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20% off Coopers Home Brew Mixes and Accessories (International Series $12.80, Thomas Cooper's $18.40) @ Big W

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20% off Coopers Home Brew Mixes and Accessories (International Series $12.80, Thomas Cooper's $18.40) @ Big WAffiliate
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WatchNerd on 18/10/2018 - 09:12 bigw.com.au (240 clicks)
Last edited 18/10/2018 - 09:21
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20% Off All Coopers Home Brew Mixes and Accessories

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  • WatchNerd on 18/10/2018 - 10:04
    +7

    If you want to get into home brewing I recommend buying a starter kit from your local home brew shop. While they will charge more than buying a Coopers Kit from Big W, the advice you get and the quality of the kit will be a lot better. They usually come with a good quality bench capper which makes life a lot easier. You will make the money back anyway the more brews you do, lol.

    Also don't get a fermenter where the sides curve in at the top & has a screw top lid, these are harder to clean.
    You want one with straight sides and a rip lid, like this.

    • jjcf on 18/10/2018 - 10:44
      -3

      and the quality of the kit will be a lot better

      Realistically, there isn't going to be much difference. You are never going to make anything worth drinking using pre-hopped extracts.

      Plenty of people, on the other hand, make great beer with DME.

      • WatchNerd on 18/10/2018 - 10:48
        +4

        I was talking about the starter kit, not the beer quality.

        Regardless I have been making beer from extract cans for over 10 years and love it, so do a lot of my friends & family. Many of them say that it's better than the beer they usually buy.

        I leave it bottled for around 3 months before drinking though, the taste really improves.

        • jjcf on 18/10/2018 - 10:57

          I was talking about the starter kit, not the beer quality.

          That's fair enough.

        • nuchalis on 18/10/2018 - 16:20

          I leave it bottled for around 3 months before drinking though, the taste really improves.

          How long can you leave it before it starts getting worse/expires?

          • WatchNerd on 18/10/2018 - 16:32
            +2

            @nuchalis: I've left around 3 years and it was really good. Not sure what the maximum is though.

      • [Deactivated] on 18/10/2018 - 13:17
        +1

        You are never going to make anything worth drinking using pre-hopped extracts.

        I asume you mean only pre-hopped extracts? There's plenty of kit & kilo recipes which are very very good.

        • jjcf on 18/10/2018 - 14:03

          eh, not really. It's still going to have that pre-cooked, heavy 'home brew' taste regardless of grain steeps that get lost under the heavy base flavour or how much galaxy you waste on dry hopping.

          Doesn't matter what you add to a packet of 2 minute noodles, it's still gonna taste like 2 minute noodles.

          I've got nothing against people making dirt cheap beer, but setting unrealistic expectations for what you get from a tin of Coopers just makes people give up after a kit or two. It's barely any more effort to do an extract brew with L/DME and it's significantly better. Especially if you lose the trash yeast.

          Or, hell, be super lazy and pick up a fresh wort kit and end up with something actually great.

          • [Deactivated] on 18/10/2018 - 16:15
            +1

            @jjcf:

            not really. It's still going to have that pre-cooked, heavy 'home brew' taste regardless of grain steeps that get lost under the heavy base flavour or how much galaxy you waste on dry hopping.

            you obvoiusly haven't tried any half decent kit & kilo recipes then.
            Surwe all grain is generally better, but it's also a lot more work and stuffing around. I like to keep it simple. The Coopers stuff is ok, their higher end stuff is quite good. I like Morgans, Muntons & Black rock make really good tins and their yeasts (unlike the coopers) are quite good.

    • The Magic Pudding on 18/10/2018 - 11:22
      +6

      I think the Coopers fermenter is very good, easy to clean, superior and cheaper to replace taps.
      You can buy the fermenters separately. You can buy capers separately, the Big W ones aren't the best.
      If you didn't want the Coopers kit with its plastic bottles you could get the fermenter for $44.96 (club price.) https://www.diybeer.com/au/coopers-diy-beer-fermenting-vesse…
      Coopers have free delivery for orders over $100 until next Tuesday.
      To get up to $100 add some malt extract 1.5kg for $10.80 or Thomas Cooper series which is still cheaper than Big W.

      That's my opinion anyway, thanks for the post WatchNerd.

      I like the brew smell but my wife doesn't.

    • Tunblor on 18/10/2018 - 11:23

      My dad, been brewing for a long time, has tried every kind of extract and kit, and from scratch recipe there is.

      In the last 12 months, he has started buying the woolies home brand brew tins, and then adding a bit of grain or hops or whatever flavouring agents to it himself to emulate whatever flavour of the month he feels like, or has been requested. He and his beer aficionado mates swear by the results.

