Home brewing

[Robbiep]

Hi guys,

I was wondering if any of you have much experience in home brewing?

I’m considering getting one of those Coopers DIY Homebrew kits from BigW.

From what I can see, it doesn’t appear to be too much effort, but i might be wrong?

Also, is it worth the effort making your own beer? i.e. does it work out much cheaper?

Look forward to hearing from you guys with “home brewing” experience.

Cheers,
Robbie

 

[starter]

I did it a lot when I was 15/16 with a bunch of mates, easy way to get alcohol when underaged.

Also used the coopers kit and it worked very well. You can make 25-30l worth for $15, so extremely cheap. They tasted pretty good as well, you don't get the crisp taste as the filtered lagered but if you like beer then it's fine. Then once you get more into it you can start doing your own malt instead of using the kit too to more refined the taste. Effort wise, it's not too hard but can be time consuming so I would suggest doing it with a mate so you guys can have a yarn at the same time. As for tips, I can't emphasise cleaning enough, it's the most important thing and will also make the beer taste much better.

Also worth doing is brewing some cider as well, very tasty.

 

[Shaneelastic]

I've always said I'd give the drink away if I ever had to brew my own.

 

[geoffw]

I used to brew beer many years ago when the budget was tight. Also in England when beer was expensive. I also made wine (from mixes) in England with reasonable successful results. Back in Australia wine was too cheap to worry about making.

I have injured myself badly from bottling beer- the caps used to be put on using a hand held device with a hammer- a bottle broke and inserted itself into my hand.

There are companies where you can make your own and have it bottled of canned for you. Brewing was easy, bottling was messy, cleaning the bottles was time consuming.

I don't drink now.

 

[Fifth]

Never brewed my own beer. My dad did when I was a kid. He had a plastic brewing tub thingamajig on the kitchen table. When I visited I'd play cards and boardgames at the kitchen table and the brewing tub thingamajig would bubble every so often. I found it soothing - a zen-like water feature. Not much help, sorry!

 

[austini]

I'm married to the perfect woman. My wifes love brewing but doesn't really drink much of it. She gets pleasure out of seeing me enjoying it (in moderation). She only started doing this about six months ago but the quality of the beer is so good now that I prefer it to anything I can buy no matter how expensive it is. The fantastic thing about brewing your own is the ability to tailor beers to your own taste and create unique beers that you just can't buy. There are fantastic website forums, uTube videos etc where one can get plently of great info.

Unfortunately given that she has the expertise I can't advise much on the process. But I do assist in the cleaning/bottling. One thing that seems to be critically important is sterilisation and cleanliness. But with the right products this is very quick and easy.

In regard to brewing kits she did start of with the Coopers one and still uses it but prefers the one shown in the following link as it has a sealed top with air lock:

http://www.brewcellar.com.au/beerrange/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=93

Also check out Store Locations shown in the following link as there may be a store close to you. We purchased ours from a store in Brisbane which offers the products the same price as online and sometimes cheaper when sales are on:

http://www.brewcellar.com.au/stores.asp

I think cost wise brewing your own once you are setup works out at about a third of the cost of most standard retail beer. However given the quality of the beers that my wife is brewing now you should really be comparing the cost against expensive boutique beers. Hence brewing your own when compared against these is much much cheaper.

Cheers - Happy beer drinker

 

[Jamie M]

There are companies where you can make your own and have it bottled of canned for you. Brewing was easy, bottling was messy, cleaning the bottles was time consuming.

U brew it does this - I've been to the one in Hume, ACT a couple of times.

It's a fun way to spend a couple of hours - making your own brew and getting creative with labels. Just try to pick a decent beer to create though - last time we went, we tried being a bit to fancy and brewed 100 cans of the most horrible concoction you could imagine. I'll never forget the dreaded "honey cream lager" -we couldn't give it away.

I think u brew it they might have franchises across the country.

Cheers

Jamie

 

[xanh]

Brewing beer was fun but for me the novelty wore off because of the time spent cleaning and sterilising.

It is quicker if you use 750ml bottles but then you're forced to drink that much at a time (fine for some people) or drink with others, of course. No good if you want one for breakfast

The Coopers stuff is ok but not great. You'll need to get more adventurous and start adding in your own hops/malt etc. to give it more taste. I did make some better batches that way but never got rid of that distinctive 'home-brew' taste. Many have, though, so don't let that put you off.

You can get mechanical bottle cappers that are well worth it if you plan to do more than a few batches. Much easier and no smashed bottles.

Making your own is heaps cheaper even when you start adding ingredients. My local home-brewing shop used to have 'recipes' for various commercial beers based on the basic Coopers (or other brand) tin plus some other stuff.

BTW, your first batch will go real quick as everyone wants a try.

Also, leave it for at least 3 months after bottling. It needs to age a bit. The more the better. Don't get impatient and drink it before then.

Still, lots of fun (and beer) even if you only do it for a while.

 

[The Y-man]

No beer in our house, but my wife has brewed red rice wine.

The Y-man

 

[Brady]

Still haven't tasted a good home brew, always been amatures which always has that same bland heavy taste.

Just like investing get on forum and learn from others

 

[kathryn d]

Years ago when we were in our 20s, home brewing and swishing was popular.It was a lot cheaper, but it seemed because there was cheaper, it was consumed more....not always a good idea.

My friend's husband was making his too. He had stopped smoking cigs except when he had a beer. Then he realised he was drinking, so he could justify having a cig

 

[depreciator]

I reckon it would be a good thing to do with a couple of mates.
At least when you get a dud batch there would be fewer to drink yourself.
A mate of mine does home brew. He also makes ginger beer, which is very good. Earlier this year he made a batch of beer and mustn't have cleaned stuff well enough because the beer had the faintest of ginger taste to it. Gee, it was nice. Of course, it was one of those accidents that will be impossible to replicate.

