I bet you have been wondering when I will be doing the little review of that Cooper’s Brewing Kit I have been promising. Well, here I am. I seldom break a promise and it only happens when I really, really, really need to. And since this is something which I find very interesting, I am going to keep this promise. Here goes…

I got my Cooper’s Micro Brewing Kit from iBrew Singapore. I believe that they are the sole distributors in Singapore and thus you should get it directly from iBrew. Plus they do free deliveries too. Their boss is a pretty nice guy and he is very patient too. Although there are a number of shops carrying the Cooper’s Kit, most would require you to carry it back. Why? Just order it from iBrew and have it delivered without any hassle. That’s my idea anyway. It cost about S$175 for the complete kit.

You can see happy people with foamy golden-coloured beer in the picture shown. Yaaa! If only life was like that eh?

Can you see what the kit contains? No? Blame my photography skills. The kit contains:

1. Fermenter - 30 litres but you can only brew 23 litres. Don’t be greedy. 23 litres is still a lot of shit. This is where you ferment your wort and it magically becomes beer. Some people say if you concentrate very hard, you can turn water and fruits to wine too. Crazy people.
2. Long plastic spoon - Yes, for stirring or for that cheapskate Jedi knight wannnabe.
3. Little Bottler - Amazing piece of equipment for you to accurately pour your beer into your bottles without too much exposure to air. Not spring loaded though. Plus the tubing it comes with is very stiff. I don’t like stiff.
4. Airlock - One piece type. Another amazing equipment to prevent air from entering your fermenter.
5. Adhesive Thermometer - To measure the temperature of your fermenter. You stick it on the fermenter and they have different colours that appear.
6. Hydrometer - Measure the gravity of your wort and beer.
7. Spigot & Sediment Reducer - Hey, you need to pour out the beer without the sediment right?
8. 1.7kg Beer Concentrate - Hahahaha, you make beer with this.
9. 1kg Brewing Sugar - Hahahaha, you get more giggles with this. 2.5kg would be better.
10. 740ml Amber PET Bottles - 30 of these. That’s where your beer will finally end up. Wait a minute, I am wrong. Your stomach will be where your beer will finally end up. These are just vessels for you to carbonate your beer.
11. Carbonation Drops - Drop these into your bottle and they will carbonate your beer. Eat them and you won’t have carbonated beer.
12. DVD - Starring some guy named Edison and a multitude of females. I don’t like.

That’s the fermenter without the cover on. You can see the sediment reducer at the bottom? Unlike what you often see in the Youtube videos or those “educational” videos on beer making, this fermenter is not really a food grade plastic bucket. It’s a properly designed 30 litre fermenter. For one, it doesn’t have the edge corners where it is difficult to clean and where bacteria can hide. Bacteria and wild spores are bad for your wort. Americans seem to like plastic buckets for some reason.

Yes, this is the fermenter with the cover on. The little hole is not for you or your dog to pee into but it is for your airlock. You add a rubber thingy to the hole and stuff the airlock in, ensuring that it is properly sealed.

Hydrometer. Pour a little of your wort into the tube and place the hydrometer floating on the wort. You can measure the gravity from there. Be careful, I heard that it is very fragile.

The 740ml Amber PET bottles. Yes, they are screw on types but unless you are planning to age your beers for over 6 months, you don’t need a glass bottle. PET bottles will do. You don’t need to worry about the sunlight skunking your beers either. However, you still need to keep them away from direct sunlight. Man, I DO have some real articulate fingers, don’t I?

Ignore the light malt. The screw-on caps for your PET bottles and the Carbonation Drops. You put 2 carbonation drops into one 740ml bottles. So if you have 30 bottles, you will need 60 carbonation drops. The kind folks at Cooper’s provided you 80 carbonation drops. The extra drops are meant for you to suck.

Ignore the bung at the top. You are looking at the airlock and the Little bottler.

Ignore the Nottingham yeast and pretend that wordings on the left is “Brewing Sugar” instead of “Brew Enhancer 2″. iBrew was kind enough to let me change the beer concentrate from a Lager (it comes with the kit) to an Australian Pale Ale beer concentrate. I don’t think with the temperature in Singapore, I am able to brew up a lager, so I am brewing a Pale Ale.

The Cooper’s Australian Pale Ale beer concentrate. Heavy piece of shit. It comes with it’s own yeast and it is already hopped, so you don’t need to add your own hops, making it much easier to brew. Just boil the entire thing with the brewing sugar in water for about 5 minutes and cool it. Then pour into your fermenter. Add cold water till it reaches the 23 litre mark. After which you “pitch” the yeast. That’s it. Simple.

My Thoughts On the Kit

First the fermenter. The plastic fermenter is very well-designed. The fermenter feels solid and not cheaply made like those plastic food buckets. The plastic of the fermenter is quite thick. This means that you can maintain a constant temperature better. It is also translucent, so that you can “see” what it going on in the fermenter. The cover is transparent though, giving you the perfect view of your wort (if it is not blocked by condensation). The fermenter comes with measurement markings on it’s side, so if you need to do a different amount of brew, you can make use of these markings. You won’t find any edges here which is very difficult to clean and sanitize, unlike those plastic buckets. The opening on the top is big, unlike those carboys. So it means that you can easily clean the interior of the fermenter without using any specialized equipment. The big opening on the top also ensures that you can pour your wort easily without spilling. I just hate to use a funnel when there is not really a need. The fermenter has 2 hidden handles and these makes it easy to carry. Carrying 23 litres of wort or beer is not an easy task, you know. Back breaking work, especially for an old man in his final years.

