Supermarket Goo Trials!

[nevbass]

Well, It's been six months now since I first started my home brewing. A mate of mine got me into it, and he always made a good simple easy drinking 'Homie' with no fuss. My aim is to brew the same way. He lives in Brisbane, I live in country Victoria. Our brews will always be different, so I have been trying everything to see what works for me!! I need to keep it simple due to work/family and other commitments, so I'm not interested in anything other than simple supermarket line products. To work out which brew works best for me I tried the following,

Coopers Lager - OK, but distinctive home brew flavour

Coopers Draught - Same

Coopers Mexican - OK, very pale but drinkable

Coopers Canadian - OK, bland at four weeks but at six it looks like a winner!!

Coopers Euro - States a twelve week 'sitting' period. At week ten it's not too bad at all!!

I also tried a Cascade Premium Kit (Not my favourite) and some Australian Draught (Also not my favourite) The Tooheys Lager was OK, but also had that home brew flavour thing happening!!

I tried the basic Coopers cans with different Enhancer packets and didn't get much of a difference.

I want to settle on something that is easy to obtain (I live in a country town) and is low fuss. At this stage it's between the Euro and the Canadian. Does anyone have a suggestion for putting a bit more flavour and mouth feel into any of these beers?? Remember, I want to keep it basic, so I'm looking more at an additive or malt/dextrose/Corn Syrup ratio etc.
Thanks everyone.

 

[Cube]

Hi. Steep grains, boil hops and use better yeast like US05 and re-use the trub. All can be found on here by a search or wait for more detailed info from the usual suspects here ( sorry drinking with mates right now

And ferment at NEVER above 18 deg :chug:
Edit: use more LDME. No sugar or dextrose ( no body or flavour in those just alc ) Malt leaves behind more body and taste.

 

[Count Vorlauf]

I want to settle on something that is easy to obtain (I live in a country town) and is low fuss. At this stage it's between the Euro and the Canadian. Does anyone have a suggestion for putting a bit more flavour and mouth feel into any of these beers?? Remember, I want to keep it basic, so I'm looking more at an additive or malt/dextrose/Corn Syrup ratio etc.
Thanks everyone.

I'd suggest fermenting with some quality yeasts from a home brew shop like craftbrewer or Grain & Grape. Won't cost much in postage. I might play around with dry hopping as well - maybe some Saaz or Hallertauer in the European Lager to combat that blandness.

There are some interesting suggestions for kit recipes at this website: http://www.hbkitreviews.com

 

[nevbass]

Thanks for that, but I really want to keep it simple. I know by doing that I will never have a magnificent beer, but I'm really just trying to improve on the basics. I like the idea about the different Yeast, can you tell me more about additives in lieu of dextrose??

 

[kelbygreen]

I havnt had any real experiance at brewing (both turned fould from to much heat ) but do they sell hops?? my last brew I done was coopers heritage lager, booster blend, 12g cluster hops and amylase enzime. Not sure how it would of come out if i brewed at the right temp, meant to be brewed below 18 and got to 36 a few days just spoiled it.

Hope you can find a good brew, once I get my brewing fridge I will try again at a controled temp and let you know if I find a good one. There is a heap of recipes its just finding one that works for you

 

[nevbass]

I'd suggest fermenting with some quality yeasts from a home brew shop like craftbrewer or Grain & Grape. Won't cost much in postage. I might play around with dry hopping as well - maybe some Saaz or Hallertauer in the European Lager to combat that blandness.

There are some interesting suggestions for kit recipes at this website: http://www.hbkitreviews.com

Thanks for that, I'll look it up.

 

[bum]

can you tell me more about additives in lieu of dextrose??

Malt. Equal amount should do it. But it'll change the taste too and you might not be as happy with it.

Mate, you get out of beer what you put into it. If you can make tea you can steep grains. Hardly difficult. What you're asking is "How do I make my beers better without changing how I make my beers?" Can't be done. As said above, better yeast and keeping temps to the high teens will make a noticeable improvement. LDME instead of sugar/dex will improve flavour and mouthfeel but may increase perceived sweetness. None of these things will completely remove kit twang. A small amount of extra work really does pay dividends, think it over if you really want to see the improvement you're looking for..

 

[petesbrew]

Understand your wanting to keep it simple. So here's some supermarket ideas.
If you look in the honey aisle you can somtimes find Saunders Malt Extract. I've used that with success.
You haven't tried the dark & stout kits yet. Both are winners, and brilliant put together. Search for the toucan threads here.
The Canadian Blonde, and Aussie Pale Ale kits are both winners. Haven't tried the bitter yet.

Um, yeah if you can get your hands on any hops, it's worth looking for some.

 

[nevbass]

Malt. Equal amount should do it. But it'll change the taste too and you might not be as happy with it.