 

[flyingace]

For a few years I made a brew every month. The various Coopers flavours were the ones I stuck to and found them most reliable but I never really mastered it and could never get rid of the 'home-brewy' taste. I never had a failure though even with doubtful cleaning procedures, Coopers lager and the Coopers Mexican one were good but I can't remember the others I tried and decided to avoid in the future.
I used 1.25 litre soft drink bottles which can be used again and again. Being purpose built for pressure you never get a breakage and are easy to handle.
As for cleaning I simply rinsed a bottle out when empty and cleaned it out with the washing up later. Then I just stored it away in a cupboard until the next batch. Worked every time.

The cider is good for a refreshing summer drink but my partner didn't like me drinking it much as she said it gave me wicked bad breath. And the hangovers - ugh!
The ginger beer you can get is ok but not very gingery. I overcame this by adding some powdered ginger to the initial mix for a stronger flavour.

I never found out how strong my brews were alcohol wise and just followed the instructions on the can and used guesswork as to when to bottle. After mixing a brew I would put the barrel on top of the hot water cylinder and just let the fermentation process race away. Five or six days later it was ready. I only let mine age for a month before drinking as I found it didn't seem to make much difference if left for one month or three. Maybe the quality of the stuff wasn't that good to begin with.

Cheers!

 

[BayView]

My experiences with home brews seem to have only ever been with the "rugged and buggered, aussie battler" types who always seem to have too many days at the end of their money, buy crap old VN's and Falcons because they are cheap, then spend (not much good money after bad keeping the clunkers on the road (in a dangerous state of repair).

Not saying all home brewers are like this, and it is no doubt a bit of fun as a hobby; but you know what I mean.

So have never been able to get my head around the concept - even if it is cheaper.

I mean; how much cheaper justifies all the effort and time required?

If ya can't afford to go down to the local IGA and buy a few can/s or stubbies/slab or whatever when on special; don't drink at all and chuck the balance into your super, cause you are gunna need it.

 

[VYBerlinaV8]

I home brew semi regularly, and have for about 12 years now. My wife gave me a home brew kit for Valentine's Day!

The idea is to follow the recipe the first few times, then start trying different things. I've found the standard 'beer' to be ok for a hot afternoon, but not really a premium beer. I've had very good results with the ginger beer varieties, though, and people often ask for it when they come to visit.

It's a bit of fun, and costs bugger all. I brew into glass longnecks (I have a couple of hundred in the garage), and find I can brew 26-28 longneecks for about 15 bucks of ingredients.

Some people take it very seriously, but I don't. At the end off the day, it's only beer, and I'm not a big drinker.

 

[weg]

My experiences with home brews seem to have only ever been with the "rugged and buggered, aussie battler" types who always seem to have too many days at the end of their money, buy crap old VN's and Falcons because they are cheap, then spend (not much good money after bad keeping the clunkers on the road (in a dangerous state of repair).

I associate home brew with poor uni students and TA's that made the stuff, then took it to parties but drank everyone elses shop bought beer instead.

I don't know who the scabs thought they were fooling .

 

[Robstar]

I brew my own from time to time. Actually I have one that's ready to be bottled probably on Saturday. I just use the Coopers cans too. The worst bit is washing the bottles...

 

[beachside]

The worst bit is washing the bottles...

You are so right. I have brewed for 30 years although I don't do it as much as I used to. Some people just rinse their stuff with tap water, I sterilise everything and then rinse, boil water before adding to fermenter to remove any chlorine, then cool, very time consuming.

I started with a Brigalow kit (crap beer) and have tried many tins from various kit beer manufacturers local and o/s. The Coppers stuff in the supermarkets is nearly as good as you can get, but the price starts adding up if you use the optional ingredients - dextrose or other mix instead of straight white sugar, a bag of special hops for improved flavour, finings to make sediment settle better etc etc. There used to be a few home brewing shops around but many have disappeared.

I use a lever action bottle capper as I also had an accident years back holding the capper on the bottle and tapping it down over the cap - bottle broke. I used to use long necks but I thought I would try capping a screw top stubbie one day - worked great so I tossed the long necks as stubbies are so much more convenient.

I also used to make ginger beer. I had some stored in an old wardrobe under the house to mature and one exploded one night which set off chain reaction. I had to get the rest in the fridge to kill any more fermentation from the sugar used to prime when bottling - I dressed myself up like a SWAT team member ... my crash helmet, welding goggles, parker, ski gloves, jeans. I then cautiously wrapped a towel around each bottle before removing from wardrobe - it was like diffusing a bomb ... well they were actually!

The end result oh home brewing can be a bit hit and miss, you only need the slightest thing to go wrong with fermenting or bottling and the flavour or amount of gas can be wrong.

 

[Delilah]

Geesh some of you hold poor thoughts on the good ol' home brewer

My husband brews from scratch, buys the grain and all (it's called all grain brewing). He kegs it and makes a really great drop. There's a real science to it and he enjoys every bit of it. He started out with the tins from woolies, then went to liquid wort, now does all grain. Reckons the beer in the shop is all crap, since he's been all grain brewing.

Like you said beach side, it was so hit and miss, especially with the tin jobs but since all grain, he's really got it to a fine art.

 

[OKFFW]

This is probably a dumb question but can beer be made from anything other than grains? I know some spirits are made from other stuff but I've never heard of beer being mad from anything but grains.