My First Beer

[brewgirl]

Hi... this is my first post on this forum. I've been reading it for a few months now.

I got my BF a home brew kit for christmas, and I think I'm having more fun with it than he is. He said he wanted one, but I thinks its more he just wanted cheap beer.

Well here is my first beer, almost ready to sample. Its an IPA, I got the recipe from a book, and changed it a little with some advice from the guy at the homebrew shop

I used an IPA tin, plus 500g light malt extract 500g of dextrose, some goldings hops pellets and safale yeast. I tried to keep the temp steady as best I could, but I'm in brisbane and its been a little warm.




Ciao***

 

[kabooby]

Looks like a great first beer. Well done

Just remember to keep those clear bottles out of the sunlight

Kabooby

 

[brewgirl]

They're being stored in the linen cupboard... nice and dark and on the cool tiles

 

[geoffi]

Sounds like an excellent start. Summer brewing is tough. Anything you can do to keep the fermentation temp down will pay big dividends. If you have no other way of controlling temps, hold off brewing until the forecast is for several cooler days in a row. It really makes a big difference to the finished product.

A very quick'n'dirty temp control technique I've used is to get a cardboard box large enough to cover the fermenter, put some frozen PET bottles of water inside and cover with a couple of blankets (not otherwise gainfully employed this time of year anyway). Change the bottles as required. I was able to the brew several degrees cooler than would otherwise be possible. (Now I use the clapped-out-old-freezer and frozen bottles method!)

 

[Sammus]

I've also heard of people just sticking the frozen bottles on the lid of a fermenter successfully. Congrats on your first!

 

[tk75]

Brewgirl it's great to see more fems getting in on the action...may your brewing days be plentyful!!

 

[beernography]

I've just put a "beer jacket" on my last brew to give that a crack, it's an old towel wrapped around the fermenter, sprayed down then I poured water into the fermenter lid so it can suck out as the towel dries. Only seems to be shaving 2-4 degrees off the temperature though, keeping it round 20-24 on the LCD thermometer. I dumped some ice in the lid water as well which kept it a bit cooler, but I'm away from home for the next few days so it won't get loving care.

 

[bconnery]

The towel on the fermenter trick doesn't work well in Brisbane due to the high humidity. I read about this limitation after I'd tried it a few times of course...
Summer brewing in Brisbane was always tricky before I sorted out my temperature control...

It really does make a difference though! Anything you can do to get that ale close to 20C is good!

 

[barry2]

Congratulations on a good looking beer.
I have the Coopers fermenter in my garage under the house.I have the fermenter covered with a 100 can holder. Over that I have a cardboard carton covered by a blanket.Between the fermenter and the can holder there is room to put several 1.25 litre bottles of frozen water.At present I have two in there and the temperature of the fermenter is 20.8C and the ambient temperature in the garage is 28.1C
For the first few days of fermentation heat is generated and I usually put an extra bottle of ice in to keep the temp around 20C or below.
I also have a indoor/outdoor thermometer (from Jaycar)with the lead attached to the fermenter so I can read both the
fermenter and ambient temperatures without removing the carton etc.

 

[Haiper]

Nice looking brew there brewgirl. I'm a newbie myself.

To keep my keg cool I made up a dripper system like smeone else made on here.

20l drum of water, towel wrapped around fermenter and sitting in a bin of some sort (I use a new fish bin). Piece of pipe with a dripper in it going into the 20l drum of water which sits above the fermenter. The water then drips on to to the towel and keeps the fermenter nice and cold with a constant slow flow of water over it. I dropped my fermenter from 25deg down to about 20deg this way. I bypassed that system though and am lucky enough to have a big enough house with other areas downstairs I can sit the fermenter. My cider spent the last two weeks in the laundry (southern facing concrete floor) and maintained a steady 19-20deg even when the weather was 36deg outside with no external way of cooling. My advice is if you want to keep a fermenter cool, and have the luxury of other areas of the house, think outside the square. It doesn't necessarilly have to sit in the garage.

 

[Whistlingjack]

It will taste great, BrewGirl. It always does.

Welcome to the forum (and the obsession)

WJ

 

[brewgirl]

I was doing the towel and water in the lid thing most of the time, and I kept the fermenter in the lounge room, where the aircon is on most of the day... So it seemed to keep it a bit cooler than it would have been otherwise. The thermometer the came with the kit decided it didn't like damp towel sitting on it, so died by day 3 or 4, it generally sat around 22deg, which I think is ok considering out side was so hot. I've just bought a bigger fridge for the kitchen, so now I've got a brewing fridge...

Got a bit impaitent last night, and opened a bottle... not ready to drink yet, it tasted ok as long as you held your breath while drinking it, had quite a fruity smell to it. I'm hoping that will go away in a few weeks. We're moving closer to the city in a few weeks, so I'm putting off the next batch until then, have to get a 2nd fermenter though, coz my other half wants to make this crazy falling over water recipe thats in one of the books we got, and I want to do an apple cider next. I think its going to be battle of the brews in this house.


