Yeah get on down and support a local brew shop, or just go to Big W or KMart and grab one of the Coopers kits. I’m still using the fermenter that came with my first kit. Scale up knowledge and equipment as you go. Temperature control (particularly this time of year) is going to be your biggest concern. Let it get over 21C and you’ll end up with crap beer that’ll just put you off the whole experience. Ideally you want your Ales to be at 18-20C and your Lagers down near 10-12C. This and get some good quality yeast from the homebrew store, US-05 is pretty good for beginner extract brewing, just don’t use the shit they put under the cap of the can.
Any body in melbourne want a coopers brew kit I used for a half dozen brews but I am really time poor at the moment comes with extra bottles and a heating band will swap for a slab pu only.
I’ve just put on a wheat beer brew. was bubbling away quite happily for the first two days, now it seems to have stopped though. could just be the aging seal on the waterlock leaking, could be temperature too as well,I think the temperature strip thing is fubar so I’m not quite sure what is happening. I’ll leave it till the weekend, stupid me didn’t take a gravity measurement at the start, but generally you can still taste if it has fermented
Take a reading now, wait 2 days and take another… If it’s still going the reading will still be dropping…
You don’t need to take a reading at the start to tell if it’s fermenting or not.
^ This. More often than not you will find that the initial ferment will be very active and the airlock will be bubbling its head off for 2 days. What is happening during this stage is that the yeast are multiplying like crazy trying to consume all of the available sugars. What happens next is that because you aren’t adding more sugar the food starts to run out and the activity starts to slow down. The yeast are still active but just at a slower rate. After most of the sugar is gone they get to work on converting other products in the beer. This is really important because I see a lot of people bottling their beer too early. You really need to let the yeast have a crack at cleaning up after themselves.
Think of it like a buffet, you get a whole bunch of people in a room (they are the yeast) and a whole bunch of tasty plates of food on a table. They run in and start gorging themselves on the food and invite their mates down to join in. Before too long the food has been eaten and the people are trapped inside. They start to get hungry and begin to lick the plates clean and clean up all the crumbs off the floor that they made in their initial feeding frenzy. After a week they are all lying on the ground starving, but there isn’t a drop of food to be seen. At that stage you want to turf the bodies and keep their piss and shit.
this made me lol
Who would have thunk it 
Must get kegging sorted out sooner than later. Making a rustic gazebo in the back yard that will have a bar for keg and gas bottle… My own private ‘Wheaty’
ive been to one of these… much fun
had a bit of a taste then, tastes like it has fermented. I’ll just bottle it on the weekend and hope for the best
can’t you take a gravity reading? if not, i’d leave it a little longer just to be safe. you can leave it in the fermenter for a few weeks no problems, won’t affect the taste. (actually, it may even improve the taste). ezylee has already posted about the dangers of exploding bottles.
I’m about to start using kegs instead of bottles and have about 200 long neck bottles up for grabs. Free in Melbourne, pick up only, they are boxed and ready to go. PM me for more details.
^ Do you have a capper, too?
Umm… Don’t do this - you could end up with a mess… Take a reading, wait, take another… If it’s still going leave it be and you’ll end up better off.
We’ll still be doing some bottles for “cellaring” so I’m sorry, no capper available.
Scored a keg fridge for my birthday. I know some members on here chipped in for it, thanks again guys! Also some time back I painted up a chalk wall so I could keep track of my beers on rotation. Doing a double brew this long weekend, smoked porter and IPA. Will help fill the fridge I hope.
Fuck! That’s looks awesome. No Fixed.org.au x Polly collabo sticker though? Someone sort this man out!
I finally started my Coopers home brew on Sunday. Seems to be okay. Taking the first reading tonight. I just used the included stuff, didn’t really want to get carried away buying stuff until I had at least a few of the standard batches.
My latest was a Coopers Ginger Beer and a Apple and Blueberry Cider… GB still not ready to drink yet, but the cider… Well… There isn’t much left.
Currently in the bazza is a Apple and Raspberry Cider… Smells off the hook - Can’t wait till it’s bottled and ready to drink!
Send address for sticker package… i’ll make sure blakey helps fill the envelope as i know we have some good stuff to add to the new kergerator.
For my birthday I got a voucher to this place:
I now need to decide what sort of beer to brew.
I’ve already been to the house 
We can certainly send some sweet stickers up.