Hairy Posted September 14, 2017 Share Posted September 14, 2017 Andrew, whereabouts in Sydney are you based? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouette Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 Hi Harry I live in Northmead, and work in the city. Always keen to find some of the darker brews, but quite like the lighter stuff as well, as long as it's decent! I have friends up at Anna Bay and when visiting quite often drop in at Murray's Brewery - they have some really nice beers going - their Dark Knight is very good, although their wines are crap, it's just bottled mass produced stuff. cheers Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 Hi Harry I live in Northmead' date=' and work in the city. Always keen to find some of the darker brews, but quite like the lighter stuff as well, as long as it's decent! I have friends up at Anna Bay and when visiting quite often drop in at Murray's Brewery - they have some really nice beers going - their Dark Knight is very good, although their wines are crap, it's just bottled mass produced stuff. cheers Andrew[/quote'] Plenty of craft beer bars in and around the city. Probably not a huge amount around Northmead. If you are after a bottle shop you should check out Wenty North Liquor. It has a pretty good range. You could also join the Western Sydney Brewers home brew club and drink other people's beer for free Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouette Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 Plenty of craft beer bars in and around the city. Probably not a huge amount around Northmead. If you are after a bottle shop you should check out Wenty North Liquor. It has a pretty good range. You could also join the Western Sydney Brewers home brew club and drink other people's beer for free There is an excellent bottle shop on the corner of Kleins Road and Windsor Road (not sure which Windsor - Old or New) which sells a heck of a lot of imported beers - stuff you don't usually see very much of in this country - even Fijian beer! Have a huge range of Belgian beers. cheers Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GowanBrah Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 Hi All, Long time reader first time poster. I too like many others grabbed the Craft Kit after many weeks of browsing the forum. Wanted to get into it to save a bit of cash while still being able to drink something nice/to my tastes so we will see how it goes. I have the Bewitched that came with the kit conditioning at the moment with a week to go, Jumped on the 20% off at Big W a few weeks ago and stocked up so have a Coopers APA in the FV now at 11.5L thanks to one of the members suggestions. I plan to use this as a base to go off then experiment with hop additons etc, 6 days in the FV at at the moment. My biggest concern/roadblock before taking the plunge and not wanting to spend a lot of money was keeping the FV at a temp suitable. After exploring many of the cooler spots around the house with a thermomenter I had a lightbulb and remembered I have a chest freezer (not plugged in) in the shed. The Bewitched was around the 20 degree mark for most of the brew, however with a few hot days coming now in Brisbane I've got a shopping cooler bag over the FV and during the day rest a lunch box ice bricks on top and a few in the freezer. Has kept the temp between 17-19 so far so hopefully thats good news. Anyway, thanks to all the members for sharing thier insights and experiences. It's been a great help so far! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergy1987 Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 So being the impatient person that I am - I currently have one brew in the fermenter, and one conditioning in bottles....and all I am thinking is....Now what... I have no brew to drink, and the next few weeks are just going to be waiting :P Should I just keep buying fermenters and have them all around the house and just keep brewing. What does everyone do with this hobby while you are waiting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermoor Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 Hi, I'm new to the forum, making a comeback to home brew after a long hiatus. Once my new shed is up I'll be able to start brewing again :) House brew will be a IPA and the home brewery is Black Dog Brewing after the black dog that will be keeping me company in the man cave. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB44 Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 Hi' date=' I'm new to the forum, making a comeback to home brew after a long hiatus. Once my new shed is up I'll be able to start brewing again :)House brew will be a IPA and the home brewery is Black Dog Brewing after the black dog that will be keeping me company in the man cave. Cheers [/quote'] I hope you mean that literally. Otherwise, are you OK? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonPolo Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 So being the impatient person that I am - I currently have one brew in the fermenter' date=' and one conditioning in bottles....and all I am thinking is....Now what... I have no brew to drink, and the next few weeks are just going to be waiting :P Should I just keep buying fermenters and have them all around the house and just keep brewing. What does everyone do with this hobby while you are waiting?[/quote'] Dude, no disrespect at all but they still sell beer in the pubs/bottle shops! I saw a gentleman on this site asking advice about how to get a brew up, into bottles and ready to serve within two weeks because he had friends coming over. I thought the same thing!! But I guess this brewing thing can get all consuming. Nice obsession though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermoor Posted October 21, 2017 Share Posted October 21, 2017 Hi' date=' I'm new to the forum, making a comeback to home brew after a long hiatus. Once my new shed is up I'll be able to start brewing again :)House brew will be a IPA and the home brewery is Black Dog Brewing after the black dog that will be keeping me company in the man cave. Cheers [/quote'] I hope you mean that literally. Otherwise, are you OK? Thanks for asking David, I actually meant my black Labrador. