Brewcraft Pale Ale Converter - Any Thoughts?

[jbhifi]

Hey everyone. I'm onto my second brew and this time I went to a brew shop to ask for advice. Since I love Coopers Pale Ale the guy at the shop recommended that I try using the Brewcraft Pale Ale kit converter. It came with cascade hop pellets and a bag of dextrose. I'm brewing at around 18 - 20 deg. C and it seems to be bubbling along nicely.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with these little kits?

Cheers

 

[thanme]

Is that all that was in it? How much dextrose was there? And what other kit/malt did you use??

 

[Fents]

just a hint. coopers pale ale does not contain cascade hops so if you were after a coopers pale ale your on the wrong track. next time ask for prinde of ringwood hops. then kit you have will still make a nice beer though dont stress.

 

[jbhifi]

just a hint. coopers pale ale does not contain cascade hops so if you were after a coopers pale ale your on the wrong track. next time ask for prinde of ringwood hops. then kit you have will still make a nice beer though dont stress.

Anything has to be better than my first brew. My first one I used just the tin that came with the coopers home brew kit. It started spewing out the top after 24 hours and was finished fermenting in 3 days. I left it for 7 days as the instructions said but I can now confirm it tastes like absolute cat piss. This current brew I have going seems to be plodding along at a nice steady pace and definitely has a better aroma about it. BTW, I used the coopers real ale kit for this brew along with the converter kit.

Where do you guys recommend to pick up hop pellets and yeasts at a decent price? One thing I find a little off putting is that the price of this homebrew caper seems to climb sharply if you want to make beer actually worthy of drinking.

Cheers.

 

[Pennywise]

Any of the sponsors have a good selection of fresh hops,yeast & grain. personally I'd steer clear of any brew shop that has their yeast/hops on the shelf, they should be kept in the fridge, not a fan of Brewcraft either. Fill in your location so someone close to you can recomend a good brew shop in your area.

Edit: How much do you spend on a slab of beer? I spend about half of what a cheap slab costs on each of my brews, so it's always gonna be cheaper than buying a case of similar beer to what I'm making.

 

[jbhifi]

Any of the sponsors have a good selection of fresh hops,yeast & grain. personally I'd steer clear of any brew shop that has their yeast/hops on the shelf, they should be kept in the fridge, not a fan of Brewcraft either. Fill in your location so someone close to you can recomend a good brew shop in your area.

Edit: How much do you spend on a slab of beer? I spend about half of what a cheap slab costs on each of my brews, so it's always gonna be cheaper than buying a case of similar beer to what I'm making.

I'm in Glen Waverley, Sth East Suburbs Melbourne. I spend about 45 bucks on a slab of beer. I guess I still haven't managed to make a good beer yet so I'm a little anxious about all the cash that is leaving my wallet and the lack of beer entering my belly. I was also a little pissed at the coopers instructions, since I followed them EXACTLY and I still managed to make a beer that tastes worse than 2 week old dog shit..... lol

 

[Pennywise]

I think that's half the problem then, those Coopers instructions aren't all the best. have a read of this http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...?showtopic=9233 it's got all the basic info concerning temp, sanitation etc. You'll get there mate, like you, when I started I didn't know alot of the must do's and do not's to get a decent beer out, once you know these, your laughing.

I'm sure if you put the call out a fellow member can look over a brew day and give pointers of where you could improve. You'd be quite welcome to watch & help with one of mine but it's a bit of a travell for you and my brew days are sort of spare of the moment things most of the time.

 

[jbhifi]

I think that's half the problem then, those Coopers instructions aren't all the best. have a read of this http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...?showtopic=9233 it's got all the basic info concerning temp, sanitation etc. You'll get there mate, like you, when I started I didn't know alot of the must do's and do not's to get a decent beer out, once you know these, your laughing.

