Toucan Noob

[DangerousDave]

hello all first time poster

im brand new to brewing and have only made 5-6 simple kit brews all come out well so far so ive fallin in love with brewing my own beer and want to get a bit more adventurous

a mate told me of toucaning and i searched it up and found you wonderfully informative people

im looking to make a strong alc vol beer but im not very confident in terms of adding strange hops and the like as i only really have access to my local woolies.

my questions (finally) are can i make a two can by just getting two simple can kits (prob coopers or Tooheys) and just add dextrose ?
if so how much dex and should i use both yeasts?

sorry for my incredible noobness.

i do hope to improve my knowledge and move into more technical brewing but at the mo i just wanna get pissed

cheers all

 

[felten]

You can definitely make a brew with two cans, a common and popular recipe I've seen around here, but haven't tried myself, is a coopers stout+dark toucan; and you can easily get into doing that and steeping grains to give it some more complexity. Do a forum search for toucans (or twocans?) and have a read through the wiki section.

My first ever brew was a coopers stout+lager and some brewing sugar, it didn't turn out the best but that was more to do with poor temp control and old ingredients than anything else.

It's important to get the liquid malt extract as fresh as possible as it goes south pretty fast when stored on the shelf, and the yeast will be healthier as well. And you will definitely want to pitch both yeast sachets, be prepared for some crazy krausen though.

ps. here is the massive toucan thread http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...showtopic=15630 all 3 years worth of posts!

 

[DangerousDave]

cheers mate did have a squize through there yesterday but all recipies seemed to have "crystals" and "ld32.486mega" yeast or some such i have no idea about these things and the checkout chick at wollies will probably have a heart attack if i ask

will have a better read through today maybe learn something

but first i may have a beer :icon_cheers:

thanks for the quick response

 

[RobboMC]

Welcome,

Many brewers that only have a supermarket range to choose from make higher strength beer with 2 cans,
by just adding either half or all of the normal 'kilo' that is added to a usual kit brew. For some it's the only way.

Most kits are made to take about 500g of dry malt, so if your supermarket has that you could perhaps add 1 kg of malt,
maybe some dextrose, and the two cans of your choice. Try and not get 2 cans that have high bitterness. Part of the fun
is working out what goes with what.

After that, your best bet would be to purchase better ingredients like grain for steeping and hops via the internet from one of the site sponsors, and since they keep prices down compared to local shops and freight by cheap methods this is not as costly as it sounds. I've got supplies from Brisbane for same overall cost as I can get over the counter, but got the 'right stuff' for a specific brew that I wanted.

And what cost do you place on better beer? A few dollars for freight is worth paying in my opinion.

 

[DangerousDave]

thanks a bunch ill have to read up on steeping grain and the like

 

[petesbrew]

cheers mate did have a squize through there yesterday but all recipies seemed to have "crystals" and "ld32.486mega" yeast or some such i have no idea about these things and the checkout chick at wollies will probably have a heart attack if i ask

will have a better read through today maybe learn something

but first i may have a beer :icon_cheers:

thanks for the quick response

Welcome aboard.
Don't worry, it's like that when you first start trawling through these recipes.
Yep, I think the checkout chick won't be the best source of advice. "Can you brew bacardi breezers?"

Get down to your local homebrew shop (LHBS) and have a look around. Usually they'll have some information and/or recipes printed out, which is a good way to get a grasp on the different hops, grains & yeasts.

Grain steeping is pretty easy. If you can brew a plunger coffee, you can do this.
Pete