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<Do not follow these instructions as they are my first attempt and I made a lot of mistakes!> 

It finally came! Cost me about S$300 bucks in total. I had bought a few additional stuff like the foam cool box, malt and yeast. The beer kit is about S$175. The foam box is about S$80. The owner of iBrew delivered it to my house last night  and I was so excited. Well, I wanted to brew right then but the time just wasn’t right. Anyway, I got up early today and make myself a nice little wort (that’s unfermented beer goo). Took me about 3 hours or so, but in the end everything seems alright. Sure I faced several problems in the beginning, but hey I did it! I made myself 23 litres of beer. Wait, that’s not correct. I have to wait a few more weeks to confirm that I have beer and not some weird tasting vinegar or something vile.

Anyways, I have taken a few photos of my beer kit and what I did. I got so excited that I forgot to take the photos at the beginning, so the beer kit ingredients and the yeast package I don’t have any photos. Luckily I suddenly remembered to take them photos at the middle of my brew. So here you go:

Coopers Beer Kit (sorry about the quality) plus a Pale Ale ingredient kit (not shown).

Coopers Beer Kit (doubly sorry about the blur photos)

Coopers Beer Kit – What’s included inside the package.

I bought an additional Light Malt 500g. But I didn’t use it. I actually wanted to use Enhancer 2 (a mix of brewing sugar, malto-dextrin and light malt) to replace the brewing sugar that came with the kit but it was out of stock.

The amber bottle that came with the kit. It’s 740ml per bottle and there are like 30 bottles. Wooopeee! Time to get really drunk at home. Again, I apologize for the poor quality shot. However if you look carefully, you can see my arm image on the bottle. Yes, I am that skinny.

I also bought Cascade hops, Nottingham Ale Yeast, Straight ‘A’ Sanitizer and some other accessories. Too bad, the Safale Yeast was out of stock. Shows the iBrew is making good business! Blink blink for the drink drink.

Well, here are the pictures for the “Little” Bottler, Airlock and Bung

Coopers Fermenter. Feels very firm and stable. The workmanship and quality is superb! And it has two hidden handles, makes carrying the heavy fermenter easy. Maybe I will do a review on the kit in the future.

Now with the cover on. Doesn’t it look just dandy? The hole in the cover is for you to put your airlock to let the carbon dioxide escape from the fermenter. The airlock will only let air escape but not let air in so that your wort won’t get infected.

My Wort is boiling! I like. But the smell of the wort isn’t really that nice, isn’t it? Seems a bit like those China rice syrup and if you boil it, it smells sour. Oh, I added some bread yeast into the wort during boiling to act as Yeast Nutrients.

My wort is boiling more aggressively! Too bad I didn’t take any shots of the near boilover. Damn near gave me a heart attack. It came up all of a sudden and whooosh, the wort exploded like a volcano. Luckily, I was still stirring the wort and I managed to switch off the heat in time. Happened a few times. I wonder what kind of boilover will I get if I make an all-malt wort?

The foam coolbox made by iBrew

That’s the one big hole where you place your fermenter. The temperature sensor is located at the bottom in the middle of the coolbox to measure the temperature of the fermenter. Not very sure about the accuracy though, since it is covered by tape and the thick bottom of the fermenter.

This is where you can read the reading of the thermometer. No need to open the foam box to get the temperature, you can view it from the outside. Cool, in more ways than one.

That’s the hydrometer. It is supposed to measure something important. Looks a bit like an anal probe.

The other end of the hydrometer.

That’s me cooling the wort. Stupidly done I know. But I had realized too late that my sink doesn’t have a choke! Is that the cold break forming? I hope so. But I doubt it. The water surrounding the brewing pot isn’t cold enough.

Hahaha. Everything done. Added the airlock and said a little prayer. Now waiting for the bottling day. Couldn’t get the temperature to 24 Degrees Celsius in time. Took over 12/16 hours to get it down to 24 Degrees. Hmmm….not very sure why. I think it has something to do with the fermenter, with it’s plastic container being rather thick (which means it is very strong by the way and it can maintain a constant temperature). But after 6 hours, there is a lot of white foam forming in the fermenter. I wonder whether it is a good sign?

Mistakes I made -

1. Made the Yeast starter with the Notthingham Yeast and brewing sugar and let it rest on the kitchen table. Ants came and I had to throw away the starter. Too bad. Did another one with Cooper’s own Ale Yeast and let it rest on a saucer with water.

2. Forgot to sanitize the fermenter cover (hope nothing bad will happen from this). I did wash it though.

3. Forgot the stupid sink had no choke! Couldn’t properly cool down the wort. Not sure whether the cold break has occurred or not. This is really stupid to the extreme.

4. Can opener not sharp enough. Had to do use the can opener to cut the can cover a few times before the cover could come off. Worried about possible contamination + metal shavings. Yuck.

5. Forgot to boil water (for the fermenter) the night before, thus had to boil the water on the same morning. Didn’t have enough time to cool the water before dumping it into the fermenter. The temperature of the water for the fermenter is rather high. Around 36 degrees. Worry about possible oxidation of the water and off flavours. Plus I pitched the yeast at the same temperature! Oh this is real bad.

6. Added too much hops in my single tea bag. Didn’t know it expanded so much in hot water.

7. Carrying the full 23 litre fermenter is a bitch. No kidding. I carried it from the kitchen to my study, which is upstairs! My muscles were ripping I tell you! They were just like what you see on TV.

That’s it folks. Will update you guys when I do the bottling!

