Hi everyone, new to brewing so any help will be awesome

[Pingelly]

I have just brought a home brew kit from a buy and sell page in my local town, have got all the basics just need to buy ingreadients.


I am looking at making a coopers canadian blonde and a coopers heritage larger first up, so any hints or tips will go a long way

also what appart from the brew tin do i need?
been told 1 kg of sugar per batch?

Thankyou in advance
Cheers
Mike

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Ditch the sugar, replace with Light Dry Malt Extract.

 

[wbosher]

Check out the Coopers website. There is a section dedicated to home brew which gives suggestion on what to put with their kits.

 

[Bridges]

Feel a bit like I'm repeating myself

Ianh's awesome spread sheet will also calculate dextrose levels for bulk priming and is a great fun thing to play around with. post 514. I can't recommend this enough when you are starting out it, helped me heaps.

 

[wbosher]

Feel a bit like I'm repeating myself

Ianh's awesome spread sheet will also calculate dextrose levels for bulk priming and is a great fun thing to play around with. post 514. I can't recommend this enough when you are starting out it, helped me heaps.

Verbatim...except the OP is not asking about bulk priming...

 

[Bridges]

Sorry I just copied the post I made in another thread about bulk priming, should have edited it first.

 

[wbosher]

I noticed that. :lol:

 

[mosto]

As Goomba said, don't use sugar, at the very least, use a Coopers Brew enhancer pack, they're available in the homebrew section of most Woolies. It's a combination of light dry malt and dextrose. If you have a homebrew store near you, pay them a visit and grab some US05 yeast and pick their brain, otherwise the yeast in the kit will be fine.

Most importantly, the kit instructions will tell you to keep your brew between 21 and 27 degrees, from memory, but ignore this. If you can keep it at around 18-20 deg and as stable as possible, ie no big fluctuations, your yeast, and beer, will thank you for it. There's plenty of threads on here about maintaining temps, if you do a search.

As to what else to add, how adventurous do you want to be? The can will already have hop bitterness and flavour in it, but you can add your own hop flavour via a hop tea, or similar. You can also look at steeping grains to add some flavour and freshness.

Hopefully this has provided some helpful info, happy brewing.

 

[rosshorne]

Making kit beers is like making cordial.

I recommend getting this from Coopers or BigW. Or you can go for the Bunnings fermentor for around $20 with tap (its in the camping section near the pool section).

Just add the kit can (put it in hot water for bit to make it easy to pour) to the fermentor (big plastic thing). Just ensure that your tap is in place and turned to off.

Next, add your sugars. Adding a kilo of light malt extract would give you 21 litres of 4.5% beer.

Now add maybe a litre of hot water to melt your sugars and make everything easy to stir.

Next, add cold water to the 21 litre line (using the Bunnings fermentor requires marking this in advance).

Before pitching (adding) the yeast you want to ensure that the wort (unfermented beer) is 24° C or less (depending on the yeast). With the Coopers set this is as simple as using the thermometer you have affixed to the side of the fermentor. This is a good time to measure the gravity (solution of sugars in your beer and record it). Once again this is something that comes with the Coopers set.

Sprinkle the yeast evenly over your wort (unfermented beer) or better yet rehydrate it.

Now leave the fermentor in an area that is hopefully dark, not often disturbed, and with a constant temperature of around 20° (hopefully). I like closets and laundrys for this application.

After two weeks or better yet once the gravity measures the same over three days, affix the bottler (in the coopers set) to the tap on your fermentor. Add 2 carbonation drops (also in the coopers set) to each bottle, fill as full as you can without spilling, and add the cap.

Again leave the bottles for two weeks (one week will be less than OK, and three weeks will be better) and then taste.

For your next batch consider adding some hops.

For more (and better) information try HowToBrew.com and Coopers website.

I am not affiliated with Coopers in any way, but rather think their DIY Beer Kit is perhaps the best way to get started.

 

[Pingelly]

Awesome, thanks everyone for the starter tips, as i am in newman WA our woolies dosen't have anything in the way of homebrew, or anything at all lol
Be down in perth in a week so ill get my ingreedents then.
was thinking of 750g sugar and 1kg beer enhancer? just got from utube video as i trying to learn all the special names lol

 

[Dan Dan]

Awesome, thanks everyone for the starter tips, as i am in newman WA our woolies dosen't have anything in the way of homebrew, or anything at all lol
Be down in perth in a week so ill get my ingreedents then.
was thinking of 750g sugar and 1kg beer enhancer? just got from utube video as i trying to learn all the special names lol

Nah, don't do that. Forget the sugar. It will make your beer taste like death. If you're trying to up the alcohol, don't do it that way. Just drink more, coz its cheap and you can afford it.

