homebrewandbeer.com

My two suggestions would be

Blue Mountain Lager
1kg Lager malt extract
500g Dextrose if you want to increase alc, will be midstrength otherwise
Nelson Sauvin hops say 10g at 15min, 10g at 5min and 25g at 0min
lager yeast at lager temps if you can

Pale Ale or Draught kit
1kg Lager malt extract
500g BE2
Cascade hops say 15g at 30min, 15g at 15min and 15g at 0min
Good ale yeast

A good opportunity to try out some hops you may not have used before.
Amounts and times for hops really depend on the AA% of the hops you get.

Have you tried steeping spec grains? Its pretty easy and adds onther dimension to your brews.

Thanks Earle once again for your feedback,

I havent got to steeping grains as yet, LHBS fella told me its real easy, last time i was there he wanted to sell me a coffee plunger etc.. I'm still keen on just practising with the kits and malt extracts for now.

With your 2nd recommendation, what yeast and also can i use the hop tea bags?

With my brew similar to suggestion 2 I use s-04 but us-05 would probably be a good match too.

You could use tea-bags but I think its going to work out expensive as they are only 12g each. You could just as easily use 12g instead of the 15g suggested, it just wont be quite as bitter unless you make the first addition a bit longer to compensate.

Also the draught kit has higher IBU (31.0) than the Pale Ale kit (25.1) so you could get away with less bittering addition from the first addition.

If you're keen on using hops and better yeast an order from Craftbrewer or similar would definately be worthwhile. No affiliation just a happy customer. I've always been happy with the yeast they pack themselves from bulk, pity I can't say that about yeasts I've purchased from HBS. Hops are better value and i'm sure fresher than those morgans bags, also you know what the AA% is so you can calculate bitterness and how much to add. The savings you make easily cover the postage which is pretty cheap anyway.

In Dapto you should be able to get next day express post delivery as well

Thanks Earle,

I wont be able to place an order till mid next week as finances are tied up, i've had a look at the Craftbrew site and like what i see, good advice mate

I'd still like the knock up something this afternoon so may lean towards the Blue Mountains lager with the liquid malt and dextrose along with the tea bags as i can grab them from the shop on the way home..

No worries. The Blue Mountains lager is supposed to have Hallertau and an IBU of 25, so you could go with Hallertau teabag/s.

When I used teabags I would steep in a mug of hot water then chuck in fermenter. Some people just chuck straight in fermenter without steeping.

If you want it a bit more bitter you could boil one in malt and water for 15-30 min.

As said before if you can keep around 10-12C go for a lager yeast but if you can only keep around 18-20C go for the US-05.

Cheers