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CJay

Member
Joined
15/2/22
Messages
12
Reaction score
4
Location
Queensland
Hello everyone.
Just put my first brew on. Am an absolute newbie but luv a good beer. I am just starting with a basic starter kit. Hope to learn from you all and be able to produce a nice beer and enjoy the rewards of my labours.
Cheers to you all.
CJ.
 
Hello, welcome to AHB, and enjoy. How's your first brew going so far?:cheers:
 
Hello everyone.
Just put my first brew on. Am an absolute newbie but luv a good beer. I am just starting with a basic starter kit. Hope to learn from you all and be able to produce a nice beer and enjoy the rewards of my labours.
Cheers to you all.
CJ.
Welcome CJay. I am guessing you will be bottling to start off with? As Yankinoz mentioned sanitation is so important but if I can add another couple of tips, temperature control, quality yeast and PATIENCE. Good luck with your new adventure.
 
Thanks all. I sanitised everything well just hoping the temperature dosent hurt to much. But the temp is stable. Im in Caboolture and we are getting early 30 degrees during the day and the fermenter is stable at 28deg. Should I be getting a cooling device?
Cheers.
 
28ºC is way too high for most yeasts, other than some specialty yeasts.
For your general ale yeasts, I'd suggest 18 to 20ºC as the sweet spot.
For lager yeasts, I ferment at 9 to 10ºC.
I would recommend a cooling device. I use a 24 years old fridge, which works perfectly for me.
 
Philrob correctly states the general rule. One definite exception is that Norwegian Kveik yeasts. which are available in dry or liquid forms, ferment well at temps in the 30s. There has also been discussion on this forum about the tolerance of the yeasts in the Coopers kits. You can search for recent threads on both subjects on this forum.

Some form of temperature control would improve results, but you do not need to go out right away and buy the makings of a thermostat-controlled fridge. If your batches are in the range of 20L, you could start with a fridge that doesn't work as long as you have a good supply of blue ice from a good fridge and the patience to monitor temperatures. I did that for several years, and no, I did not get up in the middle of the night to check the beer. A RAPT pill would be an inexpensive way to monitor temps accurately.

Whatever you do, keep in mind that the early active stage of fermentation throws a lot of heat. That is when staying within the recommended range matters the most. If all that heat were retained, which wouldn't happen. fermenting to 5% abv would raise the temp by 30 degrees. So that is when you'd use blue ice or else run a working fridge frequently.

After those first three or so days, no great harm is done if the temp gets up into the 20s. If you stopped cooling your beer would be at about the daily mean temp. Variation is not good, but in an insulated environment like a fridge, you can put jugs of water in alongside the fermenter to add mass and help buffer temperature variation.

Or go all out and buy the works.

Ales are easier than lagers to get right, but if Queenslanders can enter Olympic bobsleigh races, they can brew lagers.
 
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Another option is check out pressure fermenting. i'm in burpengary and just done 2 FWK ales in fermeter king jnrs, and came out great after a few days fermenting at 26deg
 
Thanks everyone for the replies. I have bottled my brew and now letting it sit. Took a taste from the last SG reading and it tasted better than I expected. Hoping the 3-4 weeks in the bottle will tidy it up a bit more.
Now have just put on a ginger beer. Am eagerly awaiting the day I can crack a bottle open.
 
Ian, if you are in Burpengary you must just about be under water now, we lived on the border with Morayfield for 30 years and know how wet it can get. Our old hydroponic farm has had fibreglass tanks (full of water) come out of the ground after being in there over 10 years.
 
Ian, if you are in Burpengary you must just about be under water now, we lived on the border with Morayfield for 30 years and know how wet it can get. Our old hydroponic farm has had fibreglass tanks (full of water) come out of the ground after being in there over 10 years.

i'm just about at the highest point in burpengary lol, seeing its pretty flat. its crazy the amount of rain we had.
 
CJay- for your second run I would definitely go with a Kveik to handle those temps. IT will do a world of good. You can invest in a cooler system after a few batches if you get the bug full on.

Hearing that you are in Caboolture reminded me of my first beer kit purchase back in the 90s from a homebrew store near the Bribie Island turnoff. A quick google search it is no longer there though.
 
Quick update.
My Lager has been in the bottles now for just over a week. Turned out better than I had thought and I have just bottled my ginger beer 2 days ago, tastes good also, even better when I mix them 60/40 lager/GB in a glass. Has anyone done a lager/GB kit mix in the one fermenter. I am thinking on halving both kits and mixing together with 1.5kgs lager/GB sugar blends. Has anyone else tried this? Would it be a disaster or have a charnce of success. Im happy with both my results to date but love a more beery ginger beer if you can understand what I mean lol (i understand what i mean).

Cheers all, stay dry and keep safe if you are caught in the floods. We were cut off for a day or two but I had all the supplies I needed and all roads are open here now.
 

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