Suds_Moustache
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- 16/1/09
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I am about to put down a Cooper's Pale Ale (International) for the first time in over ten years.
I went and bought a starter kit today which includes everything except for bottles. The kit cost $70 and included a brew of your choice. I chose the Coopers because I used to make the Real Ale and it turned out ok (usually!)
However when reading a few of the threads here I cam across some unfamiliar terms.
Racking, conditioning or kegging (presumably swapping into a new keg at some stage during the process) and many of you have suggested (as did the advertising pamphlet I got with the kit) a temp range of 18-22 degrees.
However I never used to regulate temp except for in winter using an old blanket etc. I am in South- East QLD so the temp regularly gets warmer than 22 degrees. My beer turned out ok from memory. Is this a problem?
Also the different types of hops, yeast and finings are interesting as I used to just use whatever they give you in the brew kit for yeast. Trying to think back, I am sure it will come back to me about the exact process once I get started. My process was never too fancy: dump everything in the keg (usually used 1kg or so of sugar, not dextrose), wait for the temp to be right, add yeast direct to keg. Wait for airlock to stop bubbling and bottle the beer. Wait a month and then drink it. Obvuiously sterilising everything is paramount.
My kit came with dextrose (which I plan to use from now on).
So my questions are as follows:
what are the five most important factors/variables to make a reasonable beer and what are your trciks and tips.
Do I need an extra keg?
Are twist top longnecks ok (I would prefer CUB Crown Seals but they seem hard to come by)?
How close do all these beers taste to the "real thing" eg I have seen quite a few brew kits marketed as use this and add this and add that to get something like Tooheys New. If you get it right is it blindfold test material or is it "sort of" like the beer it's supposed to be.
Not that I care that much, I kinda like making something that is differnt to commercial beer...well not too different I spose!
Your thoughts?
I went and bought a starter kit today which includes everything except for bottles. The kit cost $70 and included a brew of your choice. I chose the Coopers because I used to make the Real Ale and it turned out ok (usually!)
However when reading a few of the threads here I cam across some unfamiliar terms.
Racking, conditioning or kegging (presumably swapping into a new keg at some stage during the process) and many of you have suggested (as did the advertising pamphlet I got with the kit) a temp range of 18-22 degrees.
However I never used to regulate temp except for in winter using an old blanket etc. I am in South- East QLD so the temp regularly gets warmer than 22 degrees. My beer turned out ok from memory. Is this a problem?
Also the different types of hops, yeast and finings are interesting as I used to just use whatever they give you in the brew kit for yeast. Trying to think back, I am sure it will come back to me about the exact process once I get started. My process was never too fancy: dump everything in the keg (usually used 1kg or so of sugar, not dextrose), wait for the temp to be right, add yeast direct to keg. Wait for airlock to stop bubbling and bottle the beer. Wait a month and then drink it. Obvuiously sterilising everything is paramount.
My kit came with dextrose (which I plan to use from now on).
So my questions are as follows:
what are the five most important factors/variables to make a reasonable beer and what are your trciks and tips.
Do I need an extra keg?
Are twist top longnecks ok (I would prefer CUB Crown Seals but they seem hard to come by)?
How close do all these beers taste to the "real thing" eg I have seen quite a few brew kits marketed as use this and add this and add that to get something like Tooheys New. If you get it right is it blindfold test material or is it "sort of" like the beer it's supposed to be.
Not that I care that much, I kinda like making something that is differnt to commercial beer...well not too different I spose!
Your thoughts?