# Home Brew Newbie ... Did I Get The Right Stuff?



## Caffeine Dealer (20/4/11)

Hey guys and girls!

I want to start by saying this place is a wealth of information and i'm glad i found it 

I am new to the world of home brewed beer and after a short loitering period i became a registered member today.

After trying a friends Coopers pale ale recently i took an interest in home brewed beer. I have been brewing Japanese Sake for a few years now and my friends pale ale was a lot more drinkable than i remember home brew ever being so i decided to give it a go myself.

Today i purchased the following ......

Red Italian hand capper $25.00
Brew Celler Hydrommeter  $?
Plastic tube thingy $3.00
200 white crown seals $?
500g Copper Tun wheat spraymalt $6.50
1kg Neo Pink sanatiser $6.90
1kg Brew Boost Light(750 dextrose + 250 Light Malt) $4.50
1kg "ultra Blend"(250 corn sugar + 250 light malt + 500 dextrose)$5.00
Copper Tun 50g Williamette 4.8% hop pellets $8.00
Copper Tun 50g Cascade 5.7% hop pellets $8.00
Safale US-05 yeast 11.5g packet $?
Morgans Royal Oak Amber Ale kit $17.00
Black Rock Pilsener Blonde kit $18.50


12 x long neck crown seal bottles(CUB) $?

Liquid Glucose 350ml $5.00

TOTAL = $115.00

+ 30l Fermenter including air lock, seals, grommets etc..
+ bottle wrinsing thing $49.00

This is everything i have bought and i was curious to know how my local brew shop compares(price wise) to others as i live in a low populated rural area. 

Am i on the right track?
Have i missed anything?
Should i attempt adding anything i bought today to the kits i have purchased?
Does anyone have any tips as to how i should brew these 2 cans?

I usually brew my sake around 12 - 16 degrees so i'm fairly certain my temps should be ok when i get around to doing a brew. 

My favourite commercial beers include Fat Yak, Little creatures Pale Ale, Coopers Pale Ale, James Squire Amber Ale, Tooheys Pils, McClarren Vale Ale, Mildure Breweries Cloudy Ale, Toohey Old and if i have no money...Extra Dry.

As you can see i like my Ales but i'm not exactly sure what it is that i like compared to something like Carlton Crown which i think is just watered down VB(icky). I'm not a big fan of the smelly armpit aromas of lagers like Cascade premium and most Euro lagers i have tasted either.

Can someone tell me what my favourite beers have in common other than mostly being ales?

I know i have asked a lot but i have tried to supply as much info as possible....let me now if i forgot anything?

Thanks!


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## roverfj1200 (21/4/11)

12 Bottles is a bit low as I get 30.5 to a 23L batch. You have a lot of stuff there and that is good but IMOA just start simple and brerw a kit with some booster. Then brew one wih some late hop additions and so on . Not sure on the prices but most look in the ball park..


Cheer


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## donburke (21/4/11)

its enough to get you started and learn beer making,

you've got the right stuff



happy brewing


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## seemax (21/4/11)

Black Rock kit plus 1kg brew boost. 
Use the US-05 yeast around 15C and you will end up with a very clean neutral beer.
Don't rush - leave it in the fermentor for 2 weeks to let the yeast settle and clean up. Then bottle and dextrose or sugar and give them 2-3 weeks.

From my limited kit experience, they tend to improve over time in the bottle, usually 6-8weeks.

Plenty to learn on here, read about mini boils and using the hops to add some character to your brews.

As stated... keep it simple... clean and sanitise, use ale yeasts such as US-05 and always add some malt with your kits. Soon you'll be asking yourself - what's extract brewing and then the slippery slope starts


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## matt white (21/4/11)

Speaking of slippery slope.....if I were you I'd skip learning and perfecting kit brewing and go straight to BIAB. Invest your time and money early and then you wont have to learn it all over again and curse yourself for not going straight for it in the first place.

