2kturkey

Well tonight I finally got the chance to put my Xmas present to some good use.

My Coopers home brew kit has been languishing in the garage since late December awaiting the arrival of an old fridge which I can use to maintain a constant brewing temperature.

This last week has been the annual local council heavy rubbish collection and I found a suitable size unit on a neighbours nature strip.

It's not a very attractive looking beast but it is the perfect size to accommodate my 30 litre fermentation vat.

So it was off to make some brew and here I am thinking it is simple.

The first mistake was using the wrong water temp so I ended up with a 30 degree brew instead of the ideal 24 degrees. That meant I had to park the vat outside for a couple of hours to cool down befoe I could add the yeast.

Second mistake was also water related. I didn't have my reading glasses on and thought the 23 litre mark was the 20 litre mark so I ended up with 2 more litres of water in my brew than I should.

Hopefully these problems won't have too a deleterious effect and I will end up with a brew slightly watered down. Probably not such a bad thing as alcohol percentages can be quite high if you let things brew too long.

Anyway in 7 days the whole mess should stop fermenting and then it's time for bottling. Another two weeks after that and it's time to begin sampling.


Anyone else had similar experiences and any tips for beginners?

yellafellaS2000

Dare I say it, you are a Turkey! What does it work out to re cost per bottle? What style are you making? What type of beer do you hope it tastes like? Remember don't drink home brew and drive. Are you at Winton on the 9th November?
YellaFella

AusS2000

The GF's brother and his flatmate got into the whole homebrew thing. The had a huge fridge with a keg inside and taps drilled through the door. Very classy.

The beer was pretty good and I believe it worked out very cheap by comparison to retail.

Alister

It will be very interesting to see how it works out 2kturkey - let us know!

I personally don't think I'd have the time, patience or space even for such a setup though. Going by my drinking habits lately (especially Grand Final weekend) I think I'd need a fairly substantial sized setup too (mental note - must cut down on alcohol consumption).

2kturkey

Well, my "burping baby" has settled in well. I call it that because every 5 seconds or so it releases another belch of gas from the fermentation process.

The wort temperature has held constant at 24 degrees for 24 hours which is ideal. This morning it had dropped to 22 so I switched on the 25 watt globe which I have connected inside and that should get it back up to 24 or so by the time I go home tonight.

Each batch of brew is 30 750ml bottles every 7 days so if that is not enough for you Alister then you are a much better (thirstier) man than I.

Total cost per brew is around $12 or 40c a bottle, which I reckon is pretty good. Compared with the retail cost of Coopers, it's a pretty reasonable saving. That's not why I'm doing it though - I'm a big fan of British ales and it is hard to find them locally.

This first batch is regular Coopers (because you get it as a freebie with the kit) but the next is definitely going to be a Tetley's clone.

As for Nov 9, Yellafella, are non-HSCC members welcome? In any case, I'm happy to sling you a bottle or two to try out - who knows, you may become the next turkey.