New Brewer

[Lancey]

I'm new to home brewing (again). 10 years have pasted since I last brewed.
I've put down three brews in the last month, Basic kits. now i want to advance and possibly improve my beers.
Can anyone point me in the right direction.
I was looking at the country brewer website (www.countrybrewer.com.au) and downloaded the recipe sheet they have.
my question relates to "hops & method". they say to use the standard, dry or quick boil methods. Now being relative new to home brewing again what do they mean by these methods. Yes they give some explanation to this but not very detailed.
can somebody point me in the direction so i find out more information regarding these methods etc.
Also the recipes say to use certain beer kits. Eg: crown lager, use Wal's Pilsner 1.7kg or Morgan's Aussie Lager. If I can't get these brands can I substitute them for something similar.

thanks in advance for any help provided.

 

[Fatgodzilla]

Welcome back to brewing Lancey. You're a little unlucky Wiki is down as there is some good basic info there. Suggest you go to Forums and look at the Kits & Extract section and look at the second thread - "Frequent Questions for New Brewers" or something like that. It's good reading and will point you right in some locations. Go through these forums - you'll learn plenty.

Ignore recipes that say that the result will be like Crown Lager etc. - never made a beer yet that tasted anything like those things. The kit you use often doesn't matter cos you just don't know what's in the can they give you. If you are happy with kit beers, add extra malts, extra hops etc until you are confident to move up and on. There are some good sites where you can go- try hbkitreviews.com which will have a lot of recipes for kits to which you add extras.

Didn't read the Hops comments in countrybrewer but find out a bit about hops through the threads. You've probably seen the 12gram packs of hops pellets that Morgans put out. Simply put, the longer you boil these the more bitterness you get from them. You need to read more about the types of hops and how they are best used which I can't answer but found many a good answer in the various threads. You'll find it much cheaper to buy them in bulk from the sponsors on the top of the page. Go to these pages and read the contents - think of it as part of your continuing education.

Best of luck !

 

[brettprevans]

agree with Fatgodzilla.

Also read as much as you can on this site. it will give you more info than just about any book. in saying that a how to brew book is quite good also. do a search on this site for books.

here are some links
Palmer's how to brew
technical library
books thread
books2 thread

wiki is a good place to look when its back up. otherwise just cruise the K&K threads.

good luck brewing

 

[simpletotoro]

Welcome back to brewing Lancey. You're a little unlucky Wiki is down as there is some good basic info there. Suggest you go to Forums and look at the Kits & Extract section and look at the second thread - "Simple Things to Improve Your Beer" or something like that. It's good reading and will point you right in some locations. Go through these forums - you'll learn plenty.

Ignore recipes that say that the result will be like Crown Lager etc. - never made a beer yet that tasted anything like those things. The kit you use often doesn't matter cos you just don't know what's in the can they give you. If you are happy with kit beers, add extra malts, extra hops etc until you are confident to move up and on. There are some good sites where you can go- try hbkitreviews.com which will have a lot of recipes for kits to which you add extras.

Didn't read the Hops comments in countrybrewer but find out a bit about hops through the threads. You've seen the 12gram packs of hops pellets that Morgans put out. Simply put, the longer you boil these the more bitterness you get from them. You need to read more about the types of hops and how they are best used which I can't answer but found many a good answer in the various threads.

Best of luck !

hi...maybe this is the link your talking about by bconnery...if not still great reference gear in this link anyhow...
link..http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...c=14384&hl=
cheers st