Kit O' Beer #2 - Canadian Blonde

[Glass]

Glad that was pointed out before I bought 5lbs of the Easy Clean! My bottles are clean and was just concentrating on the sanitizing aspect, no rinse specifically and it looks like Star San is the winner.

yes me too, because I still had in my head I needed an oxi clean. But I don't. Is good.

Had another beer yesterday and today. It is still barely not flat. It is drinkable. I guess the sweetness is the uncarbonated priming drop sugar. I saw norfolkhillbilly YT today and he described the exact same thing. Bottle gives a nice hiss. Beer is mostly flat. He says it was caused by out of date liquid malt extract. The kit he used was out of code. Mine was at least 1 year. But I did not make a note of the expiry of any of them. I am sure all of them had plenty of time. I will make a note from here on. I would not buy one if it was out of code and I think the turn over is fairly good. I might if they were just out and cheap.

[Libertytree]

yes me too, because I still had in my head I needed an oxi clean. But I don't. Is good.

Had another beer yesterday and today. It is still barely not flat. It is drinkable. I guess the sweetness is the uncarbonated priming drop sugar. I saw norfolkhillbilly YT today and he described the exact same thing. Bottle gives a nice hiss. Beer is mostly flat. He says it was caused by out of date liquid malt extract. The kit he used was out of code. Mine was at least 1 year. But I did not make a note of the expiry of any of them. I am sure all of them had plenty of time. I will make a note from here on. I would not buy one if it was out of code and I think the turn over is fairly good. I might if they were just out and cheap.

Hmmm, I never considered that to be a culprit but it sounds very logical. The place I get my LME from has a very good rep but anything is possible.

[Glass]

i'm still holding the yeast responsible at this point. Could be old or something. The net tells me that safale -04 is slow. just came across that info on expiry so I thought I'd make a note. We have a large liquor chain and a couple big department stores selling coopers kits. A bit cheaper than at the LHBS for same. I think the turn over is pretty good but anyway worth remembering to check the use by date.

[Libertytree]

Don't yaw'll have an online outlet to go through?

[Glass]

well you can buy via diybeer which is the coopers web site. Eventually I hope to get stuff from them. Domestic parcel post is huge $. The coopers guys do free ship specials from time to time. They also do a monthly beer style where they sell you everything including some steeping grains and hops. So basically more like the other brand kits you see like northern brewer, muntons and so on.

Anyway it is more the thought of having two of these undercarbonated brews to get through as KoB #3 is shaping up the same. I could be proved 100% wrong. Time will tell.

[Libertytree]

I haven't drank any of my brews since I went to Daytona 2 weeks ago and am still drinking the Buds I took with me. I'm hoping that the extra 2 weeks have made it even better, it's kinda like trying it again for the 1st time.

[Glass]

I watched the Daytona today. Many hours. Was not a bad race. I'm not glued to it. On in the back ground.

I cracked another 2 bottles of KoB #2 today. First bottle was hard, remembering they're PET. This was an example of what this beer can be at say 85% maybe 90%. Head was 1 1/2 fingers. Not a lot of staying power but there was something on top for the duration. Nice continuous carbonation. Great lacing on the glass. With the better carbonation levels the fruit aromas are more obvious. There is a faint pineapple aroma. When the glass is empty your tongue is in there licking the sides of the glass. Tasty. That was like a diamond in the rough. Hope restored.

Second bottle was under carbonated but improved. I'm rating these under carb'd at 5 - 6 out of 10. This one's a 6. Bottle #1 - 8.5.

[JFN111]

Question for you beer guru's- Does this look like a good starter kit?
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewi...ter-kit-1.html
Also- I already have enamel canning pots, will these work as well as Stainless Steel pots?
Thanks

[Libertytree]

Question for you beer guru's- Does this look like a good starter kit?
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewi...ter-kit-1.html
Also- I already have enamel canning pots, will these work as well as Stainless Steel pots?
Thanks

Welcome to homebrewing!

Yeah, looks like a great kit. I compared it to the ones sold at Northern Brewing and the Midwest kit is a better deal.

I used an enamel cook pot until I just recently upgraded due to increased batch size, it worked fine.

One note: The wing cappers that come with the kits suck. My very 1st upgrade was a vintage bottle capper and it continues to be one of my best investments for brewing. Here's an example.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Anti...-/251462883284

Feel free to ask anything you might have questions about.

[BrewTech]

i'm still holding the yeast responsible at this point. Could be old or something. The net tells me that safale -04 is slow. just came across that info on expiry so I thought I'd make a note. We have a large liquor chain and a couple big department stores selling coopers kits. A bit cheaper than at the LHBS for same. I think the turn over is pretty good but anyway worth remembering to check the use by date.

S-04 isn't slow, but it isn't very attenuative and flocculates quickly. When using it, especially on a big beer, I have started to blend it with US-05 to get better attenuation. If you think the yeast may be old, you might want to do a starter to revive the colony and bring up the healthy cell count.

When brewing with extracts, it is imperative to use only the freshest. Dry malt extract works well, and tends to last longer than LME.