My Brewery Label

After we settled in, I purchased a Coopers home brewing kit. This comes with everything to create your first brew, including 30 plastic PET brown bottles. These are said to be 700 ml but when I tested them with water, they are 750 ml.

In August I purchased 15 extra bottles as I wanted to make a whole brew of bottled beer and I inadvertently destroyed two by putting almost boiling water in them.

First Brews

I started the first brew on 26 April 2008 and discovered that the temperature in the house was a bit too low based on the recommendations in the brew kit. Until this time I had not connected up my home weather station so I was not aware of the inside temperature. The temperature at that time varied between about 21ºC in the early afternoon to about 16ºC overnight. I put the fermenter in the laundry and using the clothes dryer and a basin with hot water to keep the temperature up.

As such, it took about six days to be ready for bottling. I did this on 3 May and on 12 May I tasted it. It was quite nice but a little flat. I put this down to the temperature being a bit low for the secondary fermentation. Despite this, it went down well.

Right from the start I decided to limit the alcholo content of the beers by using less sugar/malt in the fermentation process. I generally use 500 grams of whatever I put in rather than the 1 kg recommended.

As mentioned, my original intention was to brew in kegs and in mid-May 2008 I purchased the kegging equipment. I purchased two 18 litre kegs, one tap, lines and fittings and a CO2 cylinder. When we moved, our old fridge went under the house and I drilled holes for the lines and set it up. I later purchased another tap so I can have two different beers available from the kegs at any one time.

What I did not know then but do now is that there are at least two different types of kegs, well, at least the connectors. The first one has pin (bayonet) fittings for the inlet and outlet connections. These are mostly Coke kegs and are considered the older type. In Australia these appear to be the less common type. The second has ball fittings. These are held on by spring-loaded ball bearings. These are mostly referred to as Pepsi kegs. The ones I bought are the Coke pin fitting kegs. The only problem with this is when I went to purchase some extra kegs, I had a bit of trouble finding some. I finally found some on Ebay (more about this soon).

On 12 May 2008 I started the second brew. This was a Coopers Pale Ale. I made a mistake when doing this as I thought that the Brew Enhancer 2 (which can be added to the standard brew to make it taste better) was added in addition to the sugar. Luckily I did not add it before I realised the mistake. As such, this brew only had normal Coopers sugar added.

This also took six days to finishing fermenting due to the reasons outlined above. I kegged it on 18 May and put it in the fridge with only a small amount of gas to evacuate the air from the space left inside the keg. After it cooled (one day) I put in 200 kpa of pressure. After two days I dropped this to 100 kpa but when I tested, I thought that the beer was a bit flat so I upped it again for another day. Another mistake! The beer was way to fizzy and I ended up with 80% froth when pouring. After a lot of effort, I got it right (you have to release pressure, shake the keg, release the pressure and repeat till you get it right).

This beer was great. It tasted very much like Coopers Pale Ale and it was drunk in under three weeks.

My next beer was a Hahn Premium kit I purchased. It cost a bit to buy but after tasting it when first ready, I am a bit disappointed as it tasted nothing like Hahn Premium. I decided to let it age and not taste it again for a month or more (it tasted okay but not like Hahn).

After I knocked over the first keg, I decided to do another Pale Ale and this time I did it with the Brew Enhancer No 2. As I was having a house warming party in mid-July, I had arranged to borrow two kegs and this is where I discovered that there are different types of connectors. As I said, I wanted some cheap ones and I found someone in Newcastle selling three on Ebay. I won these for $83. They needed some work done on the o-rings as they are in fairly poor condition. I got one working okay and then a second one. I will need to purchase some o-rings and do some cleaning to get the third one working as well as fix the other two up properly. I still have not done this in 2013!

As the temperature in the house in Winter was so low, I purchased a cheap single bed electric blanket. I put the fermenter and any bottles on this and used the blanket to keep the temperature right (I stopped using this later as the colder temperature just means it takes longer to ferment).

I plan to try and keep three full kegs in the fridge and another in production so I can age them a bit. I will report on the ageing process once I have some that are older than the 7 weeks that I have so far achieved.

Since brew 3, I have been using the electric blanket to keep the temperature right for both primary and secondary fermentation. The bottled beer produced since then have been much better, with far more bubbles than the first ones.

Also, when I created brew 5, I added a chilli to three bottles. In mid-July, I tasted one and it was quite interesting. The beer went down well, but left a tingling taste in my throat. I was funny that my lips and tongue were not affected. I was going to the other two bottles out during my party but I forgot. I took another one to a ski weekend and those who tasted it found it very interesting.