I'm sure if you put the call out a fellow member can look over a brew day and give pointers of where you could improve. You'd be quite welcome to watch & help with one of mine but it's a bit of a travell for you and my brew days are sort of spare of the moment things most of the time.

Yeah my first brew looks the goods. It is really clear in the bottle and is quite carbonated aswell. It just tastes plain old BAD! Ill let you know how the second one turns out. I reckon it's a winner.....

 

[Phoenix]

hmmm, just a few thoughts for you.

Maybe for a future brew use the following
- Coopers Australian Pale Ale Kit; and
- Coopers Brew Enhancer 2

Plus on the cost thing, I did a recent rough calculation for the brew I currently have on (which is the above plus I'm trying S-04 yeast just to see) and it was just under $2 a liter of beer. Coopers Pale Ale long necks work out at about $7 per liter. So let's say you get 20 usable liters of beer from a brew, that means it's a saving of $100. I'll accept that the two beers will not taste the same (but kinda similar), but that home brew combo is pretty basic and tastes good.

Just some thoughts.

 

[glaab]

I made some crappy brews to begin with, probably like 99% of us. You might wanna think about taking up Homebrewer79 on his gracious offer, you'll be making good beer in no time

 

[Isuxius]

Hey everyone. I'm onto my second brew and this time I went to a brew shop to ask for advice. Since I love Coopers Pale Ale the guy at the shop recommended that I try using the Brewcraft Pale Ale kit converter. It came with cascade hop pellets and a bag of dextrose. I'm brewing at around 18 - 20 deg. C and it seems to be bubbling along nicely.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with these little kits?

Cheers

The #76 Pale Ale kit is a good match with the CPA tins. I have brewed about 5 of those last Dry season and all of them turned out great considering the last brew hit 32 degrees when the weather started warming up again.
It isn't anything close to the Coopers Pale Ale you buy at your local but still a good drop. Give it a few weeks to a month in the bottle before you try it for the hops to come through.

There looks to be about a 75/25 mix of Dextrose/LDME in the kit. I was wondering what hops were in it. I guess Cascade would explain the citrusy flavours.

(ooh look first post )

 

[HoppingMad]

Where do you guys recommend to pick up hop pellets and yeasts at a decent price?

You're right, Brewcraft do have a hefty mark-up.

Options for hops:

- Sponsors, but it pays to get a few items so you make postage worthwhile if you do mail order. Locally Grain and Grape is worth the drive to Yarraville if you haven't been.

- AHB Hop Bulk Buys (but be aware that hops can lose their flavour by about 1% point per year so fresh is often best and buying too many can have issues h34r: )

- Join a Brewing Club and participate in their Hop Bulk Buys - I have a 500g from a Melbourne Brewers one, and they meet not far from you. Lots of other BB's on offer there.

- CellarPlus in North Melbourne opposite Vic Market or Epping store have the cheapest retail hops in Melbourne I have found anywhere. Bear in mind that turnover of the hops there is low, so you may not be getting the freshest stuff. If I want fresh and best I still use Grain and Grape or Craftbrewer.

Options for yeasts:

- Sponsors as above. Craftbrewer has twin packs that will save you a bundle compared to Brewcraft prices on yeast.

- You can put a fresh beer wort over the top of your old yeast cake, thus halving your cost, or scoop old yeast out of the bottom of your fermenter and reuse. Plenty of info on this by searching. The trick is to not put hot wort or water over the yeast or you will kill the yeast underneath. Some guys here re-use 4 or more times but it varies on method.

- Make up a bank of yeasts for culturing and re-use. A complicated scenario but something experienced brewers get into to keep their costs down. You need a seperate fridge generally to get into something like this, have the right tools for slants and practice good sanitation.

- BrewCellar yeasts are available at some Local Home Brew Stores, these are repackaged yeasts the same as the ones at BrewCraft (ie. BrewCellar American Ale= Fermentis US-05). Look out for BrewCellar and you can save coin. There are also are other varieties of repacked yeasts around that can be cheap.

Hopper.