Homebrew Our Own Australian Pale Ale
Since starting from next week, we will spend a lot of money on Malaysia Oktoberfest, we decided to brew our own beer for the month after that. The whole process take around 3-4 weeks. 1 week in bucket storage fermentation and 2-3 weeks more in the bottle fermentation. This time around we will be brewing Coopers Australian Pale Ale, as is not easy to find Pale Ale in Malaysia accept Little Creature pale ale that you can get from Bottles & Bottles.
Before the brewing begin, we have to prepare all the stuff. As this is a homebrew kit to set up is easy, just buy the malt syrups and brewing sugar to start your own brewing. As we are not pros, so this is the easiest way to brew your own beer.
First just mix the syrups into hot water and stir, at the same time add in the brewing sugar. The sugar is to make sure you have the right amount of alcohol and CO2 in your beer. As yeast eat sugar to produce alcohol and CO2.
The final mixture does not look nice but we hope the beer by 3 weeks time will turn out good and smooth. The coopers homebrew set is quite easy to use. As long as we clean up and sanitize all the equipment we use, the fermentation process should be good.
Then we put the mixture into a big bucket and add in additional water. As the malt syrup is for 23 liters of water, so we add in enough water to create the right recipe for this beer. The last part is adding the yeast and let the fermentation process begins.
After everything is done, we close the bucket cover and hope no bacteria will spoil our beer. As we chill the temperature down to around 25ºC to make sure the yeast work well in this condition. As pale ale is upper fermentation, no need to maintain the temperature to be too cold.
Now we will have to wait for one week time to fill up the bottles for the bottle fermentation. As we already cleaning up the bottle getting ready for the bottle refilling. The good thing about homebrew is first save a lot of money on beer, spend RM100 for 70 over cans of beer. Secondly, can recycle the beer bottle. Thirdly, reap for the hard work to enjoy some good beer. So, check out next week for the result. Cheers!
September 18th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Hey I been starting homebrew for sometime now.. I have try mead, wine and hard cider using only store bought juice and baker yeast (considering malaysia doesn’t have any homebrew supplier). The result is not that good but it is satisfying, well at least for me for the low cost thing. I just curios as I wanted to try brewing my own beer, where did you get that kit? I wanted to buy online but the shipping cost is way too high for me.. Right now I just started with small batch (1.5 liter soda bottle). And yeah I have been experimenting with malta drink to make beer and the result isn’t too bad. The cheapest way to find hopped malt in malaysia I suppose.
September 18th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
haha, u indeed hard core, baker yeast is not suitable for brewing. They have brewing yeast. The nearest supplier is Singapore, try http://www.ibrew.com.sg/, our supply come from there. Some bough from friend which coming back from Australia. I think what you did is too hard core, baker yeast fermentation is a bit different, as the yeast are meant for high temperature. but as long as you like it, not much can be said… enjoy!
September 20th, 2009 at 12:50 am
Yeah everything i brew kinda taste like cheap wine and a bit yeasty smell from it.. I think it is because of my impatient (my wine never age more than 3 month and I never let them settle clearly) I dont really mind that.. I think it is better to brew my own rather than buy cause it is way more cheaper than buying the real deal. And I think it is most suitable in malaysia cause the weather suit this kind of yeast (32celcius room temperature I think) so the yeast will optimize the fermentation. Most of the brewer yeast is meant for colder weather as the country they reside is indeed cold. anyway I have experiment and the result isnt disappointing at all. Good luck for your first batch!! Cheers
September 21st, 2009 at 11:55 pm
will I be able to try ur next brew. I quite curious about the test. From far I know yeast play an important part, it goes with upper and bottom fermentation. With that temperature will ur yeast be upper or bottom fermentation? What kind of beer will you produce and what kind of taste can it be? I really curious, either way I would like to try some of your home brew. I’m not surprise the beer you produce come with high abv%
September 27th, 2009 at 12:59 am
Sorry for the late reply.. According to my experience the baker yeast is the same species as the wine yeast and the upper fermentation beer yeast (my source is wikipedia).. As I use malta drink it taste just like guiness stout (with a bit more yeasty flavor and lack the roasted flavor).. I add a little bit more sugar to increase the abv% (about a spoonfull of sugar per 1.5litre bottle.. Here my recipe for about 4.5 liter beer..
