Newbie brewing questions

[bazza]

Hi Guys (and girls),

I'm new on the home brew scene. Got my first home brew kit for Christmas, and finished bottling my third batch a couple of weeks ago. Been doing straight can brews up till now, although planning on being a little more creative with the next batch.

Anyway, I had a couple of questions I hope you can help me out with.

* At the moment all my brews have used the Coopers carbonation drops just for sheer ease of use. Does using dextrose instead of carbonation drops to prime the bottles improve the beer much?

* At the moment my beer is in a combination of the plastic coopers bottles that came with my home brew set, and some old glass home brew bottles that I got from my Dad and my Uncle. Now personally I think there is something not quite right about pouring beer from a plastic bottle. But apart from that, is there a good reason to use glass over plastic?

* I've noticed on the forum that some of you do 19L brews instead of 23L brews to increase the flavour from the kits. Just curious how many bottles you get from the smaller brew

* Do you know of any good home brew books that would help a beginner like myself? I currently have 2 books:
- "The Complete Guide to Beer & Brewing" by Laurie Strachan. Not a bad Australian book, but it spends alot of its space on explaining beer and recipes, and not much time on brewing process.
- "How to Brew" by John Palmer (recommendation from these forums ). Still reading it, and it seems to be a good book so far. Unfortunately alot of the measurements are imperial instead of metric

Thanks for the help

Bazza

[Chris]

Hi bazza,

Carb drops aren't all the same size, so you will get inconsistant levels of carbonation with them. Dextrose or (preferably) malt will give you a better result.

Plastic is fine. The only issue is that beer stored for more than 12 month in plastic apparently starts to lose carbonation. When I've used plastic, I've never noticed it. Most ales are best drunk around the 3 month mark anyway.

24 odd bottles.

And "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" and "The Homebrewers Companion" both by Charlie Papazian are the best books I've come across at beginner to intermediate level.

[buscador]

Papazian writes good books, yes yes..
he let me in on the 19L = 5 gallons that my sorry drunk ass never put together before I read a brew book, just trusted Coopers with the 23L mark for first 10 brews, now Im getting better everything

usually got 28 PET fills per 23L though and I guess getting more for my money, but the quality over quantity has changed me.

im a new brewer, thanks Charlie

b

[bazza]

Thanks for the quick responses, much appreciated.

Carb drops aren't all the same size, so you will get inconsistant levels of carbonation with them. Dextrose or (preferably) malt will give you a better result.

Never considered using malt to prime the bottles. Definitely one I'll need to try out

Bazza

[Chris]

buscador, with the Papazian recipies, he (often) uses a malt:water ratio of 1 pound: 1 Gallon. Most "Australian" recipes use ~6 pounds of malt instead of the Papazian 5 pounds. It works out fairly equal in the end, just boost the hopping rate.

[chris.]

Thanks for the quick responses, much appreciated.

Carb drops aren't all the same size, so you will get inconsistant levels of carbonation with them. Dextrose or (preferably) malt will give you a better result.

Never considered using malt to prime the bottles. Definitely one I'll need to try out

Bazza

Be careful. The fermentability levels of malts can be inconsistent. IMO using a 100% fermentable sugar, like dextrose, is more accurate.
I personally noticed no difference between using malt or sugar.

FWIW I feel that carbonation drops tend to over carbonate beer to my liking. But if you like the results then go ahead & use them. They are easy & fairly consistant from my experience.

[Chris]

Yeah, those carb drops are feral. They make beach-ball sized bubbles, and make the beer like softdrink. They are pretty convenient though.

And dextrose is more accurate, but in my opinion you get finer-sized bubbles and better head retention with malt. I'm sure some people disagree with that though.

You should be alright (consistency-wise) with malt if you just buy a big bag (1-2kg). You'll be able to carbonate quite a few brews with a bag that size, so you'll be able to work out you're preferred level of carbonation. I'd go LDM in preference, as you don't have to worry about water content as a variable.

