G'day from Gero, W.A. New starter in need of guidance.

[Kale]

G'day folks,

My name is Kale, 28 from a country town called Geraldton on the coast of Western Australia. Have only just got in to home brew after my drinking buddy/neighour gifted me his set up as he was done with it and moving permanently to wine being 83 years old.

He has always done kits and stuck to a consistent and standard kit recipe. I've done and drunk my first brew which was the coopers dark ale kit, and that worked out pretty well so moving on up to getting ready to start my next.

Few quick questions, number 1, can i access this forum on my smart phone?

Second, with the kit i was given a heap of 750ml glass king browns. I'd love to keep using these but i haven't rinsed them out after emptying so now they have a dried sort of film at the bottoms, what's the best way to get this set film out? Hot water? I have a few brushes which he tod me to use with a drill but they're omre set up to clean sides of bottles than the bottom. I really hope i can save these. Any thoughts?

Looking forward to learning and eventually contributing!

Kale

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

G'day Kale,
Welcome to the forum and to home brewing.
I am down the road in Three Springs and do all my buying in Gero.The best place I have found so far is IGA in Durlacher st.The small rigters store.They have a good selection of kits.
Woolworths also has Coopers and Homebrand.Great value if short on cash.
Always rinse your bottles every time you finish them and store upside down to drain.Makes cleaning a much easier task.
Cheers.

 

[Weizguy]

There is an AHB app for android, if that's what you have.
Unsure about other weird proprietary phones (Apple), but probably.

Horse-hair/ pig bristle bottle brush and some percarbonate cleaner (generic stain remover) should get the smeg out of those bottle bottoms.
Definitely drain inverted, in dish rack or bottle tree.

BTW, welcome to the community here.

Please be aware that you may have a house taint in all your beers if the equipment is vintage or ancient. To determine if there is a problem, please allow another brewer to taste some of your beer, for feedback purposes

 

[pilgrimspiss]

Hi Kale,

I have a couzin in Gero who does BIAB - all grain, hes always good for some hot tips. I'm sure he'd give you a hand with stuff!!

Shoot me a PM and I'll hook you up if you're keen.

Cheers
Matty.

EDIT - he doesn't look like me either, so don't let that put you off!! hahaha

 

[Kale]

Awesome info thanks guys, I'll try some percarbonate cleaner and hopefully get them back to scratch. Lesson learnt. Yeah GrumpyOldMan that's wehre I go for the moment, not sure if they sell hops or not are you? I think a few more brews and I'll be trying kit & kilo.

 

[Blind Dog]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Hi Kate and welcome[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]When I used mainly bottles, I would usually rinse straight away, but after the 3rd or 4th of the night, who can be bothered? There was many a manky bottle sitting on my shelves and I used to use a bottle brush with pink stain remover or similar and scrub them out, but it’s a PITA and took ages if I had to clean out 30 or so to bottle a brew.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Now I just soak manky bottles in Napisan (unscented and usually a cheap rip-off) until the gunk magically disappears, then rinse and store clean. I haven’t had to use the bottle brush in months and it saves heaps of time.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]I use about half the amount of Napisan as it recommends on the package for soaking clothes[/SIZE]

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

Awesome info thanks guys, I'll try some percarbonate cleaner and hopefully get them back to scratch. Lesson learnt. Yeah GrumpyOldMan that's wehre I go for the moment, not sure if they sell hops or not are you? I think a few more brews and I'll be trying kit & kilo.

They only have 15gm packs of hop pellets at Rigters and a bit expensive.Best to do a few brews before you worry about the additions I reckon.I have started brewing the Thomas Coopers kits and am very happy with the results.Rigters have Blackrock malts which I substitute for Coopers malts in the recipes. ie;Coopers British Bitter 1.7kg & Blackrock light malt 1.5kg.Makes a very nice beer.