I believe a reasonable all grain beer is better tasting than a fantastic kit beer.

Yeah, yeah I know some kit beers have won prizes etc but from 10 years experience doing kits and 5 years now doing BIAB there really is no comparison.

Have fun with it mate and welcome to the obsessive world of brewing.


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## Supra-Jim (21/4/11)

Being a sake brewer you'll probably already have an appreciation/understanding of a lot of the concepts involved in brewing a beer.

I would suggest grabbing a copy of How To Brew by John Palmer (www.howtobrew.com for a free electronic copy of the first edition). The early chapters will help set you on the right course and probably answer a lot of questions. The later chapters will help as the hobby/obsession sucks you in further!!

Good luck!

SJ


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (21/4/11)

+1 for BIAB. I wish I'd done it sooner, instead of pfaffing around for 10 years doing Kits and K&K and Extract brewing.

Try site sponsors for larger amounts of stuff you can mail order.

Goomba


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## Caffeine Dealer (21/4/11)

Thank you for the feedback guys, it looks like i got enough to complete a couple of brews.

I am still not completely up to date with the home brew lingo so you will have to tell me what BIAB is?

Having brewed Sake, i am well aware of the importance of sanitising. In regards to the 12 long necks not being enough, i am adding them to the 40ish Fat Yak and Bee's Knee's bottles i am currently soaking the labels off so i should have enough storage for at least one brew. I'll just have to buy another couple of cases of Fat Yak to get my second brew bottled 

The brew shop lady said i could make a nice drop using 6g of each of the hops and the Black rock Pilsener Blonde kit but i don't remember which of the boosters she said to use and i don't know which hops to add at what point. Any suggestions there?

My friends pale ale that i tasted had only been bottled for around a week so that might explain it's slightly thin "green" flavour. It had an impressive head though! lol 

I do intend on changing to all grain brewing after i have a little bit of experience with the kits. My local brew shop does not sell grains but i'm sure she would get them in if it meant not loosing a customer. When i do something, i usually go the whole hog! 

QUESTION: Do you think anyone would be interested in an exchange of knowledge and ingredients? 
I am a competition barista with a wealth of knowledge in the coffee industry including growing and roasting. I have hundreds of kilo's of unroasted coffee at home along with some coffee seeds. Maybe a fellow AHB member would like to start a new hobby? or obsession like i am about to embark on and needs a kick start. 
Just a thought, maybe i'm barking up the wrong tree?

Anyway, thanks again. I have read countless pages of information so far and will be spending the day reading some more. 

@ donburke .... lol your a funny man!


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## manticle (21/4/11)

Plenty of people around here who are willing to exchange knowledge. Whereabouts are you based?


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## Kevman (21/4/11)

> I do intend on changing to all grain brewing after i have a little bit of experience with the kits. My local brew shop does not sell grains but i'm sure she would get them in if it meant not loosing a customer. When i do something, i usually go the whole hog!



Take your time doing kits and getting a feel for the process of making beer. 

Probably a similarity to being a competition barista is to be able to make beer that tastes the same each time you do it. The advantage with Kits is that there is a lot of consistency with them, rather than grains which has the variability of nature involved, so you can work on the process. 

Being able to produce a consistent beer means that as you start experimenting with adding some hops or steeping some grains, you can tell the difference that they are making to your beer.


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## Caffeine Dealer (21/4/11)

manticle said:


> Plenty of people around here who are willing to exchange knowledge. Whereabouts are you based?



I live in the Northern Rivers area near Ballina.
So if you guys know of a local brew club up here i would be interested in meeting them?

I will probably put a post in the hardware section related to a trade of ingredients. Willing to post. I have surplus coffee and i'm about to harvest in the coming months so i will even more.

I do intend on putting at least 8-10 kit brews down before moving on to grains. I am not scared to do all grains as i have to do everything from scratch with my Sake as it is. I just want to get a feel for kit brewing to begin with so i can see the difference between them and all grain brewing. That way i can make a decision as which is a better product for the amount of time and effort invested per brew.