Mate, you get out of beer what you put into it. If you can make tea you can steep grains. Hardly difficult. What you're asking is "How do I make my beers better without changing how I make my beers?" Can't be done. As said above, better yeast and keeping temps to the high teens will make a noticeable improvement. LDME instead of sugar/dex will improve flavour and mouthfeel but may increase perceived sweetness. None of these things will completely remove kit twang. A small amount of extra work really does pay dividends, think it over if you really want to see the improvement you're looking for..

Thanks for your help, but I'm actually asking how do I improve my beers and still keep it simple. I don't even know what LDME is!! Yes I can make tea....and coffee too!! But to me a steep grain is one on a hill!! Thanks for your help, but please understand I am new to this, and have posted in this particular forum for that reason!! I'm asking for a better additive than a kilo of dextrose, and any other simple ingrediant with the limited local recourses I have.

 

[Tin Shed]

Thinking basic here...

Do you have access to any other kits other than the Coopers kits? e.g. Blackrock or something like that?

Can you get better yeasts than the stuff in the top of the can? e.g Safale, S04 etc..think mail order with Grain and Grape etc....

Keep going with the dex mixtures also some hop pellets Saaz etc... as above is worth playing with.

Thought of another fermenter so you can rack off after a week or so?

I had a book that came with my brewcraft kit that had a few other useful tips

 

[Count Vorlauf]

Thanks for your help, but I'm actually asking how do I improve my beers and still keep it simple. I don't even know what LDME is!! Yes I can make tea....and coffee too!! But to me a steep grain is one on a hill!! Thanks for your help, but please understand I am new to this, and have posted in this particular forum for that reason!! I'm asking for a better additive than a kilo of dextrose, and any other simple ingrediant with the limited local recourses I have.

LDME is Light Dried Malt Extract.

The homebrew kits are made by dehydrating a wort (sweet liquid produced by steeping crushed malt in hot water) that has had hops added to it. You can also get malt extract that is the dehydrated wort without the hops. It comes in liquid (syrup - like a kit) or dried form (looks like sugar), and in "light" or "dark". If you decide to move on to the next stage, you can brew from this extract, add a handful of specialty grains steeped in a mesh bag, then add hops during the boil. It will give you a great versatility in brewing different styles without the daunting equipment outlay required for all-grain.

I like the idea of brewing with what is easy to get your hands on locally, but with the advent of the interwebs you have access to some good online homebrew shops no matter where in Australia you are. Sure, it isn't economical for them to ship 20 kg of malt, but you can still get yeast packs (dried or liquid), malt extract (often sold in 500g bags), hops, etc. shipped to you at a reasonable rate.

Cheers!

 

[bullfrog]

+1 to online shopping.

Also, as was mentioned earlier, focus heavily on temperature control. If you don't have a fermenting fridge, try putting your fermenter in a tub with water and some frozen water bottles in it, to keep it cool enough throughout summer.

If you use tap water to fill up your fermenter after adding your kit, and it isn't the best quality water (chlorine-y, odd tasting, etc) then maybe look at some kind of water purification. An easy one for that is just get your largest pot, fill with water, boil for 5-10 minutes, tip into a sanitised container then fridge it. Repeat the process untill you have enough water to fill your fermenter.

People have said to use extra hops. To someone new, this may seem daunting. If you want to take baby steps, then look online (there are online brew shops at the top of this page in the sponsors section) for hop teabags. All you have to do is put these in a mug, fill with hot water, leave sit for ten minutes (while you get the rest of your brew ready) and then tip the whole lot, bag and all, into the fermenter. It will only really add to your aroma, but it will get you familiarised with how hops work.

Proper yeast, as opposed to the stuff that comes in the lid of your kits, can be bought the same way and will do wonders.

At the end of the day, if you're not too adventurous/don't have too much time to devote, then just find something that you like and stick to it. You're only making beer for you. You don't need to make something that will win international awards, just something that you're happy with.

Happy brewing!

EDIT: Sppellingks

 

[boingk]

I've done the same with a few 'Homebrand' kits from Woolies, just adding my stock malt/dextrose mix and then 250g of specialty grains and 20g of dryhopping to spice them up a bit. All up it was an experimental couple of brews on the cheap to put stocks up for summer.

THey turned out really well, to my surprise, and a mate or two reckons that they beat the stuffing out of some premo kits they've tried. Biggest favour you'll ever do for yourself - use some grains and hops.

Cheers - boingk

 

[Nick JD]

Keeping it simple. Five things:

1.) Get your can of supermarket goop.

2.) Buy this yeast.

3.) Buy a can of this malt and use it insted of your 1kg of dextrose.

4.) Ferment it between 18 and 22 degrees C.

