Home Brew Beer

[Oldbloke]

Unlike many shooters here I'm into a few sports/hobbies.

Sooo,,, I have been brewing since May 1988. Long time now. About 90% are middies. I don't get into mashing and all grain brewing. Buy a can add some malt or sugar. Drink in 3 months. Predominantly brew Coopers and always get a great beer.

Now I'm retired I have a bit more time so I intend to do a few "easy" recipes. I figure variety is the spice of life.

I'll bottle a Coopers Nut Brown Ale tomorrow.

I mainly do Dark Ales and Stouts.

Who else is into home brew and what are you brewing?

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[bigpete]

I've made mead,plum wine,various beers,ginger beer,and distilled all sorts of stuff.

You're definitely not the only one with many other hobbies....

[Blr243]

I have drunk home made wine that was beautiful and also rather potent ...and I have drunk home brew that was exceptionally good making me think the bloke really knew what he was doing. And once I drank a half a glass of home brew that tasted wrong so I did not finish the glass. It had a strong chemical flavour. I’d did not get me drunk but it gave me a three day headache. Perhaps if I did drink the whole glass I might have died. There was def something terribly wrong with that beer. I think making your own booze carries the same level of responsibilities as reloading. Safety is crucial. Never tried making my own booze myself. Not much of a drinker

[bigpete]

I have drunk home made wine that was beautiful and also rather potent ...and I have drunk home brew that was exceptionally good making me think the bloke really knew what he was doing. And once I drank a half a glass of home brew that tasted wrong so I did not finish the glass. It had a strong chemical flavour. I’d did not get me drunk but it gave me a three day headache. Perhaps if I did drink the whole glass I might have died. There was def something terribly wrong with that beer. I think making your own booze carries the same level of responsibilities as reloading. Safety is crucial. Never tried making my own booze myself. Not much of a drinker

Thats the funny thing,I'm not much of a drinker either,but its interesting. I've made really bad tasting stuff,and exceptionally good tasting stuff,and some stuff that tastes ordinary to begin with that ended up tasting fantastic after sitting in a container for a few years.
The main thing is cleanliness. Gotta make sure everything is spotless and soap and chemical free before brewing,even a tiny bit of soap residue in the bottles will make the contents taste crappy .

[Oldbloke]

Yes, cleanliness is everything. Fermentation temperature closely follows that.

I've only had 2 or 3 duds.
1 I think not clean/sanitised enough.
2 temperature related.

All the others have been fine. Most fantastic. Lol

[on_one_wheel]

Perfect head and rich colour

I've nailed my favourite summer brew down to Coopers ale with a generous helping of Cascade hops, it's simple and very delicious.

[Oldbloke]

Perfect head and rich colour

I've nailed my favourite summer brew down to Coopers ale with a generous helping of Cascade hops, it's simple and very delicious.

Good onya. I fail to understand why so many make it complicated and a lot of work. With all the can kits available it should be easy. And Coopers are the kings of Home Brew I reckon.

The last thing we want is Coopers staff coming down with covid. That would be the pits big time.

[on_one_wheel]

Perfect head and rich colour

I've nailed my favourite summer brew down to Coopers ale with a generous helping of Cascade hops, it's simple and very delicious.

Good onya. I fail to understand why so many make it complicated and a lot of work. With all the can kits available it should be easy. And Coopers are the kings of Home Brew I reckon.

The last thing we want is Coopers staff coming down with covid. That would be the pits big time.

Coopers are definitely #1 in my book as well, I remember a time when they were unheard of outside SA, it's great to see them doing so well.

I did know a guy who made beer from scratch, milling grains, growing hopps and loads of wizz bang stainless equipment, pumps, coolers, controllers, big fridge converted into a controlled environment... $$$$
He made nice beer but that's getting into things far more than I'm prepared to.
The most technical bit I do is boil the wort to extract some bitterness from the hops, I let it cool naturally in the fermenter before pitching the yeast... other than that I'm still basically fermenting beer in a fancy bucket

[boingk]

I've done the lot, from kit-n-kilo through to all grain. Nowdays I don't brew much as I'm time poor - busy job young family blah blah blah.

