Saying G'day

[chillihilli]

Hi There, just thought I'd pop my head up and say Hi. I'm new to brewing, new to the forum, but have gleaned a lot from this forum so thanks!!

Brews so far:
Ginger Beer #1
- Home made wort made up from what I reckoned would taste good (Fresh Ginger, Lime, Vanilla) and raw sugar 500g to make up about 15Litres
- Bottled and primed way to early to try and keep it low alcohol
- Developed nasty sulphur taste and smelled like eggs
- Conditioned in the bottle of the next couple of months to turn out quite OK. Great aroma, but a little dry and light on the mouth feel.

Ginger Beer # 2 "Ranga"
- Home made wort from 500g of chopped ginger, 1 whole lime and about 800g of Coopers Brewing Sugar, made up to about 23 litres. Hopefully alcohol low enough for kids to drink.
- Fermented for about 7 days, primed and bottled.
- Has been bottled for about a week, will let you know how it turns out. Its very clear, but smells and tastes good so far.

Brew # 3 - Hoegaarden clone
- Thomas Coopers Wheat Beer, 1 Kg of wheat malt extract, SAF T-58 yeast, 20 g of dried orange peel, 15 g of cracked coriander
- Learnt that malt sticks light shit to a blanket, and adding it to hot canned wort is a great way to make malt toffee
- Finally disolved the works, got the temp down with refrigerated water and poured the whole lot unstrained in the fermenter made up to 21 L
- Has been fermenting between 22 and 24 for about a week now, and still bubbling. Smells great, will bottle soon.

Brew # 4 - Coopers Pale Ale
- Tried this as it is my fave bottled drink
- Substituted the yeast with SAF T-58, but otherwise used the instructions, including the 1 kg of brew enhancer
- Made up to 21 Litres. Gravity checked at 1041.
- Has been fermenting at around 21 deg for about 5 days now.
- Checked tonight, bubbling has slowed right down (Temp in Melbourne has dropped) and gravity is around 1021.. Keep an eye on it over the next few days
- Smelled a little bit like burnt rubber/toffee. Not game enough to taste at this stage as I don't want to turn myself off.

Next Brew is planned as a Christmas Pilsener that I will brew with my brothers. Olds have a place in the hills with a Cellar which averages around 14 degrees. Plan is to ferment there for a few weeks. The kit is a brewcraft kronenburg knock off and SAFLager yeast. This will be my first attempt and bringing hops in during the brewing.

And that ladies and gentlemen is how you get addicted to home brewing! B)

 

[[email protected]]

G'day chilli,

I'm totally new to brewing myself but already can see how the addiction takes hold. Just a quick question about your hoegaarden clone; With the orange peel and corriander, do you just lob it in the fermenter before you seal it??

Cheers in advance,
Rob

 

[chillihilli]

G'day chilli,

I'm totally new to brewing myself but already can see how the addiction takes hold. Just a quick question about your hoegaarden clone; With the orange peel and corriander, do you just lob it in the fermenter before you seal it??

Cheers in advance,
Rob

No I put the spices in first as I brought the water up to boil to get more flavour. That said if I were to do it again I'd use this order:
- About 2L Water in pot heating up
- Cracked coriander and organge peel in
- Wheat Malt in and dissolved as water heats up
- Can of Wheat Beer (mine was Thomas Coopers) pre heated in a sink of hot water for about 15 mins
- Can of Wheat beer goes in last (after all wheat malt is dissolved)
- Bring it all up to near boil or light simmer for about 20 mins (I boiled the crap out of it while I was trying to dissolve the wheat malt toffee)
- Strain the wort into fermenter (I forgot to strain last time, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing)

The biggest problem I had was the water and wheat beer extract being too hot for the dried wheat malt which caused it to clump.

I hope that helps and I would certainly cross-check it with the opinions of more experienced brewmeisters!

 

[brettprevans]

Ginger Beer # 2 "Ranga"
Hopefully alcohol low enough for kids to drink.

welcome to the forum.

why not just make a non-alc ginger beer for kids. there's a few recipes around on AHB and the net

keep brewing

 

[Andrew Coleman]

welcome to the A to the H and B, looks like you have half a clue of what you're doing already with homebrewing, this site will realy help you out, search the forums and articles for any advice that has been given already and if it hasn't everyone here will help you out, answered a lot of my problems i can tell you!

 

[chillihilli]

welcome to the forum.

why not just make a non-alc ginger beer for kids. there's a few recipes around on AHB and the net

keep brewing

Most of them use a kit base which often have cyclamate/aspartame and that kind of chemical crap, or they use Ginger Cordial which contains sugar and would again ferment.

I want to keep it reasonably natural. If I do the wort myself (500g of raw ginger is heaps) and keep the fermentables to 1kg, the alcohol should be within the range I went. Keep in mind, I don't give the kids bottles of it, just a half a glass.

The only thing I need to do is bulk it out a bit as it comes out a little light and dry. I was thinking of introducing lactose next time for final sweetness and a little extra body.