  • scorpweb on 18/10/2018 - 10:13

    if you get one of these beer kits does it cause an odour while brewing? keen to try it but don't really want the apartment smelling of fermenting beer preferably.

    • WatchNerd on 18/10/2018 - 10:15
      +3

      Yeah a little bit, but it smells awesome. Just open a window if you don't like it.

      See if you can find some long neck glass bottles on Gumtree or eBay, these are much better than the plastic ones.

      • Tunblor on 18/10/2018 - 11:20
        +1

        Why are they better than Plastic?

        My dad has been brewing for 30 odd years, and he has been switching to plastic. He has more glass bottles than he can use, and yet, still prefers plastic.

        • WatchNerd on 18/10/2018 - 11:51

          Does your Dad reuse them? I would think that glass is better for this. Also I prefer to drink beer from a glass bottle, & have read that it will go flat if kept for a long time in plastic bottles.

          Why does your Dad prefer plastic?

          • [Deactivated] on 18/10/2018 - 13:33
            +2

            @WatchNerd:

            have read that it will go flat if kept for a long time in plastic bottles.

            Nah. I'm drinking some stout I made last Jan. I put a bit too much priming sugar in and it's jumping out of the bottles when pouring. The longest I've had was ~15mth and there was no noticable difference in gassiness between that and a 2mth one. OTOH once opened, yes they go flatter after ~6-12hrs, but I rarely have that problem ;-)

            Why does your Dad prefer plastic?

            It's so much easier & quicker to wash & bottle. I've been using brown plastic (ginger beer) 1.25lt bottles since they stopped selling them over 12yrs ago. They still seal very well. I also used a mix of old green 1.25lt bottles & aldi 1.5lt blue sparkling water bottles and now some of the Coopers brown plastic tallies (handly for the esky).

            you can use any soft drink bottle. But unless you're using brown bottles, you need to keep them away from sunlight or they'll get that Heiniken skunkiness taste as a result from light strike (it's affects the hops and makes it produce off flavours).

            Also I prefer to drink beer from a glass bottle

            yeah I always drink from a glass. plastic on the lips just doesn't feel right with beer. plus you disturb the yeast on the bottom, which I hate (& it gives you the runs - so stop rolling my Coopers bartender, yeast clumps are on the bottom for a reason!)

    • sn00ze on 18/10/2018 - 10:27
      +3

      Yes you can smell it if no windows are open but it's a good smell!

    • Adz81 on 18/10/2018 - 10:43
      +3

      The smell is hardly noticeable, don't let this stop you :D

  • [Deactivated] on 18/10/2018 - 13:44
    +3

    I highly recommend the expensive cans Bootmaker Pale Ale, Family Secret Amber Ale for summer beers (add 500g of light malt & a packet of brew enhancer 3) if you make it this w/e it'll be perfect for Christmas. the IPA is also tasty and a nice bitterness if that's your thing.

    • nuchalis on 18/10/2018 - 16:24

      How's the stout? (I like my beers solid!)

      • [Deactivated] on 18/10/2018 - 18:00
        +2

        AH, I find it a tad too bitter (it needs some crystal malt or even light dry malt)

        I recommend either the Thomas Coopers Irish Stout or my fav the Morgans dockside stout.
        My little secret addititive is to put 100g of choccy malt grain through the coffee blender and just pour it in with the brew at the beginning (when drinking it coasts your tongue with a dark choc flavour and you find yourself rubbing your tongue on the roof of your mouth as if trying to squeeze more flavour out) - it needs 3-6mths in a bottle. But if you want to put hairs on your chest, grab a Coopers stout & a Irish or Dockside stout, (don't use the coopers stout yeast, just the one from the Irish/Dockside can), add some ground choccie malt and it's delicious after 2-3mths and gets better until ~6mths (I make mine in Jan-Feb, ready for Stout season).

        • nuchalis on 18/10/2018 - 20:03
          +1

          Excellent, thanks very much for the info! Sounds great, think I'll give it a go :)

  • LSGH on 18/10/2018 - 21:02

    always found the Real Ale to be good value…..some would use two cans of the Australian Pala ale as a clone of the original bottled one…

  • Ryanemo on 28/10/2018 - 15:41
    +1

    Switched to Kegs a few years back. Bottling was taking over an hour including santisation. From fermenter to keg takes 15 minutes including cleaning the fermenter and keg. And i start drinking it in around 3 days once its carbed. Peak condition usually arrives after a week. I no longer have hundreds of bottles of beer conditioning all over the place.
    Unfortunately I can no longer put up with pub beer. Its just not worth the money or hangover. Never had a hangover from any homebrew.

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