New to the forum with many questions. Please help.

[mrsupraboy]

hey guys , my name is scott and im new to the forum as well as new to the whole brewing experience. I am brewing with my partners dad who has many years of experience brewing canned beer but nothing more extravigent then that.

a bit about me im only on to my 4th batch atm. been using canned brew to make the batches but I really wanna start getting more into the better tasting brews.

Ive made 2 coopers lager, 1 coopers blonde, 1 tooheys blonde. the blonde tastes better to me than the coopers but still not exactly my cup of tea.

Now also I am doing kegged brew. Took me a bit but slowly learning about the carbonation on them. was originaly told to force carb at 40psi for 2 days and then drop to 5psi for serving. now ive dropped to 30 psi carbing and 7 psi serving. I no there is a table but don't quite understand how to use it.

also ive been brewing at temps between 22 to 32 degrees c


The main beers that I like to drink at the pub are carlton dry, Hahn super dry, blue tongue.

Q1 if I could get a recipe for something as close to one of them as possible that's would be awesome. but I want to know if there is a way for me to brew the around the 22'c to 32'c with out the use of a fridge.

q2 if I need to brew at around 12'c(please enlighten me the range of temp e.g 10'c to 14'c) is there away for me to do it with out a fridge. insulated box or something else.

q3 if I am using the cans should I use the yeast with the pack or should I use external yeast for better taste. I was told the yeast they put with the cans isn't very good.

q4 if someone could show me the carbing list and explain how to use it. it would be appreciated

 

[dicko]

Hi Scott,

Welcome to the forum....you will find a wealth of knowledge on here and many hours of reading.

You have asked some very good questions there and the correct answers will most definitely guarantee you an improvement in your beer, however it may be more productive if you post the questions you have in the appropriate forums as to attract the people that will help you best.
From the home page click on Forums and then click on the one required from the menu below.

Cheers and good brewing

 

[Bribie G]

Welcome to the obsession.

I don't mind the odd Hahn Super Dry, had a couple yesterday at the Manning Point Bowls club where Tooheys rulez It's very hard to make an Aussie lager unless you are using All grain, and then you need the temperature control.
It's such a "clean" and light tasting beer that any twang at all sticks out like the dog's, you have nowhere to hide behind.

About the closest you would get with a kit is to use Coopers Lager, or even a Canadian Blonde, a box of Brew Enhancer 2 and chuck the yeast. A good one for fermenting a lager, and it is quite happy at high teens, say 18 degrees, is Saflager S-23.

Depending on how cool your brewing room / garage is, you can ferment at a reasonable temperature using frozen soft drink bottles full of water, if you have freezer space. Two methods I've used:

Get a dead fridge and swap a couple of 1.25L bottles over every evening. The thermal mass of the brew, in a suitable fridge such as a large bar fridge, keeps it surprisingly stable and I used to be able to fine tune it within a degree, and that was in a hot garage in SEQ over the summer until I got a temperature controlled live fridge.

or:

Place the FV on a concrete floor, place a 1.25L frozen bottle either side, wrap in a beach towel then wrap all in a doonah, and swap over every evening.

Both methods work ok, but you can't go on holiday :huh:

 

[warra48]

Hi mrsupraboy,

What BribieG says, I endorse it fully.

As for carbonation, download BrewMate software, it's free (but they would appreciate a donation), and used by lots of brewers on this forum. If you want to spring a few bucks you could buy proprietary software like BeerSmith2, which has more bells and whistles than BrewMate, but which you probably do not need.
In BrewMate, go to Tools, and then select Carbonation. It will guide you as to the level of carbonation you might aim at for the style of beer you brew.

 

[Yob]

Here's some imagry and a link for you bottling carbonation needs

>LINKY<






this is for bulk priiming, also have a read in the WIKKI's

>HERE<

 

[mrsupraboy]

thanks for the replies. so when you say but it in a dead fridge could you elaborate . do you mean do a silicone job on the bottom and add a bit of water in the fridge and the bottle or are you just saying add the ice bottles in and the temp in the fridge should cool down to 12'c then I just have to maintain that. all so if someone wants to move this to a better thread were I will get more answers please do as I don't no how

also looking to get away from the canned batches so for the recipes I wanna do the other way.

also for the carbing using kegs and co2 not bottling. I had a look at the images and its looks like its more for bottling

 

[warra48]

A dead fridge is one which has "failed to proceed", and no longer works. It's now just an insulated chest.
Because of the insulation, it really works well if you provide some other means of cooling, such as the frozen 1.25 or 2 litre soft drink bottles.

 

[mrsupraboy]

I no what a dead fridge is lol I meant on how to chill it cause I could imagine just putting a few ice bricks in the fridge and closing it would cool it down to well

 

[yum beer]

You will be able to get to high teens with fridge and ice bottles but not likely to get to 12c for lager yeasts, certainly not this time of year.

Well worth getting a cheap fridge and a temp controller, your beer will improve vastly.

 

[Bribie G]

Dead fridge (you might even get one from an electrical store that does the "we take your old fridge away" deal)... just pop the frozen bottles in. I don't know if you could get down to 12 degrees, but in fact those Aussie beers you referred to are fermented at 13- 19 degrees.

A dead fridge should handle that no problems. To get away from cans but not go the whole hog into all grain brewing, you can use a good quality malt extract such as Briess light dried malt extract, again I'd recommend Coopers Brew Enhancer 2, plus some hops.

I didn't get into extract brewing but hopefully some extract experts on the forum could advise.

 

[mrsupraboy]

Yeh I'm trying the non electricity approach cause I'm not doing it at my place. I've got plenty of fringes and chest freezers to do it. Just need a new tstat for temp.

 

[unclebarrel]

Hey mrsupraboy,
Welcome once again !!
I agree with Bribie on the breiss malts. I extract brew and rate these highly.
If you go a recipe with a tub of briess malt, some DME, maybe some dex to thin it out a little, quality yeast and nice hops. All you need then is stable ferment temps and you should have a decent beer.
Possibly read into doing partials to get some grains in there, or even look at the stove top all grain thread, all grain for $30 thread.

Just make sure what ever way you go, you have a laugh and enjoy it !!


UB

 

[mrsupraboy]

Thanx guys appreciate it.