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Got a DIY beer kit for Christmas? Welcome!


Soundawake

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I too got a DIY kit for Christmas. I however am not allowed to start a brew until I get the shed organised. Unfortunately the other half thinks it is a quick job and can be done in a couple hours....... Well it would except the shed contains my insulated fish room I am currently moving from inside, plus the racks all need a bit of de-rusting and repainting, so it will take a while.

 

Anyway I'm doing a lot of reading and I am glad that it looks like the microbiology I did at Uni might be put to practical use... I'll have to visit the local bottle shop to see if I can find any bottle conditioned beers to try to harvest yeast from in due course.

 

Any way.... Given the fish room is insulated, in winter it doesn't drop below 24 degrees. Is this helpful (apart from lagers)? I also have a disused fridge that the better half insisted I don't sell on flea-bay..... It might not be her spare dinner party platter fridge for much longer.

 

Anyway I will post news when I get my first brew down.

 

Cheers.

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Hey Matthew

Welcome to the forum. Your predicament is not a bad place to be, you will practice patience and learn a heap from this forum.

While you are waiting you should be trying as many craft beers as possible, keeping the bottles and looking for recipe clones. You may already be a craft beer fan rather than a mega swill fan [bandit]. You won't find many clones for a mega swill here [rightful] .

 

Anyway if you haven't already I'd go for:

 

Little Creatures Pale Ale

Fat Yak

James Squire Golden Ale

Gage Roads IPA

These are fairly easy to get close to with the Coopers cans especially the APA.

 

You should also get some Coopers Pale Ale in the long necks, great bottles for home brew and great for re-culturing coopers commercial yeast.

 

Best yet this will be an expensive exercise, so when you start brewing SWMBO will think that it's the best thing since sliced bread.

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I have got out 3 11L spring water bottles and bleached and rinsed them out, they were lying around in the shed.. all clean now.

 

I plan on using Adelaide artesian water from the other brewery as I work around the corner and can easily swing by and get 30L.

 

Yes, I do enjoy craft beers, I do like the Little Creatures Pale and James Squire Golden. I haven't had Fat Yak in a while and I will definitely try the Gage Road IPA.

 

The better half has taken a liking to Rekorderling Ciders, crown seal 500mL bottle [cool] . I salvaged a few from the recycling crates and gave them a good rinse out. I get the feeling I will take some time to get enough bottles to bottle up a whole brew in glass.

 

I think while I am "cleaning the shed" I will clean out the fridge and make it suitable to put the fermenter in.

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I get the feeling I will take some time to get enough bottles to bottle up a whole brew in glass.

Matthew, I was at the Steam Exchange brewery at Goolwa just before Christmas. They sell their empty (used & rinsed) stubbies for 20c each. They are good solid bottles & have crown seal tops. It may be worth a look if you trying out a few of the microbreweries around town & the hills.

 

Oh, and welcome to the obsession. [biggrin]

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just for a different opinion, I only bottles in Longnecks, half the effort on bottling day, less storage space, excuse to buy many Box's of Coopers Pale..

 

Just my opinion, if you enjoy bottling 60 stubbies, good on ya, I didnt [lol]

 

Yob

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just for a different opinion' date=' I only bottles in Longnecks, half the effort on bottling day, less storage space, excuse to buy many Box's of Coopers Pale.. Just my opinion, if you enjoy bottling 60 stubbies, good on ya, I didnt [lol']

Yob

When I started out I was poorly prepared, I knew I didn't want to bottle into PET long term but I only had 12 glass bottles. I went on a bottle crusade grabbing any I could, embarrassing family and friends at Restaurants and scavenging through the recycle boxes at the local tip. As for bottling 60 stubbies or even 30 longnecks the novelty soon wears off.

 

It took about 18 months for me, so much so now that I am only brewing 21 litre batches, after I keg I only have to cap two bottles. Some would say that's two too many [biggrin]

I've now got shed loads of glass bottles to off load. I will however keep my Coopers longnecks for special (rare) bottling occassions

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I used a few, nice sturdy bottles and they look impressive, but the corks are a balls and they're awkward for storage.

 

My preference is 500ml glass brewing bottles.

 

I don't mind bottling so much anymore since I did away with the bottling wand and started bottling directly from the tap.

I usually waste about a pint in spillage, but at lease it keeps my sanity in tact.

 

The one bit of advice I'd offer new brewers regarding bottles is to identify your favorite bottle and stick to it.

Your supplies will build up with time.

Having all of your beers in the same kind of bottle will make storage a lot easier and if you decide to use carbonation drops it will make priming easier too.

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