Oh if you guys would like to make your very own homebrew beer, you need to get a license from the Singapore government. It’s just a 10 dollar piece of paper.

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This little tutorial is for the beginner home beer brewer mainly catered for those living in tropical climates like Singapore or Malaysia. If you are already an experienced brewer, then the information found inside this book is not for you. You will fall asleep reading this tutorial. Go get some of those professional beer brewing books which teaches you how to cultivate yeast and shit.

I am a beginner myself. I don’t have the kind of experience those master brewers have, but what I have learned as a home brewer is all in here. If you don’t need complicated instructions and all you want to get is home brewed beer without all the bells and whistles, then this tutorial can really come in handy. It is meant to be easy to follow but comes without too much specifics when we are talking about beer recipes. And no, there are no all-grain brewing steps in this tutorial. They are just too advanced and I think a lot of experienced brewers don’t do that too often either.

This book is meant to be read from top to bottom. Not from the bottom or middle to the top. You may miss some important information if you read it that way.

Basically, brewing beer comes with several steps or phrases. They are cleaning (a very important step), making the wort, fermentation and then bottling. After which comes the conditioning of the beer, which means waiting. Of course, the last part is the drinking and singing or for some, crashing of cars.

What you need is malt, yeast and water. Yeast turns malt to alcohol and thus nearly beer. But if the beer is too sweet, then we will call it mead. To add bitterness and aroma to the “beer”, we need to add hops. Of course later, you need to add carbonation to your beer so it fizzles. Everyone likes a little fizzle here and there once in a while.

Yes, it is actually a “simple” process. If you read a lot of home brewing books, you will discover that these books are really thick and contain a lot of mind boggling information. While all these are very useful, they are not necessary for the beginner. In fact, they can be confusing and put off the beginner brewer. I think it is best to start simple and advance as you go along.

My purpose of writing this book is to make the process of making beer as simple and easy as possible. This way, once you get the basics of home brewing, you will find that brewing beer can actually be very enjoyable and rewarding. And after that, you can advance onwards to more complicated home brewing procedures.

I guess the main reason why we brew our own beer is because it is enjoyable and we get to taste the fruits of our own labour. We also get to experiment with different flavours and styles. Plus it is cheaper than what we get commercially. In Singapore, the tax on alcohol is pretty high. Don’t expect to pay S$1 for a can of the cheapest beer. You can only find that in other countries.

Taste?
Well, it should taste the same or even better than commercial ones if you do it well. Even just following the beer kit instruction, you should have a decent beer to drink in the end.

The problem with commercial beers is that they have been pasteurized and filtered to death. Not that it is bad or anything, but beer like wine gets better with age, so if you can keep your beer for 6 months or so, that beer will definitely taste much better than some commercial ones. The most important is the quality of your ingredients. Higher quality ingredients, you will get better quality beers. Of course, the process itself is important. You need to be clean, very clean to get a good tasting beer.

And you need to experiment with different type of malts, yeast, sugars, hops among other things to get different flavours/types of beer. It is important to note that even if you don’t like a certain type of beer, doesn’t mean others don’t like it. Depending on the different types of people, you could come up with a recipe with all your friends enjoy, eh……. except you. Ironic, isn’t it?

Legal?
In Singapore, you need a license for everything. And that includes brewing beer. Don’t worry, it’s just S$10 for the paper license. You can apply online but the main problem is that you need to collect and pay in person. I guess it is a small price to pay for home brew eh?

http://appm4.internet.gov.sg/scripts/customs/HmBrewLic/HBL1_Form.asp

Do note that in Singapore, you can have only 1 home brew kit (that is really your 30 litre fermenter) but unlike other countries, you can brew as many times as you want. Just that it is restricted to that one fermenter per brew. You cannot have more than one 30 litre fermenter. Although the fermenter is 30 lites, you can brew about 23 litres per batch in the fermenter. Some of the space is needed for the air, foam and others. But if you brew every week, you can have more than 96 (23×4) litres per month. Sounds weird, but it makes sense. The hardworking brewer can make a hell lot of beer. Oh, it’s for personal consumption only, not for sale. You can of course share with your friends. That’s what drinking beer is all about, isn’t it?

I am not sure how it works in Malaysia or Indonesia. Please check with the local authorities and see whether they allow you to do home brewed beer. From what I know, parts of Indonesia, people have been brewing their own traditional alcohol for centuries.

*Latest* From April 2008 onwards, you don’t need a license to brew beer anymore! Yes! And you can brew any form of “fermentable” alcohol as well, like wines, cider, sake and even Chinese rice wine legally. Of course, you cannot distill liquor. And you are limited to brewing up to 23 litres per month for beer and another 23 litres per month for other forms of alcohol.

Responsibility!
It is as simple as being responsible for your actions. Drinking and driving is stupid and you will bound to get into accidents. Even if you had tried it before and you arrived home safely, I can assure you, you are just testing your luck here. Don’t blame anyone else for this. If you drink, don’t drive. If you drive, don’t drink.  No “buts” or whatever. Ask your sober friend to drive you home. Or just take the Night Rider Service. You can even pee on the bus or the MRT free of charge. Home Brewing actually solves one part of the problem. If you drink at home with your home brewed beer, you don’t have any excuse to drive at all.

These are the 2 main beer kit suppliers in Singapore. Take a look at their website for more information. Both iBrew and Homebrew will do freight to Malaysia and Indonesia. You will of course need to pay for the charges. I doubt you will find any local source of homebrew in Malaysia and Indonesia.

iBrew Singapore

Homebrew Singapore

Goto Part 2.

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