Newbie - looking for a good kit to start out

[Swim]

How are we fellas,

Looking to have a crack at the ol' home brew..

I've seen some kits in retail but I'm weary of bad quality. Looking for a decent kit to start on and any tips or tricks to make a good batch.

As it stands I'm looking to make beer that isn't overly potent (5% is the benchmark for me) and I've had my share of craft beers which are
all well and good but I'm looking for a more Carlton/Hahn dry taste to it. Any assistance from you guys would be awesome.

Cheers boys!

Swim

 

[Bribie G]

Hi Swim

Coopers brewery in a box.
Coopers original series Lager plus a box of Coopers Brew Enhancer 2.

This will give you your apprenticeship in home brewing, will give you a drinkable pale beer about as close as you'll get out of a can of goop to commercial Aussie lagers, and you'll learn all about sanitisation, etc.

Apart from sanitise, sanitise, sanitise, the most important thing is temperature control, keeping the brew below 20 degrees ideally.
For that reason the yeast that comes with Coopers kits is good because it's a bit "forgiving" of temperature. However the cooler you can ferment the better.

Also a kit brew will require patience, which is another skill that's often hard to pick up :lol:
Kit beers often don't come good in the bottle until they have had about 3 weeks to clean up and become bright and lively.

Another good idea is to take the lid off the can, take out the list of instructions there and put it in the bin, then get back to the forum

 

[pablo_h]

HaHa, patience, yeah, that's hard.
BTW, instructions are no longer under the lid, you need to go to the effort of peeling the label off to see what little there is these days. They've pretty much chucked their own instructions out themselves and said go onto the internet for them

 

[Swim]

Thanks guys,

I'll purchase one today. Finding an area with low temperature fluctuation will be the first challenge. Sanitation shouldn't be an issue as I run a restaurant and it's already drilled into me. Thanks for the tips I'll be sure to stay away from those pesky instructions, I never liked reading those anyway! Patience will be hard, I will probably have to purchase beer to stop me from getting too excited haha. I'll have a browse around the forum and see what I can find as for brewing techniques

Cheers again

Swim

 

[Diesel80]

Not sure how to help with the carlton, hahn dry taste mate.
I have to try pretty hard to make beer that bad these days! (just j/ks)

Each to their own. I don't mind a sneaky VB now and then (since they went back to 4.9 version).
Any basic kit will get you started, if i had my time again i would probably start on FWKs and skip the cans altogether.

Just a warning though, home brewing does not equal cheap beer...... In time this will make sense.

Welcome.

Cheers,
D80

 

[Grott]

Welcome Swim, make sure you put another brew down as soon as you bottle this one, it will help with being impatience. Two fermenters is a good way to go a week or so apart (depending on consumption) that way a bit of brewing pressure is eased.

Just a warning though, home brewing does not equal cheap beer...... In time this will make sense.

Welcome.

Cheers,
D80

Surely this depends on how far you wish to go with brewing, like a car 50 bucks to a million to get you from A to B.

 

[tugger]

I would say skip the goop and get a fresh wort kit.
Then you won't be disappointed with your first batch.

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

+1 for the above advise but also please do not be tempted to use kilo of table sugar as your fermentable. That, combined with little temperature control can make for a bitterly astringent brew.

 

[Swim]

haha, thanks guys. I don't mind the cost, it's more of a hobby to keep me entertained. I'm also trying to cut out preservatives in my consumption.

I expect a few brews that are a bit "how are ya" and I'd like to continuously brew till I get it right, it should hit two birds with my proffiency and impatience.

consumption will be a problem for me, once the tongue is wet I get pretty keen ahaha. I appreciate all the advice it looks as though I'll have to have a look at the kits recommended and pick one that's good for me. I'll keep you guys posted as to what I order when I do that tonight.

 

[Colo]

Im also a very impatient brewer, I want to start drinking after only a week in the bottle! When I have cracked a bottle after only a week you really can taste (and smell) how young the beer is so i reckon a good month for ales and even 2 to 3 weeks for a wheat beer really helps the brew to settle down and makes a big difference.

Because of this I'm going to add more empty bottles to my current stock so I can have a nice long rotation before i get to the next brew allowing for longer conditioning.

 

[jackgym]

How are we fellas,

Looking to have a crack at the ol' home brew..

I've seen some kits in retail but I'm weary of bad quality. Looking for a decent kit to start on and any tips or tricks to make a good batch.

