Home brewing kits ....

Another day at 1.010, I've read that matching hydrometer readings 3 days apart means it should be reaching FG so I think I'll just bottle on Saturday as it'll have been the same for 7-8 days now, it'll have been 2 weeks in total. Maybe I'm just being impatient but I want to start my next brew :p
 
I'm looking for a new kit - ideally a blonde ale (but not a lager). Something along the lines of Badger's Golden Champion, or Fuller's Honeydew. Maybe a pale ale, or lighter IPA?

I had some success with the Woodforde Wherry, but may not have used enough water hence it was fairly strong!

Any suggestions?
 
Just tried a bottle of my Coopers Australian lager and it has turned out much better than my first attempt :). It's not bad at all, i'm actually quite impressed. The brew enhancer as certainly made a difference and I wont be using white sugar again. It's only been in the bottles for 3 weeks and 3 days so hopefully it will get even better in a few weeks.

I put 2 x Coopers carbonation drops into each 500ml bottle after reading on a few forums and it was perfectly carbonated. The lids do seem to loosen over time so I have been checking a few every few days. I think this could be why some people have had had trouble with flat beer in PET bottles.

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I'm thinking of trying a two can ale kit next. Will have a look at the Festival ones that seasbiscuit recommended, or maybe the wherry as that seems pretty popular.
 
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Looks good, well done. I must admit I have never check tightened my Pets and will if I ever use them again. Bottled my Pils today, so now have all three of my proper lagers in secondary conditioning and half a batch of the euro lager left.

That's me done now with the temp control stuff until next winter, I have an Coopers premium Indian Pale Ale to do when I get a couple of dozen more kopparberg bottles :)

 
just about to bottle my coopers euro lager, smells good now and OG was 1042 and BG is 1010 so works out at 4.8% ruffly. going into 1 ltr pets with 2 drops and leave in the shed for about 10-12 wks, may test after 8. then will get straight on with my woodfordes sundew kit for the keg.
 
I would still rather use vwp as its an excellent cleaner too. My bottles are sparkling after using it each time and you just leave them for 5 minutes then rinse out. It gets rid of any beer in the bottles and sterilises them.
 
VWP here as well. No problems using it so far. Make sure to rinse well as it does leave a slight residue.

Couldn't resist so tried some of my Coopers European last night. Plenty of carbonation despite being in a plastic keg. Slightly eggy smell and a fairly bland tasting beer, both of which I've read were to be expected from this beer at this stage so no real concerns as of yet.

Should come out fairly well this one :)
 
dannyjo22 said:
I would still rather use vwp as its an excellent cleaner too. My bottles are sparkling after using it each time and you just leave them for 5 minutes then rinse out. It gets rid of any beer in the bottles and sterilises them.
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Rinsing with water risks introducing bacteria. While I use vwp to remove odors and stains from buckets I find have to rinse many times to remove that chlorine taste from the items washed. Hence I would recommend a no rinse cleaner for last stage bottling/kegging
 
dannyjo22 said:
Well rinsing with water isn't going to introduce anymore bacteria than the water you add to the brew anyway. Never had any chlorine issues either.
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Apart from in brew water microbes have to compete against full on yeast fermentation. ' leaving it in bottles to condition at room temp for weeks 'I'd rather not risk making sour beer.
But then I have to use bottle water due to odd taste in Bristol water.
 
Opened a bottle of my Mexican Cerveza which has been bottled for a little over 2 weeks now. Tell you whats, its actually alright!! It feels quite light and refreshing, i can definately see myself drinking lots of it in the summer!

Not going to drink anymore until its had a bit longer in the bottles. Also bottled my Coopers Irish Stout last night, had a quick sip from the hrydrometer tube and that tastes nice!
;)
 
seabiscuit said:
A serious question because I don't know the answer. Would the higher alcohol levels and the change in pH mean that conditions would be a bit harder for other bacteria anyway?
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Yes your right it does make it less hospitable , but not imposable.

First lets have look at what could be in your unboiled/non-filtered tap water
http://dwi.defra.gov.uk/consumers/advice-leaflets/standards.pdf


The best you do is sanitize things.
In a home setting were unable to have sterile conditions (Autoclave etc). homebrewed beer will always have some amount of unwanted micro-organisms (bacteria, wild yeast, etc.)

Unwanted micro-organisms can create noticeable off-flavours. A small amount of bacteria/wild yeast will not be able to produce a noticeable off-flavour. So with being as clean as possible you should be fine.

infection is of greatest concern is during the wort phase (or right out off the kit). When there is wort, which is basically just sugar water.

The beer that you bottle only has the food of priming sugar available to micro-organisms for a short period of time (the two/three week carbonation time). After that, there is no food for either the beer yeast or the micro-organisms to consume. There is a caveat that there are some food sources (e.g., starch) which can be consumed by some bacteria that the beer yeast will not use. If the micro-organism level is low then this would not result in noticeable off-flavours.

(info from hombrewtalk)
micro-organism out compete the ones before.

(1 to 7 days) Enteric Bacteria and Kloeckera Apiculata
(2 weeks +) Saccharomyces ( wild yeast / dorment yeast)
(3 to 4 months) Lactic Acid Bacteria
(6 months) Brettanomyces plus Pichia, Candida, Hansenula and Cryptococcus

But when it comes to long term storage of homebrewed beers the largest concern is oxidation.

so you should be fine if your as clean as possible.
 
Anyone ever souped up a one-can kit by doing a mash/boil of basemalt to give it a bit more fresh malt goodness? We've steeped crystal malts and then boiled hops for a couple of minutes in that for a bit more hop aroma before now, but just trying to think of ways to spruce up a couple of basic kits that we've put off using.
 
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