In August 2008 I purchased a Coopers Bitter kit as I wanted to try it out. This brew came out very, very dark. It looks more like an old beer. I quickly tasted it after I gassed it up and it seems nice. However, it was a bit too dark for my liking and I doubt that I will make it again.

I also puchased a Coopers International European Lager and made this up. I decided I wanted to bottle this as it recommends putting it away for three months. Therefore, I purchased another 30 PET bottles. I decided that I would not drink this till near Christmas 2008. I tried it after 96 days and it was excellent. After over four months it got better. One of the best brews I had made to that date and even in 2013.

I also purchased a Coopers Pilsner. This has been the best beer I have made so far. I made another brew almost straight after I kegged this one. This time I put them all in bottles. I left this brew for over two months before I tried and it was even better than the first one. I have since made another and intend to make one about every four brews.

In early November 2008 I made a Coopers Cerveza. I did not like this and will make again.

In late November 2008 I made a Coopers Real Ale. I added 200 grams of honey to the brew and tried it on New Year's Eve, it was nice.

Purchase Cost

Item	Cost
Beer Kit	$84
Kegging gear	$300
Extra kegs	$83
Extra bottles	$52
Gas cylinder	$300
Extra keg tap	$60
Other	$17
TOTAL:	$896

Later Brews

In about 2009 I have moved all the fermentation to under the house. The temperature there is normally around 20º to 22º in summer and down to about 14º in winter. I now let my beer brew in the fermenter for between 21 and 28 days, no matter the temperature. This has produced far better tasting beers as well as making them much clearer.

I also started using 500 grams of honey in the Lager, Draught and Real Ale brews instead of sugars. If I am in the country and I see honey for sale, I purchase some 1 kg bails of whatever is on offer. The honey does not give a honey taste to the beer, but it does add a flavour which very much depends on the type of honey. I have also used commercial honey and have found that the Woolworths premium brand is very good.

I have also been given some more bottles which means I can have a lot of beer in storage. From the first brew I have been putting away two bottles into a box for aging. I generally let these get to at least 10 months old before I drink them. I am now averaging about 12 months before I drink the last one. Some have even made it to 600 days, with many around the 500 days mark. Of these, virtually all have been much better than the younger bottles of the same brew. Only one or two have been a little flatter than I remembered the earlier ones to be. It seems that you can keep the beer in the plastic bottles for at least 500 days without it going off or flat.

I have also been making Coopers Pilsner in winter when the temperatures are lower. I bottle these and do not start for at least three months. In 2012 I left a brew for about six months before I tasted it and about 10 months before I actually started drinking it. They are excellent and my favourite beer.