I would still like to know what my favourite commercial beers have in common with each other? Is it the hops used or just the general style of brew?


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## MaltyHops (21/4/11)

Caffeine Dealer said:


> ...
> Today i purchased the following ......
> Red Italian hand capper $25.00
> ...


Personally, I would have gone for a bench capper - unless you expect to get
into kegging for most of your beer at some stage - it might not be too late
to return the hand capper for a bench capper, which while costing around the
$60 mark applies even and downward only pressure to bottle rims which IMO
would treat bottles better, plus you can use your body weight to press down
on the cap. At least you didn't get one of the hammer type hand cappers.

T.


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## DU99 (21/4/11)

get some swing top bottles..they come in handy..hops a bit dear...


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## Caffeine Dealer (21/4/11)

DU99 said:


> get some swing top bottles..they come in handy..hops a bit dear...



Yes i had expected that the hops was a little bit dear but the brew shop lady initially gave me the tea bag type which i had read was not going to give as good results.
The bottle capping device i have got seems to work ok in practice runs. I assume if i was to change to kegs that they would need a fridge to store them in? Does the beer need to age like bottled beer does? Is there less sediment in a kegged beer?

My fermenter and bottle cleaner thingy should arrive tomorrow(fingers crossed) that i bought off evilbay so with a bit of luck i can start brewing over the weekend. 
The only thing i am still not sure of doing is the addition of hops.
I have read things like ...
5g sars @ 10 minutes
4g cascade @ 30 minutes 
4g cascade @ 45 minutes

Is dry hop addition just adding the hop pellets to the fermenter? From what i read, it is added late in the brew cycle and left there till the end right?

I am not sure what the @ X minutes is.... is that from the time you start or from the finishing time? A bit of an explanation about this would be great


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## ekul (21/4/11)

a typical hop recipe will look like this:

10g Super alpha @ 60
10g amarillo @ 20
10g cascade @ 10
10g chinook @ flameout
10g centennial @ dry hop
Because the first addition says @ 60 this means the hop boil will be 60min long

So you'd start your timer for 60mins and throw in 10g of super aklpha. when there is 20mins left in the boil (40mins has passed) you would throw in the 10g amarillo. Then the cascade when there's 10mins left (50mins has passed) and then finally the chinook when you turn off the boil. The dry hop addition is thrown into the beer when it has finished fermenting and is allowed to steep in the beer for awhile.

The hops boil in wort too BTW. They add bitterness, flavour and aroma.


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## Caffeine Dealer (21/4/11)

I just realised it's a public holiday tomorrow so there will be no beer brewing for me till next week 

It will give me a chance to finish off my current Sake brew and have that bottled and out of the way by time i get a brew down.

@ ekul ... thank you for explaining the hops thing. I now fee fairly confident in getting it done


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## MaltyHops (21/4/11)

Caffeine Dealer said:


> I just realised it's a public holiday tomorrow so there will be no beer brewing for me till next week
> 
> It will give me a chance to finish off my current Sake brew and have that bottled and out of the way by time i get a brew down.


... and to do some reading up on brewing  

The book "How to Brew" by John J. Palmer has been like a bible for homebrewers - the
latest 3rd edition version is available from the GnG site sponsor _here_ and an earlier edition
available online is _here_.

If you haven't already found the _AHB Articles here_, they have a lot of helpful information
worth going through.

T.


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## Crusty (22/4/11)

Caffeine Dealer said:


> I live in the Northern Rivers area near Ballina.
> So if you guys know of a local brew club up here i would be interested in meeting them?
> 
> I will probably put a post in the hardware section related to a trade of ingredients. Willing to post. I have surplus coffee and i'm about to harvest in the coming months so i will even more.
> ...