It won't taste much like "homebrew" at all.

5.) Learn about how beer is made from malt and hops and doesn't come from a can .

 

[nevbass]

Thanks everyone. Some great advice and well worth the post.

Now, back to the beer......................................................

 

[bum]

Thanks for your help, but I'm actually asking how do I improve my beers and still keep it simple. I don't even know what LDME is!! Yes I can make tea....and coffee too!! But to me a steep grain is one on a hill!! Thanks for your help, but please understand I am new to this, and have posted in this particular forum for that reason!! I'm asking for a better additive than a kilo of dextrose, and any other simple ingrediant with the limited local recourses I have.

Sorry, I thought someone had explained that already - I must be pissed? Count Vorlauf has explained that one above.

Perhaps if you replaced half your dex with the same amount of malt you might get a slightly improved version of the beers you current like?

Read around the board - there's lots of really useful information full of simple stuff you can do to improve your kits. For me the biggest improvement came from doing a long hop boil and adding spec grains. Plenty of info on both about the place if you're interested enough to do a search.

 

[wabster]

Thanks for your help, but I'm actually asking how do I improve my beers and still keep it simple. I don't even know what LDME is!! Yes I can make tea....and coffee too!! But to me a steep grain is one on a hill!! Thanks for your help, but please understand I am new to this, and have posted in this particular forum for that reason!! I'm asking for a better additive than a kilo of dextrose, and any other simple ingrediant with the limited local recourses I have.

At its most basic the best thing you can do is try to find where you can get dried or liquid malt and use a kilo of that instead of sugar, maybe use 500g of sugar if you have to and want to keep the alcohol content up. If you don't have access to that then buy 2 cans of goop at the supermarket and use both in the one brew with no sugar.

Then try to obtain a good yeast like SO5 or SO4 they are years ahead of and better than the yeast under the cap of the supermarket goo.

Finally try to ferment at under 20C if possible, 23 at highest.

There is no magic ingredient that will make a crappy beer good unless you follow a few basic rules that have been put here a few times.

Try a find someone near where you live that brews and buddy up with them. But accept that you are going to have to learn stuff and do a bit of homework yourself

If you use minimal ingredients, too much sugar, crappy yeast and ferment high temps you will consistently get shit beers. That's just an immutable law of the universe

Cheerz Wabster.

 

[kelbygreen]

so with the malt what kind of taste it give off??? plus will it affect the aclohole % . not to sure what to use there is so many different dry mixes in the shops but i guess trial them see what you like

 

[bullfrog]

so with the malt what kind of taste it give off??? plus will it affect the aclohole % . not to sure what to use there is so many different dry mixes in the shops but i guess trial them see what you like

Malt is not as fermentable as pure dextrose. What this means is that you end up getting more body to your beer, and more sweetness, than if you used plain dextrose. It also means that you get less alcohol content, so if you want more bang in your brew, maybe consider blending your malt and your dextrose.

As far as malt types go, it's pretty simple. Dark malt goes in dark beers, light or pale malt goes in light beers and wheat malt goes in wheat beers.

 

[glaab]

When I started out I did exactly as Nick described, except I got the Coopers Heritage goo and used LLME.
Everybody reckoned the beer was fantastic, except me, I could hardly swallow the stuff. The malt extract isn't fully fermentable and the beer was too sweet for me. Now I know I like my ales around 35-45 IBU
and make it to suit myself. With that in mind I'd try a can of Coopers IPA with about 1 kg of BE2 + 500 dex and see how you like them apples. Below is some stuff you might find useful. Cheers

use formulae

IBU[on can]*1.7/23 *0.725=

eg , for DELETED aust bitter; 620*1.7/23*0.725= 33.2 IBU

or ; IBU on can * 0.0536,

eg , for DELETED aust bitter; 620*0.0536 = 33.2 IBU



........this seems correct if using dex/ BE , if using 1.5kg LLME increase bitterness

by approx ? 2 - 5 ? IBU to compensate for residual sweetness

due to low attenuability of LLME



ORIGINAL SERIES

coopers lager; 20.9 IBU

coopers draught; 22.5 IBU

coopers real ale; 30.0 IBU

INTERNATIONAL SERIES

coopers pale ale; 18.2 IBU

coopers european lager; 18.2 IBU

PREMIUM SELECTION

premium selection aust bitter; 26.5 IBU

premium selection traditional draught; 22.5 IBU

premium selection sparkling ale; 26.3 IBU

BREWMASTER SELECTION

brewmaster selection pils; 22.5 IBU

brewmaster selection IPA; 38.0 IBU

brewmaster selection Wheat Beer; 16.1 IBU



Morgans Golden Sheaf Wheat Beer [claims on web] ; 20 IBU