PLEASE Help - Homebrew Kit Advice

[StephanieBe]

Let me start off by saying that i have read thread upon thread upon thread and haven't come across a question like mine yet. I would also like to come clean up front and say that i am literally a virgin home brewer and have never attempted anything like this before, so if you do answer my question/s, please keep the language as simple as possible - pretend that you're talking to a 7 year old with ADHD.

I was given a Copper Tun "Starter Brewery" brew kit, it contains:

1. 30 litre barrel & lid
2. Tap & stick-on thermometer
3. Bubbler airlock and grommet
4. Hydrometer
5. Brewer's spoon 39cm
6. Cleaner / Detergent
7. No rinse steriliser
8. Munich Lager kit (Malt & yeast) (1.7kg)
9. Enhancer pack
10. Beer finings 5gm sachet
11. Carbonation drops (60)

I've watched their Youtube videos on how to brew it according to the instructions and it seems pretty idiot-proof. I've also read blogposts and previous threads on how to be a little less lazy when using a kit (like letting it ferment for longer before you bottle it, etc).

This is where it gets tricky, i was given this kit (along with a few other bloggers/media people) as a promotional exercise ahead of our local annual Beer Festival. We're all competing against each other to see who can make the best beer. The winner will be announced at the Festival which sees thousands of people attend over a 3 day period. We're all supposed to just have fun with it, but i am ridiculously competitive and NEED to win.

Finally, my question: What can i do to this kit to make my beer taste better/different?

I live in Cape Town, South Africa, and i don't have access to things like extracts and malt and stuff, i would have to order online and it's really expensive and it'd take time, time i don't have.

What i do have access to is loads of fresh fruits and honey and liquers. I love the taste of fruit beers like "Liefmans Fruitesse".

Would i be able to add fresh berries like blueberries? Or maybe flavoured honey? Or even flavoured (low alcohol) liquers?

I've read that adding fresh fruits is a bad idea and you have to pasteurize them first and then add yeast or something, i can't do any of that. I can only use what's in my kit.

So that leaves me with the honey or the flavoured liquer... if i added these 2 ingredients, when would i add them? After fermentation? Before? During? Do i add a tot into the bottle before i bottle the beer?

The can of malt i have is a Munich Lager, but i've read everywhere that that is pretty much useless as the yeast? i have is probably an ale yeast and so my beer will probably end up being a pale ale of sorts anyway... so i figure a fruit flavour won't be too bad.

 

[Schumed]

You can add what ever you want...that is what I love about brewing is the experimenting with different ingredients and seeing what happens...as far as fresh fruit there alot of post and discussions about the use of fresh fruit...do some reading up on it...I think most people do pasteurize them...I typically always use frozen fruit and dump right in after thawing and seems to work pretty well..

 

[sweetcell]

I live in Cape Town, South Africa, and i don't have access to things like extracts and malt and stuff, i would have to order online and it's really expensive and it'd take time, time i don't have.

not true: http://beerguevara.com/location-and-hours-of-operation/

so if you're serious about wanting to improve your beer, i'd visit those folks. probably the #1 thing you could do is buy a small amount of malt and steep/mash those. next thing you could do is buy some hops and add those late in the boil (late 10 mins of the boil). if the extract in your kit isn't fresh, you could look into getting some fresh stuff. and finally you could swap out the yeast for something different. I would stick with dry yeast, perhaps consider something like S-33 or T-58 for some yeast-driven flavors. those two would deliver a lot of great taste.

