First Brew

[nuggetron]

hey guys
so the girlfriend's parents brought me a coopers brew kit
me and the girl brew it together, we made a few mistakes, didnt expect it to be perfect
been measuring the gravities and im about to bottle it tomorrow about 11 days after brewing
i think its really short but the gravity hasnt moved for 3 days
doing the formula they said it comes out at 2.5% im assuming its because we killed the yeast? temperature was 31 i think, from looking at the thermometer
i have a few plans for the future brews, i have a cerveza anda cider kit waiting in the room but thinking ceverza first for early summer then cider for late summer
gunna try the zest maybe half a lemons worth in there to give it a nice taste
for the cider the girlfriends step dad said to try adding some cordial in the bottles to mix the flavours up, he gave me one of the ciders he brewed and it seemed way too carbonated, am i able to add half the carbonation drops or doesnt it work that way

cheers guys

 

[Kevman]

Welcome to homebrewing.

Don't worry about your first brew. Its always the roughest one.

The 2.5% is dependent on the recipe of your brew.

No doubt there will be an all grain zealot who will offer you the holy grail of brewing but the best thing to do will be to concentrate on fermentation prcesses and get them right.

 

[nuggetron]

i used the original coopers lager brew haha
it smelt amazing though

 

[stux]

i used the original coopers lager brew haha
it smelt amazing though

Did you add anything else or just the contents of the tin?

 

[yum beer]

hey stux, welcome to the mad world of home brewing.


Just some advice when posting its a good idea to include a litttle info about your brew, like what you used in it, temps, OG and FG. It makes
it a little easier for people to give good responses.

As for your first brew it appears you have not added any fermentables to the can, malt, sugars,etc. as such you will get about 2.3 to 2.5% alc.
If you have brewed at 31c as it looks you have then I would not bother with bottling this batch, it will be like vinegar and undrinkable.


Ignore what the tin instructions tell you, you need to kep temps below 22c and preferably at around 18c for brews using an ale yeast-most kits use ale yeast-


Seeming you have a cerveza can there, this is a brew I make regularly and comes out very nice,

1 can coopers cerveza
500gm Light dry malt
1kg coopers be1

if you use the kit yeast keep temps around 16-18c...will take about 10-14 days to be ready to bottle.

better if you can get a lager yeast and brew at 12-13c-if you have some way of controlling temp.like a fridge etc....check out temp control in other threads.

I use an old fridge with a standard timer to switch it on and off and adjust the setttings to get the temp I want.


DONT play around with lemon yet, get your head around the process and make some good beers and then venture into different things when you understand what you are doing.


Good luck , mate

 

[going down a hill]

+1 what yum beer said.

Hey nuggetron, this link might help you out, it helped me that's for sure, good luck and happy brewing.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...?showtopic=9233

 

[nuggetron]

cheers guys
im using the standard coopers brew kit, everything standard the lager brew with the yeast supplied and the brew enhancer supplied

 

[enuun]

+1 to what everyone mentioned in their posts.

To add on, do take special care in cleaning and sanitising the equipment before your next brew. Once you have gotten it down to a habit, it will be pretty straight forward. Happy brewing.

enuun

 

[Ryan WABC]

Do you have your OG and your FG?

As for carbonating, do a search for 'Bulk Priming'.

Oh, and welcome to the world of brewing beer!

 

[stux]

hey stux, welcome to the mad world of home brewing.

Well... That was confusing

Thanks