Ramblings

[sago]

I've been home beer making(didn't say brew as I only use the Coopers cans) for about a year after a layoff of about 15 years.
I bought the Coopers kit as my old black carboy was well rooted.
A few musings follow
I don't worry about the airlock not bubbling any more.You get paranoid if nothing happens which happened on a couple of brews.Luckily I had read that it didn't necessarily mean that that was no fermentation.I now leave the airlock on the lid permanently and give the combined top a bloody good wash and sterilise with no worrries so far.
I use a combination of the pet bottles that came with the kit,as many glass 750ml ones as I can get my hands on and old Crown lager,tooheys old and Coopers sparkling 375ml ones as back ups.What a bastard that they are all different heights .Last summer the next door neighbour gave me two large bottles that had home brew in them that his father had made.We worked out he had been dead for 17 years so the beer must have been 18 years old therefore too old to risk sampling so the plan was to tip out the beer and use the very sturdy bottles.You guessed it ,I cooled the buggers down and quaffed them and they were alright and I obviously didn't cark it.
I also use the 2 litre pet coke bottles at a pinch but nowadays reserve those for cider as my missus didn't see the funny side of putting my beer(Coopers old)into her bourbon one Friday night.
Have to do some work now so will continue these musings later

[sago]

Managed a bit of work so can continue rambling.
My daughter's boyfriend (who just about bloody lives with us) has started making his own beer.I told him to use my gear until he sees if he likes it so we brew weeks about until we have some stocks up.I started him off on Coopers lager and his first batch was very palatable so he has got the bug.He has troughed the first batch already and is waiting a semi respectable time to try his second.
He's got two left from three brewed, and like me has trouble waiting for reasonable maturity.I tend to get into mine after 5-6 weeks and havn't managed to wait for 3 months yet.If we do a brew every week we are going to have to build some storage down the side of the house as the garage is getting full.
Next batch for me after I bottle on Sunday will be a Blackrock cider and I'm glad for the tip from the recipes about addding some lactose.The last time I did cider it was nice but a little bit dry and the girls said if it was a bit sweeter they would drink it.(Cheaper than bourbon)
We currently make only Coopers lager and Old with the occasional cider thrown in.Tried a Bavarian lager last year and didn't like it a great deal so we'll stick with the tried and tested easy stuff out of the can for now.
Some of the recipes piqued my interest so maybe will throw off the shackles down the track and start to "brew"instead of just making beer.

[Dogger Dan]

WEEKS, gees Louise, I can't wait days

Good for you.

[Oliver]

Hi Sago,

Yep, adding lactose is definitely needed with the Black Rock cider. It's just so bloody dry without it that it's almost unpalatable. A couple of hundred grams should do the trick.

You could also try doing the thing with sliced apples put into a stocking (soaked in boiling water first, especially if they're used!) and put into the fermenter. Adds extra apple flavor.

I found that using some malt instead of all glucose resulted in a cider that, while a bit sweet, wasn't quite right. See the comparison between my No.35 and my No.39 in the "Our homebrews" section of http://www.homebrewandbeer.com.

Cheers,

Oliver