Welcome aboard CD.
I am in Yamba, just down the road from you. Brew Matt is from Grafton & MattC is from Ballina.
I will be away until Sunday night but you are welcome to give me a call when I get back & I might be able to help you with some questions you have.
You won't regret moving to all grain, the best thing you'll ever do.
Sanitation & fermentation temperature control, two of the most important steps in home brewing, never get slack in these two areas.
A temperature controlled fermentation fridge will improve your beer tenfold with any brew you make.
Cheers


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## michael_aussie (22/4/11)

i was never crazy on glass bottles ... capping ... bottle bombs etc....

I used PET bottles ... the coopers ones aren't cheap... around $13 for 15 x 740ml.
I quickly went to empty soft-drink bottles...
Less to clean, quicker to fill, easier to handle,....

now I'm a kegger, I'd never go back to bottles.....


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## bullfrog (22/4/11)

To answer the question of what your favourite beers have in common, it looks like you enjoy a range of styles. Beers like Fat Yak, Little Creatures Pale Ale and James Squire Golden Ale are all American Pale Ales (or at least close attempts at the style) which tend to be quite hop-driven beers with a lot of late-hopping (flavour additions.)

It does look like you also don't mind a crisp lager (Pilsner, etc) and maltier dark beers. All are pretty easy to make at home. Have a look in the recipe database for APA's, Pilsners and Porters for ideas on what recipes you may like.

Another idea, instead of doing around 10 kit beers before going to grain, maybe look at extract brewing. Extract brewing is the same process as AG, essentially, just without the process of extracting the malt from the grain yourself. You just use un-hopped malt extract and add all of your own hops in a boil. This way you get complete control over the bitterness, flavour and aroma of your beer and it helps to have a good understanding of what hops add what to your beer when added at what time, for when you do eventually move into AG.


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## shaunbrew (22/4/11)

Caffeine Dealer said:


> Hey guys and girls!
> 
> I want to start by saying this place is a wealth of information and i'm glad i found it
> 
> ...


hey mate good starting point. in comparison to urself i purchased the following :*Equipment included:*30 litre Fermenter with O ring, Tap, Sediment Reducer, Volume Scales, Thermometer, Grommet and AirlockBottlebrush Large480mm PaddleHydrometer CompleteLittle BottlerBeer Making ManualBench Capper*Consumables included:*1 x pkt Steriliser 250g100 x Crown Seals1 x 1Kg Dextrose1 x pkt Carbonation Drops1 x 1.7Kg Beer Kit (Thomas Coopers Australian Lager)
all this for $124 from www.aussiebrewmakers.com and anything over $100 is free postage just start off basic and work your way through, my advise is use coopers brew enhancer 2 as opossed to dextrose, welcome to the obsession, 
shaun


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## Caffeine Dealer (22/4/11)

bullfrog said:


> To answer the question of what your favourite beers have in common, it looks like you enjoy a range of styles. Beers like Fat Yak, Little Creatures Pale Ale and James Squire Golden Ale are all American Pale Ales (or at least close attempts at the style) which tend to be quite hop-driven beers with a lot of late-hopping (flavour additions.)
> 
> It does look like you also don't mind a crisp lager (Pilsner, etc) and maltier dark beers. All are pretty easy to make at home. Have a look in the recipe database for APA's, Pilsners and Porters for ideas on what recipes you may like.
> 
> Another idea, instead of doing around 10 kit beers before going to grain, maybe look at extract brewing. Extract brewing is the same process as AG, essentially, just without the process of extracting the malt from the grain yourself. You just use un-hopped malt extract and add all of your own hops in a boil. This way you get complete control over the bitterness, flavour and aroma of your beer and it helps to have a good understanding of what hops add what to your beer when added at what time, for when you do eventually move into AG.



Thanks for that!

I had suspicions that my taste was for hop taste and aroma. 
I used to like Tooheys Pils before they changed hops....don't know why they did that?!


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