Brews to Date

Brew	Date	Brew	Sugar	Extra	%	Storage	Tasted	Comments
1	26 April 2008	Cooper's Lager	500g		4.3%	Bottled 3 May 2008	12 May 2008	Tastes nice but a bit flat. Too cool when secondary formation
2	12 May 2008	Coopers Pale Ale	500g		4.3%	Kegged 18 May 2008 (+8 750ml)	21 May 2008	Very nice. A bit flat but later put too much gas in. Got right in the end and polished off with the neighbour!
3	19 May 2008	Hahn Premium (Blue Mountains Lager)	400g	Malt and dextrose	4.0%	Kegged 27 May 2008 (+6)	30 May 2008	Cloudy and does not taste like HP but is a nice drop anyway
4	9 June 2008	Coopers Pale Ale	500g	Enhancer 2	4.3%	Kegged 14 June 2008 (+7)	17 June 2008	Was very nice, totally consumed at party
5	14 June 2008	Coopers Blonde	500g	Enhancer 1	4.0%	Kegged 22 June 2008 (+6)	25 June 2008	Was very nice, totally consumed at party
6	22 June 2008	Coopers Pale Ale	500g	Enhancer 2	4.3%	28 June 2008 (+6)	19 July 2008	Quite nice - about five litres consumed at party
7	7 July 2008	Coopers Blonde	500g	Enhancer 1	4.3%	13 July 2008 (+6)	6 August 2008	Very nice, going down well
8	14 July 2008	Coopers Pale Ale	500g	Enhancer 2	4.3%	20 July 2008 (+8)	25 August 2008	Excellent
9	8 August 2008	Coopers Bitter	550g		5.4%(?)	14 August 2008 (+7)	7 September 2008	A bit too dark for me, I drank it but I will not make it again
10	16 August 2008	Coopers International Lager	550g	Enhancer 2	6.9% (?)	Bottled 25 August 2008		Very, very good
11	26 August 2008	Coopers Pale Ale	500g	Enhancer 2	4.0%	30 August 2008 (+8)	10 October 2008	As good as all the other Pale Ales I have made
12	30 August 2008	Coopers Pilsner	300g dextrose	500g Light Dry Malt	2.8%	20 September 2008 (+8)	19 October 2008	A bit flat in kegs but tasty, bottles excellent
13	20 September 2008	Coopers Pale Ale	500g	Enhancer 2	4.8%	26 September 2008 (+8)	7 November 2008	Flat at first but now great
14	12 October 2008	Coopers Lager	600g dextrose		3.2%	15 October 2008	27 November 2008	Very nice
15	15 October 2008	Coopers Pilsner	300g dextrose	500g Light Dry Malt	4.6%	24 October 2008	3 December 2008	Excellent!!
16	24 October 2008	Coopers Blonde		500g Enhancer 1	2.9%	29 October 2008	7 November 2008	Very good
17	7 November 2008	Coopers Cerveza		500g Enhanced 2	2.7%	13 November 2008	13 December 2008	Yuk!
18	27 November 2008	Coopers Real Ale	500g	200g honey	4.6%	3 December 2008	31 December 2008	Excellent
19	10 December 2008	Coopers Pilsner	300g dextrose	500g Light Dry Malt	4.3%	17 December 2008	26 January 2009
20	22 December 2008	Coopers Pale Ale		500g Enhancer 2	2.9%	28 December 2008		Got better as it aged
21	3 January 2009	Coopers European Ale	500g	Enhancer 2	2.9%	12 January 2009	10 May 2009	Not good, brewed at too high temp
22	27 January 2009	Coopers Draught		500g honey	3.8%	6 February 2009	21 March 2009	Very nice
23	6 February 2009	Coopers Pale Ale		500g Enhancer 2	2.4%	15 February 2009	29 March 2009	Very good
24	14 March 2009	Coopers Blonde		500g Enhancer 1	4.6%	23 March 2009	2 May 2009	Very good
25	24 March 2009	Coopers Pilsner		500g special mix	5.1%	2 April 2009	2 May 2009	Great and got better
26	2 April 2009	Coopers Draught		500g honey	4.6%	17 April 2009	4 June 2009	Loved it
27	19 April 2009	Coopers Real Ale		500g honey	5.0%	1 May 2009	5 June 2009	Very good
28	4 May 2009	Coopers Pale Ale		500g Enhancer 2	3.8%	19 May 2009	17 July 2009	Not as good as previous
29	19 May 2009	Coopers Blonde		500g Enhancer 2	4.8%	2 June2009	7 August 2009	Very good
30	2 June 2009	Morgans Sheaf Wheat		Special mix	4.6%	16 June 2009	1 September 2009	Okay but not worth extra $
31	19 June 2009	Coopers Pilsner		500g special mix	4.0%	18 July2009	1 October 2009	Very nice
32	18 July 2008	Coopers Lager		500g honey	4.6%	9 August2009	22 November 2009	Nice and got better
33	11 August 2009	Coopers Pale Ale		500g Enhancer 2	4.6%	August 2009	15 November 2009	Excellent
34	12 September 2009	Coopers Real Ale		500g honey	3.5%	11 October2009	20 December 2009	Excellent
35	11 October 2009	Coopers Pale Ale		500g Enhancer 2	5.4%	29 October2009	24 December 2009	Very good
36	9 November 2009	Coopers Blonde		500g Enhancer 2	4.0%	22 November 2009	23 April 2010	Very good
37	24 November 2009	Coopers Real Ale		500g honey	4.6%	13 December 2009	30 January 2010	Tasty
