Getting Started

[Bingo]

Hi all,
I've decided to try my luck with home brew, again.
The first time i tried was about 5 years ago when i was 18, and lets just say it tasted like carpet.

Now i have a name, Cats Piss Brewry (CPB for short) and would like to buy another kit as the other one got thrown out.

The first kit was a Coopers one, and this time round i'd like to get a kit from a specalist home brew shop.

Could anyone recommend places that they have delt with that sell quality kits?

I live Bayside in Melbourne.

 

[Maple]

Try Grain and Grape (site sponser above)

 

[petesbrew]

Nothing wrong with the coopers kit IMHO. Perfect starter kit with everything u need.
Good luck anyway, Bingo.
Lovely brewery name, and I hope it's no reflection of the taste!

 

[Bingo]

I've also been told that Brewcraft on Oakley is quite good. I might go there on the weekend and check it out.

I've also had a bit of a seach around in the yellow pages and found a place not far from my house called Brew and Grow. Has anyone delt with them before and are they any good? I'm going to check them out after work tonight.

 

[chartster]

Hi mate, there is a BrewCraft place on Church St, Richmond. I live in St Kilda, and find that much easier to get to that Oakleigh.

They're a good bunch of blokes in there

 

[Bingo]

Well, after 5 minutes in the store (Brew and Grow) i bought a medium level kit.

It includes:

All basics thermometer, hydrometer etc

The Basics of brewing book by Jeff Rodham

Bench Capper

28 glass long necks

Dextrose

Sodium Metabisulfite

and a Bacchus & Barley Premium home brew kit (I chose Draught).

I think i did alright, well i'll read the book and see how my first brew goes.

CPB is on the way!

All i need to do next is get a heater. I was told though that it should be ok now, but in winter i should have one.

 

[chartster]

Good stuff on the purchase!

I have seen belt heaters that you strap around the fermenter/carboy at KMart for about $20. I'm not sure if that is suitable for you, or if a heat pad would be a better option.

 

[wambesi]

But obviously with the heater keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get to hot, I use a fridgemate with mine to keep my ales at 18 or 19 deg through the winter.

Looks like you got a decent kit, but is the dextrose for the draught? You might want to look into getting some light malt extract or a brew booster/enhancer etc, coopers BE2 is not bad and in the supermarkets.

My first few (before finding this site and other resources/books) were mostly dextrose and now I'm opening up bottles of them and they just dont compare to my later ones using mostly LDME.

Also another book is How to Brew by John Palmer, 1st edition is on the net free but the latest edition (3rd) is out and I finally got a copy for fathers day - brilliant resource for all level brewers.

Have fun!

 

[Bingo]

Thanks for the help guys.

I'll have a look at getting some light malt and then i'll do my first brew on the weekend.

 

[brettprevans]

[quote name='Bingo's Brewing Cats Piss' post='244624' date='Sep 20 2007, 12:43 PM']Thanks for the help guys.

I'll have a look at getting some light malt and then i'll do my first brew on the weekend.[/quote]
BCP

you should check out the Kits and Extracts page and read thrugh the recipes etc on there. also the K&K thread. most of the ingredients on that thread you can pick up from any LHBS.

- Read as much as you can and you'll be thankful that you did.
- Fill in your location details so that when you post people know where your from and then you'll be less
likely to be told to go to somplace interstate for stuff.
- my post on the K&K thread is a pretty good lis of K&K recipes you'll find on the site (its not a definitive list
be all means - but theres a good 90 recipes). There are a lot of simple brews there. just try a few and
soon you'll be brewing up a storm and wanting to use specialty grains, massive hop schedules, liquid
yeasts, heading out to LHBS all the time etc etc.
-Good luck brewing

 

[Damian44]

Hi ya guys. I have just purchased (Guiness clone)

Morgans 1.7 Dockside Stout
1.5kg milk stout improver
Goldings hops normal
Muntons Gold yeast
15ml liquorice extract

I was just wondering if i should steep some grains or any other ideas? Thanks for all the help.

Cheers Damo

 

[0M39A]

throw out the Sodium Metabisulfite. its useless for cleaning with. try using sodium percarbonate as a cleaner (just no name nappy san) this stuff works wonders at cleaning the gunk off anything. after giving all your gear a good soak in this, give it a spray with some no rinse sanitiser (brewshield, neo pink, iodophor etc)

 

[citizensnips]

[quote name='Bingo's Brewing Cats Piss' post='244352' date='Sep 19 2007, 02:36 PM']Hi all,
I've decided to try my luck with home brew, again.
The first time i tried was about 5 years ago when i was 18, and lets just say it tasted like carpet.

Now i have a name, Cats Piss Brewry (CPB for short) and would like to buy another kit as the other one got thrown out.

The first kit was a Coopers one, and this time round i'd like to get a kit from a specalist home brew shop.

Could anyone recommend places that they have delt with that sell quality kits?

I live Bayside in Melbourne.[/quote]

Bingo, try to stay away from places like 'brew & grow', I also live in bayside so Im guessing you went to the one in oakleigh or there abouts.
Around the corner from that joint there is Oakleigh Brewcraft which stocks 10 times as much stuff and focuses specifically on brewing instead of other stuff like growing your own dope.
The guys at Brewcraft are really helpfull and give good advice.
Cheers
-eddy-

 

[skippy]

May I suggest a book to read... Bingo's Brewing Cats Piss?

Papazian, C. 2003. 3rd ed. The complete Joy of home brewing, Harper Collins Publishers Inc., N.Y.

