Using Two Cans

[OzBeer_MD]

Check out this link:

Bavarian is one of the few kits that comes with true lager yeast, so get it as cold as you can manage
in this heat. I did one in June at 13 deg now worries, I just wasn't game to add the second can.

Let us know how it comes out, I make a Bock each winter and this might be something to try if it works.

Robbo,

IT WORKED!

I served up the toucan (called it 'Deck the Halls' 7.5%ABV) at a party here on Saturday night (got it chilled and gassed just in time) and got rave reviews, nice amber colour, lots of flavour, nothing too over the top (I expected this one to be very bitter, but it wasnt) I had to switch to another keg towards the last half of the party so I'd have some for myself later in the week. Theres about a quarter to a third of the keg left. Thanks for the advice on the temp, switching ice packs on the fermenter for the fermentation period must have helped, I have another larger in a keg ATM that is a bit too fruity. Must remember to do largers in lower temps (and the ice gel packs) .

Oh and with the toucan, no headache in the morning! Gotta love that!

Cheers,

Doc_D

 

[vchead]

I made the mistake in my second toucan brew of adding hops to the fermenter.

It was a Homebrand Lager toucan and as I was absent mindedly doing my preps, as a matter of habit I boiled up some Saaz and added it to the brew. Think I use US-56 ale yeast.

All went well until I opened the first bottle 3 months later and my mouth nearly turned inside out from the bitterness. I have tasted sweeter lemons.

It has calmed down over time but is still quite tart. Not the first choice off the shelf but drinkable. Lesson for me was 'don't add additional hops to a toucan hopped extract brew'

Rod

 

[RobboMC]

How did your 'onecan' Bavarian turn out?

Doc_D

My 'one can' Bavarian came out a pretty good nice tasting beer, though a bit to low in the ABV dept for a true Bock.
It was my first go at 'real lager' but I only managed to get it down to 13 deg. It won't last long as I'm half
way through the bottles already.

 

[KGB]

I made the mistake in my second toucan brew of adding hops to the fermenter.

It was a Homebrand Lager toucan and as I was absent mindedly doing my preps, as a matter of habit I boiled up some Saaz and added it to the brew. Think I use US-56 ale yeast.

All went well until I opened the first bottle 3 months later and my mouth nearly turned inside out from the bitterness. I have tasted sweeter lemons.

It has calmed down over time but is still quite tart. Not the first choice off the shelf but drinkable. Lesson for me was 'don't add additional hops to a toucan hopped extract brew'

Rod

If you dry hopped late in the ferment using hops with a low Alpha level you should be able to get a little aroma out of it without greatly increasing the bitterness.

 

[haysie]

Robbo,

IT WORKED!

Oh and with the toucan, no headache in the morning! Gotta love that!

Cheers,

Doc_D

how do you do that? you either under 30, shit beer anyway, or you let all your mates drink it ....
i experience a hangover, kit.extract,allgrain.,commercial, some worse than others whenever i have a session, maybe a l;ittle less than commercial, however i think its all in the beerholder (am 40 bytheway)

 

[tk75]

Now I haven't been brewing for long, but I have studied much to do on the subject(read my profile and you'll find out why )...
My suggestions for a 2can brew...
1. If using 2 different cans, select the most bitter can and BOIL IT!! 30 mins is probably all's needed.
2. Use one packet of yeast but make a STARTER of at least 500ml, even 1L could be quite good too(plenty of articles on here how to do it)

I did a 2can of Cooper's lager(here) and it came out bloody fantastic!! When I do it again the only thing I will add is aroma hops, nothing else.

 

[OzBeer_MD]

how do you do that? you either under 30, shit beer anyway, or you let all your mates drink it ....
i experience a hangover, kit.extract,allgrain.,commercial, some worse than others whenever i have a session, maybe a l;ittle less than commercial, however i think its all in the beerholder (am 40 bytheway)

I'm 35, I had plenty of water before the party, and a couple of waters before going to bed and although there was about 14 odd litres consumed, it was a group effort (I probably had 7 or 8 schooners) The week before I went out to my folks for dinner and bought some coopers Sparkling ale, had 5, woke with a bad headache. I think this recent experience is what prompted me to comment on the lack of headache last Sunday morning.

