Fresh Wort Kit and Red ale

[bobbiedigital]

Hi All,

I'm an on-off and on again HB'er. I'm back on and moving away from the cans into all grain. My first attempt is using a fresh wort kit just to get back into it (and really have some thinking beer while I think of my next move).

These wort kits are not overly expensive but at about 40 bucks for 15L I know I can do better. I have a 30 L fermenter, I was wondering if it would be an idea to double the amount, or at least put 25 Litres of fresh wort and double the yeast or would it be better to crack some grain, steep it and add to fermenter to fill it up with spring water. Has anyone done this? or used a can malt extract to fill it up? Or would it be better to steep some grain by it self and add malt extract powder and fill up to 25L?

Another question is, while my drink of choice is a nice crisp lager I am quite partial to the red ale. Does anyone know of any good kits for this?

I have another question regarding the all grain kits but I will look through some answers in that section because I'm sure someone would have answered it already.

Thanks!

 

[unwrittenlaw]

What are the instructions on the FWK? Alot of them say to dilute to 20L or 23L before pitching yeast

 

[DU99]

depends on where you live to what FWK's you can get.....

 

[Aus_Rider_22]

Where do you live? I can vouch for Bacchus Brewing Irish Red Ale FWK. It's $49 for 20L. Very tasty. Shall snap a photo when I get home tomorrow!

 

[bobbiedigital]

Where do you live? I can vouch for Bacchus Brewing Irish Red Ale FWK. It's $49 for 20L. Very tasty. Shall snap a photo when I get home tomorrow!

Thanks for the replies!

I am in Melbourne and get my FWK from Homemakeit in Resevoir. I got the consequences lager this time. I followed the kit which said pour in the wort and add five litres of water. I got the 10 litre spring water from woolies for $4. I then added the saflager s34/70 yeast and now it's brewing nicely. To sterlise I boiled about 8 litres of water and put into the fermenter and let it steam for 20 minutes. I have some hops which I will use to dry hop for a couple of days after I rack it into another fermenter and bulk prime. Do you recommend putting the dry hops in the first or secondary fermentation? It's been fermenting since sunday and it hasn't started bubbling (I think the lid is a bit loose) but I can see the scum on the top from the outside. I hope it will take about two weeks to complete.

20L sounds nice but seems a bit wasteful when I have a 30L container (i'm a thirsty man). I would like to either use two of the kits to get up to 25L and two packets of yeast or even better to use one FWK and up it with some steeped grain and spring water. Could I use spring water and some malt? Or even add a tin with some water? What would be best?

Could I add something like this
https://www.homemakeit.com.au/collections/home-brew/products/cerveza-mix-1kg

or
this https://www.homemakeit.com.au/collections/home-brew/products/morgans-master-malts-lager

with some dextrose which is only 3.20 for a kilo (https://www.homemakeit.com.au/collections/home-brew/products/dextrose-brewing-sugar-1kg) and water to fill it up to about 25? I want to keep the alcohol content about 4.5%.

Thanks Aus_Rider where abouts would I get that? That sounds great!

Have you tried this one?
https://cheekypeakbrewery.com.au/teagan-irish-red-ale-22ltr-all-grain-fresh-wort-kit

If I get something like that I could just add 5 litres of spring water and I could be happy. The shop is in Wodonga though and I'm not sure how much shipping is.