Green cerveza - another incentive for the dark side

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The Goatreich

The Goatreich

Landlord.
Joined
Sep 30, 2011
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Newport, South Wales
OK so last night I'd had a few, and decided I wanted to try out the Cooper's cerveza I bottled a couple of weeks ago. I knew it was too young, but I wanted a beer and had no others in the house.

With utter disappointment I found it to be really green tasting, very homebrewish. I'm really hoping that it gets better with age, but I'm not holding out much hope to be honest.
So far the only kits I've done that I've actually liked are Cooper's Irish Stout and Woodforde's Wherry.

SO! The only way forward is to go all grain as soon as possible, I'm going to start saving for the kit this month and get onto it within the next few months. I really want to be able to make light hoppy ales like Old Golden Hen, Cwrw Haf, Bombardier Gold etc, and also dark mean horrors like the Coopers Stout turned out like.

I'm disappointed and excited all at the same time.
 
Don't need an awful lot of kit to dip your toe into AG...

I'm getting there myself but went BIAB, all you need is a large pot or a boiler plus a grain bag in addition to the gear you already have from doing kits. Some would say you also need a wort chiller but even that can be got round by cooling the pot in the sink / bath or using a chill cube which will only cost 5 or 6 quid...

Good Luck !

:cheers:
 
The Goatreich said:
I'm thinking of buying this. http://www.hamstead-brewing-centre.co.uk/itm01594.htm I figure as it's a thermostatic heater I can use it for BIAB to start with, then once I make or buy a mash tun I can then also use it to keep strike and sparge temperatures up.
Click to expand...

You might want to consider something larger for BIAB as you need to get your full brew volume plus all the grain in (high ABV brews can be a lot of grain) and not overflow. I went for a 50 litre pan to do 25 litre brews and it all goes in comfortably... As well as allowing plenty of head room in the boil later so not much chance of boiling over.

:cheers:
 
Hmm, actually this kit is now REALLY tempting me to move over straight to the dark side:
http://www.hamstead-brewing-centre.co.uk/itm01597.htm

It seems fairly good value for money as I imagine I certainly wouldn't be able to make anything better, and by the time I purchased all the necessary tools and drill bits as well as the parts I probably wouldn't be saving too much money.
 
The Goatreich said:
Hmm, actually this kit is now REALLY tempting me to move over straight to the dark side:
http://www.hamstead-brewing-centre.co.uk/itm01597.htm

It seems fairly good value for money as I imagine I certainly wouldn't be able to make anything better, and by the time I purchased all the necessary tools and drill bits as well as the parts I probably wouldn't be saving too much money.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I bought just over a year ago, along with the ss chiller coil that they do (which I would recommend to complete your kit), and I just did my 27th AG last week, no problems with the kit at all. You can of course build cheaper, as many brewers on this forum do, but if you want something to go from the off, this is good.

I haven't upgraded anything from this, but am planning to add a bulkhead tap fitting to the coolbox soon. The boiler is just a plastic bucket with a heating element, but it works well, it seems to come to a vigorous boil initially and then to do a steady boil to the end, which is just what you want. I find the spinning sparge arm stops spinning about 2/3 of the way through the sparge after the water level of the HLT drops, but again I haven't made any adjustments I just spin it around using a nail.

Next step up for me will probably be shiney and to double my brew length, but this works for me at the moment.

Good luck :thumb: and if you do go ahead with it, let me know if you have any questions.
 
in the mean time why not try extract brewing you can get really good results way better than kits and very easy to do and you only need a stock pot around 10l to do it
 
Yeah, that and BIAB have been recommended to me previously in this and another thread. At the moment I'm undecided between building my own boiler to start with BIAB, and then onto building a mash tun, or just buying the lot and getting straight down to AG business.

I'll probably buy it, as ultimately I'm a bit of a lazy sod, but on the other hand I need a project like this to give me a kick up the proverbial and apply myself to things with drills and workings out. :D You'll probably have noticed I'm pretty indecisive too.

Out of interest, how important is having a thermostat on the boiler/HLT? The one that comes with the kit above is just a straight boiler and they recommend you control the temperature for sparging and strike by turning it on and off at the wall. I'd prefer something with proper thermostatic control if I'm honest.
 
hey andy (goatreich) want type of metal you play ? looks like thrash maybe (just looked on facebook pic) i used to play in a heavy metal band and bass too (i take it that was you with the 5 string) not too impressed with the motley crew t shirt lol, and funny enough i was at that brewing shop youve put a link to today in brum (small world) well just thought i mention , :thumb: drink up ive having a hoegaarden what you suppin
 
I'm opinion the thermostat is not really needed. If is too cold leave it a bit longer. Too hot add some cold or wait a while. Just one more thing to go wrong. Just get a plastic or stainless bucket and a tesco element. You will find that if you avoid the shiny your setup should be less than £60 which is about the price of 3 kits.

Turn to the darkside. :twisted:
 
pittsy said:
hey andy (goatreich) want type of metal you play ? looks like thrash maybe (just looked on facebook pic) i used to play in a heavy metal band and bass too (i take it that was you with the 5 string) not too impressed with the motley crew t shirt lol, and funny enough i was at that brewing shop youve put a link to today in brum (small world) well just thought i mention , :thumb: drink up ive having a hoegaarden what you suppin
Click to expand...
Hey Pittsy,
I play in two bands, my main band is death metal (Desecration) and the other is a hardcore punk band I just session for now and again when they need me (Extreme Noise Terror). It's great fun and gets me around the world in the back of a van.

That will be me with the 5 string yep, although I don't own a Motley Crue shirt. Could be a pic where we dressed up for an 80s glam rock party a few years ago though.

Last night I was suppin' a lovely Bombardier, but unfortunately it was my last one. I've got 90 bottles in the shed but they're not ready yet.

Shrek, cheers for the advice. The dark side is coming.
 
Out of interest, what could be causing my homebrew tang? It's only happened with the two lager kits I've done, both Coopers, one Autralian lager and the other the mexican cerveza. The Aussie one I thought got the tang because I let the liquid fall and splash into the bottling bucket, but I definitely didn't do that for the cerveza. I did a Cooper's Irish stout and the taste wasn't there at all.

Annoying really, as I absolutely wanted this cerveza to come out like Corona which I love, and people have said that it does replicate it pretty well.

Admittedly it's only been in the bottle 3 weeks...but judging by the Aussie one I can't see this getting much better.
 

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