Newbie that needs help

[DionA1995]

I have purchased a kegerator that fits 3x19L kegs with three taps. (From kegland)
Have done 5 brews none of which have been any good so far, figuring I must be doing something wrong so I’ve come for help.
This time around I have used a coopers lager diy kit. In the past l have fermented for around 7 days ensuring with the hydrometer same specific gravity two days in a row, then I pour into keg.
The kegging stage I think is where I am getting lost.
Happy to “set and forget” to a certain psi and let it be until ready. How do I workout what pressure to set etc?
The fridge has a digital temperature on the outside. Do I have to put a thermometer on the keg to work out what psi to set? The cooler i can have the beer the better being in Gladstone (Australia) its always hot outside.
Are there any step by steps guides on what to on here?
Looks like a great page, cheers

 

[Julian Høstan Urrea]

There are 4 rules to keep when making beer.
1.everything must be clean, like really clean. Use a good sanitizer also. Sanitizer all equipment used in the prosess.
2. Hold a steady temperature. Most kits work well around 18-20degrees celcius. (yours is probably an ale kit even though it says lager)
3. Give the yeast time to finish. Good thumb rule is 14 days. 7 to 10 days to finish ferment, the rest for the yeast to clean house after itself. Also this time let's the beer clear so that you don't get as much undesirables in your keg.
4. Try to keep as much o2 out of the mix as possible during and after fermentation. Small amounts of air in your beer will make the beer less tasty and in some cases even oxidise it making it taste closer to cardboard than beer.

Follow this and you should get good beer.

The coopers kits aren't bad, but they won't make you craft beer exelence if you know what I mean. Extract brewing with some hops are way better. Though it's more expensive, it's well worth it. Start with some cascade. Everybody loves cascade. Also buy good yeast. US-05 is an excellent starter yeast. It just works.

As for the pressure in your kegerator. You want to look at a chart. The chart tells you what to set the pressure to at the temperature you have in your kegerator.

Here's one:

So if you have 4 degrees celcius in your kegerator, you set the pressure to 11 psi. Leave it like that for two weeks. Could be ready to drink in about week and a half.

Happy brewing

 

[DionA1995]

Thanks heaps for you help!
Here is the fermentor I have, there are tiny air gaps where the clips are, will this be okay?
Where do you buy the stuff if i try a cascade?

 

[Julian Høstan Urrea]

Thanks heaps for you help!
Here is the fermentor I have, there are tiny air gaps where the clips are, will this be okay?
Where do you buy the stuff if i try a cascade?

Yeah that's fine. The co2 produced by the fermenting is enough to push out any o2. What i meant was more or less no splashing when transferring to keg. Better of leaving the tube all the way in the keg and letting it fill over it. Splashing is bad. As for the extract. Homebrew shop. You need about 3 kg. Or for first beer you could use 1,5 kg extract and a bag of beer enhancer (basically a cheaper version of extract 50% sugar/ 50% dry malt extract.) here in Norway we have better brew, I think coopers have 2 types also. I'm sure with some googling you'll find it. That said, the 3kg of pure extract will make a better beer. The point being that you want to hop your own beer. Not use something prehopped

 

[DionA1995]

Okay awesome, yes always use a long hose to the bottom of the keg to avoid splashing.
When you ferment where do you put it to keep it to get the preferred temperature?
Do you have a special thermometer you leave in the fridge to know what the fridge is actually running at?
I think i used 500grams of dextrose, a coopers “lager” brew enhancer in the big tin, and yeast right at the end. How do you use hops wouldn't have a clue where to begin

 

[DionA1995]

Also I’ve got other soft drinks as such in that fridge, if its getting opened now and then and the keg temp rises will this wreck everything?

 

[Julian Høstan Urrea]

Okay awesome, yes always use a long hose to the bottom of the keg to avoid splashing.
When you ferment where do you put it to keep it to get the preferred temperature?
Do you have a special thermometer you leave in the fridge to know what the fridge is actually running at?
I think i used 500grams of dextrose, a coopers “lager” brew enhancer in the big tin, and yeast right at the end. How do you use hops wouldn't have a clue where to begin

I took out the fridge internal thermometer and I use an itc 308. It's basically a double outlet plug with a temp probe. One outlet for warm and one for cold. I have a bottle filled with water in the fridge and I have the probe in there. The fridge is in the cold plug of the device. It's awesome for tempcontroll.
You need to boil the extract and the hops. You have different times to add hops, depending on what you want to achieve. When talking time in homebrew cooking it's always counting down from. You have 3 stages. Bittering(60-45mim, taste 45-20min, aroma 20-0min.) If you ad hops at 60 min left of boil, then that's what's called the bittering etc
obviously there's a lot more to it. But that's the basics.
Just Google cascade extract recipe. You'll get some nice ones I'm sure. Also read up a little. I could spend a week writing here just telling you stuff about homebrew. For now just find a simple recipe. And go for it. It won't turn out worse then a coopers kit.

