Home Brew - So what was your first impression

[Scottie]

Considering that Lusty is running a competition, that I have defended this kit in the past, and that most people brew the OS lager kit first I was wondering what everyone's first impression of homebrew was.

First impression, not an educated one or an impression made in retrospect.

I searched out mine, luckily I have used the Coopers forum as a bit of a blog, and well here it is.

 

Still not saying that I'll brew the Lager kit again.

What I am saying is how good is this Home Brew [happy]

[Hairy]

My first home brew was the Lager Kit with Coopers Brewing Sugar. It was fermented around 20 degrees, more out of luck.

 

The ambient temperature was keeping the brew at 18 degrees and after reading the Coopers instructions ([devil] ) I freaked out and wrapped the FV in a blanket to try to increase the temp [biggrin]

 

The end result was one of the best beers I had tasted up to that point. I thought it was a cracker of a beer.

 

It wasn't until my third brew (Fruit Salad Ale with crystal grains) that I realised it could get much better.

 

My 2nd brew was a higher temp fermented Canadian Blonde with BE1 ([sick] ) but I try not to talk about that one.

 

My view is that this hobby isn't just about making good, actually great beer, but also about the satisfaction that you made it yourself.

[Otto Von Blotto]

To be honest, I wasn't all that impressed with it. I made a Tooheys Special Lager with 1kg brewing sugar and fermented at god knows what temperature. It tasted terrible. [lol] However, I decided that instead of chucking in the towel I'd actually try to learn ways to make better beers and discovered this forum and thanks to the advice of the more experienced brewers I started experimenting with hops and grains, also trying to ferment at better temps, then moving to extracts and finally AG. And I really enjoy it too! [biggrin]

[GregT5]

My first brew was the OS Lager with a kilo of brewing sugar.

 

I had trouble keeping it warm enough ([crying] ) according to the instructions. Let it ferment for about 10 days at about 20 degrees, then bottled.

 

Cracked the first one 3 weeks later. It was the best beer I had ever tasted, but I think that had more to do with it being made by me!!

 

My brother-in-law drinks the commercial Coopers Lager & he reckoned it tasted pretty much like that.

 

How things have changed since then.

[Guest]

my first attempt was a double batch, rough as guts deal and i thought it was awesome....not so much in taste just that id found a way to keep intact my beer habits on my pension budget. That was 8 yrs ago and after many many brews...im just learning i know nothing...lol cheers i meant to say it was a double batch of real ale with homebrand white sugar.......i made it that way for years but i must say we were a bunch of beer swilling opal miners lol...also to add im loving this forum and have been scanning the pages...a wealth of knowledge on here...and thankfully a few nutters as well lol...i have had about a year off and have decided to just make better beerstarting with the OS kit.....im sure things will take off from here but quite happy to be learning and getting back on track.

[Andy Ale]

Oh gee WHERE DO I START[biggrin] . As I have mentioned in another thread [love] [love] [love] [love] [love] [love] [love] [love] Man why hadn't I started this earlier. 12 or so yrs ago I tried to HB but [sick] [sick] [sick] [sick] [sick] . Man thank god the interweb actually took off...who woulda thought[roll] [roll] I bought a Coopers FV kit[love] about 3 or so months ago and made the lager but I signed up here first and it was alright, not [sick] but drinkable. My next brew I got was the Celebration kit and made it...[crying] scary stuff these hops that came with it....well had to crack one of those babies @ 9 days in the bottle...hmmmm flat but tasted and smelt fantastic. Needless to say I have 2 tallies left of that brew and in 15 days I will crack them both. Ummm well my addiction has grown to 2 FV's. I will pick up my 3rd FV this week...another Coopers FV. Yes I love it and look forward to making the jump to AG but that will be mid next year.

To finish, this forum has been some of the best help a man could ever ask for. I hope one day I can offer advice like what has been offered to me.

Cheers.

[Scottie]

...The ambient temperature was keeping the brew at 18 degrees and after reading the Coopers instructions ([devil] ) I freaked out and wrapped the FV in a blanket to try to increase the temp [biggrin]

Hey Hairy

Mine was exactly the same except I turned up the heat pump in the family room and sat the FV in there. It was September in Tassie and I remember the missus complaining how I was prepared to let everyone freeze through winter but now had to increase the room temperature just for this home brew.