Sharon

 

[0M39A]

if youre doing kits and not really adding anything else, don't go stupid adding fermentables. you'll just end up with a stupidly high percentage brew that will be horribly unbalanced and end up undrinkable.

if you want high alcohol, you need malt sweetness and hop bitterness to balance it out. dont think you can take say a coopers lager can and add 4 kilos of sugar to it and it will turn out great.

 

[brewgirl]

if youre doing kits and not really adding anything else, don't go stupid adding fermentables. you'll just end up with a stupidly high percentage brew that will be horribly unbalanced and end up undrinkable.

if you want high alcohol, you need malt sweetness and hop bitterness to balance it out. dont think you can take say a coopers lager can and add 4 kilos of sugar to it and it will turn out great.

Is that in relation to the 'falling over water'?...

Its a recipe from a brewing book, its got a heap of extra malt and extra hops

I don't really care about it anyway, I'm not interested in making really strong alcoholic beer, I just want beer that tastes good, its my other half that wants the strong stuff.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Is that in relation to the 'falling over water'?...

Its a recipe from a brewing book, its got a heap of extra malt and extra hops

I don't really care about it anyway, I'm not interested in making really strong alcoholic beer, I just want beer that tastes good, its my other half that wants the strong stuff.

Welcome to the forum BrewGirl.

Here's my prediction.... You keep making great beer cheaply. BF keeps drinking cheap (great) beer...

Within a couple of months, BF will be coming home from pubs and clubs feeling really flat, since he can't wait to have a "proper" beer.

All of a sudden he will realise it isn't all about cost.


Since you have been lurking around the forum there is no need for me to warn you of the obsessive hobby you are starting.


Cheers and Beers,

Fester.

(Ps: Just about to add the 60 minute hop addition to a Sterling Ale)

 

[Screwtop]

Is that in relation to the 'falling over water'?...

Its a recipe from a brewing book, its got a heap of extra malt and extra hops

I don't really care about it anyway, I'm not interested in making really strong alcoholic beer, I just want beer that tastes good, its my other half that wants the strong stuff.

Welcome Brewgirl,

Sounds like your serious

I've just bought a bigger fridge for the kitchen, so now I've got a brewing fridge

Can I suggest you visit a good bottlo and grab a few bottles of GOOD beer, not Megaswill, maybe something like Little Creatures Bright or Rogers and maybe a couple of German Wheat (weizen) beers. Try them then tell us what you like in the way of beer styles. Heaps of help/advice available here to help you make something close. If the BF wants Spak Wara then there's no hope for him :lol:

 

[Whistlingjack]

Fess up now, BrewGirl.

The kit was for you, wasn't it...

WJ

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Welcome Brewgirl,

Sounds like your serious Can I suggest you visit a good bottlo and grab a few bottles of GOOD beer, not Megaswill, maybe something like Little Creatures Bright or Rogers and maybe a couple of German Wheat (weizen) beers. Try them then tell us what you like in the way of beer styles. Heaps of help/advice available here to help you make something close. If the BF wants Spak Wara then there's no hope for him :lol:

Nice to see a non man brewer again. Thats 3 in the last few months! Great. www.chickbrewersrule.com .Go for it and dont let the BS get you down.
Welcome.... GB

 

[geoffi]

Nice to see a non man brewer again. Thats 3 in the last few months! Great. www.chickbrewersrule.com .Go for it and dont let the BS get you down.
Welcome.... GB

Brewing was traditionally mainly a female activity. It was part of 'wifely' duties. Then it became a big business and the blokes took over.

 

[brewgirl]

Welcome Brewgirl,

Sounds like your serious Can I suggest you visit a good bottlo and grab a few bottles of GOOD beer, not Megaswill, maybe something like Little Creatures Bright or Rogers and maybe a couple of German Wheat (weizen) beers. Try them then tell us what you like in the way of beer styles. Heaps of help/advice available here to help you make something close. If the BF wants Spak Wara then there's no hope for him :lol:

I'll have to do that... I don't know a whole lot about beer, but I know that most beer people drink is crap, and that is why it took me so long to even drink a whole one, coz everyone around me was drinking the worst of the worst. I pretty much started off drinking tooheys extra dry and tooheys new about 3 years ago, which was my the first beer I ever really drank a whole glass of... It started off coz I was at uni and poor. $2 pots sound really good when you've only got a spare $20 when you're out. After a few months I was really looking forward to a beer. These days I mostly just drink coopers pale ale. I like pilsners and a few wheat beers too. Beez neez (I think thats what its called) is pretty nice, and when I was in chinatown down in Melbourne I had a tsing tao or two and that was alright. Other than that I don't know a whole lot. I just like crisp refreshing beer.... Just please don't give me a VB *GRIN*

I'm moving to the city soon, with a bottle O down the road, and not having to drive as much coz everything is walking distance, so I'll be able to head down there and sample a bunch of different brews. I've got a friend who is a beer fiend, and wouldn't touch megaswill (I love that term), so I'll have to get him to recommend me some

BrewGirl...

PS... The kit wasn't for me, it was a request. But then I started reading the book I got him to go with it, and now I'm hooked.