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$13 brew challenge (Home Brand Draught Kit)


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On 1/7/2021 at 11:27 PM, Quack Brewer said:

1.7kg  Woolies Home Brand Draught Extract Kit for $8.23

$13 brew!? Bah, “tell him he’s dream’n”.

Give me enough time, to have enough leftovers from all my other exbeeriments, and “I’ll try t make yer stinking $8.23 brew!” 🤓

Just a shame I still have 6 ish brews pending in my roadmap first!

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13 hours ago, Pale Man said:

A nice adjunct in stouts and darker beers. Also add mouthfeel in big Ales. Don't be afraid to use porridge in beer. Clears up good anyway. 

 

3 hours ago, Green Blob said:

umm, not something I'd be into

@Pale Man and @Green Blob I have had a crack at the oats in Stout game and did not believe it made much difference...

That said I had a swag of malted Barley Malts, roasted Barley and malted Wheat in there so probs didn't really need the Oatage anyway....

But I don't reckon adding the cooked organic oats into the total grain bill at the mash stage made an ounce of difference.  Sorry.  Maybe it would to a lighter KnK recipe?

 

5 hours ago, Smashed Crabs said:

40% Midori clone and meh I made it sparkly because I can 🤣 

But I am interested SC in how you make a Spirits Clone into a Sparkly Substance that looks dangerous ; )

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12 minutes ago, Smashed Crabs said:

edible glitter.

Haha that is outrageous.... what will be next... glow-in-the-dark edible glitter haha ; )

Luvyerwork SC great stuff... I suspect if you waved that bottle at me I would run in the other direction but that is not to say by any means that it's not a festive invention mate haha!!!🥳

Edited by Graubart
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On 1/12/2021 at 2:52 PM, NicolasW said:

I think you would be better off spending some extra money on malt extract, fresh hops and yeast (or repitched yeast). Possibly a decent kit - can't really comment I've never used Woolworths kits. At end of the day if the beer is horrible and you dump it - the cost you what you have spent plus the cost of the next batch to get one batch (let alone your time wasted).

If I was going to do this I would make 2x kits up to 24- 25 L plus 10% sugar ($17). I would also look for the kits with the latest expiry date. It might be bit bitter (not sure what the IBU is) so maybe the lager kit might work better. See below (coopers kits used as a stand in):

abomination.thumb.JPG.f397c67c976eb2e583f719947027b80b.JPG 

Having said that I am genuinely interest to see how the abomination above goes. So if you go ahead with the above plan please keep us updated.

Looks to be made in Australia (maybe a coopers or brigalow rebrand?)

https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/74631/woolworths-home-brew-draught

yeah, I'm still planning to make the abomination - I have decided to make the Home Brand Kit in 10L so it will have similar characteristics to the above recipe.

I don't care if it's bad, just wanting to try a few techniques and learn from the experience. 

 

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47 minutes ago, Quack Brewer said:

I don't care if it's bad, just wanting to try a few techniques and learn from the experience. 

Crap in = crap out. If your ingredients are rubbish you can't polish turds. I prefer to learn making mistakes knowing the ingredients aren't the limiting variable. Otherwise, you don't learn anything useful from the experience IMO.

What will you deduce from a crap beer - rice syrup was no good, plain sugar is a tasteless fermentable, reusing hops is a bad idea because you've already extracted everything from them on the last brew?

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@Quack Brewer- How are you doing on this? Did you try it out or go for a more usual recipe?

I'm on the side of trying things out. My 2nd brew was a toucan of out-of-date old Coopers lager cans. Took a few weeks but got quite drinkable after that. I tried the woolies route once - went quite plain in the recipe and ended having to add some hops into the keg to make it drinkable. If I did it again I'd boost the recipe with a partial mash and hop tea. But I also used the woolies cans a few times as a LME substitute and that seemed to go well.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/19/2021 at 9:40 AM, Journeyman said:

@Quack Brewer- How are you doing on this? Did you try it out or go for a more usual recipe?

I'm on the side of trying things out. My 2nd brew was a toucan of out-of-date old Coopers lager cans. Took a few weeks but got quite drinkable after that. I tried the woolies route once - went quite plain in the recipe and ended having to add some hops into the keg to make it drinkable. If I did it again I'd boost the recipe with a partial mash and hop tea. But I also used the woolies cans a few times as a LME substitute and that seemed to go well.

Hi Journeyman, I was waiting for space in my brew fridge, but I put it down yesterday with the following to make a $10.00 batch which is a miserly $1.00 per litre.