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noddy1525230202 Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 Hey Folks, Down here in little ol Adelaide. New to all things brewing, got my first brew kit a week ago,already have my first brew underway (too keen to get started) Im always keen to try new beers and now wanting to create new flavours and creations. Havent delved deeper into all the topics but im an open book to learning. Looking forward to all the things you all have experimented with and learnt along the way. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PB2 Posted November 27, 2017 Author Share Posted November 27, 2017 Welcome to our forum, Noddy! If you haven't done so already, check out the instructional videos here Beer 101. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergy1987 Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Hey just a quick question regarding hops. I have been given some hop pellets that get sent with some James Squires beer samples in the mail - They come in a little hessian bag. I assume they are just to give you an idea of the hops that are in the beer so are really just for smelling. Would these be safe to use? Or more likely going to infect my beer? Would they be more suited to use in a boil rather than dry hop to get rid of any "nasties" Cheers everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PB2 Posted November 27, 2017 Author Share Posted November 27, 2017 If the hops are not vacuum sealed and not intended for use in brewing, I wouldn't be using them. I'm guessing the sample is a tiny amount and hardly worth using anyway?? Perhaps, ask the supplier for more details about them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gavcor Posted December 27, 2017 Share Posted December 27, 2017 Hi all very green to the brewing world, the Mrs gifted me the coopers lager kit for Christmas and am keen to get a brew going but wanted to do my homework first before running at it like a bull at a gate. I was going to read the "brewing FAQs" but the link just takes me to the coopers home site so if there's anywhere else a noob can learn the basics and the lingo could somebody point me in that direction please. And thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PB2 Posted December 27, 2017 Author Share Posted December 27, 2017 Welcome to the forum, Gavcor! Brewing FAQs How To Videos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RipVanDan Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 Hi all, This is RipVanDan from Dangerous Dan Brewery in Duvall, Washington 98019, USA. I'm here visiting my son and his family in NSW. For many years he's told me the beer to drink here in Oz is Cooper's and I finally got to try it. It's a very fine beer! I have been homebrewing for a couple of years now and recently advanced to all-grain brewing. So instead of using extracts I buy the grains and mash the grains to basically make my own "extract". I've wanted to clone Cooper's at home but couldn't source Cooper's yeast, and nothing else results in that very distinctive Cooper's taste. My son, very thoughtfully, gave me a can of Cooper's Ale DIY (extract and dry ingredients), which includes the yeast. So I will brew that as soon as I get back to the states. My wife actually got me started on this a couple of years ago when she got me a 1-gallon Irish-Stout kit. I made in January and committed about every mistake you can while trying to brew a beer, with the exception that I completely sanitized everything real well. One of the things I did right was to steep the specialty grains correctly. Then I boiled away about 2/3 of my 1-gallon (3.3 liters) wort. When I put it in the 1-gallon jug, I had to add over 2 liters of water to bring it up to the 1-gallon mark. Thought I had ruined it for sure. Good news is we have well water that is sparkling clear, very cold, and has no additives. Adding the cold water (about 42°F or 5.5°C) I checked the temperature; added in the dry yeast: covered the top and shook it up. Then I added the airlock and put it in a darker corner of our kitchen. Next day the fermentation had blown out the airlock, so I added a blow-off tube to a half-glass of water. 2-days later fermentation had slowed down enough to put the airlock back in place and I just left it there for 2-weeks. 2-weeks later I added corn sugar to the wort and proceeded to bottle it. I made a mess because I didn't have a spring-loaded bottling stick. Tried squeezing the hose shut between bottles. And didn't think to put anything under the the bottles, but you know, that's why I have a mop. After all my efforts, I only got 9 12-oz (about 345 ml) bottles out of it. 2-weeks later it was ready to drink and was delicious!!! It was a very nice dry Irish Stout with a little bit of the character of a Guiness in it. It was something I would definitely buy in the store. Problem was that it took a full month from brew-day to ready-to-drink and I only had 9-bottles to show for it. I decided right then and there that I would never brew less than a 5 gallon batch ever again. Nonetheless, I was hooked. I typically get 48 to 54 bottles out of a 5-gallon batch now in the same amount of time. I'm really looking forward to making some Cooper's ale and sharing it with a few appreciative friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerlust Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 Hello RipVanDan, & welcome to the forum. ...I've wanted to clone Cooper's at home but couldn't source Cooper's yeast' date=' and nothing else results in that very distinctive Cooper's taste. My son, very thoughtfully, gave me a can of Cooper's Ale DIY (extract and dry ingredients), which includes the yeast. So I will brew that as soon as I get back to the states......I'm really looking forward to making some Cooper's ale and sharing it with a few appreciative friends.