On the "shit beer anyway" comment. I suppose its all relative, this was an off-the-cuff experiment, the first time I have bought kits from the supermarket, and my expectations were not high. Guests that usually drink Pilsner Urquell and sometimes do their own home-brew were coming up to me and commenting on how it was a 'good beer', as a newbie, thats all I needed . I had a BlueMountain larger and a fresh wort larger on other kegs as an alternative (not sure why so much larger and no ales)

BTW Haysie, have you tried taking 2 Paracetamols before you go to bed? (if you can remember to) That's helped me out before.

Doc_D

 

[geoffi]

Here's a thought for the toucans...

If you add up the cost of a couple of cans, it comes out at about 2/3 the cost of an all-grain wort kit.

So for an extra 1/3 of the cost, you get a beer that is, by my calculations, 100/3 better.

Wort considering...

 

[OzBeer_MD]

Here's a thought for the toucans...

If you add up the cost of a couple of cans, it comes out at about 2/3 the cost of an all-grain wort kit.

So for an extra 1/3 of the cost, you get a beer that is, by my calculations, 100/3 better.

Wort considering...

No doubt True, but considering I started brewing in October, I thought I might leave the 'hard work' bit to the kit manufacturers until experience, confidence, processes etc build up. So far so good. Besides, I knocked this one up at about 10pm one night while the kids were asleep and havent had to even use the cooktop in brewing yet (let alone buy a burner, tun etc)

Fair call though Geoffi, I suspect a BIAB or something might be on the cards for the second half of 2008.

 

[petesbrew]

Here's a thought for the toucans...

If you add up the cost of a couple of cans, it comes out at about 2/3 the cost of an all-grain wort kit.

So for an extra 1/3 of the cost, you get a beer that is, by my calculations, 100/3 better.

Wort considering...

Let's not go there again, Geoffi.
Some of us either don't have the time & equipment, and some of us just want to do a toucan for the hell of it.

 

[geoffi]

No doubt True, but considering I started brewing in October, I thought I might leave the 'hard work' bit to the kit manufacturers until experience, confidence, processes etc build up. So far so good. Besides, I knocked this one up at about 10pm one night while the kids were asleep and havent had to even use the cooktop in brewing yet (let alone buy a burner, tun etc)

Fair call though Geoffi, I suspect a BIAB or something might be on the cards for the second half of 2008.

I'm actually referring to fresh wort kits that you buy in plastic cubes from your local HBS. It's actually less work than using cans, as you don't need to even dissolve anything...just chuck 'em in and pitch the yeast. Even unscrewing the lid is easier than opening a can.

 

[OzBeer_MD]

I'm actually referring to fresh wort kits that you buy in plastic cubes

I dont think I was the only one thrown by your use of the words "All Grain"

I have done 2 fresh worts already, (I think I mentioned that I had a fresh wort larger made up for the party last Saturday night, just in case the toucan experimant didn't come off) very straight forward. I suspoect that I'll do more, however comparing a fresh wort to a toucan is apples and oranges. I dont know of any 7.5%ABV Dark Larger Fresh Worts available in my area.

Doc_D

 

[RobboMC]

The Bock OG is good news, wasn't used to seeing the hydrometer sticking out of the tube that far but hey this is an experiment in 'more fermentables'.


Doc_D

Hey Doc,

Welcome to the world of truly good beer above 6% ABV. FG 1017 is absolutely smack on for Traditional Bock
and 7.4% is superb. No wonder your keg got emptied! Your guests must have been, well, legless.

I no style expert but check this link:

http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category5.html

When I started brewing I thought beer was just Tooyees, VB and Coopers Sparling Ale was my beer heaven.
In 3 years I have learned about a whole higher quality of beers like Bock and Extra Special Bitter.

