Home Brew - compare Coopers Lager to Brewtec Lager

Forums › Home brewing (beer, wine, spirits) › Home Brew - compare Coopers Lager to Brewtec Lager

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626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2684496 31-Mar-2021 09:19

This is turning into a very informative thread.

Im thinking it would be useful if we had a formum 'Home Brew (wines/spirits/beers)' and even though there may be other Kiwi home brew forums, Geekzone has a very high impact search engine wise.

If you agree, please VOTE +1 to this reply, and if I get over 20 votes I'll put it to moderator Freitasm.

Thanks,

Al.

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Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

Gurezaemon

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#2684655 31-Mar-2021 11:29

ageorge:

This is turning into a very informative thread.

Im thinking it would be useful if we had a formum 'Home Brew (wines/spirits/beers)' and even though there may be other Kiwi home brew forums, Geekzone has a very high impact search engine wise.

If you agree, please VOTE +1 to this reply, and if I get over 20 votes I'll put it to moderator Freitasm.

Thanks,

Al.

I think this is a great idea. There seem to be enough people out there with an interest (and the knowledge) to contribute, and I could see a semi-regular discussion going on there.

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ageorge

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2684660 31-Mar-2021 11:37

Gurezaemon:

I think this is a great idea. There seem to be enough people out there with an interest (and the knowledge) to contribute, and I could see a semi-regular discussion going on there.

Thanks, but only your vote so far. I was thinking some future topics could be

your favourite easy to make, home brew recipes, and others takes on these as they try them out
suggestions where to get reasonable, low cost brewing kits in NZ (they are over the top in many cases)
rating of beer kits eg similar to this thread

and so on.

If we dont have our own forum topic, General topic is unspecific.

To vote for the new forum topics, please go to my earlier post #2684496 and click the header bar +1 vote otherwise its not a vote thanks.

Regards, Al.

extech

27 posts

Geek

#2684688 31-Mar-2021 12:06

ageorge

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2684692 31-Mar-2021 12:15

extech:

+1

Hi there. To vote for the new forum topics, please go to my earlier post #2684496 and click the header bar +1 vote otherwise its not a vote thanks.

ageorge

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2684995 31-Mar-2021 18:24

I put down my 2nd stout today.

Rest of 1/2 tin coopers stored sealed in fridge, 1/2 tin golden syrup, 1 cup white sugar (possibly too much, next time 3/4 tin golden syrup, 1/2 cup sugar).

Will report later on 1st brew which is due mid April.

The glass has Coopers stout from bottle. The brew is moved to H/W cupboard.

Gurezaemon

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#2685194 1-Apr-2021 08:50

This is what happened the last time I tried making Cooper's Stout.
It tries to escape.

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ageorge

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2685207 1-Apr-2021 09:22

Gurezaemon:

This is what happened the last time I tried making Cooper's Stout.
It tries to escape.

Thats the reason for a large headspace in my brewing vessels.

Shopping

Ive found clip top bottles $1.50 Kmart anyone found better? These are 1L, smaller would be better but cant be picky at that price. Even Gilmours are $2 + GST.

Brewing vessel S/S pot with lid 15L Kmart $19 (only suits my 1/2 brews)

Gurezaemon

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#2685210 1-Apr-2021 09:32

ageorge:

Gurezaemon:

This is what happened the last time I tried making Cooper's Stout.
It tries to escape.

Thats the reason for a large headspace in my brewing vessels.

This has the same headspaces as every other brew - it's only Cooper's Stout that does it. Every. Single. Time. It's not that big a deal - I just make sure that I have a few old towels around to soak it up, and once it has settled down, I seal it up again and it's fine.

For smaller batches and experiments, I bought a 20 litre food-safe pail from Mitre10 or Para Rubber or somewhere, and put a tap in it. It works great.

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ageorge

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2685212 1-Apr-2021 09:38

Gurezaemon:

This has the same headspaces as every other brew - it's only Cooper's Stout that does it. Every. Single. Time. It's not that big a deal - I just make sure that I have a few old towels around to soak it up, and once it has settled down, I seal it up again and it's fine.