As it stands I'm looking to make beer that isn't overly potent (5% is the benchmark for me) and I've had my share of craft beers which are
all well and good but I'm looking for a more Carlton/Hahn dry taste to it. Any assistance from you guys would be awesome.

Cheers boys!

Swim

You can't go past a Coopers DIY kit. It has everything you need to brew your first batch plus bottles and caps.
It does away with the annoying air lock in the lid of the fermenter. Buy online at coopers.com.au or at Dan Murphy stores.

 

[Rompson]

Your home brewing man. Why would you want to re-create beer as bad as Hahn or Carlton dry? See most brewing companies use the most cheap and convenient ferment able sugar in there brew process to save on cost and to bring the acohol content up easily. Dextrose and corn sugar are some of the most common used. They are cheap, ferment really well but add no body or flavour to the beer. Which is why beer like Carlton dry and Hahn dry come out super crispy clear with little to no body but at a full strength between 4.5 to 5%. But it's not real beer!! It's like comparing orange cordial to freshly squashed orange juice. One is a copy and one is the real deal lol.

Even with the most basic extract kits you will brew beer just as good maybe even better than most commercial beer. Coopers, Morgan's, mangrove Jack and a few others are all pretty good extract cans to go with. Just pick which one suits your taste best and follow instructions n such and you can't go wrong. Most of those kits require an additional kilo of fermentable sugar to bring it to the 4.5 to 5% mark. As mentioned from an earlier poster a kilo of brew enhancer of some sort is generally the way to go. Just make sure you read what ingredients are in the brew enhancer?? You don't want to be mixing a bag of dark malts intended for a stout brew when you are trying to brew a pale ale. No what I mean?

Also I'd recommend not using the yeast in the can kit. Sure you can use it with little drama at all but I find using a better quality yeast improves the beer a lot. To my palate anyway. A packet of s-05 or s-04 normally works pretty well for most ales I find. A quick Google Search of what you intend to brew might come up with a better explanation of what yeast is most appropriate for that particular beer.

Also on a last note, be sure to read the label complete before you buy your can of extract. Most of the common brands listed come pre-hopped, meaning you don't need to make any hop additions to your brew. Simple empty contents in hot water and stir. Adding extra hops will just make an over bitter beer that don't taste to nice . Likewise if the label doesn't mention anything about hops then you can assume it isn't pre-hopped and hop additions can be made. However I think you will find with most common brands that they are already pre-hopped.

Above all else have fun brewing. Like mentioned before patience is a virtue when it comes to home brew. If it taste good after being in the bottle for 2 weeks then it will taste even better after 4 to 6 weeks. So don't go drinking all of those suckers at once haha.

 

[Rocker1986]

Also on a last note, be sure to read the label complete before you buy your can of extract. Most of the common brands listed come pre-hopped, meaning you don't need to make any hop additions to your brew. Simple empty contents in hot water and stir. Adding extra hops will just make an over bitter beer that don't taste to nice . Likewise if the label doesn't mention anything about hops then you can assume it isn't pre-hopped and hop additions can be made. However I think you will find with most common brands that they are already pre-hopped.

Rubbish. You can make hop additions to kits without making them overly bitter. Just because it's a hop addition doesn't mean it has to be boiled for an hour or whatever and give a shitload of bitterness. 20-30g boiled for 5 minutes in some of the unhopped extract and water will give a bit more hop flavour. Making a hop tea by steeping hops in just boiled water off the heat for 20 mins or so will provide some flavour and aroma. Lastly you can throw hops into the fermenter as a dry hop to get more hop aroma. Not saying the OP needs to get into this straight away, but adding hops to kits doesn't make them overly bitter if done properly and in line with the style and it does improve the basic kits.

If the tin label has an actual beer style on it e.g. Traditional Draught, Old Dark Ale or something, then it's a pre-hopped kit. If it simply says malt extract then it isn't. Also, the kits are usually 1.7kg, the un-hopped extract tins usually 1.5kg, so that's another point of difference.

 

[Blind Dog]

If I were starting out, I'd follow ad vice above from Bribie G. Should get you about as close as you can to what you're after.

 

[Swim]

Not trying to start a debate here, thank you for the the yeast advice.


