Well, it came in on Monday but I didn’t have time to take photos and was also rather busy with my other projects but today, I finally found some time and took photos of the stuff I have bought from iBrew. This set is for the Pilsener Brew which I plan to make tomorrow. That’s going to be a busy day for me! The total damage is S$106 and I had added some other stuff as well. Just for the Pilsener brew, it would probably cost about S$50-60. So don’t worry, it is not usually so expensive for make a fine beer for yourself and your friends. Plus, iBrew only delivers free if you purchase S$100 or more. The best thing is that they are willing to deliver in the evenings. Poor working people like me have to accept stuff at home in the evenings only.

Anyways, here are the photos of the stuff I purchased for the Pilsener Brew and others.

Yes, this is the Cooper’s Brewmaster Selection - Cooper’s Pilsener Kit. Looks cool eh? This is the main ingredient for making my beer. The person in the photo on the can is probably old grandfather Cooper. And that’s a lot of beard so cross your fingers and toes that you don’t find a few hairs in your brew.

The instructions on the beer kit. They recommend using 500g of Coopers Light Dry Malt Extract and 300g Dextrose. However, I will be using 1.3kg of Briess Pilsenser Dry Malt Extract and additional Saaz Hops for a more spicy flavour! This is surely going to be great!

Ya, the due date is next year! This is a fresh can from iBrew! Don’t you just love fresh stuff? Thanks to iBrew!

Well, opening the packaging, you will find a pack of yeast. I will not be using this yeast. Instead I will be using the Nottingham Ale Yeast which my friends love so much. However, I heard that the yeast provided in Cooper’s Brewmaster Selection is of a better quality than that from it’s other series. So if you are into making this brew, you can use the provided yeast. I will still stick with my Nottingham.

Wow, 1.3kg of Briess Pilsen Dry Malt Extract! And the colour is 1L. Pretty light coloured which is exactly what I needed. I am going to make a very light golden pilsener (ale) for my friends. They don’t really drink dark beer.

Zoomed in view of the Briess Pilsen Dry Malt Extract. Made in the US? And does it look like those cement mix you use to mend your floors or your bathroom?

Our beloved Nottingham Ale Yeast. This really produces a very clear and clean beer. This yeast will make a very neutral flavour, so if you want something to bring out the taste of your malts, hops or some other herbs/spices, than you should consider Nottingham Yeast. The best of all, it’s a very hardy yeast and you can be more rest assured that the yeast is alive and working.

Ahhh….the Saaz Hops. This is the ingredient that makes your beer bitter and adds a ton of flavour to your beer. And Saaz is supposed to be spicy and aromatic. I am sure that I will enjoy this beer with such a generous helping of Saaz Hops included! The wordings on the bottle has faded/came off. One advice to iBrew - use better labelers! My company uses them as well.

Better to be safe than sorry, right? This are two bottles of Yeast Nutrients which will help the yeast make a healthy fermentation. Sometimes yeast can be weak or dying due to improper storage, so giving the yeast a little boost will only help things. Remember, healthy yeast makes better tasting beer. And no, you don’t pour the entire 2 bottles of nutrients into the wort, you merely add about 1 tablespoon.

This is the Cooper’s Brew Enhancer 2. I will not be using this for my Pilsener Brew since I think that there is enough alcohol content there already. I will probably keep this for my next brew. This is actually a mix of dextrose, light dry malt extract and malto-dextrin. It is not supposed to add any flavour to your beer, just add some more body, head and some alcohol.

Wise words from Dr Tim Cooper. If only my own words were just as wise.

This is the IO Star Iodophor which I got from iBrew. Actually, I wanted Star San but the slightly drunk owner of iBrew got me this instead. Wuhahaha! I am sure he will be offended that I called him “slightly” drunk. He should always be roaring drunk and humping! And the second package which he sent to replace this Iodophor for Star San is yet another bottle of Iodophor! I knew right then and there that drinking too much can be really bad for you.

No kidding, that’s 2 bottles of Iodophor and the package which the owner of iBrew sent! Wuhahaha! But seriously, it was still very nice of him to send me the package. I really doubt that other suppliers will be willing to do that. It cost 80 cents for the shipping

Anyway, this is one of the better sanitizing solutions out there. Oh, it’s an no-rinse sanitizer which means that you don’t have to rinse off after you sanitize your equipment. Just need a 2 minute contact time with the surface and you are done. You just need to dry it. Previously, I had used Straight “A” to sanitize my equipment but I had heard that it is not actually a sanitizer, more like a cleanser. And that requires rinsing.

Well guys, that’s all I have purchased. And tomorrow I will be doing the Pilsener Brew. Wish me luck.

Yes, it has been released. This is definitely a very good thing for all of us AVG users. I am very eager to check out what new features AVG has implemented on their new version. It is just too bad that the AVG Free download takes a while and it is indeed a very big file to download, approximately 45MB. But I guess nowadays everyone has broadband and this will not be a problem.

After you download the latest version, all you have to do is to run the installer. There is no need to uninstall the old version first, just run the installer and let it do all the work for you. Once that is done, you will need to restart your PC and you will see your spanking new antivirus software running happily (we all hope). Anyway, it went great for me without any problems. And after you finish updating the antivirus definitions, you are well-protected from both viruses and spywares. Yes, we do hate those stuff very much, don’t we?

The first change you will realize for this software is that it has a very “aero” look and feel to it. It seems that a lot of software comes with this kind of look nowadays. Well, pretty sure that AVG don’t want to be left out. The interface feels the same as the previous version, which is good for people like me. We just don’t like too much changes. The main user interface is simple, it has all you need to configure your antivirus software there. Basically, you just need the “update now” button. That’s the one I always use. However, I also realized that the user interface seemed to be more sluggish than before. Not sure whether it is because my PC is getting too slow for new software, but it took a few moments for the interface to pop up.

There is one very interesting new feature which I would like to comment on. It is called Safe Search. Basically it is like a anti-phishing script which helps to check whether a link is pointing to a potentially dangerous site or not. However, this is only for search results on search engines like Google. Take a look at the ticks they show.

Well, I agree with AVG. They are very suitable and those big green ticks gives me all the confidence I need to visit these sites without fear of being flooded with spywares and other evils!