Is Their A "recipe" For Brew Kits?

[JohnL]

Hey there, new to the forum. Been brewing for about 10 years nd love it. I just buy a can from a supermarket and use a brew booster. Usually I brew Tooheys or Cascade - find it hard to go past a brew with a name like "Spicy Ghost".

Looking at all the recipes I must say they look a bit of a hassle. Are there any recipes that anyone can provide just using a can of mix? Thinking of something that might go along the lines of:

Can of Tooheys draught with some eggplant shavings coupled with straining it through some good quality cow dung....you get the picture.

The beauty for me in the homebrewing is that I don;t have to keep on going out to buy another carton (am I painting an all to familiar picture here?), just need to pop a couple of more in the fridge....

I use a normal fermenter with a heater belt for the winter months. The brewing keg is kept in a box in the garage with the belt on 24/7. I never check the OG, just wait till it stops bubbling and then bottle it. Rough and ready.

Any tips would be good.

On ya

 

[Stuster]

Try this thread or this thread. Heaps of recipes there for you. And welcome to the forum.

 

[JohnL]

Thanks very much....quick question:

What is primary and what is rack? Might seem stupid but I gotta ask....

 

[Trent]

Primary is the first fermentation in your fermeter. Rack is what you do after all the bubbling stops. You "rack" (use a hose, with minimal or no splashing) the beer into a second, sanitised fermeter, and leave it to sit there for another week or 2, sometimes in the fridge, and alot more yeast and stuff drops out, and then you get heaps less sediment in the bottles, and it MAY make it taste better. If you like it rough and ready, keep on doing it as is, if you want to have a little less sediment, then rack it and leave it for another week or so. Rack can also be used instead of saying "secondary" ie leave the beer in primary for one week, then rack to secondary OR add some dry hops to the rack. Hope that makes sense. If you only have one fermenter, then dont worry about it!
All the best
Trent

 

[Stuster]

Primary is the first fermenter. Racking is transferring the beer to a second fermenter, usually done with a hose/syphon so there's no splashing, oxidation or infection. This second fermenter is usually called a secondary. People usually do this to clear the beer and to remove the beer from the majority of the yeast. It's debatable (what isn't? ), but for most ales this is not really a necessary step IMO.

 

[JohnL]

Since I only have the one keg, not a consideration for me at the moment. Might be worth a go. I do worry though that if you brew TOO good a beer, you will drink more. End up like this - :beerbang:

 

[Hutch]

I do worry though that if you brew TOO good a beer, you will drink more.

Na, the worry is that your mates start drinking all your beer, and you end up drinking less... or making more, which is not such a bad thing.

 

[brettprevans]

Hey there, new to the forum. Been brewing for about 10 years nd love it. I just buy a can from a supermarket and use a brew booster. Usually I brew Tooheys or Cascade - find it hard to go past a brew with a name like "Spicy Ghost".

Looking at all the recipes I must say they look a bit of a hassle. Are there any recipes that anyone can provide just using a can of mix?
Any tips would be good.

On ya

GDay Johnbrews

Welcome. I cant take the credit for this number (its Dr Smurto's I think).
2x Cascade Imperial Voyage.
Both packets of yeast
23L
brew at around 18C for 2 weeks
then drop down to 10C for another 2 weeks (I think 2C was orginally quoted but that seems bloody cold for regular yeast).
Taste. add water if too thick.
keg.

If your using bottles then you will prob have to pay a little more attention to OF/FG.

Have a search on the threads for it. I cant find it at the moment.

Theres heaps of damn easy recipes on this site. just search. 'Toucan' recipes are sooo easy its criminal/

 

[FazerPete]

Looking at all the recipes I must say they look a bit of a hassle. Are there any recipes that anyone can provide just using a can of mix? Thinking of something that might go along the lines of:

Can of Tooheys draught with some eggplant shavings coupled with straining it through some good quality cow dung....you get the picture.

If you've just been doing the basic can and bag of brew enhancer then I recommend you keep it simple. Try adding one new ingredient to a brew that you've done before and work up from there. It gives you a good understanding of what each of the ingredients do.

For example, I was out of brew at home and was walking through the supermarket and found Tooheys Draught on sale for $8 so I thought why not. To make it interesting, I added 200g of yellowbox honey with the can and a bag of brew enhancer 2 and it's turned out surprisingly good.

Maybe next time you can substitute the brew enhancer for light malt, and then start adding some hops. Keep it simple and expand your knowledge gradually.

 

[petesbrew]

Try this thread or this thread. Heaps of recipes there for you. And welcome to the forum.

Maybe under the recipe page we can have a link to these great threads...