For smaller batches and experiments, I bought a 20 litre food-safe pail from Mitre10 or Para Rubber or soemwhere, and put a tap in it. It works great.

Agreed about Coopers Stout; shes a frothy brew.

Years ago I brought a cheap plastic rubbish bin and put a tap on it. Took about 5 brews for the toxins to dissipate ; possibly that caused me and others some health degradation - plastic must be food safe every time, or my preference is stainless steel if possible.

kiwiace

54 posts

Master Geek

#2685299 1-Apr-2021 12:44

I've never heard of brewing in a sealed container (well, unless it has a lid that slides up as Co2 accumulates like some Cooper kit brewers) - how often (if at all) do you need to burp the bottles, and how fizzy is the final product? I would be worried the bottles might blow lids off or explode as Co2 builds up. Gurezaemon is getting overflow even though he has an airlock which should be letting the CO2 bubble out.

ageorge

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2685312 1-Apr-2021 13:07

kiwiace:

I've never heard of brewing in a sealed container (well, unless it has a lid that slides up as Co2 accumulates like some Cooper kit brewers) - how often (if at all) do you need to burp the bottles, and how fizzy is the final product? I would be worried the bottles might blow lids off or explode as Co2 builds up. Gurezaemon is getting overflow even though he has an airlock which should be letting the CO2 bubble out.

Good questions:

No the container is not sealed; the caps are not screwed tight. My first brew was done in several 1 - 1.25L PET bottles, which if youre lazy can be the final bottle.

I wait till the brew is completely fermented, then the standard way is decant into bottles and to put 1/2 - 1 tspn sugar each bottle (less is better) then seal.

===================

Just a reminder to vote if you want our own forum topic here: #2684496 31-Mar-2021 09:19

jpoc

1043 posts

Uber Geek

#2685563 1-Apr-2021 20:29

ageorge:

suggestions where to get reasonable, low cost brewing kits in NZ (they are over the top in many cases)

Pak'n Save Petone had Coopers DIY kits, fermentor, bottles, ingrediants etc for $69.99 last time I looked.

Other stores in that chain have the kits for $110 or not at all.

jpoc

1043 posts

Uber Geek

#2685586 1-Apr-2021 21:14

ageorge:

Years ago I brought a cheap plastic rubbish bin and put a tap on it. Took about 5 brews for the toxins to dissipate ; possibly that caused me and others some health degradation - plastic must be food safe every time, or my preference is stainless steel if possible.

Reduced sperm count and cancer perhaps?

Cancer is a lottery, you might, you might not but the reduced sperm count seems to be pretty much a certainty.

Also, the levels of nasty-chems leaking into the beer may very well drop below the levels to cause off tastes within a handful of brews but that does not mean that there are not dangerous levels of toxins in the brews after that.

The use of non-food grade plastic should be a complete no and really you should try to stick with plastic items that were made with brewing in mind.

Why?

Consider a plastic drink bottle or a container designed to carry water to use on a weekend's camping trip. In these cases, the exposure of water to the plastic is very short, hours or (a small number of) days.

Homebrew? Weeks in a fermenter and months in a bottle. Then remember that you are not just looking at water, alcohol is a whole different solvent. It is easy to imagine a container that is fine for water on a weekend's camping jaunt but which will be problematic if filled with beer for a couple of months.

Gurezaemon

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#2685606 1-Apr-2021 22:07

jpoc:

Homebrew? Weeks in a fermenter and months in a bottle. Then remember that you are not just looking at water, alcohol is a whole different solvent. It is easy to imagine a container that is fine for water on a weekend's camping jaunt but which will be problematic if filled with beer for a couple of months.

Agreed. Back in the day, I used whatever I could get my hands on and plumb a tap into, but in my recent quest to make the perfect Limoncello, I've realized how much raw alcohol is involved, and how much of a solvent it is. For mixing things together, plastic is fine, but storage of bulk quantities needs glass carboys, etc.
Beer is fine in proper homebrew bottles, but spirits and similar need glass.

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