Hi all,
I'm getting into home brewing because a. I like drinking beer and b. I am poor (full time uni student blah blah blah). It's actually pretty fun and I reckon I will be popular at parties because I'm making them way faster than I can drink them.
I've got my second batch about to bottle, a blonde style, and a lager in bottles that will be ready to drink in a week or so. I started with a beginner brewers kit of basically a big bucket with an airlock and a tap. I've been collecting 450mL grolsch bottles with the flip open lids for easy bottling but those suckers are expensive so most of the brew is in longnecks. I've just been following the instructions of the kits so far.
Who else does DIY beer? Any successes, tips or beer-mares you want to share?
Coppertun, Mangrove Jacks Malt Kits, Empty Swappa Crate bottles available from bottlo for $5 a box (in NZ only???).
Mangrove Jacks is a really tasty range, hard to f uc k up too :)
Make sure your kit is sterilised before you put down the brew or you will grow some mystery microorganisms.
Leave it for at least a month in the bottle before you open it. Hard to do at the beginning, but once you get a stockpile going its allll good.
Hey Ezza, i did the worst home brew years ago, id invite mates around for a beer and they would buy a slab on the way over.
So only advise is, get started at your own and take plenty to old bar 
Select to expand quoteSailhack said..
... enter Jefin! 
Ha your the brewer in a fortnight mate
Hi Ezza
I suggest you grab how to brew by John Palmer, it covers basic brewing through to all grain. If you get hooked on it brewing you will end up an AG brewer
Also have a look at the ABH website (link is below)
A couple of suggestions for you, don't use the yeast with the can, shell out 4 or 5 bucks and grab some US05 or BRY 97. You need good yeast and the yeast profile is a big part of the beers flavor, also a good healthy yeast reduces the risk of infection.
Leave the beer on the yeast cake for at least a week post ferment. There is a secondary process after fermentation, this will clean the beer up and if you take if off the cake the brew wont get the chance to do this.
Clean, Clean, Clean
And temp control is important.
Most of all just have fun with it, when you make a good one share it with a few mates, when you make a bad one tell ya mates it's their shout!
aussiehomebrewer.com/
I thought about brewing my own but as my Mrs says I am good at starting projects but not so good at completing them. It would be on Ebay within a month.
Also I reckon going drive thru bottle-o is just to farkin easy.
If you can use glass bottles, tastes better than the plastic ones at HB shops. Give you an excuse to going and lash out on a box of tallies.
Get your handle on temp control, you will probably need some form of heat in NSW in winter.
Drink everything you make HA
www.beermachine.com/
Does anyone know anything about these, brew in it, gas it and pour straight from the fridge.
Thanks Jefin!
I'm collecting grolsch swing top bottles 450mL, I reckon they are a perfect size and as a science student sterilization and aseptic techniques are familiar to me. The yeast tip I'll put into practice for sure. Do you prime the dry yeast or add it straight into your primary from the sachet? Also, using LME, the kit I got says nothing about 'the boil' I'm adding some steeped grain to the fermenter prior to adding the wort mix but does that need to boil for a certain time first? All the water I use is pre-boiled through the whole process.
Cheers mate
Hey mate, +1 to everything Jefin said!
I have been brewing for a while now. Starter on kits and bits recipes and then have moved to all grain brewing cause I love a challenge and the beers are sensational.
Typical rookie mistake thinking you should brew beer to save money. All you do is save your mates money cause they come round and drink all your beer!
100% agree with start with John palmers how to brew. You can read it for free on the net or buy it in store. It's a great start to understanding your brew.
As stated, cleanliness is your biggest priority. Get that stuff sparkling and go to a local home brew shop to get some good PBW and a no rinse sanitizer.
Second best thing to do is to control the ferment temp. In the winter I used a heat pad ($60) connected to a temperature controller ($40) you can pick these up cheap on Fleabay or support your local home brew shop. They are not hard to wire up. Search for STC-1000
In the summer time, I used to sit mine in the bathroom in a big esky filled with water. In the morning I would drop an ice brick in there and it was enough to keep the brew at about 20C all day long. Some guys use fridges (I do) with a temp controller cause temperature control is so important.
Second thing I would do is mix up the can recipes a bit. I started out by adding about 250g of crushed specialty grain steeped in 75C water for about 20mins.... I added this with the can and boiled the lot for an hour. I also used good quality hops from the home brew store and this gives the beer a great fresh taste. There's plenty of recipes online or send me a PM and I can give you 5 or 6 crackers that I have made before.
