Simple Pimping Kit tins

[Josho]

Hi Fellas,

Just a quick question, with kits and Keeping It Simple Stupid, whats the best way to get a fairly yummo brew, tell me if im wrong.

I would normally do the regular thing tin hot water Brew enhancer and then use some better yeast than the tin yeast and just add in some tea bagged hops tea.

Just reading through the site some of the guys here spend some serious money on their brews,

I have been reading through the coopers website - as the kits are so readily avail here at Big W, and chhep at 10 dollars a go and they have a few simple recipie cards there also- based around thier tins.
I have a feeling that they sell a light malt also this might be a little bit more flavour?

 

[bum]

Yes? Not sure what you're looking for here.

All those things you mention will make beer. Good yeast and good temps will make good beer from a kit if you give it some extras.

I recall the Coopers website recipes (not tin recipes) looked decent a while back.

 

[Josho]

Nah just wanted to make sure im not missing any extra flavour opportunities

AS my fermenter is in my garage at the moment about 18 degrees im going to be limited to seasonal brewing though, does that mean Lagers in winter and ales in summer?

 

[bum]

Pretty much. But I'm guessing that if you've got 18 now (which is great for ales) then the middle of summer won't be much good for anything. You've got 6 months to work on getting permission though.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Or start brewing saisons in summer, if permission is not forthcoming.

Wise man once told me (and after 10 years of marriage, I know it's true) "better it is to ask for forgiveness, than permission".

 

[Yob]

either way, looks like you'll be gettin none tonight with that attitude.. is the response I got when I tried that one :lol:

 

[Bribie G]

My favourite brews during my kit days (which were only about 5 months till I started AG) were:

Tin of something fairly bland such as the original series Lager
Clean fermenting yeast, either Nottingham or US-05 (edit: if it gets cooler where you are, S-23 the lager yeast works great, doesn't have to be 12 degrees.

Coopers Brew Enhancer 2

steep some Carapils (gives a nice creamy head and lacing and a more grainy taste) and boil about 15g of an aroma hop such as Saaz or Hallertau in the runnings then tip into fermenter.

Hop teabags are a ripoff, buying the hop pellets from the likes of Gryphon Brewing is a quarter of the price

 

[db73]

This is my basic and absolute minium that I do with kits

1 Tin of Coopers Mexican Cerveza
500 g LDME
250g Light cracked grain (Carapils for example) steeped for 20 minutes
12g of Amarillo hops 10 minute boil in the above
1 pkt of Dry enzyme
1 pkt of US05

Ferment in primary for 2 weeks @ 18 degrees
Secondary for 1 week @ 18 degrees

I know I'm open to ridicule in using the dry enzyme but i dont get any weird taste at all

For me this make a very easy drinking and widely accepable beer

As Bribie says the Carapils make for good head retention and i would never go without.

OG 1.035
FG 1.002

 

[gsouth82]

hey josho,
if your looking for easy recipes then chose something from the coopers site. I've made a bunch of their recipes and some are average but some are quite good.
If your shopping at BigW then try the Unreal Ale, you can get everything from BigW. (the Unreal Ale was even better with a US-05 and some galaxy hops tho)
I've just bottled and kegged the old Coopers Best Extra Stout recipe which is also available at BigW. 1x Stout tin, 1x Dark tin, 1kg Dextrose made to 23L.
If you can get to a brew shop then try the Fruit Salad recipe. Its quite simple and quite rewarding.
I've got a SMOTY Ale in the fermenter at the moment which i'm looking forward too.

 

[Josho]

Thanks for the heads up fellas,

I will be aquring some hops proper hops ASAP, I saw the unreal ale grabbed one of the recipe cards, will give that a red hot go,

Any advice on buying the yeast the bloke at my brewshop has US-05 it for 5 dollars a sachet - seems a bit expensive to me.

And the extra stout sounds brilliant im guessing its deep rich chocolatey and a pure delight to drink, wow its like theres so much to brew and ive only scratched the surface

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

$5 a sachet (assuming it is the legit 12g sachet) is on the marginally expensive side, though $4-$5 is considered about the range you should buy it in.

