Advice (on a beer kit) please

I currently have a Coopers Draught that is in the clearing stage. This is my first homebrew ever. It smells awesome. I am in need of more gear though. I still need a botteling bucket, siphon goodies, and I would like to have a five gallon carboy. I am thinking of buying a complete kit so I can have the basic gear to do another brew from start to finish. What would you more experianced brewers advise for a kit beer? I would still like something simple in th extract brew.

Thanks in advance.
TMH

Yeah, you'll need a bottling bucket with spigot attached, or a siphoning tool (with bottle filler attachment) to fill up your bottles once your beer is done clearing.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=6874

This is a great kit. It has everything you will need including a 5 gallon glass carboy. There's also a kit for $20 bucks cheaper but it doesn't come with the carboy.

I don't know if I fit the qualification of experienced brewer or not but here goes anyway:

You weren't real clear on what you have and don't have but you have to have

primary fermenter
bottling bucket of some kind
capper (if you bottle)
siphon hose and racking cane
Hydrometer
airlock
bottles or keg

I may have overlooked an item but the following are optional but highly desirable:

6.5 G Glass carboy fermenter
5 G Glass carboy secondary
Autosiphon (must have in my opinion)
Wine thief (I still don't have one)
Funnels and strainers

BTW there are endless gizmos and gadgets if you go on to all grain but I aint there yet and i make pretty good extract beer and thats a good starting point.

You mentioned "beer kit" Do you mean prepackaged beer ingredients or beer making supplies. If you don't have all the supplies then the best bet would be to buy one of the "starter kits" that will have all of the things from the required list above. If you are asking about recipe kits, many on here like the Brewers Best kits though I haven't done any of those.

Read Palmer's online book and read lots on here. There is a ton of great info out there and a lot of really knowledgeable people on here.

BTW If you like Sierra Nevada, the recipe in "Clone Brews" is very good and is easily repeatable.

Good Luck
Al

Hi there - I make alot of those cooper kits they are fun. easy and make god beer. I have some in the bottle getting ready for consumption. I have been brewing for only about a year so im not an expert but i do have an it works great for me - btw im in Canada so our gallons are a bit bigger. 5gallons =23L.

I have a plastic primary fermentor - no spigot or air lock or anything - just a plastic ale pail with a lid. I think most places in the USA and even alot in Canada they come with an airlock though.

2 Glass carboys with stoppers and airlocks. I use these for secondary clearing leave the beer in here for a couple weeks and it becomes nice and clear.

Racking cane - to rack beer to secondary, bottling bucket and and bottles

clear tubing to transport beer

Bench capper (the extra 10 dollars or so for the bench capper will make your capping much easier! - but any capper will do)

Hydrometer

Bottling Wand

Big plastic spoon for mixing

Auto Siphon

You should be able to get a pretty good deal on a start up kit - and alot of people on here dont even transfer their beer to secondary. So thats an optional thing.

I will tell you though the coopers draft turns out nice - im sue you will enjoy it

I really appreciate the repllies. All I have now is just a primary fermenter, and air lock. I think I will invest in a full kit so I can have the carboys as well. That way I can get the stuff that I have now in the primary into the secondary to clear. I know I do not need to do this, but I want to watch hehe. I will probably pick up another Coopers extract kit while I am out. I was pretty simple to put together.

Sounds like a plan. Let us know what equipment kit you get.

Yea I always transfer to a carboy myself - I like watching how the beer clears - I know thats goof but still..... plus if you get busy you can keep it in the secondary a little longer.

Hey if you like darker full flavored ales try the coopers 'real ale' it is one of my favorites - and it actually turns out considerably darker then it looks on he can.

Cheers

grasshopper1917 said:

Yea I always transfer to a carboy myself - I like watching how the beer clears - I know thats goof but still..... plus if you get busy you can keep it in the secondary a little longer.

Hey if you like darker full flavored ales try the coopers 'real ale' it is one of my favorites - and it actually turns out considerably darker then it looks on he can.

Cheers

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I will have to try that. So far it has been fairly easy. So far anyhow...

The coopers kits are a piece of cake - they are quick easy and they make good beer. Alot of people start off with them and work their way up - and there are the lazier guys like me who like the convienience and just stick with them

If you want any opinions on any of the styles let me know I have made them all

grasshopper1917 said:

The coopers kits are a piece of cake - they are quick easy and they make good beer. Alot of people start off with them and work their way up - and there are the lazier guys like me who like the convienience and just stick with them

If you want any opinions on any of the styles let me know I have made them all

Click to expand...

