by Oliver » Monday Aug 16, 2004 11:17 pm
Hi Stekings,
It's a good suggestion by Ashy to hold off until Father's Day for the specials around that time.
If I was to suggest a micro-brew kit to purchase, I'd recommend the Cooper's kit, which has a lot going for it, not least of which is a superb fermenter. As Ashy says, it also includes everything you need to make your first brew.
One good way to go about brewing in winter is to brew lagers, which will ferment down to 12C or so. Ale yeasts, which come with most cans of concentrate including many "lagers", stop working much below 18C. But if you use a lager yeast you can avoid the need for a heater if you can keep the fermenter inside, wrapped in a blanket and somewhere relatively warm.
I can tell you confidently that Cooper's Pilsner, Cooper's Thomas Cooper's Heritage Lager and Goldrush Pilsner come with a true lager yeast. If you want to brew another beer and you're not sure about the yeast, just buy a sachet of lager yeast such as Saflager and use that instead of the yeast that comes with the can. There's no reason you can't brew any beer with a lager yeast; it's just that the flavour will be less fruity and the body a bit lighter than if brewed with an ale yeast.
Importantly, also remember that yeasts work slower the colder it is, and thus your beer could take two weeks or more to ferment if it is down around 12C with a true lager yeast (it will never ferment with an ale yeast at these temperatures!).
Cheers,
Oliver