10 Litres in a 15L Coopers Craft Brew Fermenter. 

1.7kg  Woolies Home Brand Draught Extract Kit for $8.23.    This became a Toucan recipe in 10L.

500 grams of white sugar $0.50 Cents ($1.00 per kilo)

Hops: Reboiled/ recycled dry hops from a previous Brew (and bottled): Centennial, Cascade, and Chinook (originally 15 grams of each): Free (otherwise they would have been discarded)

100 grams (approx) of Buderim Uncrystalised Naked Sweet Ginger (it's around 55% ginger, with the remainder as cane sugar. (about $1.00). I boiled the ginger with the hops for about 10 minutes.

Because I used 10L I didn't end up using the Rice Malt Syrup, or the Rolled Oats, I wanted to reduce the number of variables in the interests of keeping the experiment simple, and to reduce the final ABV top hopefully around 5-6%.

OG is 1060, I'm brewing at 18 Degrees in my fridge, so will hopefully reduce any off-flavours from out of control kit yeast and cane sugar. 

I tasted the sample from when I took the OG, and there is some bitterness from the hops, and a hint of ginger flavour through the unfermented cane sugar.

Will see how it goes, I may dry hop or add something else to taste as I go.... 

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Curious to hear how that turned out. I'm guessing not too good but you never know unless you try. I just started one yesterday with a tin of the Homebrand draught, 500g of rice malt syrup and 1kg of inverted table sugar. Pitched the trub from previous batch which was a toucan of Homebrand lager and draught, and it's taken off like a train. I've never seen such vigorous activity. So there's my $13 brew.

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6 minutes ago, Cheap Drunk said:

Curious to hear how that turned out. I'm guessing not too good but you never know unless you try. I just started one yesterday with a tin of the Homebrand draught, 500g of rice malt syrup and 1kg of inverted table sugar. Pitched the trub from previous batch which was a toucan of Homebrand lager and draught, and it's taken off like a train. I've never seen such vigorous activity. So there's my $13 brew.

Keep us posted @Cheap Drunk

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I should mention I did a Homebrand lager can and a pack of Coopers brewing sugar recently. So $14.23 total if I don't count the carb drops. I bottled a couple after four days and cracked one after three days in the bottle. Was a little undercarbed as you'd expect but very clean and crisp, no funny flavours. Unfortunately after bottling those first two I chucked in a bunch of Saaz and I think it's made it a bit worse, kind of a peppery grassiness that doesn't belong. Still OK. I think I got lucky with the temperature as it was remarkably stable and low for this time of year. Would happily do it again without the hops to see what it's like properly conditioned and carbed. 

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2 minutes ago, Cheap Drunk said:

I should mention I did a Homebrand lager can and a pack of Coopers brewing sugar recently. So $14.23 total if I don't count the carb drops. I bottled a couple after four days and cracked one after three days in the bottle. Was a little undercarbed as you'd expect but very clean and crisp, no funny flavours. Unfortunately after bottling those first two I chucked in a bunch of Saaz and I think it's made it a bit worse, kind of a peppery grassiness that doesn't belong. Still OK. I think I got lucky with the temperature as it was remarkably stable and low for this time of year. Would happily do it again without the hops to see what it's like properly conditioned and carbed. 

Well as most other brewers will tell you there is a certain protocol to follow to make a basic beer. Its all about sanitizing, measurements, temperature control & gravity measures before bottling, get it right should equal good beer.  We all try tasting before we know it's ready but that's OK, I think we all do it. If it's left alone long enough it will improve the quality. I have to keep telling myself that. 🤔

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  • 9 months later...
On 1/11/2021 at 5:23 AM, Journeyman said:

"I've been reading about adding oats to brew as an adjunct and I'm an absolute beginner with this. I can leave these out if it's going to be a problem - should I be looking at flaked oats or quick oats?"

(trying new browser & it's not showing usual buttons for quote etc.)

Oats will add mouth feel to the brew, even if you don't mash them. If you DO mash them you will need another grain in there to provide the enzymes to do conversion.

In Australia, quick oats and rolled oats have both gone through the beginnings of what might be seen as a malting process. i.e. they have been moistened then dried. The caution for oats is more to do with the USA where they have rolled oats that have not been so treated. But quick oats offer a better amount of surface area so I'd use them. Given the perceived 'quality' of the Woolies home brand it might be good to have some body in the beer. 😄

AFAIK, the woolies brand is made in NZ - not positive but pretty sure way back when I saw that on the can. I was trying it out to see if it would make a cheap alternative to LME in an otherwise normal K&K brew.

Thats EXACTLY what im trying to do , see if i can use as cheap LME

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