Help with an easy brew to start a friend off in Home Brewing.

[menoetes]

Hi guys,

A friend of mine has just bought himself a fermenter and has asked advice on home brewing. I'm going to walk him through his first brew and I want it to be both easy and tasty (to show him how easy brewing decent beer can be).

He likes pale ales but doesn't have any temp control yet, I have some spare bits and pieces laying about and thought this recipe might be the way to go for a first timer;

1 x Coopers Pale Ale kit
1kg of Light Dry Malt Extract
1 x Coopers Kit Yeast
250g of Crystal 20 - steeped
20g of Cascade @ 10 min
20g of Cascade @ 0 min
20g of Cascade - Dry hopped

Made up to 23 litres and fermented for 3 weeks in the coolest place in his house. I know the coopers yeast is a good all-rounder and pretty temperature tolerant so that should be fine (fingers crossed). Hopefully this will be quick, easy and turn out as a tasty brew. Gotta get him hooked!

I'm looking for any advise on the recipe or techniques I might show him. It'll be great to have someone to have long brewing conversations with over a pint or two of homebrew :chug:

 

[CrookedFingers]

Hey menoetes,
Looks kinda like my first ever brew ! Which I loved !
I would only say go with US05 over the kit brew. Temp swings depending of course.
Good luck with it.

A brew buddy is a good thing to have.

CF

 

[black_labb]

Only comment I can make is if possible double up the coopers yeast; there isn't really enough in the pack (and if you are a kit brewer you may have some spare coopers yeasts around from when you've replaced them with something else)

Otherwise for something simple it should work out nicely.

 

[JDW81]

I'd drop it back to 21L to give you more flavour. Hops will work fine, and the steeped crystal will give you nice touch of maltiness.

Would be good if you could get a different yeast. Even a couple of packs of US05 would go well. If that's not an option I'd be trying to pitch 2 packs of coopers yeast.

JD

 

[menoetes]

Thanks for the advice guys, doubling up the dry yeast is a good idea. It hadn't occurred to me but I do have a few packets of both extra Coopers Yeast in the fridge unused from past brews and even a few sachets of US-05 (my go-to yeast). The only reason I was opting for the coopers over the US-05 was due to my mates lack of temperature control.

I think the coopers kit yeast might be a bit more forgiving of the warmer weather here in Brissy. We're averaging around 23 - 25'c at the moment though a concrete slab and/or wet blanket might help out there.

 

[gsouth82]

I'd agree with the two packs of Coopers yeast. As said, it will be more forgiving. Keeping the fermenter on a concrete floor should also help reducing temperature swings a little.

Will you be on hand helping him through his first brew? If so, make sure you show him some good sanitising techniques. I've previously found that this is where noobs fall over, resulting in shit beer and them giving up.

 

[menoetes]

I'll be there from the beginning with sanitizing to the end when we pitch the yeast and seal that sucker up. Then back in a few weeks to help out with bottling. It should be good, you generally can't go wrong with cascade in a Pale Ale.

 

[ekul]

http://craftbrewer.com/shop/details.asp?PID=4110 plus us05 yeast. Will get him well and truly hooked

 

[menoetes]

Cheers guys, the brew went down nearly a week ago and with the current good brewing temps in Brissy and the fact he is keeping an eye on it, it sounds like it is going well. The FV is sitting on cool bathroom tiles and a fresh wet towel is wrapped around it at the start of each day.

He keeps messaging me with status updates as per temp and airlock bubbling. Sounds like I might have given him a shove down that slippery slope we are all so familiar with .

 

[geneabovill]

See my sig.. It is indeed a slippery slope. A brewing buddy is a definite bonus, and you're lucky if he becomes as thoroughly addicted as some of us.

 

[MastersBrewery]

With practice you slide down the slope into something you'd be willing to drown in.