 

[Brooksy]

Welcome Johnsbrew, nice to have you aboard mate.

Hopefully you have access locally to a Homebrew shop (LHBS) or your supermarket has sachets of finishing hops. I started with MB-89 hops packaged by Morgans, another company (can't remember the name, sorry) has a blend called CL80. These can be added to your standard prior to or during fermentation. These 2 are low on bitterness so you won't over bitter your brew.

Using your standard brew, substitute 500gms of Light dry malt extract for half your dextrose and set it down.

Next do your standard brew, this time instead of rinsing the dregs of your can into the brew, pop it (and the rinse water) into a saucepan and bring it to the boil. Add a hopbag to the boiling mix and boil it for about 10 minutes then add the tea and hopbag to your fermenter with everything else. If the hopbag bursts (I've had 1 out of 5 burst) don't worry, you can drain off the tea from the dregs.

Have never tried a Cascade kit I cannot advise any further, but trust me when I say the quick & nasty method is where most started brewing. Curiosity begs one to experiment.

I've been brewing on & off since the mid 70's and it is only lately that I've started fiddling.

Probably the best advice is "baby steps" mate, but your brews will take on a whole new dimension.

If you PM me an email address I'll send you a pdf of my latest trials/recipes.

Cheers.

 

[boingk]

Hey there. I found that an invaluable place for kit and kilo basic recipes is my local homebrew store! In my case, its a Country Brewer [www.countrybrewer.com.au]. They have recipe sheets on demand for local and imported styles, all needing nothing more complicated than a can, a bag of sugars/malts, and some hops dunked in boiling water for 10 minutes, then thrown water and all into the mix.

Try *here* for some recipes if you can't get to an outlet, and *here* to dechiper the additions seeing as they use premixed bags from the stores. Very easy, nothing too complicated, and good results.

 

[MSR]

If you've just been doing the basic can and bag of brew enhancer then I recommend you keep it simple. Try adding one new ingredient to a brew that you've done before and work up from there. It gives you a good understanding of what each of the ingredients do.

For example, I was out of brew at home and was walking through the supermarket and found Tooheys Draught on sale for $8 so I thought why not. To make it interesting, I added 200g of yellowbox honey with the can and a bag of brew enhancer 2 and it's turned out surprisingly good.

Maybe next time you can substitute the brew enhancer for light malt, and then start adding some hops. Keep it simple and expand your knowledge gradually.

I agree with FrazerPete, keep it simple. Try some light malt or a combination of both brew enhancer and malt. Boiling some hops on the stove is pretty easy too.

 

[KillerRx4]

For me the road to ruin was stumbling upon grumpys & the raving reviews of their masterbrews. They are pretty much as you describe except instead of straining through cow dung you strain through some specialty grains.
You mentioned the recipies seem like a hassle, I find it more a hobbie. Especially now its more than simply mixing a can of extract & water, But the end result is more than worth the extra time involved.

The biggest hassle for me when I started out was bottling. These days it takes about the same amount of time to brew as it did to bottle & the same time to keg as it did to brew K&K. does that make sense?

I would suggest once you start progressing from the K&K, to specialty grains & hops you wont look back & will continue on to brew far better beer.

BTW thats www.grumpys.com.au

I reckon if I hadnt progressed to mashing I would probably have gone back to TED. :unsure:

 

[Uncle Fester]

Can of Tooheys draught with some eggplant shavings coupled with straining it through some good quality cow dung....you get the picture.

Not sure there is much I can add. Looks like you have fluked the perfect Tooheys New clone recipe without any help

Mind you, good quality cow dung is getting harder to find due to the drought. :huh:


Seriously, have a look at your nearest HBS. They will have a big placard with some simple beers in similar styles to commercial names. Check out some of the kit sites for some more info (eg: Coopers or Morgans)


The ESB paint tins were great value, but I'm not sure if they are still available.

IMHO, the best quick easy boost you can give a kit is to use liquid malt instead of dextrose or dry malt. Increases flavour, texture, mouthfeel head retention, the lot.

Then try mucking around with some flavour/aroma hops and you will realise that for bugger all effort you can get a great result.

Brew on!

Fester.

 

[Tyred]

There is a variety of recipes at http://brewerschoice.com.au/ under recipes.
Quite a few types ranging from Kit & Kilo style up to mini-mash.

Grain & Grape also has recipes under "Beer of the moment". They cover (where possible) enhanced K & K, extract and all-grain. They also give some history regarding the style of beer involved.

Also most of the vendors (Cascade, Coopers, Morgans) have somewhere on their site recipes for their kits.