First Brew

[Goldsbeer]

I just purchased a 6 Gal carboy Brewers kit from my LHBS yesterday. For my first brew I'm going to try the Coopers Brewmaster Wheat Beer kit. My LHBS sold me a 2.2 lb bag of Dextrose to use with the kit. After reading several posts on this form I've decided not to use the Dextrose but go with a Dry Malt. The Kit recommends the Coopers Light Dry Malt but I noticed on the Coopers web site that they also have a Wheat Malt Extract. Has anyone used this extract with the Wheat kit? Any recommendations?

I've also decided to not use the 7g of yeast that the kit comes with but use a 11.5g packet of another brand. Any ideas of which brand of yeast I should go with? I've seen several different brands and not sure which way to go.

 

[Willy Boner]

I just purchased a 6 Gal carboy Brewers kit from my LHBS yesterday. For my first brew I'm going to try the Coopers Brewmaster Wheat Beer kit. My LHBS sold me a 2.2 lb bag of Dextrose to use with the kit. After reading several posts on this form I've decided not to use the Dextrose but go with a Dry Malt. The Kit recommends the Coopers Light Dry Malt but I noticed on the Coopers web site that they also have a Wheat Malt Extract. Has anyone used this extract with the Wheat kit? Any recommendations?

I've also decided to not use the 7g of yeast that the kit comes with but use a 11.5g packet of another brand. Any ideas of which brand of yeast I should go with? I've seen several different brands and not sure which way to go.

Well you might want to post what all the ingredients in the kit. The dextrose will up the alcohol for sure. Since it is your first batch I would probably follow the recipe,but as far as yeast goes, the liquid hefeweisen yeast makes all the difference between a German or a American brew. The dry yeast is more neutral for a more American version. I have used a Wyeast 3333 German Wheat Beer for my best results.

 

[Jaeger48]

I've also used White Labs Hefe yeast. My batch came out horrible (green apple) most likely from a wild yeast infection. I've heard hefe's can be tempermental but they are one of my favorite styles.

 

[SteveM]

You really need to list the malts that came in the kit. It's impossible to really give advice about what to add until we know what you have. I am speculating that they either gave you all wheat malt or some of each of wheat and barley, and the answer would be different depending on which is the case. The dextrose will have a use later so save it but it's not right that they are selling kits like this. They should be all malt.

 

[bradsul]

That sounds like a kit&kilo so you would definitely make the beer better by replacing the dextrose with about 1.2KG of DME (dry malt extract). Since it is a wheat kit I would go with a wheat malt extract if you can get it. Otherwise go with the lightest coloured extract you can find.

As for the yeast, I would just use the yeast that came with the kit for your first batch. Later on if you want to make a hefeweizen, both WYeast and WhiteLabs have proper hefeweizen yeasts (I like WLP300 personally, WYeast 3068 is supposedly the same strain). If you're just looking for an american style wheat beer, any neutral ale yeast would work fine (in which case just use the yeast that came with the kit).

Good luck with the first brew!

 

[Goldsbeer]

I guess it's not really much of a kit. It's only a can and a small bag of yeast. Check out the link.
http://www.coopers.com.au/homebrew/hbrew.php?pid=1&id=123

Thanks for the info.

 

[bradsul]

The 'kit' part is the can of pre-hopped malt extract with the yeast and the kilo refers to the 1KG of dextrose you add to it (2.2lbs). Hence the name.

It will make you a half decent beer, lots of guys started with it (myself included). You'll most likely want to move to full extract with actual hops instead of the pre-hopped kits fairly quickly. It's a great way to get some practice moving wort around and working with sanitizer and the rest of your equipment though.