So that leaves me with the honey or the flavoured liquer... if i added these 2 ingredients, when would i add them? After fermentation? Before? During? Do i add a tot into the bottle before i bottle the beer?

if you decide to stick with what you already have, i would say that honey is your best bet. add it directly to primary, after fermentation has died down a little (typically around day 4, but can vary quite a bit depending on the batch). how big a batch does this kit make? if it's the standard 5 gallon/19 liter, then i would add no more than 1 pound/450 grams of honey. i'd probably stick to 75% of that amount, since it looks like your kit is for a relatively light beer. ideally you'll use a flavorful honey like orange blossom, tupelo, etc.

honey will boost the alcohol content of your brew - so your 5% beer might turn out to be 6%. steeping/mashing grains will also boost your ABV, but less so (by weight) than honey.

for your first beer i would definitely stay away from fruit.

The can of malt i have is a Munich Lager, but i've read everywhere that that is pretty much useless as the yeast?

that sentence isn't clear to me... why are you jumping from the extract to talking about the yeast? which one is useless?

 

[dstranger99]

You could always rack to a secondary, and then add some fruit.......Raspberry works well......

 

[edmanster]

Honey is purely fermentable and you won't get much if any flavor from it.. best time to add is when you take the pot off the burner (flame out) right before you start cooling it down. Fruit can infect especially if it's not a big beer with lots of alcohol.. fruit is best in secondary after primary fermentation but I don't think you got a carboy in your kit.. if it were me I would find a local herb or spice and implement that into it.. might get more brownie points for that.. I like sage and we have a lot around here

 

[helibrewer]

The Munich lager kit will be a bit tough because lagers need to be fermented cool (in the 50'sF) and stored below 40F for 4 to 6 weeks. You might consider a Kolsch kit which will give you a light German ale that drinks like a lager. If you prefer something hoppier then consider a Calif. Common which uses lager yeast fermented at ale temperatures (Anchor Steam is a commercial example).

 

[jeremy0209]

IMO, three things you can do to make the best beer possible from this kit:
1.) be OCD about your sanitation practices
2.) pitch an adequate amount of clean, healthy yeast (one 11.5gram packet or 1 Wyeast Smack Pack or 1 White Labs vial should do it)
3.) control your fermemtation temperatures (be consistent with them...middle 60's, if you can get it that low)...use a swamp cooler and a fan, if you have to. (google it)

Now, I'm assuming that you all got the same kit, so pay careful attention to those three items and you will have as good a chance as anybody else of winning the contest.
Good luck

 

[Hernando]

Sweetcell has some good pointers and helibrewer brings a goodpoint, what you have is a lager kit and that requires a bit more steps and control to the fermentation process. If you are requierd to use the yeast packet thatis inthe kit then you'll have to research lagering. If you are free to change out the yeast then I like the idea about S33. and there is no need to lager that. Perhaps dry hop it or add a different hop like sweetcell said earlier. Good luck with this comp!

 

[GeneraalKonyn]

Hello

I have just finished my last bottle of that same kit. I'm from vanderbijlpark in gauteng. The kit is really great and the taste is great aswell. There are quite a few places in capetown where you can get extra ingredients but as it is your first try I would not reccomend tampering with something that works. I will post the link to sites where you can get other extract kits and ingredients.

 

[GeneraalKonyn]

http://www.diybeer.co.za/homebrewing-suppliers

 

[sweetcell]

You can add what ever you want...that is what I love about brewing is the experimenting with different ingredients and seeing what happens...

this is the OP's first beer, i'd recommend not getting too experimental since she has never done this before. owning a car is all about freedom to go where you want, but you need to learn to drive first.

Honey is purely fermentable and you won't get much if any flavor from it.. best time to add is when you take the pot off the burner (flame out) right before you start cooling it down.

you'll get more flavor if you add it to the primary vessel (fermenter) after the peak of fermentation. adding it before fermentation = some aromatics will be blown off along with all the CO2 produced during the peak of fermentation.

The Munich lager kit will be a bit tough because lagers need to be fermented cool (in the 50'sF) and stored below 40F for 4 to 6 weeks.

she is using a Cooper's kit. they call it "Munich lager" but it isn't a true lager. it's still an ale. lagering is not required.

