Tooheys kits

[dhc4ever]

Hi all, long time lurker,part time drinker.
I've not long ago put down my 3rd brew, a Tooheys "special" lager + 1 can of brewiser liquid brewing sugar, temp seems to be sitting around 20 to 21 C and its quietly condensating in the corner.
The last 2 brews were Coopers, the lager that came with the kit and an ale + BE2 and I thought turned out OK but nothing to brag about, both needed more carbonation.
What are the general opinions on the TOOHEYS KITS? Yeah I probably should have asked before I bought it ,but you get that on the small jobs around here.
What advantage /disadvantage of useing the liquid brewing sugar?
And lastly a rough guide to how long its likely to need in the fermenter at 20C, would I be near right if I thought around 14 days?

Thanks in advance

Pete

[Wassa]

Welcome to the forum.

Myself, I like the Tooheys Kits but you do need to oomph them up a bit. I never use sugar, especially the brewiser, Coopers or CSR brewing sugars. They are striaght out sucrose or cane sugar. They can leave a cidery taste and you don't get the body or mouthfeel you get from kmalt or the Coopers BE1 or 2. I usually make full malt beers and add hops to get a premium result, and also use specialised yeasts as well.

The Tooheys kit comes with a top fermenting ale yeast and not a true lager yeast. At 20 to 21 degrees you should finish fermentation in 5 to 6 days max. Rely on your specific gravity readings. If you get the same SG 3 days in a row you are ready to bottle.

Your carbonation problem may be that you are drinking your beer too early. How long after bottling are you drinking it? I never touch my beer until it has been bottled for 3 months and I usually get a lovely well rounded finished beer with no greeness to it.

Good luck!!!!!

[Jawaman]

Not long ago Big W had Tooheys kits on special so I gave them a go. The tooheys lager I've only used a kilo of dex. Compared to Coopers Lager with a kilo of dex nothing special. I would ditch the kit tooheys yeast which I did for another tooheys drought and better results. In my opinion the yeast is worse then coopers. Before I chucked the tooheys yeast I decided to do an experiment. I rehydrated tooheys, farmland and coopers kit yeasts. The tooheys took of just fine but it smelt very much like a bakers yeast. It still will be drinkable, give it some time in the bottle, it will be ok. As for the brewiser liquid sugar I bought some tins really cheap. Then I found on the forum it can acctually make your beer more of a cardboard taste as it is made from corn. Just made a cheap brew today and only used half a tin so at this stage not sure how that one is going to turn out and impair the taste and body. Overall in the future you better of going for Coopers kits or at least ditch the Tooheys kit yeast and then make some improvements.

[sidman]

I use the tooheys lager with a BE2 and 15 grams of tettnang or willamette for 15 min boil , and a S23 yeast that i repitch 5 or 6 times , this makes a cheap very drinkable lager , better thanthe coopers lager ,it mutures a lot quicker , so tou can let your all malt beers sit for longer and guzzle this , big W has tooheys for abour 9 dollars ,very cheap

[sonictruth]

ive found the tooheys dark kit to leave a little to be desired. The coopers is much better. I remember as a novice brewer being sucked in to the idea of a tooheys dark kit + 1kg of dex = tooheys old. this is simply not the case. If you want to make good beer with those kits you really need to be adding grains and hops to them. However i've found the coopers kits are a much better base to start with
just my 2 cents worth

[HBG1968]

One thing that consumers are not aware of is that Tooheys is not made by Tooheys. It is made by Canterbury Brewery in New Zealand.

Canterbury Brewery make Black Rock, which uses a better grade malt,plus a better yeast They have 4 different Lagers, though I have not made their Colonial Lager. The Mexican lager wasn't that crash hot, however both the Std Lager and Dry Lager were excellent.

So far out of all the Kit Lagers I have tried, this is the one that I have found to be the best:-
* Thomas Coopers Black Label Heritage Lager http://www.coopers.com.au/homebrew/hbre ... d=1&id=118
* 250g Maltodextrin
* 200g Muntons Light Powdered Malt
* 550g Dextrose
* 12g Pride of Ringwood Hop Pellets.

This recipe works out at around 45 cents per schooner, and is well worth it.