A few questions :-)

SuperSean

Hey thanks for reading first off!

I have a couple of questions just about home brewing, the gf got me the coopers kit last year and I made one batch and if turned out kinda crap so I haven't done another since but now I'm looking to get back into it. Just going to buy the brew belt and bottled water rather than using tap water and sanitize everything and hopefully it will be all good!

So basically I've a few things I need to know if anyone one can help that would be great.

First off is there any walk-in shops in Dublin for homebrew supplies? Would be handier than ordering online.

I used the cooper carbonation drops last time and they were a bit of a pain to be honest, so this time I'm thinking of just using the sugar and I'm just wondering what do you guys recommend and also do you have to out the sugar in each bottle separately or can I put it into the fermentation tub ? (Sorry that might be a silly question :-P )

I would like to make a beer that tastes along the lines of erdinger this time around, has anyone made anything with a similar taste they could recommend ?


I'm pretty sure I have more to ask but can't remember at the moment ha
Thanks again and happy Xmas :-)

Tube

Several Tescos stock basic homebrew supplies.

As regards priming, it's simpler to batch prime. Just add the sugar (dissolved in boiling water) to your bottling bucket.

W0bble5

Welcome Sean. You're onto a good hobby there....

There are no walk-in homebrew shops in Dublin but some of the larger Tescos and a couple of off-licences stock homebrew supplies. Otherwise ordering online is the only other option. Have a look at homebrewwest.ie or thehomebrewcompany.ie. they'll have everything you could need.

What you're talking about for using sugar to prime your bottles in one go instead of putting sugar into each bottle is called batch priming. You boil a certain amount of sugar in a small bit if water for a few minutes, put this into a clean sanitised bucket & syphon your beer into this bucket then fill from that. It's a lot easier!

If you want a good wheat beer then the best way to do it is get a wheat beer kit, add 1 kilo of wheat malt extract (not sugar - your beer will be crap!) and get a wheat beer yeast. Yeast makes a massive differnce to the flavour of the beer. I almost never use the yeast that comes with the kit.

This will add about €10 to the cost of making your beer on top of about €13 for the kit. But for 40 pints of nice beer its still a lot cheaper than an offo!!

If I make a wheat beer now I use a Coopers wheat beer kit, 1kg of wheat dry malt extract & a Brewferm white beer yeast. Makes an excellent summer time drop.

And to add a little something special i'd boil a couple of litres of water with the dry malt, add the zest of an orange, some crushed corriander seeds and some halleteur hersbrucker hops and boil it for 15 mins. Strain this to your fermentor, add the beer kit and top up with water. Its a quality beer but you dont have to boil hops to get a really good beer!

Good luck with it!

SuperSean

cheers guys!!

Some great advise here!

I never even thought about of Tescos!! sweet
I'll give Maynooth a look so

Batch priming sounds like the way forward alright!
I have this kit http://www.homebrewwest.ie/coopers-diy-beer-kit-new-with-vwp-sterilizer-246-p.asp
So would it be wise for me to buy a new container to batch prime that has a tap thingy like the coopers one so I can bottle it from there ? Or can i just batch prime in the tub that i ferment in ?

W0bble5

Yep you'll need another fermentor to batch prime with. If you add sugar to your main fermentor and stir it through you'll raise all the yeast from the bottom.

You'll also need a syphon (or tube) to transfer the beer from your fermentor to your bottling bucket. You can't let air get at it!

SuperSean

SORRY back with more questions again :P

I have purchased a 2nd fermenter and I am after buying the european lager kit http://www.homebrewwest.ie/coopers-international-european-lager-17kg-250-p.asp
I have also got Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 for this. I just want to check a few things before I kick this bad boy off when I get it!!

I have read up that this requires to be alot cooler like 12c -16c range, is this correct?
And that i should leave it for about 2 weeks to ferment, so I plan to mix up the solution and after 4/5 days take off the krausen collar on my Coopers kit and leave it for the remainder of the 2 weeks.
Now where I'm getting a bit confused is that I read some people saying to transfer it to a second fermenter and leave it for a secondry fermentation. Do I need to do this ? or can I just do as was mentioned above and just batch prime and bottle it ?

Thanks again guys!

W0bble5

No need for secondary fermentation. I usually don't bother. Just ferment it, syphon (don't pour) into the bottling bucket with your sugar/water mix & bottle fom there.

Try keep the fermentation temp low if you can. Around 12-14 if possible. Have a look here for Coopers yeast details:

http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1355060953

syngindub

Anyone know if any of the online home brew companies accept "one for all" vouchers?