How to improve your old man's home brew?

[joshF]

G'day Chinamat,

Just an idea that doesn't appear to have been mentioned yet...

What about going online and buying one of those assorted gift pack beers with 12 or so random craft beers to send him, so that he can peruse over and sample which ones he likes.

Then after he gives you his verdict on which ones he likes best, you could try and swindle (strangle?) him away from his tried and tested coopers method and persuade him to try something more crafty and to be a little more adventurous??? As the other guys have said, trying different yeasts, finishing hops (its a start...) should give him somewhat of a 'new' experience and there's a good chance he'll catch the bug like the rest of us have and be more accepting of other beers/recipes?

I can recall asking my mum about her brewing days (similar story, about 15 years of coopers kits) and she wasn't really familiar different kinds of yeasts or experimenting with hops etc. Bloody hell, she even said she used to scrub the plastic fermenter with one of those course bristle brush things from bunnings!!!!

Anyway, just my 2 cents Good luck with it all !

 

[pk.sax]

I think your old man just wants minimum effort and minimum spend.

The biggest impact on beer is fermentation, two parts especially - yeast and temperature.

Use methods that suit what you can't control, is why I suggested the dry saison yeast. It's not like it'd make champion beers from kits but considering he likes your beer he does have decent taste. He also seems to have a taste for esters. Saisons in the heat of Darwin should be right up his alley. Even drop the gravity on the kits to 1030-1035ish to make them very easy to ferment, low stress on yeast and fast ferment at sort of ideal temperature. What more can you ask for?!