Hi There

[carso87]

I always hate typing up these sorts of things, but here I am. Name is Nathan, I hail from Brisbane, and currently have my first brew going away in the garage.

My fiance bought me the Coopers DIY Beer starter kit thing for a present recently, after me thinking about it for quite some time. How lucky is that!

I tend to be a bit more of an ale drinker, so having a Lager up first isn't ideal, but I'm happy to run with the kits for the first few brews, feel my way around and then hopefully get experimenting.

Currently trying to work out a better temperature control solution. Just a bit of a thing of finding the $$$s to get the barfridge with thermostat controller going.

Anyway, That will probably do from now. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up some stuff here

 

[vykuza]

Welcome Nathan

Enjoy your first brew! Temp control and a good understanding of cleaning and sanitation will have you churning out tops beers in no time.

:beer:

 

[Rowy]

Welcome aboard Nathan! Your on the slippery slope now :unsure: Keep your eye out and you should be able to pick up a normal fridge for free or very little anyway. Get a controller which are about 80 bucks from memory and your away. Temp cdontrol is way important! Best of luck with the new hobby :icon_cheers:

 

[lukiferj]

Well done and welcome. I hope your fiance doesn't think that will be the only brew related equipment she will need to buy you. Gets expensive quickly around here

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Brewers collect stainless bits and peices like women collect clothes and shoes.

 

[carso87]

Thanks for the welcomes all! Really looking forward to exploring the hobby more. Seems like a logical next step from getting a real appreciation of drinking all sorts of beers - trying my hand at making them.

Pretty excited about this first brew, just got rid of the Krausen collar and run a SG check because I can, and it's getting close to where it should apparently end up, and actually tastes almost like beer, albeit a little flat. Looking forward to bottling it.

Fiance's father is keeping an eye out for a bar fridge for me (apparently they get lots at his work that they just end up chucking/etc), so hopefully that can come through and save me a few dollars, but if not, I'm sure evil bay/cash converters/some other way of sourcing things online can help me out.

 

[carso87]

So I kinda signed up and got caught up in life and left my thread hanging.

Pulled out my first brew after secondary fermentation about a month ago and at first try it was a bit... immature(?) after about 2 weeks in secondary fermentation. Left it for a couple more weeks and PHWOAR! I was pretty stoked with myself for a first attempt, as were my beer drinking buds who helped me drink the first few.

Just about to get ready to run my second brew now. Have a fridge coming shortly (although Brisbane is pretty much the perfect ale brewing temp at the moment anyway) and plan on giving another one of the Coopers kits a try for now, at least for the next one or two. Probably some sort of Ale variation, but I'll have to have a think over the next couple days.

 

[mondestrunken]

Welcome. Brew hard mate

 

[Bribie G]

Welcome, here's the good news - most Coopers Yeast supplied with the kits is ale yeast anyway so you are already making ales. A really good one for an ale lover is Coopers "Real Ale" with a pack of Brew Enhancer 2. When I lived on Bribie Island, from now to around end of September, fermenting in a stable environment in a brick n tile garage, the ambient temp was perfect for most ales.

If you are in a cold spot like out towards Ipswich you might want to put the fermenter in the fridge but don't turn it on: the thermal mass and the slight rise in self generated temperature should see you through, as the fridge will tend to null out any swings in air temperature during the day and night.

For example I'm now living near Taree and even here, despite 22 degree days but nights around 10 degrees, it's nearly always 19 degrees in my switched off fridge, whereas my cider which is just sitting on the floor cycles between 18 and 20. Close enough that it doesn't matter, so let the ales rip