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Anyone into home brew?

Me and two mates just purchased a kit and all the gear and I we are going to start next week ( brumby came in handy driving around looking for milk crates )

Any tips?

Yeah we made quite a few lots a while ago, at one stage we had crates and crates of Euro lager, dark ale, cider and some other beers all homebrew just lying around Still got a few.

There's not much too it, just make sure everything is sterilized (get the sterilizing powder, there are separate ones for the equipment and bottles I think) and don't bottle it too early or you'll having beer explosions in the night Oh and don't let it get cold.

Don't let it get too hot either! It's hard to keep constant but between 18 and 22 degrees works for me.
Also if you can buy good yeast from a brew shop, the extra few dollars really does make a difference to the final product!
Try to avoid using just plain sugar for the brew as well, i use a tin of ale and a 750g tub of golden syrup for one of my recipes, that works well!

Hope that helps and your brews work out!

Sagey

G'day, I've been brewing for a long time, so I thought I'd throw up a few pointers. Absolutely do not use white sugar, it will always come out tasting like home brew rather than good beer. Sanitation is the number one rule. Stable temperature while fermenting is as important as a correct temperature. Ale yeast 18-22 degrees is fine, lager yeast should be cooler, say 12-16. Depends a bit on the yeasts and the beer your brewing. Buying different yeasts than what comes with the can will make a big difference. Brew shops will have a vareity to chose from. Quality ingredients including the yeast will give you quality beer, spend a few extra dollars and enjoy the results.
My advice is to visit your local brew shop and have a chat, at the least you will be set on the right path with sugar/malt pack, hops and yeast. The forums on aussiehomebrewer are a wealth of knowlege of brewing from noobs to the most advanced brewers, just as ausubaru is for subis. These days there is a huge amount of information on the web, so dig around.
Enjoy.

I've just bottled my first lemon cider brew from a brewing kit - the recipe I used to use had it ferment in the bottle but that was a PITA with the over pressurising. These bottles have another 3 days before being chilled for another 2 weeks then we'll see what they turned out like - I made up the recipe as I couldn't find the old one.

Now I've got a ginger beer brew on the go. I still haven't seen any action in terms of CO2 output through the air lock - its been 9 hours now. The brew can recommended temps of 28ish which is what its sitting on.

I don't know the relationship between sugar amount and end flavour when going for something a little stronger in the alcohol department - any info to share would be greatly appreciated. This brew is using raw sugar, the lemon cider was done with white sugar as I didn't know not to use it before reading this.

I've got a kit with a stout brew on its way up the mt next week. That'll be for my mother in-law as she's a Guinness drinker so thought we'd have a go at that for S&G's. Should be fun. Time will tell about how well these other drinks will come out.

Also, how accurate are those little stick on digit thermometres?

Cheers

Bennie

Silverbullet wrote: and don't bottle it too early or you'll having beer explosions in the night

lol lol it happened to me along time ago had smashed glass everywhere cleaned up the mess next day the rest went off
Worth doing tho

Jan

Well I got home for dinner/breakfast/late midnight snack or whatever it is (haven't worked it out yet) the new brew was bubbling away nicely. 6 days - can't wait!

Cheers

Bennie