Suggestions For Second Brew.

[bluejay]

Hey Guys,

I recently just bottled my first batch and I dont think I can wait till it's ready to be drunk before I start my second batch!

I'm keen for suggestions as to what I should brew next.

MY first was a Morgan's Australian lager.

For my next brew I'm prepared to try hopping and/or steeping if there's a good recipe. I do only, however, have a 9l stock pot atm. I could still just boil a smaller portion of the extract in this, though right?

After reading a lot into brewing I'm interested in trying and enjoying new types of beers. Typically I've been really only a lager drinker, so I want to expand into some ales- plus I'll probably save lager brewing for winter or when I get more confident with temperature regulation.

I'm thinking possibly an IPA, I do enjoy a fair amount of bitterness. The downside for this choice would be I'd probably have to dirnk it on my own as my gf isn't much a fan for bitter beers. She likes ales like Cooper's though, so I'm thinking maybe something like that? Perhaps with a bit more body and bitterness than normal as a compromise between an IPA and Pale ale.

There's just so many different types of kits and recipes I don't know where to start. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Also wouldnt mind suggestions for different commercial/boutique beers to buy to get a feel for the different styles of beers etc so I can tailor my brewing choices to my own personal taste preferences.

Cheers!

 

[bluejay]

Ok, well today I went to woolies and noticed they had a clearance sale on their Coopers range. Ended up with a can of Real Ale, Dark Ale, Stout, Lager and Draught.

Thinking tomorrow I'll go to the brew shop and get a decent yeast, adjunct and maybe some hops for use with the real ale. What would I need to get to make the real ale into an IPA style beer?

Cheers

 

[enuun]

Make a toucan with the real ale and the draught. Throw in some cascade for and American IPA or EKG for English style. Again use US05 for American or S04 for English. You should get a good profile and taste for high abv. Alternatively you can get a can of Australian pale ale kit and mix it up to make up a supposedly close Coopers ESVA clone.

 

[roverfj1200]

I would slow down a bit and work your way forward slowly and find what works and what don't.

Do a 10min boil of a noble hop and use it with say the coopers draught. Add at lest 500g dry malt and 500 dex to this. Or even more and go all malt to no dex. even a BE2 would be good. Take it slow and move a little at a time.

I do extract in a 9 litre pot and top up with boiled water as the level drops and get good results this way.

I have not had good results with the Morgans kits so don't be dishreatened if your first is a bit hard to drink.

Cheers.

 

[bluejay]

Thanks guys, I agree with Rover's sentiments about taking it one step at a time and experimenting to see what works and what I like. Was just thinking of tinkering with adding some hops because I do enojy flavour and bitterness in my beers.

One question is in general when using all DME instead of dextrose: do you have to add more than a 1kg all up because malt is less fermentable than dextrose (?) and also add more hops to counter the maltiness?

I thought of doing a toucan but I think I'd rather try each can individually first to get a better feel for them.


I was also looking at these infusion packs:
http://www.absolutehomebrew.com.au/?page_id=10#infusionpacks

what you guys think of them? Seems like a pretty cheap and easy way to have a bit of a tinker.

 

[tbasten]

One only advise I can give you is work on the one you have just brewed. Play around with it abit if that is the type of beer you like. I started out with a pilnser kit. 3 kits later I made a Pilsner that i liked and learned stuff that was really important to brewing. I learned about dry hopping, proper fermentation and sanitary cleaning habits. After that I went and did my first extract kit and made a beer that I am trying to enter into a comp here in WA ( if there is any ).

The other thing i would recommend with buying a book called "how to brew" by John Palmer. I learn so much from this. Its easy to read and builds you up from kit and kilo brewing to All grain brewing. So pro brewers still keep this book as a quick refereance guide.

So yeah, i guess what i am tring to say is pick a beer you like, brew it a couple of times until you get the process down. Learn how to make that beer drinkable then move on from there. Like you, my kettle is on around 6-8L. Hope this helps.

 

[bluejay]

One only advise I can give you is work on the one you have just brewed. Play around with it abit if that is the type of beer you like. I started out with a pilnser kit. 3 kits later I made a Pilsner that i liked and learned stuff that was really important to brewing. I learned about dry hopping, proper fermentation and sanitary cleaning habits. After that I went and did my first extract kit and made a beer that I am trying to enter into a comp here in WA ( if there is any ).

The other thing i would recommend with buying a book called "how to brew" by John Palmer. I learn so much from this. Its easy to read and builds you up from kit and kilo brewing to All grain brewing. So pro brewers still keep this book as a quick refereance guide.

So yeah, i guess what i am tring to say is pick a beer you like, brew it a couple of times until you get the process down. Learn how to make that beer drinkable then move on from there. Like you, my kettle is on around 6-8L. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice! Using one beer type and doing small modifications in each batch would be a smart idea. That way you'd know with more certainty how each modification affects the beer

My problem is that my starter kit came with lager, but I'm kind of bored of lager and want to try new things plus it really isn't the right time of year to brew lager here. I think I'll try my luck on some ales. Furthermore, I just bought 5 different Cooper cans of goo. Maybe I should go back tomorrow and buy multiples of one type hmmm

I actually just bought a 20 L stockpot at BigW that I saw. Probably didn't need it just yet, but hopefully it will come in handy down the track. Was only 20 dollars, so what the hell.

 

[bluejay]

Also thanks for the tip on the John Palmer book- I've actually already read the online version!

Good luck with entering comps and so on, would be awesome to win a prize; for me I'll just be happy to make my own enjoyable brews!

 

[roverfj1200]

Bluejay

Remember the steps to brewind
1, temp control
2, better yeast
3. more malt and less sugar
4, steeping grains
5. all grain.

Or something like that

 

[tbasten]

Just as Roverfj mentioned, temp control is probably the best investment a beginning home-brewer can make. Once you have this, you can get any type of yeast. If you try different yeasts but dont have temp control, your beers can turn out nasty. Just to geek out a bit, the first couple of days (depending on the yeast) is the most important period where temp control needs to be implimented. The reason for this is during the yeast growth, if the temp rises then falls, the yeast will preduce alot of precurses like acetaldehyde and dyacetal (just to name a few). By keeping the temp at a steady temp will improve your beers so much. If its hard to temp control for the whole fermentation period, just temp control for the first couple of days during yeast growth.

Also one other advise I can give you and any other home brewer is to listen to a pod cast called Brew Strong. This is hosted by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer. This is the other resource I use to learn and fine turn my skills. The site is here. http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/Brew-Strong