DagBoy

Well - for anyone else interested too

Petey was asking about home brew. I am not an expert but I do brew my own so this is what I have found.

You can buy home brew starter kits from most large supermarkets. The two brands I see the most are Coopers and Brigalow. Since I like Coopers ales, I went for the Coopers one. I don't know how much the kit was - it was a Father's day present from the little DagBoys - but I could find out.
The kit had:
Fermenter - about 30 litre container with airtight lid and a tap near the bottom
Airlock - sits in a hole in the lid and lets the gas out
Can of beer concentrate and sachet of yeast
30? x 750 ml plastic bottles and lids
Carbonation capsules (measured sugar dose for priming the bottles to get secondary fermentaion and gas up the beer in the bottle)
Stick on thermometer
hydrometer (for measuring specific gravity)
Instruction book
Instruction video
I cannot remember if the kit had brewing sugar in it - probably.

The original kit came with a lager concentrate in it I think. I followed the detailed instructions to the letter and it failed dismally. So... I bought a Coopers real ale kit (concentrate and yeast about $10, sugar about $4) and tried again. That one worked fine and was soon bottled and drunk
I then tried a third time and it failed again at which point I realised that I was probably killing the yeast by letting the wort get too warm (bloody Queensland weather !)
Since then, the instructions included notes for warmer climates and everything has worked well. The last two kits I got, the instructions are even simpler. The original ones tell you to add 2 litres boiling water then 21 litres of cold water (or some such). Now they just say put in some boiling water, fill it up to the 20 litre mark, add boiling, hot, cold or ice to get a final temp in the right range.

I generally keep to the Coopers Real Ale or the Coopers Bitter - but there are kits for Ale, Lager, Pils, Stout etc I think. I also had a kit for making ginger beer and made a batch of alcoholic ginger beer (only about 4% alc - very refreshing).

The approximate outlay to make about 20 - 25 litres of beer is the concentrate/yeast ($10), sugar ($4), sterilising solution (about $2.5 worth a batch I guess) and carbonation drops ($3?).

You can buy the bottles and lids (PET) or you can get glass ones and buy a thing for putting crimped crown lids on. I re-use the ones I have and also use 1.5 litre fizzy drink bottles. they are ugly but functional. I have so far had one bottle explode during secoondary fermentation

Hope this is of interest,
Cheers,

DagBoy

Pollyana

Sounds good! As Mrs Dagboy has kindly invited myself and my Bloke round for a few beers when I get to Brissie, you can give me some tips! Tried my first lot of homebrew lager recently - had to use up the kit someone gave me (rather than try and bring it with me) but I didn't have the proper bucket and stuff, just improvised. It was drinkable (which surprised me) if not world-shattering! I'd like to have a second go, so I'll print off your instructions and give it a go in Brissie!
And my Bloke thinks he's getting such a civilised ladylike wife!

cresta57

Thanks for that very important tip I'll be brewing my own ale and if they are available brewing the prohibition peach schnapps for the good lady.

PeteY

Thats fantasic Dagboy, thanks for taking the time to type all that out !

Definatly will give it a shot i think. Last time I tried i ended up with a kind of flat yeasty, well....tea? Was nasty stuff. Hopefully...i will get it right with a coopers kit.

Tried doing wine once too. Tasted just like vinegar

Thanks

Pete.

Megalania

Beer and wine MUST be fermented in the ABSENCE of oxygen unless you WANT vinegar or off tastes. The small amount of dissolved oxygen in the water and brewer vessel air space is all that is required to start the yeast. Hence bubblers etc.