 

[Julian Høstan Urrea]

The itc 308.

 

[Julian Høstan Urrea]

Also I’ve got other soft drinks as such in that fridge, if its getting opened now and then and the keg temp rises will this wreck everything?

It'll be fine. It takes a little while to change the temp on so many liters.

 

[rlmiller]

I noticed you refered to "pouring" your beer into the keg. If you are indeed pouring, and not carefully syphoning, your beers my be having an oxidation problem.

 

[Julian Høstan Urrea]

I noticed you refered to "pouring" your beer into the keg. If you are indeed pouring, and not carefully syphoning, your beers my be having an oxidation problem.

He did actually say later on that he used a hose submerged in the keg.

 

[DionA1995]

I noticed you refered to "pouring" your beer into the keg. If you are indeed pouring, and not carefully syphoning, your beers my be having an oxidation problem.

Use a long tube so it doesn't splash, bad choice of words

 

[Smitty]

There are 4 rules to keep when making beer.
1.everything must be clean, like really clean. Use a good sanitizer also. Sanitizer all equipment used in the prosess.
2. Hold a steady temperature. Most kits work well around 18-20degrees celcius. (yours is probably an ale kit even though it says lager)
3. Give the yeast time to finish. Good thumb rule is 14 days. 7 to 10 days to finish ferment, the rest for the yeast to clean house after itself. Also this time let's the beer clear so that you don't get as much undesirables in your keg.
4. Try to keep as much o2 out of the mix as possible during and after fermentation. Small amounts of air in your beer will make the beer less tasty and in some cases even oxidise it making it taste closer to cardboard than beer.

Follow this and you should get good beer.

The coopers kits aren't bad, but they won't make you craft beer exelence if you know what I mean. Extract brewing with some hops are way better. Though it's more expensive, it's well worth it. Start with some cascade. Everybody loves cascade. Also buy good yeast. US-05 is an excellent starter yeast. It just works.

As for the pressure in your kegerator. You want to look at a chart. The chart tells you what to set the pressure to at the temperature you have in your kegerator.

Here's one:View attachment 682766
So if you have 4 degrees celcius in your kegerator, you set the pressure to 11 psi. Leave it like that for two weeks. Could be ready to drink in about week and a half.

Happy brewing

What kind of hops would you recommend for an extract Cerveza and when/how would you add them? Dry? Tea?

 

[Julian Høstan Urrea]

What kind of hops would you recommend for an extract Cerveza and when/how would you add them? Dry? Tea?

Cerveza? Like a Mexican one? Or just cerveza aka beer? If beer, its all about what kind you want. If its Mexican you probably just want an easy light beer to drink in the summer heat. If its a DIY extract brew type coopers these already come hopped, but in my experience never actually taste like a Mexican cerveza. Your probably best of just buying some light extract and adding sume dextrose. Boil for 60 min with very little hops. You are aiming for 12-15 ibus. (ibus are a scale we use to determine bitterness in beer) you can put in your recipe in BeerCalc.org. It's an easy to use, free recipe program.
Sorry if this didn't give you any answer. You didn't provide much information.

 

[Smitty]

Cerveza? Like a Mexican one? Or just cerveza aka beer? If beer, its all about what kind you want. If its Mexican you probably just want an easy light beer to drink in the summer heat. If its a DIY extract brew type coopers these already come hopped, but in my experience never actually taste like a Mexican cerveza. Your probably best of just buying some light extract and adding sume dextrose. Boil for 60 min with very little hops. You are aiming for 12-15 ibus. (ibus are a scale we use to determine bitterness in beer) you can put in your recipe in BeerCalc.org. It's an easy to use, free recipe program.
Sorry if this didn't give you any answer. You didn't provide much information.

Sorry for the lack of info. I purchased a Festa Brew Mexican Cerveza kit and was wondering if it would benefit at all adding some hops.