A Noob with Tooheys special draught

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Wookie

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Hey guys,
I am trying to brew the Tooheys special draught straight out of the kit using all the kit ingredients(a tin of special draught mix, tin of liquid brewing sugar and supplied yeast).
Followed the instructions to the letter.
I'll try an d give as much info as i can.
As per instructions I mixed the special draught mix with the 2 litres of hot water and liquid brewing sugar, then added 17 litres of cold water. Then to get the temp' down under 28c I topped it up to the reqiured 23 litres with cold water. The temp still read 30c so i had sit the wort in a sink of cold water and ice to get the temp' down before adding the yeast at 26c. No probs there I don't think.
Now it was 2-3 days before i noticed any real action, eg:bubbling in the airlock.
After a few days it grew a head(which i was told may be normal), but the head was actually bubbling out of the airlock.After about a week the head died down but the airlock has still been bubbling away on and off.
Did a check and the SG was still 1020 so i have left it alone.
Its now been 16 days since i began this brew and the SG reading i have taken today is 1015 and only now is it starting to smell and taste something like beer.
Wort temp' has been pretty constant 22-24c the whole time.
Is this normal or is there something wrong?
I have read brieflly that this may be common with this brew?
 
Seems fairly normal for a first up batch.
Be patient.

Maybe in future try and get your temperature down to at least 20ish. Even though the instructions give a temperature range of 18-27, it is much better to go for lower temp than the higher temp.

Good luck.
 
This is pretty normal if you added the kit yeast.
Did you just sprinkle it on top of the wort?

The kit yeast can be a bit knackered by the time it gets to you.

One of the first suggested improvements to kit beers is to turf out the yeast it comes with (normally referring to the 7g sachet under the lids) and to get a fresh non kit yeast, normally 11.5g sachets to brew with.

Good luck mate hope it works out.

Cheers,
D80
 
Diesel80 said:
The kit yeast can be a bit knackered by the time it gets to you.
Knackered? The bloke had krausen coming out of his airlock!

All sounds pretty good except for the initial lag for the yeast to take off and there's not a lot you could do about that given that this is your first brew. Black Devil Dog is on the money with temps - try to follow that advice on your next one.

Even though it has taken a while I think you still have a little way to go. Try to be patient - I know it is bloody hard. Do a search for "bottle bombs" if you want to see why not to bottle too early.

Sounds like your first will be better than most. Let us know how she finishes up.
 
No matter what you do mate it will never taste like Tooheys Draught. Do some research on this site and you can make a beer that will taste great. No matter what you do with straight K & K it'll taste like 'homebrew'. For a little bit of extra effort you can make great beers from Kits!
 
Thanks for that guys. Diesel i sprinkled the yeast on top and gave it a bit of a stir as instructed.
Yeah don't want bottle bombs, i'm happy to wait , got other beer to drink in the mean time lol. I'll wait till the SG is right before i bottle.
So far this brew has cost me nothing but time so i'm happy
Cheers
 
looking good wookie, probably should get an FG of around 1012, make sure your hydrometer is reading accurately though,
not unusual for them to be 3 or 4 points out.
Test it in tap water at 20c....pretty much straight from the tap should be close and see how it goes.

Try replacing some of your sugars with Light Dry Malt or Liquid Malt Extract, will make a big difference.
 
Ok, now its been 4 weeks since I started this brew and after checking the calibration of my hydrometer(2 points out) I now have an SG of 1008 so its just about ready to bottle.
Hehe i'm glad I had something to drink in the meantime..
 

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