Hi All, First Kit-brigalow

[mrmatt]

Hi all,
Just signed up today as I'm going to attempt to make a brew from a brigalow kit bought last year.
Ive had a look around and it seem the consenses is that brigalow is a bit ordinary. Im wondering if
the addition of a coopers brew enhancer no.2 would be enough to bring it up to standard. I dont
want to go overboard with to much kit.
thanks for your advise.
Matt

 

[petesbrew]

Hi all,
Just signed up today as I'm going to attempt to make a brew from a brigalow kit bought last year.
Ive had a look around and it seem the consenses is that brigalow is a bit ordinary. Im wondering if
the addition of a coopers brew enhancer no.2 would be enough to bring it up to standard. I dont
want to go overboard with to much kit.
thanks for your advise.
Matt

Welcome aboard Mrmatt.
Not sure if it'll make that much difference, but for a few dollars extra it's worth a shot.
Try and keep the temp down around the low 20's and you'll be right.
What type of can is it? I've made a decent JS Golden Ale clone out of the wheat kit.
Cheers
Pete

 

[gjhansford]

Welcome to the forum ... Make that beer ... and drink it while you're planning the next one! Before you know it you'll be as hooked on this 'hobby' as we all are!

 

[mrmatt]

Ta pete,
Its just the stock lager one from Kmart. Few more questions if i may, the "flavor enhancer' would substitute for the dextrose included in the kit? and whats the go with boiling the contents its seems to be what people do, but is not included in the instructions for this kit.

 

[manticle]

No need to boil a kit. Boiling is usually reserved for making hops additions or if you want to remove the hop flavour profile from a kit (giving you essentially bittered malt extract).

The kit is only as good as the brewer anyway - if you watch your temperature and are patient with it it will probably rurn out something decent. The next one you make will be better.

 

[booyablack]

Matt

I bought the exact same kit last year to start homebrewing and now I'm hooked!

I made the Brigalow Lager kit exactly to the instructions (using the included 1kg of dex), left it in the fermenter for 6 days (had a steady SG for a couple of days). I also added the included finings a couple of days before bottling. I used Coopers carbonation drops for carbonating and 2 weeks later cracked the first one. It didn't have heaps of flavour but was definitely very drinkable especially on a hot day!

I gave one to a mate before he went home to Brisbane and this is what he said:

"On Saturday arvo I cracked it open, then poured it into one of my specialty beer glasses... PERFECT HEAD.
I took a sip & i gotta say i was impressed... that was good brew, especially being your debut attempt."

So try not to pay too much attention to some of the beer snobs on this forum. Yes, you can make better beers than the Brigalow starter kit BUT for a first beer, it can be pretty damn good!

The main advice I can recommend for a first brewer is cleanliness and sanitation are VERY important. Temperature is also a pretty big factor to consider although the Brigalow kit I made was brewed at 26C which most here consider cooking rather than brewing.

Enjoy the brewing and hopefully you get as addicted I as I have.


Booyablack

 

[mrmatt]

thanks for the replies guys.
Should i wait till the end of summer before attempting this, though its overcast and a bit cooler its still 30 degrees in brisbane at the moment.

 

[lonte]

go for it ... just do your best to keep it at low-20's without too much temp swing and it will turn out fine. A simple way to control the temp is wrap the fermenter in a wet towel and blow a fan across it - search this forum and you'll find hundreds of temp control options.

No matter what happens, brew a second batch. It is such a shame to hear of people who stop after one batch ... ask any experienced brewer on this forum and we've all screwed one or two brews up but it _is_ possible to do this and you do get better at it.

Edit: added temp control advice

 

[user 10246]

Welcome mrmatt,

As the other guys have said, I am still a very new brewer myself, I have learnt so many things from this site. A few of my 2c points would be

1. Be patient
2. Keep making beer, the more you make, the more comfortable you get & your beer will totally improve
3. Get to now this site & have a good read around, there are many useful articles here
4. The hydrometer is your best friend when determining fermentation status

Hope this helps, I have had all the usual issues I think most new brewers have had so far.

Good luck & enjoy!!

 

[chappo1970]

When I took up brewing my Nirvana was to emulate Tooheys New (shudder! :lol: ). So I persisted with about 10 brews all the Tooheys goop. Not one tasted like a New but I decided it could be done so went searching for a better recipe. I stumbled onto the this forum and never looked back. It's the journey that keeps me interested so i wouldn't worry about where you start too much. 99.9% of the brewers started right at your point now.

I hope it goes well and you back it up with another great beer.

Chappo

 

[Flash_DG]

just to add another cooling tip

if you got a Laundry sink or another large container, you can sit the fermenter in that and fill with water and a few PET bottles with some salted frozen water in them and throw those in the water around the fermenter + towel and fan you will get you temps down easy.

 

[user 10246]

there is a good (cheap) way to start temp control using a 100 can cooler & some frozen PET bottles.

this search will give some more info

 

[mrmatt]

thanks guys
laundry tub and ice packs might be the go for this first one.

Off I go to make it, Ive had the equipment in the sanitation solution for a few hours, time to bite the bullet

matt

 

[orwell_g]

My brigalow kit experience wasn't very good ... The beer had plenty of carbonation, but seemed to lose it all very quickly after pouring. The beer itself tasted quite gnarly, and thought it might be my process of sterilization etc.

However, did 2 coopers kits after that one and they were very very easy to drink in comparison.

The brigalow kit I got came with my brewing kit from big w. I have no idea how long it had been sitting there, so the can could have been old/crap.

Good luck mate, I'm just starting as well!

 

[mrmatt]

well its in.
in the laundry tub and covered with a wet towel with some ice cubes.
the wait begins....along with the planning for the bottling!

Should i just get PET bottles or go buy a carton of tallies and caps?

 

[user 10246]

I used PET for mine, less dangerous if you get some things wrong :beerbang:

There was a post over the last coupla days that had some info about the pros & cons etc

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...;hl=PET+Bottles

 

[petesbrew]

The PET's are fine.
But go buy yourself a full case of Coopers Tallies (or whatever you like) and drink them while this one's fermenting.
Yep, we're all a bunch of beer snobs here. But like Chappo said, we mostly started from were you are right now, and we're still learning.
Watch out, brewing can be more addictive than the drinking!
Cheers
Pete

 

[manticle]

Watch out, brewing can be AS addictive than the drinking!

Just needed a slight modification.

 

[mrmatt]

So the initial hydrometer reading straight in the fermenter was about 1032, the laundry tub is keeping it nice and cool. When should I take the next reading, I'm thinking 6 days or so, then each day after?

 

[manticle]

You will notice the krausen (fermentation foam) die down. When it's subsiding/subsided is a good time to start with the samples.