Getting Ready For My First Brew

[Jake.v]

Hi all


Being brand new to the brewing game but have been doing alot of reading and talking with other brewers at work etc i now have got all the equipment etc and have ordered a few types of extract kits, yeasts etc for my first brew just wanting some suggestions on what i could do and or add to make a good batch. i drink TEDS, and tooheys white stag most of the time but id like to make something abit better in time with a bit of fine tuning. I got a few different types of beers as i wouldnt mine getting into some beers you wouldnt find at your normal pub.

Morgans export golden wheat 1.7
wheat beer yeast
M.E stockman draught 1.7
tooheys classic dry lager 1.7
cascade chocolate porter 1.7
lager yeast
dextrose
carbonation drops

cheers Jake
dry finings

any tips or additions would be greatly appreciated

 

[beerdrinkingbob]

you should look into some dme (dry malt extract) rather than just using dex.

Get some hops, I'm not that familiar with the beers you mentioned so others might be able to assist you more which type. IMO hops are the kit brewers best friend, they assist in covering up any twangy flavours you will get from your can/extract.

Good luck mate and don't worry you will get a result you are happy with I'm sure.

+1 to homebrew

 

[brad05]

The wheat beer best fermentation temperature is about 18 deg. If you have a specialist lager yeast just check what it's optimum fermentation temp is. Have you got a way to control the temp? It is a good idea to use specialist yeasts and stay within their recommended temps

 

[DU99]

cascade chocolate porter 1.7,use a can of coopers amber malt extract..as a suggested me by G&G,i have to make mine..

 

[Jake.v]

i live in a fairly cold area i have a coolers and heaters which i will use to suit. Whats the recommended amount of DME? or is it abit of trial and error till you get the desired flavor

 

[brad05]

The recommended DME would be dependent on both the flavour and the SG (starting gravity) that you are targeting. Different beer styles have different SG ranges. I would recommend using either beersmith or there is a spreadsheet on here that calculates the SG based on your ingredients.

 

[Jake.v]

what impact does the SG have on the beer?

 

[beerdrinkingbob]

what impact does the SG have on the beer?

Alcohol content.

Personally when i was kit brewing i was using 1 kg of DME and .3 of dex(to increase alcohol content only), things can get thin and no real malt backbone if you use too much sugar/dex. Plenty of people have done the old kit and kilo but the kit brewing road tends to lead to increasing DME and throwing hops in.

 

[raven19]

carbonation drops

Ditch these for sure, and check out these Linkys.

Inparticular the bulk priming and temp control of your ferment.

Good luck with it!

 

[Jake.v]

so use the DME 75%/dex 25% instead of sugar?

 

[raven19]

Once you get to the bottling stage I would just go for plain old table sugar or DME.

 

[Jake.v]

ok im slightly confused ATM so for the fermentaiton i use what sort of sugar? and then for the carbonation i use just normal sugar?

 

[Tanga]

Carbonation doesn't matter as much because it's such a small amount - so there's no need to be fussy.

For fermentation it's nearly 1/2 of your fermentables and makes a difference to flavour, body, mouthfeel, smell - all sorts of wonderful things if you use wonderful sugars (as well as alcohol content).

Malt adds all of those things, sugar and dextrose don't, in fact they thin out the beer (and sugar adds a kind of funky cidery taste). This is why folks are telling you to use malt instead of dex.

 

[waggastew]

Given its your first brew and you like drinking Tooheys I would do the following recipe.

1 x Tooheys Draught Kit
1 x Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 (A mix of light dry malt, dextrose and maltodextrose)
1 x 'Pride of Ringwood' (POR) Hop Teabag (steeped in a cup of boiling water for 5 min, and then all chucked into the fermentor)
US-05 yeast (a good ale yeast with neutral characteristics, much better than any kit yeast)

All of the above should be available from any home brew shop. Try to keep the ferment temp at around 18-20degC. Leave it to ferment for at least 3 weeks and check the FG over three days to see if it is stable. I would prime using your carb drops, they are fine. Once bottled keep them in a warm/cool (but not hot/cold) for at least 2 months as this will help the beer mature.

There are other things that you can do to improve your beer (i.e. more malt/no maltodex etc) but this is a great starting point and will be miles better than beer being produced by many old hands.

Good luck!

Stew

 

[Jake.v]

cheers guys think i got it mostly sorted out i do Fly in fly out work so till i get home it will be abit harder. Would it be ok to have it in the fermenter for upto 4 weeks?

are there any good HBS is the central west of n.s.w?