The seals in the cover, spigot and airlock can all be replaced. Just buy them from your Cooper’s distributor after a few months of usage. We want a complete seal of the fermenter. Leaks are no good. It is also important that all sort of accessories are available for replacement in case we misplace or damage some of them.

The fermenter itself is quite big, but big is good. Although it is meant to brew 23 litres, it can actually hold 30 litres of liquid. The extra headspace is good for the krausen foam that will usually form when you are fermenting. You won’t want the foam to flow out of the airlock right? That would be messy and your wife/mother/dominatrix will not be pleased. But your pet dog/cat/lion will though.

The spigot and sediment reducer helps to reduce the trub that flows into your bottle and makes your beer clear, which is very important for a lot of types of beer. And I don’t like too much yeast in my bottles. An simple but ingenious device if you ask me.

The Little Bottler doesn’t come with a spring. The bad thing about this is that without a spring, it leaks ever so slightly. So when you pull out the bottler, the beer still flows, making a mess. A spring loaded bottler would be better to minimize leakage. But I guess the spring makes it hard for users to clean and sanitize the bottler.

And it’s my opinion that this kit isn’t exactly complete. You wonder why? Well, the most important thing for any home brewer is cleaning and sanitizing all the equipment that comes in contact with the wort. But the kit doesn’t come with any sanitizing solution! This I find very disappointing. Unlike Morgan’s Beer Kit (which I don’t have), it comes complete with the sanitizing solution. And worse, the Cooper’s instructional video claims that the bottles come sanitized, which could be a problem. Nobody knows how long the box has been in the warehouse or have been exposed to the elements. And how about in the stores? How clean are the stores which sells the kit? It could be that the bottles were sanitized before, but I really doubt that it remained sanitized especially if it is in a leaky warehouse for a few months. So a sanitizer would make this kit a complete one.

My Rant

“Make Beer, Not War” is my newest motto. I would highly recommend any beginner to get the Cooper’s Microbrewing Kit. It really makes everything so simple and easy. I never expected my first (few) brewing experiences to be such a breeze. For that, I am happy. But of course, you need to consider the temperature in Singapore. So a cooler box will also be necessary for you to maintain a reasonably cool temperature for your brew. Peace out, ladies.

8/4/2008 - Good news! iBrew has just included a bottle of Iodophor (I assume it is 70ml) and a spray bottle in their Micro Brewing kit and the price has not changed at all. Iodophor is a no-rinse food grade sanitizer and the spray bottle is used to spray the diluted Iodophor/Iodine on all the surfaces which will have contact with the wort.

Singapore ecstatic about winning the Youth Olympics bid

Apparently there are a lot of Singaporeans who are ecstatic about Singapore winning the Youth Olympics bid. Yes, I am sure that you are shocked to discover that too. I don’t mean to be a bubble “buster”, but in all seriousness, what is it in for Singaporeans? How does it benefit the regular Singaporeans in the streets? What do they get from all these? Sure, the rich and the powerful government people (and their friends) are ecstatic about Singapore winning the Youth Olympics. Of course they are, more money for them and good publicity and propaganda for them to use. I am sure they are all jumping up and down crazy with joy. But then the rich and the powerful are not the entire Singapore. Singapore consists of the regular folks as well. In fact, the majority of Singaporeans are just regular people. I am wondering how “ecstatic” are they about this win?

Look at this way, if we host the Youth Olympics, most Singaporeans will have to face the problems with having such a big event in such a small country. Our roads are already overcrowded and our public transport unable to handle the traffic. And now comes the Youth Olympics, which certainly means a lot more people, more road closures and heavy traffic everywhere (since Singapore is so small). That’s what we will have to face. Picture yourself going home after a hard day’s work, only to find the buses have to be re-routed because of the Youth Olympics and you need to walk a long way to the nearest serviced bus-stop, all because of the Youth Olympics. Just think how crowded the buses and the trains are now. Now imagine what will it be like with the Youth Olympics on the way.

How about the building of the facilities for the Youth Olympics? Singapore doesn’t have the necessary facilities to cope with what the Youth Olympics needs, so we will have to build them big big buildings. What? You say that this will provide jobs for Singaporeans? Seriously, most jobs in the construction industry will go to foreigners. And if you are thinking that the salaries of Singaporeans will go up due to the increase in demand for labour, you should think again. Yes, this is just another excuse to let more foreigners into the country to artificially push down the salaries of locals here. Oh, don’t forget, Singapore is already building the extended MRT line, the Integrated Resorts plus whatever nonsense the government is planning. What do you think will happen to the prices of properties in Singapore? It will go sky high. That’s a plus for land owners and we know how those people are. But now about those Singaporeans just trying to find a flat just to live in? Wait, you are saying that it benefits Singaporeans since the value of their pigeon hole rise? Well, first of all, you need somewhere to stay. So that even if your pigeon hole increases in value, you can’t sell it. And if you sell it, you still need to find another pigeon hole to stay in (unless you would like to stay in the streets), which common sense tells you that the price has increased as well. Anyone tell me what benefit is there to gain except for the rich who are mainly the landowners? And if you need to renovate your home, again imagine how expensive the building and construction materials and labour will be. Time for you to pay through your teeth till it all falls out.

Heck, my area don’t even have a decent football field for me to play football. Kids have to pay in the void deck. The basketball court is always full of people and the damn basketball hop is always broken. Fix that first. Don’t talk to me about some shit Youth Olympics when you can’t even provide a decent standard of living for your own people.