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Newbie Question

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  • 09-09-2015 1:36pm
    #1
    fatgav
    Registered Users Posts: 627 ✭✭✭


    Hi folks

    First of all a big thanks to everyone who's given advice on this forum down through the years. I've been reading intently over the past while but would still like some advice for my own particular situation - I hope you don't mind.

    I've recently been given the present of a Cooper's Home Brew Kit with wheat lager ingredients. The kit is unused, but is a few years old so the ingredients are out of date.

    I was wondering how many of these are usable, if any, and what I should be investing in in terms of equipment or ingredients etc. I'm hoping to make a trip to the home brewing store in Galway in the coming days, having seen it mentioned here.

    Also, once the beer is brewed, and before bottling, would it be OK to keep it in a garage (locked, enclosed and dry) or should it be in the house? I'm thinking there'll be a significant temperature difference


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    #2
    BeerNut
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 11,848 Mod ✭✭✭✭BeerNut


    fatgav wrote: »
    I was wondering how many of these are usable
    It's all usable. You might not like the taste of the end result, but that's going to be true of any kit, and especially on your first go. You may as well make your first mistakes with this lot instead of something you paid for.
    fatgav wrote: »
    would it be OK to keep it in a garage (locked, enclosed and dry) or should it be in the house?
    As long as it doesn't get too warm (above 23C or so), that's all that really matters.

    My beer blog | The Twitter | My other beer blog



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    #3
    fatgav
    Registered Users Posts: 627 ✭✭✭fatgav


    Thanks for the advice. Is too cold an issue?


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    #4
    mordeith
    Registered Users Posts: 5,278 ✭✭✭mordeith


    fatgav wrote: »
    Thanks for the advice. Is too cold an issue?

    For initial fermentation you'd be better off in the house or else the fermentation might stall. Once bottled and primed you can leave in the house for a day or so, again to ensure secondary fermentation. After that you can leave them in the garage for a few weeks before drinking. One of the biggest mistakes some beginners make is drinking their brew too early, it tastes awful and then they give up. Patience is your friend.


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    #5
    dukeellington
    Registered Users Posts: 36 ✭dukeellington


    I'd advise against the shed, big temp fluctuations are not your friend, particularly at the beginning of the ferment

    I'd also advise against years old ingredients, lots of people say the whole reason you never get a great beer from a kit is because they sit so long the sugar congeal and become unfermentable, longer the kit's been there the worse it'll get. soz.

    As an aside I recently used DME that had been sitting there for one year as priming sugar. There is no disappointment so great as pouring out your first bottle and realizing you've ****ed up the entire batch at the very last step... flat and tasting of rotten sugar...


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