Home Brew Bug Bites Hard

[ciderlover]

G'day gents,

Just wanted to say that I never expected the home brew thing to get too serious but, it seems to be biting hard! I only got into brewing a couple of months ago and I'm already into my 6th brew.
Loving it!

Thank you to the good folks here who've been helping me out with all my newbie questions.

Cheers!! :chug:

 

[Trickymac]

lovely set up
alot of tasty liquid being brewed there
enjoy

 

[Waratah67]

Nice post. What is in that beehive thing? And are you doing a half batch of coopers green?

I'm on my second brew currently - Coopers ESB too. Its just about ready to bottle (after 10 days in primary) and looking awesome. I swapped out the yeast and did a little specialty grain steeping in addition to the kit.

My first brew - the coopers kit & kilo was horrible. I fermented too cold and bottled too early, but you learn, and I have friends still happy to drink it

 

[shacked]

I know exactly how you feel mate.

I started in the first week of April and have 3 batches bottled, 2 in the fermenters (1 IPA and 1 Cider) and just purchased a third fermenter!!! The garage is also so full of empty bottles, the car doesn't fit anymore.

 

[RobboMC]

Nice post. What is in that beehive thing? And are you doing a half batch of coopers green?

I'm on my second brew currently - Coopers ESB too. Its just about ready to bottle (after 10 days in primary) and looking awesome. I swapped out the yeast and did a little specialty grain steeping in addition to the kit.

My first brew - the coopers kit & kilo was horrible. I fermented too cold and bottled too early, but you learn, and I have friends still happy to drink it

My first brew was horrible too. 7 years later I'm brewing stuff fit to put into brew comps. Keep practicing and never stop learning, and enjoy the spoils of your work.

I think you will find most brewers have friends like that.

 

[beercus]

Nice post. What is in that beehive thing? And are you doing a half batch of coopers green?

Fermenting OJ?

WTF is it? curious....

MC

MC

 

[ciderlover]

Thanks gents,

I have to agree, my very first brew has a bit of a sour vinegary taste to it - I just wouldn't leave it alone and kept opening the top to see how it was going. Like a young lad that discovers self pleasuring and won't leave it alone LOL!!

The green beehive looking thing is a makeshift FV It is one of those two dollar shop fancy pants drink dispensers that I am using to ferment my very first raw apple cider. We juiced 7.5 litres of large Granny Smith apples threw in some wine yeast and now letting it ferment into a nice dry cider

Oh by the way I bottled a Coopers European Lager last night from a couple of weeks ago, holy cow that's a beautiful drop! I chilled a glass of it straight out of the primary FV and drank it flat, it was heavenly!

 

[toncils]

The bug that keeps on biting.

Wait till you get to all grain. Suddenly you have twice the equipment and your beers taste better than commercial!

 

[Sippa]

The bug that keeps on biting.

Wait till you get to all grain. Suddenly you have twice the equipment and your beers taste better than commercial!

Doesn't take all All grain brewing to produce beers better than you get at the local! Even tarting up a can a goo can get you close!

 

[unionrdr]

It's good to see that I'm not the only one still using the Cooper's Microbrew fermenter. But mine still has the clear topped screw on lid. I've even collected up a couple spare parts for it as well. I love that thing! My favorite part is how the spigot is recessed to prevent leaks from squishing the seal out of place. Just bottled an ESB out of it last weekend. And yes,this hobby being addictive,well...here's what I've got up to this point...

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That's my old printer stand re-purposed as a fermenter stand/storage unit in the parlor I use as a man cave. 2nd pic is my new bottling table with a 6 gallon better bottle of local spring water for brewing with. I've been brewing pb/pm biab for over a year now. I've even used Cooper's cans as the extract part,added at flame out. But I'm not above doing a quicker extract with steeping grains kit or just all extract to fill the pipeline again...

 

[Donske]

Out of curiosity are you the same Unionrdr that has racked up something like 30,000 posts over on HBT?

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,that's me. I've got 27,146 posts there,as it's my main site for all things brewing up here. I forgot about this site for a time & was e-mailed a member's concern. So I'm back with some new stuff,ideas,etc.

 

[Donske]

Thought so, recognised the name from the HBT infection thread which I read occasionally.

 

[bradsbrew]

Nice post. What is in that beehive thing? P

Was wondering the same thing thing, I was going to ask but you did instead so now I do not have to.

So thanks, warra, tah.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

The beehive thing looks like one of yhose clay pottery water purifier.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,I was wondering myself,as I've seen the antique clay fired ones.

 

[Burt de Ernie]

That European lager looks like it would have a extremely high OG!

Did you forget to add water?

 

[ciderlover]

Yes it would certainly look that way Burt. No I was actually in the middle of bottling when I took the photo, just waiting for the last of my bottles to dry out. That would have indeed been a rocket fuel version of Coopers Euro Lager hahaha!

 

[TSMill]

I reckon that beehive thing is a recipe for disaster if it has any sort of seal on the lid.

 

[ciderlover]

I reckon that beehive thing is a recipe for disaster if it has any sort of seal on the lid.

The lid seals well but isn't airtight so while the cider is still producing CO2 (which it is still doing quite actively) and there's positive pressure I'm okay with oxidation, however I reckon next week when I have a spare FV, I'll look at racking into an airtight vat with an airlock.

Here's today's brews, the British Bitter has reached FG and is getting bottled today. I'm running out of room and bottles!