Advice for a Novice Brewer?

[Kieran Broadfield]

Hi Guys,

New to the Forum, and new to brewing, I've just started my first homebrew yesterday, decided to go for one of them Coopers kits, then just added 1kg dextrose... Hopefully that "simple" kit won't fail on me and I'll end up with something which is at least drinkable.

I'm expecting it not to be very alcoholic, a mate of mine has done them a couple of times, but no matter how much we drink we don't feel much, he leaves the brew to ferment in his garage, which is actually really cool, I tried suggesting he needs a slightly warmer environment, but he's quite stubborn haha.

For my second brew, I'm looking for something better if this goes well, I've seen on the famous YouTube, that some people add different things to these kits to improve them. 

Can anyone suggest any little things I do? I don't want to jump right in at the deep end, just some little improvement on the kits would be good. :)

Kieran

[Ralph]

Doing a search on this forum will offer up much advice. I like this post

http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/forum/topics/simple-things-to-avoid...

And this thread

http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/forum/topics/not-bad-for-a-home-bre...

[Kieran Broadfield]

Thanks Ralph! I will take a look :) 

From what I've read so far, I wish I used a good yeast and not the included one, 

It's all a learning curve though:)

[Dyl]

Mate,

You are in a whole world of trouble! I put down my first beer May last year, and now I'm looking at temperature control, wort chillers, water ph, re-harvesting yeast...you name it. This is an addictive business.

Best advice at this stage is to read thru howtobrew.com and look at kits with extra Dry Malt Extract, and some added hops. Talk to your homebrew store they will hook you up. Look at steeping some grain too, its pretty easy

good luck and go big!

[Kieran Broadfield]

haha, I can already feel myself spending too much money -

but then, we've all got to have some hobbies :P

"go big or go home" haha

I'm planning on a much more complex brew with my second batch, hopefully then at least one of my brews will turn out "ok" haha

[Grant R Baker]

You are in trouble now... but it is the best hobby in the world.

 

Kits are a great place to start... they teach you the most important basic of all, cleaning & sterilisation... so important.

Sex them up (steeping grains, tea bag of hops, use less water etc)... but I advise always trying a kit o'natural then deciding what you what to change.

 

Extract and All Grain brewing are big steps... read everything before you start as the investment in gear and time is quite high compared to Kit brewing.

 

Rough Time to brew, Kit = 40 minutes, Extract 2 hours, All Grain 4-7 hours.

[Kieran Broadfield]

hoping to do an english type ale next (coopers type kit), but add some things to "hopefully" improve it :)

[Grant R Baker]

Teabag some (30gr) Enhlish (Fuggles, East Kent etc) or Kiwi (Motueka, Riwaka etc) hops in boiled water for 10mintes the pour the lot into the fermenter with the rest of the kit, water etc ..  or simply dry hop after primary fermentation (in a hop bag or not) for 7 days the same hops.

If you haven't tried the kit plain tho you will not really know the difference.

[Grant R Baker]

Oh btw.. have a lookc at this, a pretty good attempt with honest feedback on his kit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTOB6ydj7Sw&list=UUZQySoK0y_1q3d...