I can understand that as a new kit brewer you're thinking "why should I pay $5 for this yeast, when I pay $10 for my kit and get it for free?".

Realistically, the yeast is only marginally less useless than the instructions on how to use it. Good yeast and good yeast management is imperative to good beer.

Why, you may ask? Think of it this way. Yeast is what converts your watered down goo (wort) into beer. It is the most critical part of the brewing cycle. Without it, you have a tin of gooey stuff that doesn't taste very good.

For that tin to become the tastiest beer possible, it needs good yeast. And that yeast needs to be treated well. It's a bit like using the cheapest oil in your car, because you don't want to shell out for the expensive stuff, but expecting your car to drive like a hot rod. It ain't gonna happen.

 

[Josho]

Yeah too right mate, might as well have a bloody ace beer instead of oh yeah it's ok i guess,

I do see the tins good value at eleven dollars even without the yeast,

its a shame that they just dont come with good yeasts, but why, is it to make them more foolproof?

 

[Bribie G]

Yes basically it's to be foolproof as in proof against fermenting at 28 degrees in a shed in Rockhampton or at 15 degrees in a laundry in Launceston. A lot of the Coopers kit yeasts are a mix of two strains so they can handle a bigger range of temperatures. However the downside is that they don't impart much character to the beer. The yeast is one of the major sources of unique flavours in each style.

 

[Josho]

Its also a bit of a pain the the bum that you have to go to a home brew shop just to grab the yeast whn Big W has all the stuff minus the decent yeasts

Bloody buggers.

 

[Josho]

And also the fact that if I go into a hmoe brew shop i wont be able to just buy yeast, so many goodies in there,

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Yes basically it's to be foolproof as in proof against fermenting at 28 degrees in a shed in Rockhampton or at 15 degrees in a laundry in Launceston. A lot of the Coopers kit yeasts are a mix of two strains so they can handle a bigger range of temperatures. However the downside is that they don't impart much character to the beer. The yeast is one of the major sources of unique flavours in each style.

Pfft, 15 degrees, mine was at 10 last night.

Seriously - slightly OT - it's fantastic brewing a lager at ambient temps on the cold side of the house.

Josho - ask yob (hopdealzaustralia.com) to stick a sachet in the post for you. His yeast is generally around $4 a pop (though slightly more for exotic stuff) and 60c envelope. No visits to LHBS to temp you (though his cheap hop prices might).

 

[Bottla]

Hi Josho, the best beer i have made from a pimped kit was using a Malt Shovel Brewing pale ale all malt kit(2 x tins for 23 l ), 2 x 7 gram packets of pure ale yeast batch yo4408 from Brewcraft, 8 grams of Hallertau and 16 grams of Amarillo hop pellets tea bagged and 400 grams of light dry malt. OG was 1049 and FG was 1018. Brew temp was 20 - 22 C. This beer had nice fine bubbled creamy head that lasted, citrus/floral hop tones and that nutty malt flavor after taste. I think i did not extract all hop flavor from the pellets by not tea bagging long enough (15 min) once water boiled. Did not change this in latter brews as the first batch was so nice. Dont know if i am right but maybe the short teabag time released the more volitile citrus/floral flavors and not to much bitterness. The malt already had Shaz in it so maybe my mistake saved the brew from being over hopped. Cheers Bottla

 

[alimac23]

Hi Josho,

The yeast that comes with the kits is useful for one thing.. chuck it in to the boil, it'll kill the yeast but it makes a good yeast nutrient for when you pitch your proper yeast.

I used to have loads of packets of kit yeast laying around but since I've started chucking a packet into the boil, fermentation lag time seems to have decreased and i get a very healthy fermentation, give it a shot, it saves having a draw full of useless packets of yeast.

 

[Josho]

Bottla,

That sounds like a nice brew buddy,

alimac, how exactly does this work as food, when you kill it off?

 

[Pennywise]

Hold on to the kit yeasts and use several packs in the Dark Ale or Stout kits