Well, I got it into the secondary today. Everything went OK. The brew smells awesome! :rockin: the only problem I had was not being able to get the auto siphon to get going and stay going. It would at first, but there was a great deal of bubbles coming through the hose. Once the primary bucket was about half full I could not get it to siphon at all. I did get a hydromoter reading and it was a tad under 1.0 so I think that is OK. I did not have a hydrometer before, so I do not know what my OG was. The brew was a nice light golden color in the sample tube, but was still cloudy, so I fugure it should be good to go by next weekend. I did drink the sample. It was warm, flat, and I thought it had a tast like MGD. How are the Coopers Wheat kits? That will be the next one I try I think.

TMH

Was the primary at the same level as the container you were siphoning into? Whatever you siphon into has to be lower than the original container. Once the liquids reach the same level the forces are equal and you won't get any more transfer.

I'd recommend a brew hauler which is basically a nylon strap harness for your carboys. They make it a lot easier to move the full carboys around. I'd also recommend acquiring an old fridge or freezer off craig's list or freecyle and a temp controller to get a really tight handle on your fermentation temps. I think you'll find that will do a lot for the quality of the brew you produce.

HTH,

M.

The Mad Hatter said:

I currently have a Coopers Draught that is in the clearing stage. This is my first homebrew ever. It smells awesome. I am in need of more gear though. I still need a botteling bucket, siphon goodies, and I would like to have a five gallon carboy. I am thinking of buying a complete kit so I can have the basic gear to do another brew from start to finish. What would you more experianced brewers advise for a kit beer? I would still like something simple in th extract brew.

Thanks in advance.
TMH

Click to expand...

I didn't notice your location, I thought you were australian when you mentioned coopers k&ks.
Coopers make good home brew kits as well (in australia), and all their stuff is sold in normal department stores here
Their HB kit is pretty good value for money, the fermenter is plastic with a screw on lid for a good seal. The kit comes with hydrometer, capper, airlock and 30 x brown 740ml plastic bottles for $70. Even comes with a can of extract to start brewing, good value for money

I'm surprised coopers extracts are popular there. I'm not from south australia, but I grew up drinking coopers stouts, dark ales, sparkling and pale ales.

After giving their extract cans a go, I think I'm going to start my own extracts instead. It's not much harder using non hopped extracts and adding my own hops, specialty malts and yeast. Gives me a chance for fresher ingrediants, own choice of malts and hops.

Hey madhatter - just a tip when you are siphoning make sure your bucket is up at a level higher then the carboy you are siphoning into and it should work fine. Dont worry about if your beer is a little cloudy it will clear up in the secondary Carboy.

As for the coopers wheat I have made that one a couple of times - I have liked it. It will come out a very light color, very clear, very lightly hopped and has somewhat of a sweet taste - if ths is somethng that sounds like it suits ya - you will like it

Cheers

I had my primary sitting on the kitchen chair, and my secondary sitting on the floor. The chair was taller than the carboy was. I started the autosiphon by hooking up the hose to the racking canne looking deal then pulled the plunger out until it was roughly half the distance of the tube. I thne put it into my primary about 3 to 4 inches. Gave it a few strokes, and it sort of worked. There were alot of bubbles in the tubing. I am thinking it was sucking air where the tube met the rod. I only got it to work for a few inches of the brew, then it stopped and would no longer siphon.

I took a gander at my secondary today. There appears to be alot of "lees" I think is the correct term, at the bottom. I must have transferred more to the secondary than I though. Or is that OK and normal? I would guess that it is normal due to the cloudyness of the brew.

On a side note, I am thinking that a small air pump would make a great way to transfer from primary to secondary. Have you tried this before?

TMH

Well it doesnt make sense - you shouldnt have a problem siphoning - it is a natural occurance facilitated by gravity. The only way it wont work is if there is a hole in your tubing somewhere.

An air pump isnt going to help you siphon any better - inspect your equiptment and look for a crack replce any damaged tubing etc.......

Yes the layer on the bottom of secondary is normal and you will see that every time - it is more yeast dropping out as the beer clears. Keep an eye on the carboy daily and you will see how clear the beer starts to get - lotsa fun

Never heard of using an air pump for siphoning?

Good luck!

You might try a length of new tubing, just a tad smaller than what you already have. When I bought my kit from the LHBS it included 3/8 tubing, and I had the exact same bubbles when trying to siphon. It might work at first, but would always fail after a bit. Very irritating. So I posted my first question on this fine site, and had the answer almost right away.

I picked up a length of 5/16 ID tubing, and the bubbles stopped, completely and forever. I would give it a shot.