 

[Damian44]

I just racked to second fermenter (75l) and the beer level was very low. Can i stick Thermometer on sideways so beer level is above it? Thanks


Cheers Damo

 

[brettprevans]

Hi ya guys. I have just purchased (Guiness clone)

Morgans 1.7 Dockside Stout
1.5kg milk stout improver
Goldings hops normal
Muntons Gold yeast
15ml liquorice extract

I was just wondering if i should steep some grains or any other ideas? Thanks for all the help.

Cheers Damo

Damian44 - not quite what Id call a guinness clone but close (not your fault). Yes it is missing some specialty grain and hops IMO (for body, coclour, flavour and biterness).

Last one I made.
Muntons export stout, 2kg #74 Irish stout converter (has DDME and roast barley from memory), 0.5kg DDME, 15ml Liquorice extract, 10g bittering hops (willamete or similar), muntons gold yeast, 15L.

I milk stout improvwe will be a nice touch. However for the price I paid for my last 'clone kit' I recon you can make better versions with recipes of AHB. One stout kit I made and am enjoying as much (if not more than) the Guinness clone is below:
Choc Stout Mahogony
1 x coopers Stout tin,
1 x Cascade Choc Mahag Porter,
500g DDME,
0.25kg Choc Malt Grain (steeped in 1Lt water for 15min - bought up to boil from cold then steep),
22L,
pitched 0.6L of yeastcake (Wyeast 1098) from Kenzie EQPA
OG 1.060, FG 1.022, 5.6% (6.1% after bottling)

I dont seem to have written down the hops I used but it would have been fuggles. Probably 15g @20min and 10g @flameout.

needs a while in the bottle to smooth out. My old man tried a bottle after 6 weeks in the bottle and said it was road tar! he scoffed it off pretty quickly though.

EDIT: sorry if I wasnt clear - I recon you need to steep some roast barley and get some fuggles or willamette hops into your brew.

 

[Bingo]

The brew and grow i went to was in Edithvale on Nepean Hwy. (Close to my house).

I also went to Brewcraft on Saturday to pick up some new kits, and i'd have to agree there was more range etc. It was just a matter of convenience.


I'll have a look at that book aswell skippy, the more knowledge the better.

Thanks for the advice guys, it's always appreciated and makes it alot easier for someone starting out like me.

 

[Damian44]

Thanks Citymorgue2 Ill get some Wilamette hops to go with my Goldings and some roast barley. I brought 2 of all the ingrediants because i brought a 75l fermenter. If i do all in one go i wont be able to rack after 1 week to smaller fermenter. Is it worth doing twice so i can rack? Ive only used hops tea bags as my stove has trouble boiling large amounts of water (dont no why its gas), will a Goldings and a Wilamette 12g tea bag be OK?


The block at the home brew shop wrote down the Guinness recipe and it had his gravitys on it. They were
SG 1058
made to 21l
SG 10/10/05 1020
SG 14/10/05 1012
Will that make it 6.7% ? Sounds abit strong. I wont it thick and creamy but i wont to keep my socks on too. What can i do?

Cheers Damo

 

[brettprevans]

Thanks Citymorgue2 Ill get some Wilamette hops to go with my Goldings and some roast barley. I brought 2 of all the ingrediants because i brought a 75l fermenter. If i do all in one go i wont be able to rack after 1 week to smaller fermenter. Is it worth doing twice so i can rack? Ive only used hops tea bags as my stove has trouble boiling large amounts of water (dont no why its gas), will a Goldings and a Wilamette 12g tea bag be OK?
The block at the home brew shop wrote down the Guinness recipe and it had his gravitys on it. They were
SG 1058
made to 21l
SG 10/10/05 1020
SG 14/10/05 1012
Will that make it 6.7% ? Sounds abit strong. I wont it thick and creamy but i wont to keep my socks on too. What can i do?

Cheers Damo

mate list your entire ingredients bill for me cause its just not sounding right.

Issue 1: Guinness is at least 6%. imported its more arounf 7.5% from memory. to get that you'll need an OG of about 1.080 and a FG of 1.028 with 15L. (thats working off my clone recipe above).
Issue2: 21L is way too watery for Guinness (unless that includes all your ingredients for a double batch). and the OF and FG sounds funky (in a bad way).
Issue3: no worries with racking. I wouldnt bother. with darker ales etc you wont notice if the beer is crystal clear as its dark. my guinness didnt have too much yeast in the bottom of the bottles and I didnt rack. So I personlly wouldnt bother. By all means do it if you want it just a lot of extra work.
Issue4: With regards to Hops - I havent used teabags. I dont think a lot of the guys on AHB think highly of them. I use hop pellets mainly. It should be enough. I think the generally rule of hops is 1g hops per litre of water (dont quote me on that!)

 

[Damian44]

I didnt think Guinness was that strong, i thought it was just the pint glass. Heres the list

Morgans 1.7 Dockside Stout
1.5kg milk stout improver
Goldings hops normal
Muntons Gold yeast
15ml liquorice extract

SG 1058
made to 21l
SG 10/10/05 1020
SG 14/10/05 1012

Ill make it to 18l. Even stronger. Glad i can do it all in one go. Ive organised roast barly, i cant wait. If im only using tea bag hops and not boiling it, is there any need to boil malts?


I racked my last brew and was worried it might of got infected 2 days ago. If its still bubbling does that mean its not infected?

Should i always add less water than recomended (except for TCP wet packs and stouts when they reccomend 18l)?
Thanks.

Cheers Damo