2 pack 6 can malta
3 soda bottle
3 spoon sugar/honey (change according taste)
baker yeast (I use dried one.. feel free to change with the frozen one)
just put the drink in the bottle, put sugar, pitch yeast and put the lid loosely.. Shake daily for 3 days and leave for 4 days (to settle the yeast) and then I put in bottle, add some more sugar (about 1/3 spoon) for carbonation and leave for 3 days and walla.. Done.. Easy cheap and simple method.. I really think malta drink is good for making beer as it has vitamin c and b which is act as yeast energizer and contain no preservative. it has caramel but i think it just add the roasted flavor to it. You can do it using beer yeast if you afraid of the result but I have done many thing with baker yeast and it never fail me.. Except for my rice wine which is ruined by infection and i have to throw all 6 275ml bottle for the batch.. I also use honey to make mead and juice from concentrate to make wine.. I use berry 2.5 liter grape juice from supermarket and pitch yeast to make wine.. I use yeo’s 1 liter apple juice to make hard cider and some lime and honey to make mead. I also use leftover rice to make rice wine which is pretty complicated and easy to spoil…
September 27th, 2009 at 1:14 am
owh yeah, I have a new batch in my house right now.. I live in kuantan if you want to taste my brew.. I try using carlsberg’s malt drink nutrimalt as a test (my last batch with nutrimalt is bland as I just recently learn how to carbonate my booze) It contain higher sugar than malta drink so it doesn’t need any additional sugar (but I still add to boost abv% level.. I love higher abv and a good carbonation with my beer, as my favourite beer is martens lager black can, 12%abv) I just learn these stuff as I am a student looking for a cheap booze and finally it became some sort of hobby… I have try making rambutan wine and all my friend love it… I would like to brew a proper beer like you did but I never find malt extract in malaysia.. that’s why I use canned malt drink for my beer.. anyway enjoy the recipe and dont be afraid to try my recipe.. dont be afraid as I have try those and it work perfectly… Cheers
September 27th, 2009 at 1:43 am
honestly I quite scare with ur recipe, not sure why u need such a high alcohol beer? But I guess everyone look at beer differently. I prefer a more flavourful beer, the only ingredient missing in your malta is hops. U need good hops to get great taste in beer. After fermentation I’m not too sure those vitamins will survive?
But u seems a bit hardcore. There is no such things as upper or bottom fermentation yeast, is just the temperature control. The cold temperature will make the yeast sink and then u have bottom fermentation. Vice versa with upper fermentation. Making beer, we should never shake it, always leave it alone. I quite doubtful ur beer taste like Guinness stout, because a lot of ingredient is missing… including corn.
As for ingredient, make a trip down to singapore and get the right stuff to brew or just visit ibrew and buy online, don’t just used existing product to brew, you don’t actually get the real thing. But I guess you feel proud with what you are doing. Just one last advice, many wrong fermentation can create other by-product that are harmful to your body. As the yeast can turn to other by product if the mix with something else.
If I ever go to Kuantan, it would be interesting to meet up with u. Cheers!
September 27th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
no actually the malta drink has hop in it.. And the yeast definitely ale type yeast which is upper fermentation (I got this from wikipedia) Well I guess youre right but I do sanitize all my equipment to prevent it from spoil with harmfull bacteria (general rule of brewing.. always sanitize the equipment!!) yeah I might be a little hardcore but what you can expect from a student right? hehe.. Thanx for your advise, I’ll try to visit singapore by the end of this year to visit my aunt, definitely will go to ibrew shop.. cheers
December 1st, 2009 at 12:58 am
Hey, stumble upon your home brew post. Do you know if Hops plant is legal in Malaysia ? I plant hops here in CA just for fun and I wanna take some back to Kching to plant in my mom’s garden. Hops make the garden smell like IPAs during summer. btw, if you need brewing supplies from the state, I can hook you up……..I am sure you cant wait to get hold of a alcohol gauge, right ? ( not making a profit lah, but just to help out fellow brewer. I am a well paid engineer)
May 20th, 2010 at 3:31 am
wow rambutan wine… would u happen to have the resipe…
i am currently making some cider but strangely the yeast stop bubbling after 2 days… i thought it would keep it up for a few days at least…?
any ideas guys ?
May 20th, 2010 at 10:46 am
maybe you cider don’t have enough sugar in it or sweetness for the yeast to process or maybe the temperature is too hot for the yeast to survive. Either each can effect the yeast stop bubbling.
To produce alcohol the yeast need to eat the sugar to process alcohol and CO2.
May 23rd, 2010 at 12:33 am
well its a beginner thingy so i am just using a wine btl to ferment the apple juice with like a cup and a half of diluted sugar… i am using chinese wine yeast (chao peng) coz i can’t get any good yeast here in m’sia…
i used to get CO2 for my aquarium with sugar and bakers yeast.. that bubble like crazy but this was like 2 days then nothing… i am using a one way valve to remove the co2 and its still smell sweet but don’t know wat the hell is going on inside there hahah… well i will leave it for a month and see wat the heck i get…
p.s it in my room with the aircon on at nite and its quite cool most days..
in fact i get some bubles when it warmer… strange..!
anyone of u guys able to get some good yeast.. would love to get some good stuff if u have any…? email me wolfrayet@gmail.com..
May 23rd, 2010 at 8:27 am
is not about good yeast, is about what type of yeast you need. There a lot of different yeast out there, I myself also not that good in the yeast strain, maybe if you down in Singapore you can ask some assistant from the brew master in the shop that sell it.