Cascade the famous beer from Hobart, Tasmania now a subsidiary of the Foster’s Group has launched a wonderful range of premium brewing kits, where you can make some pretty tasty beer in your own home. One of our favorites is the Spicy Ghost Draught which has a real zesty spicy taste. The kits make 23 litres and all you need to do is add water and a kilo of sugars to the supplied can of extracts and yeast and a few weeks later you will be drinking a great beer. Cascade has a great range of beers to choose including a Chocolate Mahogany Porter, a pale ale and Golden Harvest Lager all which bring back some of the tastes of the Brewery’s long heritage dating back to 1824.
Last week we featured the Mr Brew Beer Kit, and by all accounts plenty of our readers took up the great offer and bought one of the kits. Well now you are going to need somewhere to put your brew, because it only takes about 2 weeks before you need to bottle. Here’s a cheap and easy way, with the Mr Beer Deluxe Bottling System. There are eight one litre PET plastic bottles, caps and even lables everything you need for a batch of Mr Beer, you just cant go wrong. Before you know it you will be driniking your very own beer…How cool is that!
How’s this for a great micro brew kit, its got everything you need and it looks so cool! The clever fermentation chamber is shaped like a old wooden barrel and would look great on any bar. The kit has everything you need to brew your first beer, you just need to mix the ingredients and ad water. Then in only 2 weeks you can be drinking your first brew. The kit is reusable you just need to purchase a new starter kit. It’s a great way to drink good quality beer at a fraction of the cost and best of all it’s something you have made your self- what a way to impress your friends. This item can only be shipped within the USA but other regions should get down to their local brew shop and see what type of kits they have- they are sure to have something great to get you started. Happy Brewing!
If you have been following our home brew series you would have guessed we are about to talk about bottling this week. Your standard home brew kit will produce enough beer to fill approx 48 330ml bottles often known as the stubbie or longneck. We chose this size for two reasons, 1. it is pretty easy to get suitable bottles around this size and 2. it a nice size to drink out of if the need be. In Australia a few years back most home brewers liked to use the 750ml size king brown, these have fallen out of favor as the king browns sold by Australian breweries has switched to twist tops.
If you are familiar with home brewing or you have been following our home brew series you are sure to have a grasp on the process of homebrewing, put your beer kit, water, sugar and yeast in a tub to ferment then bottle with a bit of sugar to carbonate. Here we are going to introduce you to an extra optional stage known as the 2nd fermentation or conditioning.
Last week we gave you the low down on the beer in a can or no boil home brew kits. These are a pretty popular way to brew and are what is included in the basic home brew kit you may have picked up at K-Mart etc. Even if you have never brewed before you may even recognize one of these cans from the supermarket shelf, but what many beginners don’t realize at first is that there are even more advanced kits to get you brewing a bit more like the big boys.
Last week we introduced you to the basic home brew kit. Nearly everyone who gets into home brewing starts with one of these, if you picked up one of these new you will have along with your fermenter tub and various other doo dads, your beer in a can mix. Read the rest of this entry »
Many beer connoisseurs like ourselves at one point or another get tempted to brew their own beer, it’s cheap, fun and pretty easy. Over the next few weeks we are going to cover the processes of home brewing and this week we are starting off with the beginners basic brew kit. So if you want us to dumb down home brewing read on. Read the rest of this entry »
We have decided that Thursdays will be brewing day on Hoppsy. Every Thursday we will have a story which will help you brew your very own delicious beer in your spare room or shed. If you have any tips which could help other brewers start up or improve their brews please drop us a line, we would love to hear from you! We are firstly going to talk about ingredients today’s ingredient is Malt.
Malt is made from cereal grains including wheat and barley, rice or even maize, barley is the most popular in beer productions but many brews use a combination of malts and different types of the same grain. The malting process occurs when the grain wet and is allowed to germinate quickly. It is then dried in a kiln before the plant develops too much. Sometimes grains are toasted to make darker beers adding additional colour and flavor to the brew. The malting process develops special enzymes what are required to turn the grain’s starches into sugars and also enzymes that help break down proteins that the yeast needs to do its work. For the unexperienced brewer you can purchase what is called malt extract from your brew shop where the malts have been made into a syrip like product where you only need to add water and yeast and additonal sugars to produce your brew. Read the rest of this entry »
