Recipe For Beginner

[WSC]

I would go for Tin (Morgans are my pick) + all malt (or BE2) + hop tea bag + dried yeast (US-05)

Then for the other improvers:
Sanitise and clean everything - go no rinse ASAP
Filter your water
Get Temp Control - Fridge or ice

Once you have the above mastered then steep grains, boil hops with malt in a pot, brew at real lager temps and cold condition (need fridge for that).

 

[Hatchy]

Won't be any problem enjoying the beer - even if it tastes like crap ( its the principle ).

Yes i have my second brew in ( Coopers Draught ) - went in last Sunday but fermenter temp has stayed about 28 degrees all week due to hot weather in Adelaide. I'm still going to bottle it with fingers crossed.

Brewing in Adelaide during summer is nowhere near as fun or easy as drinking in Adelaide during summer. I'm thinking I'll try to maintain 5 full fermenters during winter to get the stocks up & then drop down to 2 in the fermenting fridge I'll have by then next summer. My next brewday I'm going to buy a couple of 10 litre boxes of spring water, stick the bladders in the fridge & drop them in. The taps pull off so if yr as tight as me & don't want to have to buy water every batch you can fill them up with tap water & stick them in the fridge the day before you brew.

 

[GOLIATH]

For what its worth...My 2 Cents worth.

Improving a kit is a great way to learn and all the improver packs are OK. I have found that the very best way to improve whatever you are fermenting is a good understanding of sound practice so heres a couple of things that others may or may not have tried or understand fully.

1. Its OK to use cane Sugar......... Seriously.... It is. Most of our Major commercial breweries use it at the 20% level so that equates to about 1KG, which is in all the instructions. What they (The kit manufacturers) DONT tell you is that they use it as a KETTLE sugar. It is Never just added to a fermenter in the manner we have been told so the result is different. Boiling cane sugar in a high acid (Read Hop Acid) environment like a commercial brewing kettle will invert the sugar and split the Sucrose molecule up into its component sugars (Glucose and Fructose) so that the yeast doesn't have to. YOUR HB Beer tastes a "bit" homebrewy because the yeast Invertase taste is present. (Invertase splits the sugar in the fermenter)

2. This is the biggie........Rehydrate your dried yeast and preferably make a yeast starter. The more healthy, robust yeast you can throw in the better, this will fight the infections. Experiment with different yeast later.

3. Try to cold condition once fermentation is over. (you will then need to bulk prime)

4. Remember that Oxygen is good at the start (yeast need it and lots of it) BUT It is a brewkiller afterward. Yeast will grow volume during the Aerobic stage and then produce alcohol in the Anaerobic stage, once commenced you dont want to be going back.

5. Be gentle with metabisulphite. Its an Ok sanitiser but there are better about its main use in brewing is to displace oxygen when transferring to other containers or bottling.

There are other things you can do but ........slowly. Once you have some fundamentals sorted then move on to other ingredients.

Regards Dave

 

[Parrothead]

well i waited the minimum 2 weeks ( exactly ) and cracked a few on Saturday ( Coopers Lager kit ). Put them in the fridge the night before and had plenty of chilled glasses. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Poured well - nice foamy head - clear - plenty of bubbles. A mate explained the taste as "a bit green" but other than that it was easy to drink and enjoyable. I am going to keep half and try every few weeks.
For a first up effort it was good and hopefully it will improve with age.

Congrats, and welcome to the wonderful world of homebrewing! That first scuess is one that you'll always remember. I should know - mine didn't come until my third batch! Like the other responses that you've received here, I suggest that you look into using some specialty grains, some added hops, and a good yeast. This past Sunday I brewed up the Cooper's Lager kit too. I used some crystal malt steeped for about 30 minutes, then added 14g of Hallertau for 20 minutes, abnother 14g for 2 minutes, then removed from the heat. Added the kit and Cooper's BE2. Pitched Saflager S23. Looking forward to the result in a few weeks.

 

[Siborg]

Hey. Congrats on your first brew. Mine was a complete failure, but live and learn. If you want some simple ideas, my local big w has recipe cards in the section where all their brewing gear is. They are free to take as they are encoraging you to purchase the ingredients from them. I think these recipes are on the coopers site. Try googling coopers recipe card.

In terms of temp control... Wrap an on towel around the top lid like a skirt and fill the Lise with cold water or ice or both. The towel soaks it up over the day and does a reasonable job at keeping your brew cooler. The closer to 20, the better.