38	13 December 2009	Coopers Pale Ale		500g Enhancer 2	3.5%	10 January 2010	26 March 2010	Got better as it aged
39	13 January 2010	Coopers Pilsner		500g special mix	5.4%	3 February2010	15 May 2010	Excellent
40	3 February 2010	Coopers Draught		500g honey	6.2%	17 February 2010	19 June 2010	A great beer
41	17 February 2010	Coopers Pale Ale		500g Enhancer 2	5.4%	8 March2010	? 2010	Nice
42	10 March 2010	Coopers Blonde		500g Enhancer 2	4.8%	27 March2010	25 April 2010	Excellent
43	29 March 2010	Coopers Real Ale		500g honey	3.5%	27 April 2010	10 September 2010	Great
44	9 May 2010	Coopers Pale Ale		500g Enhancer 2	5.4%	3 June2010	12 November 2010
45	3 June 2010	Coopers European Ale		500g Enhancer 2	5.1%	27 June2010	1 December 2010	Nice
46	28 June 2010	Coopers Pilsner		500g special mix	5.1%	24 July 2010	25 November 010	Best I have made
47	1 August 2010	Coopers Pilsner		500g special mix	5.1%	9 September 2010	25 February 2011	Very good beer
48	15 September 2010	Coopers Lager		500g honey	5.4%	9 October2010	17 December 2010	Very refreshing
49	9 October 2010	Coopers Blonde		500g Enhancer 2	5.6%	31 October2010	29 July 2011	Very refreshing
50	1 November 2010	Coopers Pale Ale		500g Enhancer 2	4.3%	20 November2010	28 January 2011	Nice
51	2 November 2010	Coopers Real Ale		500g honey	6.3%	11 December2010	3 July 2011	Great beer
52	11 December 2010	Coopers Lager		500g mango pulp	5.1%	10 January 2011	17 April 2011	Interesting, not great
53	12 January 2011	Coopers Blonde		500g Enhancer 2	4.8%	6 February 2011	8 Spetember 2011	Refreshing
54	12 February 2011	Coopers Draught		500g honey	2.1% (!)	28 March 2011	17 October 2011	Housesitter drank them all!
55	19 April 2011	Coopers Real Ale		500g honey	5.6%	15 May2011	3 December 2011	Very nice, got better
56	23 May 2011	Coopers Pale Ale		500g Enhancer 2	5.1%	28 June2011	9 November 2011
57	3 July 2011	Coopers Pilsner		500g special mix	5.5%	24 July2011	3 September 2011	Very good
58	3 August 2011	Coopers Draught		500g honey	5.4%	6 September2011	12 December 2011
59	15 September 2011	Coopers Pilsner		500g special mix	5.4%	11 October2011	8 March 2012	Excellent
60	14 October 2011	Coopers Pale Ale		500g Enhancer 2	5.4%	29 November2011	15 May 2012	Brilliant!
61	12 December 2011	Coopers Blonde		500g Enhancer 2	2.7% (!)	12 January2012	21 October 2012	Had to throw out as went off due to holidays and not bottling
62	14 January 2012	Coopers Lager		500g honey	4.8%	1 March2012	17 August 2012
63	25 March 2012	Coopers Blonde		500g Enhancer 2	2.7%	15 April2012	30 September 2012	Not as good as others
64	16 April 2012	Coopers Real Ale		500g honey	4.0%	6 May2012	10 June 2012	Excellent
65	10 May 2012	Coopers Pale Ale		500g Enhancer 2	5.4%	1 June2012	11 January 2013	Excellent
66	4 June 2012	Coopers Pilsner		500g special mix	4.7%	25 June2012
67	30 June 2012	Coopers Blonde		500g honey	5.1%	25 July2012	9 November	Nice and easy
68	2 August 2012	Coopers Pilsner		500g special mix	5.1%	27 August2012
69	7 October 2012	Coopers Draught		500g honey	2.9%	21 October2012
70	12 November 20112	Coopers Pale Ale		500g Enhancer 2	5.6%	7 January2013
71	27 January 2013	Coopers Blonde		500g Enhancer 2	4.6%	2013
72	? March 2013	Coopers Draught		500g honey	4.6%	2013
73	14 April 2013	Coopers Lager		500g honey	4.6%	2013

I AM STILL BREWING IN 2024 BUT HAVE NOT UPDATED THE PAGE SINCE 2013.

Favourite Brews

As you can see from above, I have concentrated on Coopers' kits. Not only are these cheap and available in supermarkets, they are great! I generally now only brew the following:

In 2013 I will also do a Coopers European Lager as I have not done one for a long time and I did enjoy it.

I probably like the Pilsner the best, but the Real Ale is a close second. The honey seems to make it a much better beer. As mentioned, the type of honey used can make a big difference to the taste and the alcohol content. The honey purchased direct from the country bee keepers seems to be stronger tasting and have more sugars.

Cost of Beer

This cost includes capital cost and recurrent cost of making the brews.

Brews	Capital Cost	Recurrent Cost	Kegs	Bottles	Equals Cans	Cost per Carton	Cost per can	Recurrent per can
70	$897	$1,185	49	1,068	4,350	$11.49	$0.48	$0.27

Labels

I designed some labels for my beer and printed a few up. They are shown below.