If I do a brew it's kit-n-bits. Usually a half kilo of dextrose, half of malt, 100g of grain steeped in hot water and the liquid added for more flavour, then a dryhopping addition while fermenting.

A lot better product for not much extra trouble.

If you desire a clean, crisp beer (a pseudo-lager, if you will) I believe the Safale US-05 is one of the best yeasts around. Keep her at 16'C or so and you'll have a great product.

[Oldbloke]

Plenty of good recipe's here. Some easy, some hard.

https://www.diybeer.com/au/recipes/

[bigpete]

Mate made a batch of beer from a depression/WW2 era recipe his mum gave him,it was actually really tasty,kinda like a cross between a hop beer and a ginger beer.

[Lsfan]

I did it once using the coopers kit to impress my father in law to be at the time. Haven't done it since. I followed the instructions precisely and found the result to be fairly average. Just seemed the gas was harsh/ coarse to the pallet if that makes any sense. I used carbonation drops. I'd like to try it again some time.

[Oldbloke]

I did it once using the coopers kit to impress my father in law to be at the time. Haven't done it since. I followed the instructions precisely and found the result to be fairly average. Just seemed the gas was harsh/ coarse to the pallet if that makes any sense. I used carbonation drops. I'd like to try it again some time.

Ive been doing this for yonks. I don't like to go to too much trouble but there a few tricks to KISS and can have pretty significant improvements to your product. Like everyone I started out just following the coopers instructions on the can. You get good beer. However like all things there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Cleanliness is next to godliness. Ensure the FMV is spotless & sanitise it. Boiling water for sanitising does the job.
Clean bottles. I don't bother sanitising them just very clean.
Temperature. Try to maintain 18c to about 24c. 20 to 22 is about ideal.
Instead of sugar add a coopers brew enhancer #3 500g to 1000g or Malt, dried or liquid.
Forget the carbonation drops. Bulk prime.
How, Don't fill fermenter to 23 ltr as the instructions tell you. Instead fill the FV to 21 ltr. Then before bottling mix about 200g of sugar with hot water to dissolve. Once its cooled gently stir it in about 30 minutes before bottling, allow to settle and bottle, Cheaper and easier.
Use a tube on the little bottler to make bottling mush easier. Skip to 4.30 seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctvIVdBJ2kE

[Lsfan]

I did it once using the coopers kit to impress my father in law to be at the time. Haven't done it since. I followed the instructions precisely and found the result to be fairly average. Just seemed the gas was harsh/ coarse to the pallet if that makes any sense. I used carbonation drops. I'd like to try it again some time.

Ive been doing this for yonks. I don't like to go to too much trouble but there a few tricks to KISS and can have pretty significant improvements to your product. Like everyone I started out just following the coopers instructions on the can. You get good beer. However like all things there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Cleanliness is next to godliness. Ensure the FMV is spotless & sanitise it. Boiling water for sanitising does the job.
Clean bottles. I don't bother sanitising them just very clean.
Temperature. Try to maintain 18c to about 24c. 20 to 22 is about ideal.
Instead of sugar add a coopers brew enhancer #3 500g to 1000g or Malt, dried or liquid.
Forget the carbonation drops. Bulk prime.
How, Don't fill fermenter to 23 ltr as the instructions tell you. Instead fill the FV to 21 ltr. Then before bottling mix about 200g of sugar with hot water to dissolve. Once its cooled gently stir it in about 30 minutes before bottling, allow to settle and bottle, Cheaper and easier.
Use a tube on the little bottler to make bottling mush easier. Skip to 4.30 seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctvIVdBJ2kE

Yeah I knew there would be some tricks to it. I like trying different beers. I made it a mission to try as much as I could. I've forgotten how many different beers I've tried, but I lean towards strong beers to avoid consuming too much bloating liquid. I like the Belgian stuff and I'm sure a bit more goes into that stuff, being 10% plus.
Some good tips OB. Maybe when my boys get older I'll have more time to experiment with such things and that will be one of my hobbies too.

