Welcome new brewers!

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006 9:39 am

Considering how many Coopers Microbrew kits I saw go past me in K-Mart the other day, I thought I would welcome all of the new brewers who will be soon joining us.

Enjoy your Christmas presents!

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006 4:16 pm

And look out on ebay cos most of them will be there in a couple of weeks

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006 5:06 pm

mine was an ebay special with 60 PET bottles for $10!

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006 5:17 pm

Ash wrote:mine was an ebay special with 60 PET bottles for $10!

Jesus, nice score mate

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006 6:40 pm

*puts hand up*

i got one of the K-Mart Coopers kits. i've just bottled the Coopers "Lager" that came with the kit, and am about to refill the fermenter later tonight to make a dark ale. I've got a can of Beermakers Old, brewing sugar (dextrose), and dark malt extract. still trying to decide what proportions to use everything, i want something really rich to enjoy icy cold. any tips?

cheers!

chris

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006 6:51 pm

My advice: don't use the brewing sugar. Get yourself a kilo of Dark Dry Malt Extract instead.

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006 7:24 pm

yeah, i've got dextrose and dark dry malt extract - do you mean use a whole kilo of malt extract and no sugar?

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006 7:57 pm

Yep, you can put some in for higher alc% but its not necassary, you will be surprised at how good an all malt brew is

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006 8:21 pm

so would 1kg of dark DME and 500g of dextrose be in the ballpark for a decent alc/vol, or is that insane?

hope it's alright, i'm off to make the second brew. i can see this becoming a lifelong hobby, great fun!

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006 8:24 pm

That would be fine and would end up about 5.8% for a 23 litre brew

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006 8:27 pm

nice

does that mean i could put more in? how high could i go - 750g dextrose? 1kg even?

i'm not after one of those legendary mythical 'knock your socks off with a sip' brews, but something around 7%-9% would be impressive.

using Safale US-56 yeast on recommendation of the bloke at the HBS - that will tolerate that alcohol level won't it?

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006 8:36 pm

with a can and 2kgs of dried malt and 750gms of dex you would be around 8%, what you put in is up to you but just remember that you can go over board and end up with absolute shite especially if its not a good balance..

The yeast should be ok up to 9-10% or even a bit higher, depends on who you talk to but i wouldnt risk much higher, in anycase higher than this will produce a beer that will knock you on your ass after 2 and i dont know about you but thats not what i brew beer for

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Friday Dec 22, 2006 9:04 am

US-56 has quite a high attenuation, meaning you'll get quite a lot of alcohol out of your fermentables, and not so many residual sugars.

Regardless, you will need to increase the amount of hops in your brew to balance it.

http://www.realbeer.com/hops/FAQ.html#balance

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Friday Dec 22, 2006 9:59 am

might wait another brew or two for that, this is only my second

thanks to all for the advice though

Chris

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Monday Dec 25, 2006 6:12 pm

Ahhh. New brewers. Always looking to make high alcohol brews...

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Monday Dec 25, 2006 11:20 pm

it's actually my flatmate who wants the high alcohol content - he's very much got a "bang for buck" attitude. i just want to make a really nice tasting dark ale.

if i wanted high alcohol content, it wouldn't be beer i'd look at lol

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Tuesday Dec 26, 2006 9:33 am

Ah. The money-conscious piss-up. Short and cheap.

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Tuesday Dec 26, 2006 10:04 am

yeah. he was quite pleased when i informed him that the alc/vol was already around 4% after 4 days, with the airlock still bubbling vigorously.

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Tuesday Dec 26, 2006 8:00 pm

Home brew is not really for the value conscious IMO because the time spent on it is so great that it would literally be cheaper to buy a 2.5 slabs of VB instead of brewing your own.

Think about it, turn your salary into an hourly rate and figure out how much time you spend on brewing beer!

This applies for AG too because although it's cheaper to make the time spent is far greater.

But the way Coopers market it make it seem luck such an attractive option, buy a tin, buy some brewing sugar and 3 days later you've got 60 beers!

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Tuesday Dec 26, 2006 8:08 pm

I enjoy brewing and do it as a hobby so i dont see my time as a $ value like im at work or something same as i dont see the time i spend riding the XR as a $ value, if you look at it that way then maybe you should be buying your V.B cos personally i would spend 6 months on one batch and drink it before i would ever crack a V.B ( not that i do spend 6 months making it, ageing is another story though).
Each to thier own but time spent on brewing is time spent with me smiling and thats good enough for me and the quality is second to none