homebrewandbeer.com

hi
been brewing for about 6 months now and love the information i have been getting off this site.

problem is i dont mind a beer and consume it at a fairly reasonably pace .
to be more accurate i`d probably drink 30 longnecks in 6-7 days ( excluding weekends).

what i do know from the posts of this site is the lower fermenting temperature, the better the taste , head retention , and overall better beer.

as you probably can guess i can`t really have a brew sitting in the drum for 2 weeks , i`d be dry very quickly

i`m getting reasonable head retention on my beers , not brilliant , but drinkable .

i`ll try to explain what i`m doing and hope someone can give a few pointers.

i use tooheys kit brews , lager and dark ale.
keep it at 26 degrees , so it ferments in 4-5 days.
bottle in longnecks . use one of the old red measuring scoops that was supplied with the kit , using dextrose.
have kept the bottles at a reasonable temperature to secondary ferment ( stored inside )

the beer i`m drinking now is 4 weeks old , taste is getting better by the day , but can`t quite get that full head that follows the beer glass to the bottom.

cheers
dontmindabeer

ps . haven`t bought commercial beer since i got the brew kit , and taste wise , i never will.

Use light dry malt instead of dextrose to give better head retention.

You'll have a better beer if you wait 3 months. Whatever you do you'll have to make more than you drink if you ever want better beer. Either that or buy store bought for a few months while you build up a supply of home brew.

5 longnecks a day- not including weekends! Hope diabeties doesn't run in the family.

Some ideas:

1. Do not wash your glass with fat-based detergents. Use alkaline salts instead (e.g. diswasher detergent).
2. Cool the glass. In the fridge or freezer.
3. Consider getting a headmaster glass (I think that's what they're called; do a search).
4. Add some dried wheat malt, say 200g.
5. Add some specialty grain, like carapils or crystal.

Get a second fermentor and have two brewing at the same time. Keep them at 20 degrees and follow the info above. This'll improve your beer and only costs you another fermentor.

Cheers,

Adam L

Pale_Ale wrote:Use light dry malt instead of dextrose to give better head retention.

I'm getting the impression that this is not bad advice for a bunch of reasons and am thinking of doing so for Home Brew Batch #3 which will probably be based on CPA kit and Safale US56 yeast. Question: How much LDME to use? Home Brew Batch #2 had a pack of Coopers BE2.

1 tin of ingredient(1.7kg) and 1KG of LDME should see you thru

I prime with dex and never have a problem with head, in saying that my beers are always about 3 months old before i drink them, my advice would be to get another fermenter or 2 if you drink that much then its the only way your beer will ever get the chance to sit for long enough to be as good as it should be, just make sure you keep the fermenters running flat out and you will always keep up with consumption

lethaldog wrote:I prime with dex and never have a problem with head

I'll have to speak to my misses then.

Dontmindabeer,

I too have had this dilema, regards to keeping stocks up. I was using 5 fermenters at one stage earlier this year just to get a stockpile together. Now that is under control I am just using 3 - one in primary - one in secondary - one clean ready to bulk prime. That supplies beer for all the family, my endless supply of mates who 'just happened to be passing' and most importantly myself.

Most importantly - listen to advice here. Everywhere you look the message is dextrose = evil (unless used as per recipe ie. belgian ale).
Use malt. Add specialty grain. Go to a HBS and ask. If the shop is any good they will have you with a continual beer moustache in no time.

I'd ditch the dodgy tooheys cans also (but that is just my opinion) Go Morgans, Muntons or the like.

I like the dextrose = evil message getting around!

Go the malt.

I love the tooheys brews,as they always come out tasting great.I use 300 grams of dextrose ,200 grams of wheat malt and a kilo and a half of light liquid malt,which gives me a brew that is not very far from commercial stuff.If anything,i prefer tooheys to coopers!!!!!

That's one...

Pale_Ale wrote:Use light dry malt instead of dextrose to give better head retention.

You'll have a better beer if you wait 3 months. Whatever you do you'll have to make more than you drink if you ever want better beer. Either that or buy store bought for a few months while you build up a supply of home brew.

And chuck in 500gm corn syrup while preparing the wort for better mouth feel and head.

I'm confused...

Is the suggestion to use malt instead of dextrose in primary, or when bulk priming???

Damn will you people stop talking in riddles!!!

Use malt instead of dextrose for your primary fermentation.

Others use malt to prime as well. It's up to you.

That's what I thought - just wanted to make sure.

Probably wrong of me to jump up and down about people of talking in riddles. Probably I should just read more...

Chris wrote:5 longnecks a day- not including weekends! Hope diabeties doesn't run in the family.

With all due respect Chris.

I dont think dontmindabeer was after a medical report.......just some brewing advice.

Paleman, this is a holistic brewing site- we advise an ALL aspescts of beer.

And N.C., malt in primary, malt in the bottle!