I want a low carb beer, I appreciate the connoisseur beer drinker if you look to my first post. I just want to make a very regular beer that doesn't accent a strong flavour of any particular ingredient. As from what I've learnt I need to pick a style of brewing with the correct reagents to make what I desire. No issues but I did not opt to join his forum to hear opinions that the beer I drink is shit. To each their own and I thank those who originally gave their advice and support, even yourself. I like a morning (bland if you will) beer. I want to make my taste

 

[Swim]

Thanks blind dog, your synopsis of the above posted has given me some insight.. Though I bought the coopers kit and the following from the first reply. I will buy a fwk if I'm not pleased.

Cheers again to all who posted,

Swim

 

[Blind Dog]

Not trying to start a debate here, thank you for the the yeast advice.


I want a low carb beer, I appreciate the connoisseur beer drinker if you look to my first post. I just want to make a very regular beer that doesn't accent a strong flavour of any particular ingredient. As from what I've learnt I need to pick a style of brewing with the correct reagents to make what I desire. No issues but I did not opt to join his forum to hear opinions that the beer I drink is shit. To each their own and I thank those who originally gave their advice and support, even yourself. I like a morning (bland if you will) beer. I want to make my taste

Brew what you want to drink, or as close to it as you can get. I think the 'that's shit' comments were meant to be humorous, but maybe I'm missing something.

Chances are you'll expand your repertoire after a bit anyway, as the choices available are pretty wide, even with kits. but if you don't, that's all good. I've got one mate who only brews the Coopers Pale Ale and Coopers Lager kits in alternate 50L batches. Its some of the best beer I've ever tasted

 

[shacked]

Hey mate, welcome! I agree that you should just brew what you like. The more I brew, the more I learn that I like all kinds of different beer. Check out plamer's book: How to Brew. It'll put you on the right path when it comes to process, sanitation etc. there is a free online version at www.howtobrew.com

 

[pablo_h]

I think the mega lager brews are the hardest.
I only got into home brew because I liked coopers ale and stouts. If you go into it like that you won't mind sediment and yeast flavours, but trying to make light commercial lagers?
Your going to need pretty pricey temp control, yeast control and filtering. Mostly people in homebrew need a flavour to mask everything else they don't like. Some choose a malt flavour to mask, others a yeast flavour, others a hop f flavour/aroma. Remove all them and there's nothing to hide behind.

Just try a coopers kit. at least that gets you used to homebrewing. From that you can build on experience.
Most lager recipes trying to emulate an aussie lager style using coopers kit use 500g malt, 500g dextrose or sugar. The important part is aging, at least 3 weeks in the bottle, 4 weeks is better, so patience is really important.
Problem I have found with bottling homebrew is things get worse before they get better, as you use sugar for carbonation so the whole brew processing repeats with off flavours before it comes good - that's why kegging is so popular in homebrewing..

But anyway, set out a cheap kit fermenter and take each step one at a time. Onces the brews just work, then you will probably need temp control (so you can control yeast flavours, or choose a completely new yeast for flavour)

One thing I hate is the size of HB fermenters. I've got heaps of eskies - some I bought for intended AG brewing - You think the standard pail/fermentor would fit? I'm almost thinking of FWK just so I could do a couple and have a couple of cubes I can convert into half batch fermenters, as empty 15l cubes aren't cheap/easy to find anyway. At least they'll fit into the eskies I have.

E: I have only been re-reading, re-researching etc for the past two weeks, so I'm still a newbie. To be honest I had half the gear and it was a toss up whether to brew beer again or to buy a t500 still condenser and go into spirits as I still have 20-30L pots and all that too from the first time I started gearing up for AG brewing. I choose beer in the end because I should really drink less...

But temp control gives you yeast control, and that's all I've been researching the past week. Seems you can buy a "100 can" or "75 can" cooler bag from places like bunnings/kmart, camping stores or the like. That's probably more important than anything else this time of year. Chuck the fermenter in that with a few ice bricks. If that works, then you can play with yeast, either a home brew shop yeast, or yeast from a coopers bottle etc. Both are better than kit yeasts if you have temp control.

I'm not drunk, using an old logitech wave k/b (full height keys), with sticky movements - need to find my silicone spray.

 

[indica86]

Mostly people in homebrew need a flavour to mask everything else they don't like. Some choose a malt flavour to mask, others a yeast flavour, others a hop f flavour/aroma. Remove all them and there's nothing to hide behind.

That is a very odd generalisation to make.
I have no need to mask anything bad with my beers. They taste perfectly fine and I brew many varieties.