homebrewandbeer.com

OK,
leaped in and bought a coopers kit, read the book, laid down the first brew last sunday, (almost a religious experience).
In the mean time , read another book on beer makeing and found this and a few other brewing web sights and have scanned most of those.
Q1 was going to be "why is there so many differing opinions on brewing" but ill never get a quantifiable answer to that so,
Q1 is, As the SG has seemed to settle around 1009 for the last day or so and its nearly ready for bottling according to the book and roughly 30% of beer brewing posters, what should I try, just bottle as per the supplied instructions, try racking 1 week and then cold conditioning 1 week, then bottle ?
Crawl first then walk or go rip, sh*t or bust and really jump right in and do the lot.
What Im after is a relatively clear beer without the home brew manky taste some of my mates have produced in the past.

Q2 why the great disparity in brewing temps between the "instruction book"and what seems to be general consensus on this and other brew sights ie coopers book 21 to 27, pitch yeast at anything under 32, the brew book Ive got which recommends fermentation around 26, and the brew web sites that recommend 18 to 19 for ales and 9 to 10 for lagers.

over to you,blue leaders.

Its all getting too hard looks like Ill just have to go and have a beer, commercial unfortunately at least for another 4 weeks or so........

Ok, as this is your first brew, it's probably best if you just go ahead and bottle your brew. If your FG is 1009, test it over 2 consecutive days and if it remains the same, it's ready to be bottled. The difference in temps is due to yeasts. Your standard kit brews, eg Coopers, come supplied with an Ale yeast. This includes the Larger. A true Larger, one brewed with a larger yeast such as Saflarger, does require to be brewed at lower temps, ie 9-12C. However, Ales are better suited to higher temps, 18-24C. You're probably thinking, "Why sell a Larger kit with an Ale yeast?" Well basically, it means it's easier for a novice brewer to have a crack at making beer without having to worry about temp control. When you're a bit more experinced and/or confident, there are heaps of threads on this forum that cover racking, and brewing with different types of yeast. Relax for now, and welcome to the wonderful world of Homebrew!

Dhc,

Matty pretty well summed it up when he said that most Hb kits are sold with an Ale yeast. This allows the purveyors of the beer kit that you are going to brew to sell to a much wider range of people throughout Australia, where we have such a huge variability of temperatures.

Ale are fermented at a warmer temperature and use a different type of yeast to lagers and Pilseners(which are essentailly a Lager). A proper lager uses a yeast strain hat ferments at a lower temeprature and, therefore, uses more of the fermentable sugars producing the crisp finish we associate with Lagers (along with the hops, which you will find out about at a later date.

If you go to this sites homepage there is a section dealing with the various types of beer and this makes interesting reading.

Anyway, back to your queation, bottle now! The sg has been consistant foir 3 days. Leave he beer in the bottle for at least 6 weeks. (I leave mine a minimum of 3 months) and you will have a nice, well rounded beer.

You did not mention what brew younput down so i hope it turns out ok. It is now getting cooler in temperatue and it is getting close to lager and pilsner temperatures. experiment for a while (2 or 3 brews) and then we will explain the wonders of brewing good Lagers and Pilsners.

Hope this hepls,

Wassa.

bTW....sorry if I've waffled on but i've been out and has about a dozen schooners of Tooheys Old (Gods gift to commercial beer in my honest opinion) and a bit under the weather seeing as how I had 4 double bourbons before I went out.

Matt, Wassa,
Thankyou both for the replys.
Wassa, Im up near brisbane and the temps here are still getting over 30C during the day and 15C at night.
Where the brew is stays between 23 and 28C.
I have family in melbourne and they tell me they're freezeing ATM so Im beginning to see coopers logic with their yeast selection.
thanks again.

dhc4ever,

Here's a thread that might help answer your query. See my comments on the second page in particular.

http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... php?t=1942

Cheers,

Oliver