Brigalow kits at Aldi for $49

[Dasher]

includes crown seals pet seals a tin and pack of fermentables as well as the usual fermenter, tap spoon etc....

[Tickstar]

Thanks for the tip Dasher. Went to Aldi this morning and picked me up a kit. For $49 bucks you can't really go wrong. Contains everything the coopers kit does except carbonation drops and PET bottles.

I'll be doing my first ever brew tomorrow. Wish me luck!

[atropine]

Brigalow kit contains bottle capper, bottle tops, dextrose, steriliser, beer finings, that special lid which makes it dead easy to remove now matter how tight you put it on. All these things don't come with the coopers kit which costs $76.

[lethaldog]

I got my coopers kits from Big W for $61 and they include brew, useless brewing sugar , carb drops, fermie, lid, airlock, spoon, bottler and a few other little bits and pieces but also come with 30 P.E.T bottles and caps which i usually get for $11 for 15 so in my book the coopers kits can be fantastic value for money

[atropine]

At that price it sure is. The Tooheys kit seem good for the money too if wanted one of those red magnetic butterfly bottle cappers. $61 for kit including butterfly capper seems really good considering capper alone would have to be quite expensive given the design and build.

Though I understand they break the necks of twist top bottles so only good for old solid crown seals.

[NTRabbit]

Ive been using the butterfly capper from the Tooheys kit for 18 months with only a single broken twist top, and that one was a very old Coopers Sparkling bottle that looked to be weakened already anyway.

[Boonie]

Ive been using the butterfly capper from the Tooheys kit for 18 months with only a single broken twist top, and that one was a very old Coopers Sparkling bottle that looked to be weakened already anyway.

I broke 4 twisttops then went and bought a bench capper

Then I sold the capper from kit for $25 on ebay

It was only used twice, but I just could not get the knack of it

[pacman]

Put off bottle cappers many years ago following a couple of unfortunate experiences. At that time I resorted to recapping twist tops with their original caps. Sanitized of course. No problems, and maybe one failure in about 10 brews!

Bit older, and supposedly a bit wiser, on my second HB experience.

Initially used same approach with twist top stubbies as before, but only as a stop gap method until I acquired a mixture of Grolsch 473ml & Schwelmer 500ml swingtops. Have concentrated on slowly acquiring Schwelmer bottles, as they are cheaper (by about 50c per bottle), and hold 27ml more than Grolsch - not important until you extrapolate that over a year of bottling (and drinking)!

There are upsides and downsides, as with most things in life.

UPSIDES: Fill bottle and press swingtop into place - capping takes a couple of seconds max. Surely there cannot be an easier way of bottling? Maybe not as easy as kegging, but kegging is not appropriate for everyone (& certainly not for me!).

The bottles are very strong, and anecdotal evidence suggests you will have to THROW one for it to break!

DOWNSIDES: Takes time to acquire bottles. You will probably have to buy, and drink (curses!) all of them yourself. Neither beer is brilliant, and neither beer is cheap.

Storeage can be difficult unless you buy Grolsch by the carton (20 bottles).
Schwelmer come in 4 packs, & these packs are pretty useless for HBrs. Best I have found is Seaview Brut cartons, which hold 19 Schwelmers. Weird, innit? But 20 will bugger the carton, whilst 3 rows of 5 & 1 row of 4 fits very snug.

These bottles are very heavy, especially when filled. 19 Schwelmers is about same weight as 12 X 750ml sparkling wine.

CONCLUSION: Has been worth the effort!

[pacman]

Sorry!

Probably a bit off topic with my rant.

[NTRabbit]

I have all manner of bottles, including 60 Grolsch swingtops.

I've made over 1000 bottles of brew now, with only a single bottle failure. I have a Superautomatica borrowed form an uncle, but I honestly find it to be such a hassle and nuisance to use that I always stick with the trusty butterfly capper.

There is only one situation where I use the Superautomatica - for bottling into Bundaberg gingerbeer bottles, especially when I use a bunch of them for one brew. Due to the zero neck, the butterfly has issues with it, and by using a lot at once it negates the hassles that the Superautomatica causes.

[atropine]

Brigalow kits are now $40 at aldi I noticed today. That's pretty reasonable.