My 3rd ever brew :)

[Robrew]

Hey everyone, so Im onto my 3rd brew and im sticking with the coopers kits as thats what the last 2 have been (the australian lager and wheat beer). Im planning my next beer as the coopers brewmaster indian pale ale, and am looking for ideas to taking the next step in home brewing. I am thinking of adding 1.5kg of LME but should i use light or amber extraxt??. I am also thinking of adding a better brew hop bag and was thinking of fuggles but I dont know which would work best with the IPA, any other suggestions would be great. 

Thanks

[Hop Bomb]

I did a 30 min boil & dry hopped a st.peters ipa kit with cascade a few weeks ago. Smells lovely & has a nice bitterness to it. I used 18 litres of water instead of 25 & it came in at 6.2 abv.

[Robrew]

that sounds cool I never done a boil, my understanding of it is to have 2 litres of boiling water then add the hops in a hop bag for a certain amount of time and then add the "juicces" to the fermenter with the malt and can. Have you ever used the hop teabags? they say leave it in the fermenter for the whole time until bottling or secondary? also is the coopers IPA a good quality can or is other companys better? thanks for the help.

[Hop Bomb]

Yeah thats it. I think I did x no of grams for 30 mins & then x no of grams for the last 10 mins. Then used that hop water in my strike water for the brew. Sorry I cant remember the amounts but I dry hopped with 50grams of cascade. So i probably split the other 50g from that bag of cascade for the boil.

I did a better brew ipa kit? & it tasted slightly better than a can of bavaria. Pish! The st.peters one I did tastes & smells great. Cant wait til its ready!

[Robrew]

Yeah thats it. I think I did x no of grams for 30 mins & then x no of grams for the last 10 mins. Then used that hop water in my strike water for the brew. Sorry I cant remember the amounts but I dry hopped with 50grams of cascade. So i probably split the other 50g from that bag of cascade for the boil.

I did a better brew ipa kit? & it tasted slightly better than a can of bavaria. Pish! The st.peters one I did tastes & smells great. Cant wait til its ready!

that sounds great, I only have one fermenter for the moment so would it be ok to dry hop after 14 days for an extra 5 days? also would u recommend 1.5kg of LME? and should I go with light or amber?

[LordEoin]

I've used the hop teabags before but i find they're very small (12g if I remember correctly).
I'd just get a 100g pack of hop pellets and use that instead.
50g Cascade like Hopbomb said would be nice, I'd probably use 30g fuggles but that's just because i like fuggles. Either way will be an improvement on the basic kit.

If you want to keep it simple, add the hops to 2L water off the boil, let it steep for 30 minutes stirring ocasioanally, then strain the liquid into your wort.
You can also use this steep time to prepare some grain (eg 300g carapils or crystal) to add another layer of fantasticness.
then dry hop another 20g once the first burst of fermentation dies down a bit.

Regarding the DME, I'd probably stick to Light, but amber will be just as good. Maybe use a mix?

Whatever you do, it will make good beer.
The IPA kit is a tasty drop with a lot more flavor than the Australian Lager or the Wheat Beer

[Robrew]

ok so I think my plan for this one will be to bring 2L of water to the boil then steep 30g of fuggles (no cascade left in HBW), add 1.5kg of light LME and after the krausen dies down add 20g of fuggles for the rest of the fermentation??? dunno about that  also should i use the yeast provided or a different one??

[LordEoin]

- bring water to boil
- remove from boil
- add hops
- steep for 30 mins, stirring occasionally

- put LDM in FV
- strain hop steep into fv
- pick up FV and swirl until all LDM is dissolved
- Add kit, fill tin with boiling water, empty water into FV, str vigorously
- top up to 23L with cold water
- pitch kit yeast (it's good for this kit) at about 22C

- On day 3 dry hop (however you want to do it, eg in a bag, loose, etc)

That should do you 

[Robrew]

sweet now I have to wait for my coopers wheat beer to finish so I can start this  thanks for all the help guys.

[Will_D]

I'd just get a 100g pack of hop pellets and use that instead.
50g Cascade like Hopbomb said would be nice, I'd probably use 30g fuggles but that's just because i like fuggles. Either way will be an improvement on the basic kit.

You will need to put the pellets into a really fine muslin or nylon net bag as they disintegrate and some of the particles are like dust and will be a bugger to remove from the wort/beer

[Robrew]

Ye there is muslin bags for sale at HBW 10 for 5euro so I will pick up some of them definitely

[Robrew]

so just finished the IPA I used the coopers can, a can of 1.5kg light lme and 500g of dextrose , I also brought 2L of water to the boil and let 30g of williamette hops soak in the boiling water for 30 mins. the williamette hops were like flakes and leaves is that normal?? :-? . pitched the yeast at 22c and the fg was 1.052 which seemed good to me . I will also dry hop in about 5 days for 5 days or so and leave for probably a total of 14-20 days in primary as I have no secondary .

[Robrew]

Hey everyone so I checked the brew 5 hours after brewing it and there is clumps of white on the top of the wort as well as a few bubbles :-?, I have seen a lot of pictures of infections and it doesnt look like I have one however I am just curious to know what this is?? I attached a picture, I had to take it quick as I didnt want to leave the lid off the fermenter, Would like to hear all you opinions 

[Robrew]

nope I never really open the fermenter but I had to do it just to get a picture, ye I will definitely leave it for a while and see how it progresses, fingers crossed it is ok  :-/

[Will_D]

Says infection to me. I had the same thing *today* and dumped it, but it was a starter so I didn't really care.

BUT. Leave it ferment out and taste it. If it tastes alright you're ok.

BTW, once you seal the fermenter up to start fermenting, DON'T open the lid till it appears to be done. There is a very high risk of infection.

Had you opened it before the 5 hour mark?

NOT to me! Looks like the start of a normal Krausen

Infections tend to produce slimy or string like (rope infections or wooly jumper type heads (sherry Flor) or thin films with dangly bits ( Vinegar mother ).

Leave well alone for a few days. Smell what is comming out of the airlock. You WILL know when its an infection ( acidic/vomit/weird smells )

If still OK wait and then rack off into secondary and then you can check the gravity and taste it!!

IMHO openning a fermenter to smell or syphon off 100 ml for a SG test will NOT cause an infection ( based on 40 years of brewing and only 1 infected batch )

The air we breath is NOT repeat NOT full of beer invading nasties! It is more likely that a fly or other small winged insect will contaminate your beer. That is why the little critters that appear in summer in the kitcken around the fruit bowl are called "Vinegar Flies"

This whole myth about infection was probably started by the sanitiser companies.

After all in Belgium Lambics are brewed with almost no hygene and yet they don't get INFECTED

[/rant off]