Recent content by Stavrogin78

Hi everyone! So, I've never tried brewing just from extract before; I've always used kits (used to do the Brew House BIAB kits, now I usually use the Cooper's cans). I still have a couple of the Cooper's Brew A IPA cans, but I've also got a bunch of random leftover malts and a bit of hops. Can I...

Hi folks, I'm still just doing beer from kits (though I've started adding hops), and I have this weird thing happening. Just put on a batch of the Coopers Brew A IPA, and everything went normally (did it exactly as my notes in the past said I'd done it). Topped the fermenter up to 23L, it was...

Thanks for the reply, this was really helpful! A question about this: As I mentioned, my usual process was to boil the water for 15 minutes (can't remember where I read this, but it had something to do with boiling off chlorine or other stuff, so I just do it now), then I add the fermentables...

Hi everyone! So, I've been home brewing on and off for years, but it's pretty much been just following the directions, and I'm trying to get a little more under the hood now. Started with the Brew House BIAB kits (which, honestly, were pretty good, especially their IPA), and I've moved on to...

Does it do any harm to rack it into a carboy? I have kids and dogs, and no lid for my primary. During primary fermentation, the beer just sits with a towel over the top to keep bugs and dust out, but it's kinda vulnerable. Racking to the carboy puts it in a much safer place. And thanks for the...

Everything went into the fermenter. And I just sort of followed the kit directions; put 3L of water in a pot, brought it to a boil, added the DME and dextrose, simmered for 15 minutes, turned off the heat and added the can contents (I used a little bit of boiled water to get all the extract out...

Wort volume was 23L right on. Should have been an even six gallons. So even adding a half pound of DME should bring that up by 3.5, I guess. That doesn't sound extreme at all. I'm not messing with hops or anything yet, I'm still keeping things pretty basic. The closest homebrew supply store is...

Hi folks, I'm still fairly new to doing these kits, but I did one a while back and while the result was not bad, I found I didn't hit the OG that I'd figured on, and I'm wondering why. This was a 23L batch, and here's what went in, together with how I did my calculations: 3.75lb Coopers IPA...

So I've done quite a few kits, but fell out of it for a while, and now I have two kits from a ways back. One is the Coopers IPA can-type kit, and the other is a BIAB Brewhouse Pale Ale. I got both of them more than two years ago. I've got fresh yeast, but I'm sure these kits are "expired". I'm...

DaNewf, that both answers my question and raises another one about "gallons". In the howtobrew.com book, it takes you through OG calculations, based on yield of different kinds of fermentables, using the "points per pound per gallon" scheme. So my question is, is that based on imperial or US...

Thanks for the info, everyone! As for racking to a secondary, I've done this on virtually every batch I did with the Brew House kits and never had an infection problem. I also have two carboys, so using the carboys enables me to do two batches at once (but I only have the one primary). So I...

Ok, so that first attempt at a Coopers kit didn't go so well. Turns out I didn't really know what I was doing and kind of botched it, though it'll probably be better than what I've been drinking out of the local beer store for a while. But on RM-MN's advice, I've read through most of the...

That might work out just perfect. I'm a machinist with a home shop, and I've often wanted to have a brew while working, but I don't want to risk losing digits to a spinning cutter. So this batch may be useful after all, even if it's less than optimal. :)

Thanks, everyone, for the replies! RM-MN, I think you've hit the nail on the head. While the Brew House kits are great, they don't give you much for actual understanding of what you're doing. Thanks for the link. I'll give that a good read before I throw on the next batch. In all likelihood I'm...

Hi folks! I've been brewing from the Brew House kits (which are great, but super simple) for about four years, but I've just done a Coopers kit, which threw me for a bit of a loop and took me out of my very narrow element. The Brew House kits that come with 15L of concentrated wort are simple...