 

[Pingelly]

Nah, don't do that. Forget the sugar. It will make your beer taste like death. If you're trying to up the alcohol, don't do it that way. Just drink more, coz its cheap and you can afford it.

Cool thanks Dan, so just use malt hey? is that the beer enhancer?

 

[DU99]

BE1 and there's BE2 which you use with the blonde kit..temp control as above around 16-18.contact a couple of the lhbs see what it will cost to post stuff up to you.also you could get 1kg light dry malt and some finishing hops.

 

[keifer33]

Brewmart in Bassendean would be a good stop off point to grab supplies.

http://www.brewmart.com.au/

 

[mosto]

Cool thanks Dan, so just use malt hey? is that the beer enhancer?

Yep, there's two types of Coopers Brew Enhancer. From memory, the Brew Enhancer #1 is 60% light malt, 40% dextrose, and the Brew Enhancer #2 is 50% light malt, 25% dextrose, 25% maltodextrin. Both will give the beer more body than straight sugar, the maltodextrin in the BE #2 will also help with head retention.

Down the track, if your ready to try steeping some grains, I'd recommend steeping around 200g of Carapils grain to aid head retention. I add that to nearly all my brews now. There's plenty of advice on here for steeping grains, but basically, you 'crack' the grain (most homebrew stores can do this for you, otherwise you could look at buying a small mill, or some people use a coffee grinder), place it into some hot water (around 60-70 deg), let it sit for 20-30 min, remove the grain (I put my grain in a small hop sock so it's easily removed), then boil the resulting liquid for 20-30 min and add to your fermenter with your tin any any other ingredients. You can chuck some hops in with the grain liquid while it boils to add some extra hop flavour / aroma.

Happy brewing and keep asking questions.

 

[Pingelly]

Yep, there's two types of Coopers Brew Enhancer. From memory, the Brew Enhancer #1 is 60% light malt, 40% dextrose, and the Brew Enhancer #2 is 50% light malt, 25% dextrose, 25% maltodextrin. Both will give the beer more body than straight sugar, the maltodextrin in the BE #2 will also help with head retention.

Down the track, if your ready to try steeping some grains, I'd recommend steeping around 200g of Carapils grain to aid head retention. I add that to nearly all my brews now. There's plenty of advice on here for steeping grains, but basically, you 'crack' the grain (most homebrew stores can do this for you, otherwise you could look at buying a small mill, or some people use a coffee grinder), place it into some hot water (around 60-70 deg), let it sit for 20-30 min, remove the grain (I put my grain in a small hop sock so it's easily removed), then boil the resulting liquid for 20-30 min and add to your fermenter with your tin any any other ingredients. You can chuck some hops in with the grain liquid while it boils to add some extra hop flavour / aroma.

Happy brewing and keep asking questions.

This makes me start thinking, i come from a farm where we grow Wheat, Barley and Oats. will be some time before i get into steeping grains as i will only be starting off small till i get the hang of brewing but do u think i could use any of these grains??? trial and error i guess

 

[mosto]

This makes me start thinking, i come from a farm where we grow Wheat, Barley and Oats. will be some time before i get into steeping grains as i will only be starting off small till i get the hang of brewing but do u think i could use any of these grains??? trial and error i guess

Technically...yes, but the grains need to be malted first, which I think you can do it yourself, but there's a bit involved in it I believe. Also, the grains I'm talking about are known as specialty grains that don't require mashing (all grain), and undergo further modification again.

There's plenty of people on here that can explain malting better than me, but basically the grain is soaked to encourage germination, then dried. I grew up on a wheat farm and now work at a flour mill, so am familiar with the term 'shot and sprung', as I assume you may be. I don't think the germination is allowed to proceed as far as being 'shot and sprung', but you get the picture.

 

[Pingelly]

Hey Mosto,

Thanks for the insite, think ill stick to tins for now, who knows might experement later on down the track

 

[Pingelly]

Hi all just an update to my progress...
i am onto my second brew, still to taste the first
For my second brew i have done a coopers canadian blonde with 1.25kg of beer enhancer purchased from a store near a mates

This brew hasent gone quite as planned as i pitched the yeast at around 29deg
It was very cloudy @ 4 days with a gravity of 1012
@ day 6 and 7 the FG is 1010 and still a little cloudy
Smells like ginger beer and after taste is a little off
going to bottle today and hope for the best
Any thoughts?

 

[soundawake]

Always best to leave it in the fermenter for an extra week to let it clear up. The beer will taste better for it. I ferment all my brews for 2 weeks before bottling.