[/quote'] The yeast strains that accompany the kits are not the same strain as is used in the Coopers commercial ales. To create that "distinctive Cooper's taste" you would need to use the commercial strain. You can do this by reactivating Coopers commercial ale yeast directly from bottles of Coopers commercial ales. I have done this many times, with excellent results. This may be a problem for you though when it comes to transporting back to the USA. However, there is a solution. I'm pretty sure White Labs in the USA have the Coopers commercial ale strain available as part of their range. White Labs WLP009 - Australian Ale yeast I'm not sure if it is a seasonal release or available all year round though. I hope that helps, & enjoy the rest of your stay here in AUS. Cheers, Lusty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistldawn Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 Firstly, Happy New Year to you all. I brewed my first back in 1980 in Frankston, Vic. The problem there was to keep the temperature correct for the brew. To do this I used an Aquarium heater. Now that we have moved on since then, it’s become time to brew again. For Xmas the wife got me “The DIY Beer kit from Coopers. As we have an extreme summer and I’m trying to maintain the proper temp, without success, is there a device to purchase that could maintain the correct Temp. Any tips and tricks would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonofaHermit Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 Hi fellow brewers, I live in Applethorpe QLD and have re-started brewing about a month ago. My first attempts were around 10 yrs ago when I lived in Darwin, and I was never very impressed with my results, probably because it was too warm to get the fermentation right. Here on the Granite Belt, the weather is much cooler, and I've inherited Dad's setup which he didn't use much anymore, which includes a fermenting fridge, a temp controller (which the gentleman who posted before we sounds like he needs) 3 fermentors, and since my first batch was bottled almost 2 weeks ago Dad has got all excited and we've got kegs and cO2 set up. Pretty fancy stuff, and I'm only just beginning to learn how it's all done. I hope to enjoy plenty of learning and improving of my brewing skills from what I'll read here on the forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter_1983 Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 Hi Everyone, I'm new to brewing but I have had alot of interest in doing it I now have managed to acquire 2 FVs in a short space of time. FV1 - Oldschool number - big old bucket with a hole for a bubble trap. FV2 - Coopers fermenter with the Krausen collar - it came in the coopers diy kit. with all the things except the instructions (my mate did use is once). So in this box the things other than the vessel Hydometer etc, are: Coopers Australian pale ale in a tin, with a yeast sachet Brew Enhancer 2 finishing hops. Sanitisatiser. I know I am missing carbonation tablets. What else do i need to set up the brewing? As i have never used a DIY kit before I have nothing to compare it t. Do i need the brew enhancer? as i went out and bought a 'brew blend' that the guy in the shop said dissolve this add the tin and then the yeast and you're good to go.....It seems too simple. Could you guys please lend a hand? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter_1983 Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 Firstly' date=' Happy New Year to you all. I brewed my first back in 1980 in Frankston, Vic. The problem there was to keep the temperature correct for the brew. To do this I used an Aquarium heater. Now that we have moved on since then, it’s become time to brew again. For Xmas the wife got me “The DIY Beer kit from Coopers. As we have an extreme summer and I’m trying to maintain the proper temp, without success, is there a device to purchase that could maintain the correct Temp. Any tips and tricks would be appreciated.[/quote'] I would recommend looking up this thread: https://club.coopers.com.au/coopers-forum/topic/12475/?page=1 Brewing in a fridge could be a way I am heading too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 As i have never used a DIY kit before I have nothing to compare it t. Do i need the brew enhancer? as i went out and bought a 'brew blend' that the guy in the shop said dissolve this add the tin and then the yeast and you're good to go.....It seems too simple. That is pretty much it. The 'brew blend' is the shops version of a Brew Enhancer so no need to buy the Brew Enhancer also. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pcwm1956 Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 Hi all, Just started in my next career move. Retiring from 40 years in IT and becoming among other things a home brewer. I acquired two kits (the standard one and also a craft kit) and have just sampled the first batch from the craft kit. Not bad but as usual impatient and probably need to leave in the bottles conditioning for a bit longer yet. Currently we're in Eltham Vic. but moving up to Wodonga Vic. in March this year. Haven't thought of a name for my Brewery yet. It's great being part of this forum and reading about the various solutions to problems members come up with. Great resource! Wish me Luck! Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisA9 Posted February 2, 2018 Share Posted February 2, 2018 I made this brew this morning and wondering if anyone has done something similar. Its a bit of trial and error, cant wait to see how it tastes.... HOP INTO IT ALE Ingredients 500 grams Coopers Light Dry Malt 50 grams Pride of Ringwood hops 1 x Coopers Pale ale can 1 x Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 1 x Mangrove Jacks Cascade hops teabag Method Using an 8 litre saucepan, add 3 litres of hot water and 500 grams of Coopers Light Dry Malt. Bring this to a boil. Add 25 grams of Pride of Ringwood hops and continue boiling for 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat and add another 25 grams of Pride of Ringwood hops. Put lid on pan and let steep for 30 minutes. Place the pan into kitchen sink with cold water for 15 minutes to reduce the temperature. Pour into Fermentation Vessel through a strainer. Add BE2 and can of Pale Ale and stir to mix it thoroughly. Top up to 22 litres with cold / chilled water. Place the dry Cascade Hops teabag into the vessel. Add yeast from Pale Ale can to the wort and stir it in. Ferment at 18 degrees for 14 days Bottle or keg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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