Tooheys Lager (IIRC) which I used with 1kg dex, kit yeast and temps in the high 20's .
Bottled it in TEDs bottles screwing on old caps and filled them without a little bottler ie turning tapp on & off for every bottle, man my hands were sore !!
Brewed on and off for a few years making some drinkable beer most of the time.

After finding this website my beer is at least twice as good and hence I'm brewing like a bat out of hell & loving it !


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## Ryan WABC (11/11/11)

My first brew tasted like a combination of apple cider and sparkling white.

I distinctly remember a part of my soul dying after a friend of mine tasted one and said he had to lick a cat's arsehole to get the taste out of his mouth.


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## drtomc (11/11/11)

First brew was the Cascade Porter kit. Bottled perhaps a bit early. No explosions, but they had to be opened very slowly and carefully. 

About my 5th, was classic "what? you mean if I put more sugar in, I get more alcohol out?". 10.6% rocket fuel. Fortunately, I recovered....

T.


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## Pennywise (11/11/11)

Yaeh I remember the revelation about adding more dex to up the alc, within 3 hours I was throwing it back up on the mates lawn, being molestered by his dog, apparently...

I was not my finest moment


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## DaBigBrewski (12/11/11)

:drinks: Hi all, ive just put down my 3rd HB and after reading the stories above, i either have no taste for beer or i have great beer goggles, but OMG...it really works.
First one was Mangrove Jack(MJ) Classic Dry Blonde DLM brew pack and Cascade finishing hops, kit yeast, bottle prime raw caster sugar..drank beautifully after 2 weeks, dry crisp good head nice small bubbles 6weeks down the track and friends cant believe it.
No.2 was the MJ Classic Bitter and i did a little adjusting, 0.5 Dex, 0.25 LDM, 0.25 MDex all dry and 250 mls Pure 100% Maple Syrup, kit yeast. This time i bulk primed with 180g raw caster sugar and added the liquid of a steeped Amarillo Hop bag...1 week good head great flavor nice aroma...just hitting week three and its so easy drinking i have to tell mates that im not in..! I have no idea whats happening but i treat these HB like children and they havnt given me grief yet...
Will get back to you all on No.3 soon...experimenting with a Morgans Dark Ale, Cascade 25% Raspberry Fruit Syrup, Vanilla beans and Tetnanger Finnishing Hops...cant wait.
FYI...i am a chef by trade, some say thats a good start...?!
Until next time.


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## Morebeer4me (13/11/11)

DaBigBrewski said:


> :drinks: Hi all, ive just put down my 3rd HB and after reading the stories above, i either have no taste for beer or i have great beer goggles, but OMG...it really works.
> First one was Mangrove Jack(MJ) Classic Dry Blonde DLM brew pack and Cascade finishing hops, kit yeast, bottle prime raw caster sugar..drank beautifully after 2 weeks, dry crisp good head nice small bubbles 6weeks down the track and friends cant believe it.
> No.2 was the MJ Classic Bitter and i did a little adjusting, 0.5 Dex, 0.25 LDM, 0.25 MDex all dry and 250 mls Pure 100% Maple Syrup, kit yeast. This time i bulk primed with 180g raw caster sugar and added the liquid of a steeped Amarillo Hop bag...1 week good head great flavor nice aroma...just hitting week three and its so easy drinking i have to tell mates that im not in..! I have no idea whats happening but i treat these HB like children and they havnt given me grief yet...
> Will get back to you all on No.3 soon...experimenting with a Morgans Dark Ale, Cascade 25% Raspberry Fruit Syrup, Vanilla beans and Tetnanger Finnishing Hops...cant wait.
> ...



Just cracked open my first brew last night same as DaBigBrewski we managed to get spastic on about 14 tallies of mangrove jack blonde. 2 weeks in the bottle, little bit of head not alot of carbonation. It did taste better than expected. drunk in icy cold pint glasses, woo hoo. Looking forward to my next brews. Also bed was spinning last night, but no real hangover this morning to speak of.


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## Liam_snorkel (13/11/11)

DaBigBrewski said:


> Will get back to you all on No.3 soon...experimenting with a Morgans Dark Ale, Cascade 25% Raspberry Fruit Syrup, Vanilla beans and Tetnanger Finnishing Hops...cant wait.


Quite a combo. Best of luck. I really hope it doesn't end up tasting like fizzy cough syrup.


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## peaky (13/11/11)

My first beer was a Coopers kit with a kilo of cane sugar fermented at 26 degrees. Tasted bloody awesome.


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## enuun (14/11/11)

it was actually nice because it was my first attempt and I have a huge ego
but it has only gotten nicer as I now have temp control, sanitation and access to a variety of yeast and hops


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## thelastspud (14/11/11)

Mine was pretty bad was a kit i got for christmas and brewed in summer no temo control, kit yeast and forgot to chuck in the tea bag hop thingo. It was drinkable I guess but I think I only drunk about 3 longnecks out of the whole batch. It was really clear though.


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## JDW81 (14/11/11)

Bradley said:


> Mine was pretty bad was a kit i got for christmas and brewed in summer no temo control, kit yeast and forgot to chuck in the tea bag hop thingo. It was drinkable I guess but I think I only drunk about 3 longnecks out of the whole batch. It was really clear though.



My first brew wasn't great. Pitched the kit yeast too hot and fermented at about 26 degrees, learnt plenty of valuable lessons though. Number two was a ripper, an amber ale which was very popular with my mates and missus. 
:beer:


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## thelastspud (14/11/11)

Yep my number two was a whole lot better as well.


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