It's a great past time and I have had great parties where I rock up with a keg and a miracle box. I currently have an IPA, an Irish red ale and a golden ale on tap. Also got a little creatures pale clone and a choc porter in the fermenter!
AHB is a good site for information, but be warned they are having some difficulties with members posting crap at the moment. Best off getting the advice from your local home brew store and see if anyone in your area is brewing. In SA, we all meet up on a weekend at someone's place and put a brew on. It's a great community to be in.
Let me know if you have any brew related questions!
Cheers!
Grain to the fermenter?
Ok, read John palmers how to brew.
The steps to using specialty grain and a kit are:
Bring 5-10L of water to 75C
Put the CRUSHED grain into a muslin bag, tie it up so the grain can't escape and then put it in the hot water for a half hour like a giant tea bag.
Then take the tea bag out and start boiling the brown water that's left over.
Add in your can of goop.
Once the pot comes to a rolling boil (churning) then set the timer for 1 hour.
Add any hops at the intervals specified by your recipe.
After 1 hour of boiling and adding hops, then take the pot off the boil And cool it down in an ice bath or in the sink with ice bricks....
The chuck this in the fermenter allowing lots of splashing to get oxygen into the wort. Top up with water to your desired level which is typically 23L and then once it has reached a temperature below 30C, pitch your yeast.
Dry yeast can be pitched straight from the packet (just sprinkle over the top of the wort foam) or you can make a starter. I personally don't worry about rehydrating.
Then leave it for at least a week to let it go to full ferment and then you have the option of transferring it to a secondary fermenter for conditioning.
Secondary conditioning allows the yeast to clean up any nasty bi products that it made during the primary fermentation.
Like I said, read John Palmer for a full explanation and he also gives you a pictorial run down of the entire process.
Brew on mate!
In no particular order...
Throw out the airlock, trust your hydrometer.
When you think your brew is done, leave it another week before you bottle.
Temp control, avoid fluctuations.
ignore the cans when they say brew ales at 25 degrees or whatever, go for 18-20
As others have said, trade up the yeast.
Don't ever, ever, ever let dish washing liquid or detergent near any of your brew gear or bottles, use home brand unscented nappy wash (sodium percarbonate I think) to wash,
Get a bottle of starsan to sanitize with, it will last years.
I've heard AHB is going off the rails a bit but I've never looked in there. Try the forum on the Coopers website, they are extremely tolerant of the same newly questions over and over. There are a couple of strong personalities on there but you will learn quickly who knows their stuff and who thinks they know. The best advice is to find the forums, create a login, read the forums every day but wait a month before you post your first question. Guaranteed you will learn bucket loads of the fundamentals in that month.
I've dabbled with cracked grains and stuff and it is taking it up another notch, I ended up taking a step back, I'll have another go soon enough. An alternative is to buy the coopers monthly recipe packs, it's an easy way to dabble with hops and other add ins without flying solo but it does cost about $45 a batch.
Too many essays in this post.
Please restrict to 50 words or less.
Attention span not good.
Select to expand quoteNewScotty said...
Too many essays in this post.
Please restrict to 50 words or less.
Attention span not good.
Making good beer is more important than anything happening over in Heavy Weather!!!
Bottling, 
that's old school
2 cartons of Carona $ 100
19ltrs Mexican Cervasa (almost the same) $28
Savings $ =72
Lessons learnt, the more you drink , the more you save!!!
Put saving towards 19ltr post mix kegs ,gas,keg set up aprox $450
Then you can do this-
No worries Ezza
With the specialty grains Jamdfingr is dead on the money, you need to steep the grains in hot water.
Yes I Re-hydrate the yeast prior to pitching, just follow the instructions on the packet (the ferment will start a lot quicker).
If you want to play with hop's and a full 60min boil don't buy hopped kits, get yourself some liquid malt extract (coopers are good) and add your own mix of hops. There are a number of good programs for the PC that will allow you to formulate you own recipe's (brew mate, beer smith etc).
Hops, when you buy them make sure the alpha acid is exact, avoid hop's with a AA range. When you start to use high AA hops this makes a big difference with the bitterness of the beer.
With the temp control, you need to remember the yeast will create it's own heat (to a certain extent). The side of the fermenter may read 18C but the beer will actually be 2 or 3 degree's warmer.
Biggest thing though - Don't rush yourself into the more complicated brewing, get your brew's from a can tasting good and then move onto playing with grains and hops.
Cheers Jefin
Ive been brewing for a while know just with the coopers cans , the longer you leave it in the bottles the better ot tastes , it just getting your stocks up enough to leave it that long .
or yer and clean clean clean everything !!!!!
