"now Listen Here, Old-timer..."

[yankee brewer]

GSR man: no, I did not know that. Actually the same is true here in the States-- before the early 70s homebrew was illegal. I recon our homebrewing histories more closely parallel each other than I originally anticipated. You guys probably had grandfathers using baker's yeast and baloons too huh?

 

[RegBadgery]

Toucan kit brews work fine - they're more bitter and darker than they'd be if you used 1 can + prescribed sugar, but they turn out fine (or at least the ones I've made using coopers kits).

cheers
reg

 

[Shed]

Would it be best to boil these cheap kits first? I know you don't normally boil pre hopped kits but I'm guessing that it might improve it in some way.

 

[Batz]

I remember my father making homebrew with malt bought from the supermarket , hops that came in a large box and smelt terriable , bakers yeast.
He had it all in a plastic rubbish bin covered by a towel.

When he finished it and has lots of bottles in the shed , I was not allowed to tell any of my mates

I was to young to know what it was like , but he did'nt do it for long as I remember

 

[PostModern]

SWMBO asked me to get milk on the way home tonight. While in the supermarket I saw the woollies home brand kits for about seven bucks a can. after reading this thread earlier in the day I thought, how bad could they be? after all it's still malt isn't it?
Does some company actually set out trying to make an inferior product? or are they just the 'seconds' from another brand?
Some of the other home brand products that I've tried aren't that far off the mark. The home brand honey still tastes like honey etc.

Has anyone ever tried these kits?

I reckon the way to go would be;
2 cans of 'no name' draught or lager
No extra sugar
Pitch both yeast packets
Maybe some extra hops?

What's the worst that could happen? A filthy headache and a batch of beer to feed free loading mates.

Two cans is not a good way to go. They are hopped expecting a kilo or so of other fermentables.... I tried making black and tan using one can of Coopers Dark Ale and one can of No Frills Draught. Smalt OK coming out of the fermenter but tasted like crap.

However, why not use 2 cans and give it a 20 min boil to evaporate off some of the hop isomers and possibly improve the sanitation of the cans... My guess is they're made from the tails of commercial batches... but I'm just casting aspersions

 

[deebee]

Gotta disagree. My two can brew was extra bitter but pretty good Coopers Stout, Coopers Real Ale). Not bad-bitter just more bitter.

Could boil to reduce bitterness, though, I spose.

 

[GMK]

Brown Sugar


I normally use Dark Brown Sugar...
upto 250 gms in my Killkenny, Aust Dark and stouts.

Brown sugar is not a substitute for Belgian Candi Sugar.
Use Golden Syrup or make your own with cane suagr, squeeze of lemon/lime and bioling water to just disole the sugar.

Then boil until the desired colour is formed...

Hope this helps

 

[deebee]

Yeah, Snow's stout recipe which I made up about 6 weeks ago (and is bloody beautiful, thanks, Snow) has 250g dark brown sugar.