Well, I have ordered the ingredients for the next brew already. As you know, it’s going to be Morgan’s Blue Mountain Lager and I am all psyched up for this. I am using a different beer kit this time, it’s Morgan’s and I have heard great things about it. Although it is not as popular as Cooper’s (mainly because of Cooper’s more superior advertising skills), I think their products are of a high quality and I am sure the beer will turn out great. I will be getting the ingredients from Homebrew Singapore and it comes with Dry Lager Malt Extract and additional aroma/finishing hops. However, they are providing Cluster hops, which I think I will not be using. From what I know, Cluster is not a great aroma or flavouring hops, it is more for bittering. It would be better if Homebrew provides some other aroma hops like Cascade or Saaz for lagers! Too bad, but for just S$45 bucks, I have nothing to complain about.

Oh I also got a liquid yeast called Wyeast Ringwood Ale. Looks like an okay ale yeast and it is exactly what I am looking for. You may be confused as why I am using an ale yeast for this lager beer. Well, first of all, I don’t think I will be able to keep a low enough temperature for a true lager beer. And secondly, why not? Although the ingredients should be mainly lager malt, it doesn’t mean that you can’t use ale yeast for it. In fact, the taste may just be surprisingly good. From what I read, a lot of brewers were very successful in making a good tasting beer from lager malts using ale yeast. So, I am going for it. And you may be wondering why I don’t use the yeast that comes with the beer kit. The reason is because I am afraid of the quality of the yeast and whether it is still viable or not. Remember, these are stuck on the beer kit cans and we have no idea how long or what conditions it had been exposed to. So, it is always better not to rely on the yeast from the cans and get your own yeast. I also keep a stock of dry yeast in my fridge just in case. Don’t bother with keeping liquid yeast, they don’t keep well.

I will also be getting another 30 740ml PET bottles. I like PET bottles. Unlike glass bottles, they are much lighter and the best thing, you don’t have to worry about bottle bombs if you don’t prime them properly. I don’t want to cut myself handling the bottles. But I think in the future when my skills in beer brewing improved, I will switch to glass bottles as it look more professional and the beer keep better than in PET bottles too. However, you need to get a capper (to cap the bottles, silly) and bottle caps.