My brewing advisor reckons you can't make decent beer below 5 or 6%. His wife does all the driving, lucky man.

Anyway, thanks for the recipe, it's got me on the way to my '1085' Doppelbock coming in June.

And yes, when the hydrometer sticks way up out of the tube on the OG, you have good beer on the way!

 

[Deanodriver]

Hmm, you've got me worried that my toucan will be too bitter.

I have a Coopers Draught and a Coopers Dark Ale with 50g of EKG (for aroma, so only a short boil) and some Safale S-04 yeast. Am I going to get something too bitter or not?

 

[QldKev]

BTW Haysie, have you tried taking 2 Paracetamols before you go to bed? (if you can remember to) That's helped me out before.

Doc_D

Do a search on here, I would not recommend using Panadol with alcohol; asprin is much safer.

QldKev

 

[OzBeer_MD]

Do a search on here, I would not recommend using Panadol with alcohol; asprin is much safer.

QldKev

Thanks for the Tip

 

[gerald]

just did a 2 can with coopers lager + coopers bitter. boiled the bitter one with 1L of water + 200grams of dextrose for 10mins.

it smells like it will turn out pretty bitter. i also used 25L of water....somewhat by accident, but im sure that wont hurt it.

did a yeast starter with both packets and it was going mental while the wort was at 30*C so i pitched it then. its got some ice cubes + old t-shirt around it and its in my cellar (around 21*C) so should be down to low 20's in 8 hours or so. its definitly gonna be dropping down to lower temps.

yup, not sure how it will turn out but im going to melb tomorrow for a week so i wanted to get out done so when i got home i could bottle it the day after. yay, this is my first 2 can :-D

what do yas recon?

the OG was 1042? i thought it was kinda low?

 

[OzBeer_MD]

just did a 2 can with coopers lager + coopers bitter. boiled the bitter one with 1L of water + 200grams of dextrose for 10mins.

it smells like it will turn out pretty bitter. i also used 25L of water....somewhat by accident, but im sure that wont hurt it.

did a yeast starter with both packets and it was going mental while the wort was at 30*C so i pitched it then. its got some ice cubes + old t-shirt around it and its in my cellar (around 21*C) so should be down to low 20's in 8 hours or so. its definitly gonna be dropping down to lower temps.

yup, not sure how it will turn out but im going to melb tomorrow for a week so i wanted to get out done so when i got home i could bottle it the day after. yay, this is my first 2 can :-D

what do yas recon?

the OG was 1042? i thought it was kinda low?

Looks like youve gone to some effort, should turn out fine IMHO.

I put down my first brew since the toucan 2 days ago, a coopers draught with a Hersbrucker hops teabag, the krausen went through the airlock (blocked it at first had to swap air locks - might be infected - hope not) so maybe watch for that if you dont have much headspace after putting 26 litres in your fermenter. The Airlock gets pretty angry . with a toucan from my limited experience.

Lettuce know how it goes. I'll be doing more after reading this thread and making my first.

MD

 

[RobboMC]

how do you do that? you either under 30, shit beer anyway, or you let all your mates drink it ....
i experience a hangover, kit.extract,allgrain.,commercial, some worse than others whenever i have a session, maybe a l;ittle less than commercial, however i think its all in the beerholder (am 40 bytheway)

In my year of Organic Chemistry the professor did a session on the chemistry of a hangover.
Most of the hangover effect ( not all though ) is simply dehydration. Any water you can consume
before you go to bed will help. wine drinkers I know go one water for one glass of wine.

At least 2 schooners of water at bedtime makes a big difference.

At least home brew has few of the chemical nasties that come in commercial wine, making a decent morning
easier to achieve. Or do what i do and drink the beer in moderation, enjoying a long neck each night or so
and not having 'sessions' that deplete the fridge stocks.

 

[Fatgodzilla]

Or do what i do and drink the beer in moderation, enjoying a long neck each night or so
and not having 'sessions' that deplete the fridge stocks.

But where's the fun in that !!!!