IMO, three things you can do to make the best beer possible from this kit:
1.) be OCD about your sanitation practices
2.) pitch an adequate amount of clean, healthy yeast (one 11.5gram packet or 1 Wyeast Smack Pack or 1 White Labs vial should do it)
3.) control your fermemtation temperatures (be consistent with them...middle 60's, if you can get it that low)...use a swamp cooler and a fan, if you have to. (google it)

Now, I'm assuming that you all got the same kit, so pay careful attention to those three items and you will have as good a chance as anybody else of winning the contest.
Good luck

what he said, especially #3. don't let you beer get too hot during fermentation. keep an eye on the the stick-on thermometer. don't let the temp climb above 21*C (18*C is ideal, if you can maintain that).

 

[GeneraalKonyn]

The yeas of that particular kit works well enough. Just watch the temperature like a hawk. Fermentation will be done after about a week.

 

[jerrodm]

The most important things you can do are (a) sanitize all your post-boil equipment thoroughly--that means ANYTHING that could come into contact with the yeast, wort (that's pre-ferment beer) and fermenter. This will keep you from growing any infections which will ruin your beer; and (b), keep your fermentation temperature low and consistent--for a light ale like you have I would try to hit around 65-66F (18-18.5C). This will ensure that your beer ferments cleanly and without a bunch of off-flavors. One way to keep your beer cool is to wrap a wet towel around it and blow air across it with a fan. Best of luck.

 

[Captain Damage]

Unless I'm mistaken, the recipe kit you have is a "Kit n' Kilo" type where you're supposed to boil the extract with a kilo of plain white table sugar (sucrose). This will make a thin, dry and light (on flavor) beer. So what you'd want to do is replace that kilo of plain sugar with a form of sugar that has more flavor. The usual way to do this would be to double the amount of extract, and in the US, most beer kits do in fact come with about 2 kilos of extract. Since you don't have easy access to extract, you need to find another option.

Do you have access to non-white sugars such as palm sugar, demerara or turbinado? these will add a little more flavor due to the small amount of molasses and/or caramel they contain. Pure molasses is probably not the best addition to a Munich style beer base, and certainly not a whole kilo of it. Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter has a very strong molasses component, and a Taddy Porter clone I make contains 1/4 kilo of molasses. Making your own caramel from white sugar is a possibility, as is adding sugar candies of some sort.

Honey may be the simplest option. Adding a kilo of honey will technically make your brew a braggot instead of beer, but who cares? It's still tasty.

If you'd like to add fruit, pasteurizing it is simply heating it to 71C (160F) for 15 minutes before adding it to your beer. If you heat it much higher than that you will cause the pectin in the fruit to make your beer cloudy. It's not that big of a deal as it doesn't affect the taste. The only way to get rid of pectin haze is to use pectic enzyme (pectinase). This may actually be available to you since it's used in winemaking and I know there is something of a wine industry in S Africa.

The sweetest fruits, such as wine grapes, are generally less than 20% sugar, so getting up to a kilo of sugar from the fruit alone is likely to be prohibitive. So splitting it is probably a better bet. In the US, it's pretty easy to find out the sugar content of fruit, but I have no idea if there are any issues with getting that info where you are. Try Googling "nutrition facts blueberries" for example. The top one or two links (hopefully) has a chart that indicates the serving size and how many grams of sugar per serving (among other things). In the case of blueberries it's 15g sugar per 148g serving, meaning they are 10% sugar. Therefore 2 kilos of blueberries will give you 200g of sugar. Since you're looking for a kilo of sugar total, you would also add 800g of sugar. But there's no reason this has to be white sugar! You can add the sugar as honey, or a non-white sugar or whatever. And of course you can mix different kinds of fruits, depending on what is available.

Flavored liqueurs are usually added just before bottling. You have to take the sugar they contain into account when adding the priming (bottling/carbonating) sugar, or you could wind up with bottles exploding in your closet.

Hope this helps, and good luck!