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Hello
I am new to beer brewing, but I have been distilling for a few years.

Currently I have a Black rock IPA, a Coopers Lager and a Coopers Stout.

I live in Bundy and I am wondering what to do first.
I have read that Lager prefers a cooler fermentation so I was going to leave this until it gets cooler.
I have a few kilos of dextrose and I just bought a Kg of Coopers brew improver 1.
Anyone got any recipe ideas for the above?
Is it worth using malt instead of dextrose? or should I keep it simple to start?What about hops? What is LMDE?

Obviously I am looking for a nice taste with ease of brew.
I have tried a few mates HB's and some were ok, others were terrible...
Cheers
Jason

Hi Jason,
Welcom to the forum.
All your kits have ale yeasts even the lager so deciding which to make first shouldn't be temperature related. Which ever you make try to keep the temperature around 20c, during fermentation.

Dextrose is a simple brewing sugar that ferments fully, but results in a beer with little body and head retention, the Coopers Brew enhancer 1 (BE1) is a mix of dextrose and maltodextrine (75/25 ratio). The maltodextrine (corn syrup)is used to improve mouth feel and head retention, it isn't fully fermentable so if you use this the FG is likely to be a little higher than plain dextrose.

I would suggest that you try to get some malt to add to any of these kits which would give you a beer with more body, as malt isn't fully fermentable. Perhaps use 500g of dex or BE1 plus 500g of LDME
LDME - light dry malt extract (powdered malt)

You could also add a few hops Morgans have the tea bag style which is soaked in boiling hot water for a few minutes before adding to you fermenter (hops added this way will give you some aroma and a little extra flavour).

Personally I'd steer clear of 1kg of dextrose only. I now only ever use dextrose to increase the alcohol content and the max i use is 500g along with other fermentables.

As these are your first attempts try to keep it simple follow some of the above tips and you'll have a good beer, most importantly make sure everything is sanitised that comes into contact with the wort and as i've said try to control the temperature, if its too high it can lead to undesireable flavours.

Good luck, Cheers and beers
AC

Aussie Claret wrote: All your kits have ale yeasts even the lager so deciding which to make first shouldn't be temperature related. Which ever you make try to keep the temperature around 20c, during fermentation.

If I may be permitted an observation, it may make a difference which one you choose if you can't control the environmental temperature very well (e.g. I brew in the coolest, most temperature-stable room in the house, but it still goes up and down with the weather, albeit slowly). On this basis, you might make a choice according to which of the beer styles will tolerate the esters and other products of warm temperature brewing. I'm absolutely not an expert, but I would guess that out of an IPA, a lager and a stout, the stout would tolerate the temperature issues best.

I'm sure other more experienced brewers will correct any errors in my reasoning.

Tom

Dr Tom & AC,

I appreciate your advice for BB - I have a question regarding temp.

I put down Cooper Mex Cerveza with (sorry AC ) 1 kg dex.

It was 22-23 degree for most of the ferment, but in the last two days we had some really muggy hot weather and it jumped up to 28+ degrees. Does the increase in temp have much of an effect in the last couple of days of a brew?

InCider,

PS, I will now explore other fermentables other than dex!

InCider wrote: It was 22-23 degree for most of the ferment, but in the last two days we had some really muggy hot weather and it jumped up to 28+ degrees. Does the increase in temp have much of an effect in the last couple of days of a brew?

I'm really not that experienced, but I have done a fair bit of reading, and I would guess that as most of the easily fermentable sugars will already have been converted to alcohol, I would expect the yeast activity would have slowed down, so the effect would certainly be less than if it were in the first few days. My suspicion would be that the first 24 hours when the yeast are busy multiplying, hight 20s probably isn't too bad, there after the next few days are most important where the bulk of the fermentation happens, thereafter it remains less critical, though certainly not without effect.

I check the 5 day forecast and try to pick a slot of 5 days in the high teens to low twenties (I've only attempted brewing with ale yeasts so far).

FWIW I'm about to broach a Coopers Cerveza with 1kg LDME. It's clearing nicely with 10 days in the bottle.

Tom

awesome answers guys, thanks for taking the time to write it.
That gives me some ideas to start.
The HB shop here sucks, so I have been buying from Coles, luckily they have a bit of stuff to work with.
I have got sanitation down pat, I have never had a problem with bugs in the wort.

I will buy some malt and some hops.
I have found the coolest place in my house also, I was just worried about ending up with a fruity or cidery brew due to the temp being too high.
cheers
In regards to the hops, do I throw in the hops tea bag or just the extract from it?

drtom wrote: I check the 5 day forecast
Tom

Same here, as I've no brew fridge so I watch the forecast like a hawk.
(If I have a bad brew I blame the Bureau of Meteorology!)

I put the stout down with the BE 1 and 500gm of Light malt this afternoon.
I hope it goes well. I have borrowed a beer fermenter from a mate, and only topped it up to 22L as it was close to the top. I will try hops on the next one. I was going to add a bit more dextrose as I wanted it to have a kick.

I have a couple of 80L fermenters I use for spirits. Could I do a double batch in one of them? I am worried about the beer imparting flavour when I go back to brewing spirits??? If I wash it and clean it straight away do you think there will be a problem. I keep the mash style whiskys(grain, mollases etc? in one and the turbo yeast style in others. Unfortunately I only have a turbo yeast fermenter available now.....
I am keen to get a supply up fast because of the beer pigs around here.

Bundy, you could do a triple batch in an 80L fermenter 3 Kits, 3 lots of additional brewing adjunct water to 65 (odd/ish) litres and all three yeasts.

There was a comment elsewhere about large fermenters being more temperature stable too.

Then have a whole bunch of fun on bottling day - think 180 odd stubbies.

Cheers,
Greg

just a coupla things bundy. don't be alarmed if that stout froths out the airlock. sounds like you've got 22L in a 25L fermenter so there's not a lot of room for the krausen. you may want to run a blow-off tube into another bucket.

also, you may want to reconsider adding extra hops to your black beers for flavour/aroma. technically you're supposed to be enjoying the roasted malt flavours of these beers and hops are considered a distraction. but, it's your beer so if you like the taste of hops in stout ...

and just a thought on the mexican. I know the advice is often to replace the 1kg dex with 1kg malt extract but in this instance that may not be the way to go. you're not really going for a big malty effect with these corona-type beers. In this case a dextrose-corn syrup mix would thin it out.

The stout certainly is a feisty one alright
I tasted a bit this morning, it is quite sour, smells and tastes good.

The thing I am worried about is my 80L fermenter that has only done turbo yeasts for ethanol. I am wondering if a Coopers lager will impart any flavours when I finish doing it. IT is not really an issue as I will be brewing beer from now on. This fermenter might have to be a beer fermenter after this run.
I am waiting for it to cool down a little so I can pitch the yeast. I have 3 kits in with 3 BE1, 750gm light malt and 2 pride of ringwood infusion bags....
Hopefully it will satisfy the beer pigs, I am not sharing my rum and whiskey anymore