Home brewing kits ....

Only all grain wit I'm afraid, not from a kit. Had been tempted to try a kit, but then we moved mostly to all grain. We still do an occasional kit for convenience as they are much quicker to prepare and clean up afterwards.
Are the wheat kits resulting in a clear wheat beer, or a cloudy wit?
 
well my cereza has finished and went down a treat. the cooper real ale has also nearly finished and as my missus rightly said 'you've been brewing for 1 year now, arn't you doing an anniversary brew' i now have to start another. i have a woodfordes sundew next which i will leave at kit strength this time instead of ramping up the %. last 2 kits were 5.3% 's and tasted lovely.

i use a tube to usually get my beer into my barrel, but when i last bottled i used a sterilized measuring jug and poured it in, much quicker. and the spill went straight back into the FV. i will upgrade to a tap on the FV with one of them special filling tubes though.
 
silent said:
i use a tube to usually get my beer into my barrel, but when i last bottled i used a sterilized measuring jug and poured it in, much quicker. and the spill went straight back into the FV. i will upgrade to a tap on the FV with one of them special filling tubes though.
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I was considering using a jug :p. I have seen auto syphon on ebay, but they're £15, which is a bit too much for me to justify, as I don't know if i'll brew a lot. It all depends how this one turns out.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Youngs-Br...230884515393?pt=Home_Brew&hash=item35c1ca1e41

I might get one of these. Should work better than the piece of tubing I got with my kit. The tap on the end would be useful for bottling as well.


Has anyone tried the Coopers Australian Lager kit? I have just done a real ale kit, so wanted to try something a bit different, but haven't got the gear to do a proper lager. Is this one worth a go?
 
Mark A said:
Has anyone tried the Coopers Australian Lager kit?
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Just finishing one up. Looking at my spreadsheet I bottled it on the 24th Aug 2012. I brewed it to kit but with 200g extra dextrose. Lot's of places swap that kit out because it's not rated and they don't want to put first time brewers off with a naff beer the first time they try a starter kit.

I made it purely because it was a gift. I'd say after trying it for the first 90-120 days it was naff. I left it until mid january as I was drinking other stuff and it's actually turned into a very nice drink. Much better than the cerveza in my opinion. I'd probably just do it with the BKE next time and have it as a light/weak refreshing beer. It took a long time to turn into something drinkable but worth the wait in the end.

One thing though, I'm done with the coopers plastics. Each of my sets has done two brews each and this time the bottles have not retained much gas at all despite me using 1 and half carb drops per 500ml. Completely lifeless, compared to when I use glass and caps or grolsch bottles.
 

This guy seemed to like it but I can't tell if hes just sponsored by Coopers so has to say that. Then again he seems to like every brew he makes. Hope I have as much luck :p.
 
silent said:
i use a tube to usually get my beer into my barrel, but when i last bottled i used a sterilized measuring jug and poured it in, much quicker. and the spill went straight back into the FV. i will upgrade to a tap on the FV with one of them special filling tubes though.
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You want to transfer your beer with as little contact with the air as possible, contact with oxygen will destroy it.
 
We've done one, and a few of the Muntons Premium kits (like their Yorkshire bitter kit lots) and all been at least good. I think the Muntons Gold yeast id more floculent too, packs down to a more solid yeast bed after fermentation, so better for syphoning/racking off of.
 
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Sorry for all the questions, i just want to make sure these will do before buying any more. I am going to do another brew soon with the Coopers Lager kit I purchased today. I only have one fv and pressure barrel, so was thinking of using bottles for this lager.

I don't want to buy proper bottles, because if both of these brews turn out crap I probably wont bother again, so don't want to waste too much money on kit. So thought i'd get some cheap 500ml bottles of water from tesco and use the water for the brew, so it's not a waste. Just had a look at the bottles and they seem a bit flimsy, will they take the pressure of the beer? Has anyone else used these type of bottled water from tesco? Not sure whether to buy more or not.

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I personally wouldn't due to the plastic being clear letting all the light at your brew, plus I'm not sure they wouldn't leak. The cheapest method is to ask your local pub for bottles and they will happily give you them. Buy a capping tool and a hundred caps for a few quid.
 
Thanks, I'll look into the capping tool. I was going to store them in the big cardboard box I got my brewing kit in so light wouldnt be a problem. But these bottles just dont seem up to the task. Probably should have gone for the sparkling water as that will have been designed for more pressure.


My brother and sister work at Wetherspoons so I could easily get some bottles. It's a shame they don't sell the grolsch bottles, that would have been perfect :(.
 
Bit Flat (maybe the ikea bottle) but tasty ! O
Ultimate Brewery Classics - Oktoberfest
its bit sweeter than the Hofbräuhaus but hope it will age well.
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Mark A said:
I don't want to buy proper bottles, because if both of these brews turn out crap I probably wont bother again, so don't want to waste too much money on kit. So thought i'd get some cheap 500ml bottles of water from tesco and use the water for the brew, so it's not a waste. Just had a look at the bottles and they seem a bit flimsy, will they take the pressure of the beer? Has anyone else used these type of bottled water from tesco? Not sure whether to buy more or not.

DSC_4619_zps82efeb57.jpg
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i used those bottles on a wheat beer about a year or so ago, the bottles deformed slightly under the pressure (rounded bottoms and the kept falling over, like myself after drinking them i guess ;) ) and i only got one use out of them, felt thinner after, i use glass bottles now, just dont make the brew too fizzy!
 
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