[Mainiac]

My first HB was horrible and it was completely my fault.

The first lesson in HB is patience. I got the kit on Friday and wanted to brew Saturday but had no sanitizer. Not to worry I work in Smoked Seafood plant so I brought home some Quot sanitizer by far one of the best in the industry. I clean like no tomorrow and sanitize and brew. Everything seemed ok but a few weeks later I tested and so I turned UP the heat. I could not get rid of the chemical taste so I asked our chemical salesperson and after he stopped laughing at me. He told me Quot kills EVERYTHING including yeast.

 

I did not get discouraged (too much) and went back at it. 4 brew later I tried the lager again and thanks to everyone here it turned out pretty good. It seems to lack some pizaz. But a respectable drop.

[LordEoin]

My first homebrew was Coopers Wheatbeer.

My friend wanted souvenir bottles of specially made beer for guests at his 40th, so we made a deal that he pays half of all costs, he gets the first 80 pints and I get to keep all the equipment (2 full sets including heatbelts)

My first impression was that it was simple to do and made great tasting beer. I ended up drinking half his bottles and had to brew him more [biggrin]

[PhilboBaggins]

My first homebrew was Coopers Wheatbeer.

 

[lol] Half your luck mate! Just like most people here my first one was a can of OS Lager (a year past its expiry date[sick].) Came out as dark as hell with some real funny flavours, but I loved it! [happy] [happy]

 

I was just looking for a cheap swig at that stage and continued for several years making slightly better cheap beer each time.

 

I had a break for 3 years, started again last year with the intention of making great beer, and joined this forum.

 

My last 20 brews have been AG and I'm starting to harvest yeast. My first year Chinook is now taller than my house and beginning to produce some flowers. Quite a progression. [innocent]

 

I will admit (to the chagrin of some of you I'm sure [devil]) that I miss the wallet friendly old days of K&K (I think Coopers OS kits were $8-9 in those days) but you just can't beat the fun of putting aside an entire day and a sixer of your finest to get stuck into making a quality batch of HB.[love]

 

Thanks to everyone who patiently helped me on my journey, special mentions to BillK and the Yobster. [rightful]

[Wal]

My first brew was a Mangrove Jack's Classic Blonde Dry, as recomended by the bloke at the home brew store to my wife who very thoughtfully purchased a home brewing kit for my birthday. From memory it came with a body enhancer that the HBS mix them selves which might have been something like 250g Dextrose, 500g LDM, 250g Powdered corn syrup.

 

I mixed it all up in the FV, pitched the yeast and placed it in the garage for 2 weeks. No hydrometer readings, no notice taken of temperatures etc. After 2 weeks of watching the airlock bubble I bottled it, again, with no hydrometer readings at all. The bottles then went to the garage for another couple of weeks. Thinking back, I was probably very fortunate that at that time of year the temperature in the garage was probably close to suitable for this brew.

 

The end result was actually OK, so there's me thinking I am the maker of the best beer ever made!!! [cool]

 

Little did I know then that I would make a couple of very ordinary brews after that using a kg of dextrose [sick] [sick]

 

I then went in search of better methods, knowledge and ingredients and happened upon this forum, from which I have gained great knowledge of methods and ingredients and many laughs along the way.

 

So I suppose you could say that my first impression was - Wow, how easy is this - great beer, cheap beer, and I made it myself!!!

[Guest]

Scottie... Mate... is there any chance of your hop photo not taking up over half my screen?

 

or alternatively can someone explain how to block it? I dont want to block Kylie though [lol]

 

*ed, my first homebrew was [sick] [sick] [sick]

[Scottie]

Scottie... Mate... is there any chance of your hop photo not taking up over half my screen?

Thanks Yob

I have no idea what happened there, the pic wasn't that big yesterday. I noticed it today when I posted on the storing rised yeast thread and promptly deleted it. It grew to about 6 times its size on its own.