Next step after a basic kit - fill in the blanks for me.

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Bodgy

Member
Joined
7/8/20
Messages
16
Reaction score
5
Location
NSW
Just starting out here, I have done two basic kits to get my feet wet. I just followed instructions, used sugar, fermented at 25 degrees and made all the other usual mistakes. I have learned a bit from them and wanna go the next level up now so I'm guessing that's gonna be a toucan with some added hops.

I recently made an order from kegland for some more beer taps and other kegging gear so I threw a couple of bags of hops in that are in the mail now, had no real plan but I just got some cascade and some galaxy because they seem to feature in a lot of recipes I see. I have also picked up a woolies home brand draught tin and lager tin last time I was at the shops for the same reason. I have 2 sachets of safale us-05 yeast too.

So throw some ideas at me of coopers tins, brew enhancers and whatever else I would need to make a beer recipe from what I already have:

Home Brand Lager Tin.
Home Brand Draft Tin.
Safale US-05.
Kegland Galaxy Hops.
Kegland Cascade Hops.

Cheers for the help.
 
Last edited:
There is sooo much info on this site about brewing, and more about how things should be done, and you will see them all with a few hrs of browsing.
"MY" 2 cents is to brew a coopers larger with brew blend #2 , AFTER FULL FERMENTATION... then put into a keg for 2 days COLD , then use a 5 micron filter to transfer it to another keg and put it on tap.
EVERYONE who has ever had it has said it is the best beer they ever tasted. .. "all have been only standard pub beer drinkers".

PS" don't use home brand :(

PS S .... BE CLEAN! ... if it is not super clean.. you will get a bad product, .. if your not sure clean it more,.. if your still not sure,, then buy new and clean it more....
I also welcome anyone to challenge this if you buy the gear, I'll brew it and keg it and we will see :)!
 

Attachments

  • Capture.JPG
    Capture.JPG
    41.3 KB · Views: 51
Last edited:
Seems like a lot of people use the home brand as extra malt in toucan recipes and it's reportedly made in the coopers factory anyway from what I read here.

So I'm thinking I might go:

Home brand Lager.
Coopers European Lager.
500g ldme.
50g Cascade at 10 minutes.

Ferment in my new fermentation fridge @ 18 degrees.

Cold crash for a couple days and keg it.

How's that sound for the lager?

Still want other people's ideas. And dunno what to mix with the draught.

I won't get my STC 1000 till later in the week so I got some time to decide.

I do have a HBS locally so I can get grain etc too if needed but I was thinking I'll keep these two kegs to kits and add some grains in the next batch.

I mean I could just jump straight into all grain but I feel like moving through the begginer stages is a necessary thing to do to understand the processes and appreciate the improvements.
 
I'm not knocking the Woolies tin, but you do realise you will be approximately doubling the bitterness of the beer?
 
Bodgy
Good to se you have temperature control on the way, perhaps the next most important thing to cleaning and sterilising your gear. Fridges work better with a fan in them, keeps everything stirred up and gives a faster response - heater wont be needed.

2 of 1.7Kg kits and 500g of LDME comes to a starting gravity of ~1.056, the yeast under the lid of the kits might struggle, good to see you are getting better yeast, it will make for better beer.

When it comes to hops, that's a bit like salt and pepper, it about personal taste, that said 50g is a reasonably big addition, I would be tempted to split it between a taste addition (make a tea, a coffee plunger works a treat - same as your 10 minute addition) and toss the other half into the fermenter (Dry Hop). gives you a combination of hop flavour and hop aroma and perhaps a better balance of hop characters (well I think so).
Welcome to the wonderful world of brewing, the old saying "if you ask 4 brewers you will get 5 opinions" is pretty true (probably a bit of an understatement) try stuff, ask questions read a bit... but always remember you are brewing for you and its how much you like the beer that really counts.
Mark
 
Bodgy
Good to se you have temperature control on the way, perhaps the next most important thing to cleaning and sterilising your gear. Fridges work better with a fan in them, keeps everything stirred up and gives a faster response - heater wont be needed.

2 of 1.7Kg kits and 500g of LDME comes to a starting gravity of ~1.056, the yeast under the lid of the kits might struggle, good to see you are getting better yeast, it will make for better beer.

When it comes to hops, that's a bit like salt and pepper, it about personal taste, that said 50g is a reasonably big addition, I would be tempted to split it between a taste addition (make a tea, a coffee plunger works a treat - same as your 10 minute addition) and toss the other half into the fermenter (Dry Hop). gives you a combination of hop flavour and hop aroma and perhaps a better balance of hop characters (well I think so).
Welcome to the wonderful world of brewing, the old saying "if you ask 4 brewers you will get 5 opinions" is pretty true (probably a bit of an understatement) try stuff, ask questions read a bit... but always remember you are brewing for you and its how much you like the beer that really counts.
Mark

Cheers for the response mate. Really appreciate it.
 
Mate I got no idea whatsoever. I have never even smelt the stuff haha.

What would you use?

I would use Saaz, Hallertau, Tettnang or Perle . I have Saaz and Halleertau in a pilsner i'm brewing now but havent used the other 2.

Cascade is more a PA,APA,IPA,NEIPA hop. I'm sure someone has used it in a lager but since you are starting with the euro lager kit i would use one of the hops i listed above.
 
Back
Top