[boingk]

Yeah I knew there would be some tricks to it. I like trying different beers. I made it a mission to try as much as I could. I've forgotten how many different beers I've tried, but I lean towards strong beers to avoid consuming too much bloating liquid. I like the Belgian stuff and I'm sure a bit more goes into that stuff, being 10% plus.
Some good tips OB. Maybe when my boys get older I'll have more time to experiment with such things and that will be one of my hobbies too.

Try a Cooper's Sparkling Ale kit made to direction if you can get your hands on the ingredients.

Failing that, get a Pale Ale kit and a Cerveza kit from the supermarket. Add both tins to the fermenter, both yeasts and another 500g dextrose.

She'll end up pretty strong and aromatic and the very light malt in the Cerveza kit should give a good finish. If you can't find the Cerveza kit just use 500g malt and 1kg dextrose for a similar effect on top of the Cooper's Pale Ale kit.

[Lsfan]

Yeah I knew there would be some tricks to it. I like trying different beers. I made it a mission to try as much as I could. I've forgotten how many different beers I've tried, but I lean towards strong beers to avoid consuming too much bloating liquid. I like the Belgian stuff and I'm sure a bit more goes into that stuff, being 10% plus.
Some good tips OB. Maybe when my boys get older I'll have more time to experiment with such things and that will be one of my hobbies too.

Try a Cooper's Sparkling Ale kit made to direction if you can get your hands on the ingredients.

Failing that, get a Pale Ale kit and a Cerveza kit from the supermarket. Add both tins to the fermenter, both yeasts and another 500g dextrose.

She'll end up pretty strong and aromatic and the very light malt in the Cerveza kit should give a good finish. If you can't find the Cerveza kit just use 500g malt and 1kg dextrose for a similar effect on top of the Cooper's Pale Ale kit.

OK thanks for the tip. Sounds like you know your stuff. I may need to give it another go.

[Rutabaga]

Used to do a lot of all-grain brewing, don't really have the time for it now. At the time, I would have argued that I had to drink a lot of beer to support my brewing hobby. The wife might argue that I had to brew a lot of beer to support my drinking hobby.

Coopers kit+BE2+recultured bottle yeast is great and about as close as you'll get to coopers without using the 'blackboard recipe'.

My go-to kit is usually 1xcan coopers stout, 1x can coopers dark and 400g brown sugar. Make sure you have a 30L fermenter or a blow-off tube. It can sometimes go off like a rocket during the ferment.

[Oldbloke]

"My go-to kit is usually 1xcan coopers stout, 1x can coopers dark and 400g brown sugar. Make sure you have a 30L fermenter or a blow-off tube. It can sometimes go off like a rocket during the ferment."
Rutabaga

Yeh, that sounds like a nice stout. I mostly do dark ales, english bitter and stouts. A little plunger coffee added to a stout is nice.

[on_one_wheel]

How about the hipster crouds, using bizarre ingredients like slices of pizza, and yeasts harvest from places that we'd probably rather not imagine a high yeast count.

[Oldbloke]

How about the hipster crouds, using bizarre ingredients like slices of pizza, and yeasts harvest from places that we'd probably rather not imagine a high yeast count.

Not into that but i have heard of strange additives.

I did a couple of stouts yonks ago.
1 can stout
1 kg DM
1 can black plums. Pips removed.

After 6 months it was very nice indeed.

[Oldbloke]

Im puting an Extra Smooth Bitter in the FV tomorrow. But i will use Enhancer #3 instead.
Very easy.

https://www.diybeer.com/au/recipe/extra ... itter.html