[morgs]

Yeah, those carb drops are feral. They make beach-ball sized bubbles, and make the beer like softdrink. They are pretty convenient though.

And dextrose is more accurate, but in my opinion you get finer-sized bubbles and better head retention with malt. I'm sure some people disagree with that though.

You should be alright (consistency-wise) with malt if you just buy a big bag (1-2kg). You'll be able to carbonate quite a few brews with a bag that size, so you'll be able to work out you're preferred level of carbonation. I'd go LDM in preference, as you don't have to worry about water content as a variable.

It still amazes me that people think that a different sugar used in natural bottle conditioning can create different size bubbles. The yeast eats the sugars creating alcohol and carbon dioxide, however seeing the gas can't escape it is absorbed into the beer. How does using a different sugar create different size bubbles???? The bulk of your fermentables added into your primary will give you the final result in head retention bubble holding etc. I'd like to see anyone pick in a blind tasting the difference between carb drops and dextrose provided carb levels the same. Therefore go with the drops if your after ease of use to begin, maybe try something different if you don't lose interest. It shouldn't make that much difference IMO. You'll soon find out what you like to do.

[Chris]

Never really thought about it. All I know is that carb drop bubbles are huge.

[morgs]

Never really thought about it. All I know is that carb drop bubbles are huge.

Were they huge when you started doing all malt brews? or had you stopped using them before doing all malt? Ive used carb drops heaps and i noticed a better head once i started adding all the right ingredients in the primary. No noticeble difference bulk priming various ways.

[Chris]

That's a point. I used them for my first 6 or so brews. I did all-malt from my 5th onwards. Hmmm.

Maybe I'll stop having a go at carb drops for the big bubbles... but they are still all diferent sizes

[morgs]

You get used to your own thing i guess. I didn't seem to mind them and still use them sometimes if i cant be bothered cleaning a fermentor for b.p

[Chris]

Yeah, the convenience factor.

I still like malt! It makes me feel special.

[lethaldog]

Chris, that is the strangest f@#$ing thing i have ever heard but what ever works for you hey

On topic i have used all of them and have not noticed alot of difference apart from time, meaning malt will take a fair bit longer to carb once in the bottle, the other two seem to be pretty much the same

[Chris]

If that's the strangest thing you've ever heard... I'm just saying, I've heard way stranger things. Most of them from HB shop owners

[bazza]

Be careful. The fermentability levels of malts can be inconsistent. IMO using a 100% fermentable sugar, like dextrose, is more accurate.
I personally noticed no difference between using malt or sugar.

FWIW I feel that carbonation drops tend to over carbonate beer to my liking. But if you like the results then go ahead & use them. They are easy & fairly consistant from my experience.

Thanks for the feedback chris. I have found my second batch to be a bit over-carbonated. Unless I dribble the beer down the side of the glass, it ends up being 1/2 foam

Were they huge when you started doing all malt brews? or had you stopped using them before doing all malt? Ive used carb drops heaps and i noticed a better head once i started adding all the right ingredients in the primary. No noticeble difference bulk priming various ways.

Think I might try and get my brews right before I try dextrose. I do like the convinence of the drops. Currently all (3) of my brews have been straight can 23L brews, so that may explain the foam issue.

[pixelboy]

I do like the convinence of the drops.

I used to think the same till I bulk primed a few times. Now its seems like the carb drops were more of a palava.

I use dex instead of malt cause its cheaper

[Pale_Ale]

My observations on carb drops are that they over carbonate the beer and are generally inconsistent. I would urge anyone who uses carb drops now to at least try bulk priming with dex as I believe the result is far superior.

[gregb]

The only thing (IMO) better than bulk priming is kegging.

Cheers,
Greg

[blandy]

Bulk priming is tops

- Easy to ensure consistency
- easy to vary the carbonation from brew to brew (so you don't have to have overcarbonated stout and undercarbonated lager)
- saves heaps of time