hello

[jd]

This is my third time around at home brewing, previous attempts last century were forced on me by a love of beer and shortage of money. This time around I'm just interested in making and drinking good beer. It looks like things have changed a bit over the years. This is probably a good thing because I recall the stuff we made before was pretty ordinary - we just bought Coopers kits and followed the instructions.

Any suggestions on what I should use for my first brew will be greatly appreciated.

regards

John

[ernie]

Howdy jd

I'm hearin ya....I went through the same thing.

My advice (FWIW) is to pick a style you like and do a search. There's heaps of info and recipes here. Pick something simple at first. Nothing wrong with Coopers but cane sugar is out now. Try a Coopers Bitter with BE2. that seems to be one of the easy ones that'll probably get you a good result.

Read the sticky about things that make HB better.

It won't hurt to get a book or two for a quick read as well. There's a thread here somewhere about good books.

Keep records too...that's something I never did until I started again recently and it's already paying dividends. I have my brew book close by most of the time. Flicking through when you have a good idea or see something here you want to try. My Wife rolls her eyes (she an expert eye-roller!) and says "Put yer f*&^ing book away".

Welcome and good luck. Let us know how you go.

E

[Oliver]

JD,

This thread http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... php?t=1966 is also worth a read. While it's titled "Simple things to make homebrew better" it contains heaps of useful tips for the novice to advanced brewer.

Cheers,

Oliver

[steveo]

Also, check out this site:

http://www.howtobrew.com/

Apart from this forum, THE most informative thing I've read so far!

Welcome aboard!

Steve

[jd]

Thanks for the replies and links.

I've been dragging out the old gear I have. Might need to get a new fermenter. The ones I have are the old black ones - buggers of things to clean around the top edge and probably a bit small. I remember a lot of brews used to bubble up through the air lock. Would they be ok to use as a second container for racking?

Thankfully I've still got a few bottles left - about 300 roll top long necks, a heap of crownies and some grolsch. A lot of these are still full of the old brews - could be 10 to 15 years old. Cracked one the other day - still tastes like cr*p.

The nearest home brew shop is a couple of hours away. Anyone had good, bad or indifferent experience with ordering over the net?

jd

[Tipsy]

The nearest home brew shop is a couple of hours away. Anyone had good, bad or indifferent experience with ordering over the net?

I've found http://www.countrybrewer.com.au/ to be good to deal with, prices and freight seem reasonable.

[Chris]

Grain and Grape are good. and $5 postage for anything under 20kg.

[da_damage_done]

I'm on the south coast too and I've found http://bmbrews.com.au well priced and fast with cheap delivery (free over $110)

[Cat]

Not bad. I've found it's all too easy to spend over $100 at the homebrew store, $110 should be easy

[Duane]

Hi jd, Good to see you getting back into brewing, I use Marks home brew in Newcastle.
Great prices, very fresh ingredients and very informative/freindly.
If your brewing AG Marks your man. Around $3/kg for grains and 5c a gram for hops. Also stocks Wyeast! . Maybe a bit far for you but Mark will cover half your freight bill. But if brewing k+k he has a great selection for you to try.

[shane_vor]

JD I too have one of the old black ones, because she won't seal, she's the dedimacated bulk priming tub.

[Krusty]

Would they be ok to use as a second container for racking?

I reckon they'd be ideal, being lightproof, and racking containers are far easier to clean than your primary fermenter.