Do we have any home brewers here?
- Thread starter kjparker
- Start date
gthomas04
...was Drubbing's first. AKA Captain Tightarse
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2011
- Location
- Mt Druitt Western Sydney
Was once and will be again - going to go down the Kegging method this time - too many bottles to wash otherwise.
garethm
Member
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2012
- Location
- Melbourne, Australia
Yes, I participate in the post-bottling activities... 
Yes, I participate in the post-bottling activities...
Lol,brewing (and sampling previous efforts while doing so) is half the fun.
And no, I don't mean opening the can!
I was very much into it when in my twenties and in a share house with some mates.
Ginger beer was the best, around 14% alcohol.
My only gripe was washing bottles which is of course everyone's pet hate.
Funny how the mates who like to come over and drink it all with you are nowhere to be found when you have 120 king browns to wash...
These days I don't drink much beer so sadly my homebrew desire has left me.
Ginger beer was the best, around 14% alcohol.
My only gripe was washing bottles which is of course everyone's pet hate.
Funny how the mates who like to come over and drink it all with you are nowhere to be found when you have 120 king browns to wash...
These days I don't drink much beer so sadly my homebrew desire has left me.
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2012
- Location
- Hobart, TAS
I used to do a bit of extract brewing and am thinking about having another crack after afew years off, but I am toying with all-grain in small (5L) batches, maybe brew in a bag. I have a 13L stock pot and a couple of demi-johns.
anyone got a good recipe to start with, something IPA or Hoppy APA would be good.
anyone got a good recipe to start with, something IPA or Hoppy APA would be good.
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2012
- Location
- Hobart, TAS
I have just signed up for a course on the Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of beer through Oklahoma University. It starts tomorrow our time, is free and will be a novel bit of professional development.
https://janux.ou.edu/landing/course.chem4970.html
There is another course on Fracking and Water Resources.
https://janux.ou.edu/landing/course.chem4970.html
There is another course on Fracking and Water Resources.
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2012
- Location
- Hobart, TAS
I bit the bullet and bought the ingredients for an all-grain Brew in a Bag. It is a recipe purportedly good for someone starting out "Dr Smurto's Golden Ale". I am brewing a 5L batch in a demi-john. Once the third grain I need comes in tomorrow I will get it underway.
I've just ground the grain using an old coffee grinder dialled out as far as it is mean to go and then quite a bit more. The full scale is about 120° (1/3 of a turn) have it wound out a full turn more. Hopefully I don't have too much fine material in there. The husks are intact and there is quite a bit of 1-2mm grain.
Results to come in a few weeks.
I've just ground the grain using an old coffee grinder dialled out as far as it is mean to go and then quite a bit more. The full scale is about 120° (1/3 of a turn) have it wound out a full turn more. Hopefully I don't have too much fine material in there. The husks are intact and there is quite a bit of 1-2mm grain.
Results to come in a few weeks.
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2012
- Location
- Hobart, TAS
The first taste test has been conducted, the verdict is a quite hoppy/bitter American Pale Ale. A bit like Gage Roads Atomic Pale Ale or Sleeping Gial IPA (both of which I quite like). The difference in quality between all-grain and kit/extract brewing is as remarkable as everyone says. Kind of like DE shaving and carts.
It's not as clear asI would have liked and I pured a couple of lumps of yeast into the glass anyway here is the money shot.
It's not as clear asI would have liked and I pured a couple of lumps of yeast into the glass anyway here is the money shot.
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2011
- Location
- Western Australia
Even if the content might be in development stage I'd happily drink anything out of that glass! That's a pisser. I used to do a bit of it but the results were pretty average. I'm sure my brews (done in a home brew shop with a couple of mates) had little to no alcohol in them as we could drink endlessly without actually getting pissed. I've always preferred cider and there are now finally loads of really nice ones on the market here. Apparently it's the fastest growing sector in the alcohol retail market. Somersby is my fave at the moment. Tastes just like apple juice. Many would call it a girly lolly water but I love it. With a load of ice it's the best summer drink. Damn, I'm gonna crack one open right now.
I brewed for several years but gave it away.
A fantastic hobby but anything less than all grain gives a less than great result, and an all grain brew was around 6 hours from go whoa, so it consumes a lot of a weekend very quickly. If you are not already, I recommend getting onto the ahb forum.
A fantastic hobby but anything less than all grain gives a less than great result, and an all grain brew was around 6 hours from go whoa, so it consumes a lot of a weekend very quickly. If you are not already, I recommend getting onto the ahb forum.
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2012
- Location
- Hobart, TAS
I am on AHB, they tend t talk a lot of shit and there are many pissheads over there, so I don't visit often.
BIAB can reduce the time commitment, it is still a few hours at least, though most of that is waiting time.
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- Joined
- Sep 4, 2012
- Location
- Coffs Harbour, NSW
Hmmm just went looking for EXACTLY this style of thread and sadly it looks like it's covered in cobwebs with tumbleweeds etc blowing on through!
Well FWIW I've been slowly accumulating the gear needed to give it a whirl. I naively bought some old geezers accumulated gear only to find out later that it was nearly all crap &/or was unwashed and in a sorry state of affairs. Have put together nearly all the gear I need plus a temperature controller equipped brew chamber (heavily modded upright freezer).
Intend to start out atleast for my first few efforts on the standard hopped extract path but will be steeping some specialty grains to add to the wort & also additional hops via various means.
Somewhat curiously I've never been a voracious beer drinker so we'll see how it plays out. Have done a crapload of reading up and whilst the all grain route is definitely the pinnacle am lead to believe that very good quality brews can be done with hopped extract & some well picked extras....particularly if you're able to absolutely control the ferment temp (which I will be- and thats a HUGE advantage).
Love to hear if there's any other lurkers around who dabble in this kinda thing.
PS. AHB is really overwhelming ...great info there but big learning curve for noobs. Which I have to say is not helped by the alarmingly bad info on brewcans/kits etc....kinda weird business practices on a number of levels by the makers of these!
Well FWIW I've been slowly accumulating the gear needed to give it a whirl. I naively bought some old geezers accumulated gear only to find out later that it was nearly all crap &/or was unwashed and in a sorry state of affairs. Have put together nearly all the gear I need plus a temperature controller equipped brew chamber (heavily modded upright freezer).
Intend to start out atleast for my first few efforts on the standard hopped extract path but will be steeping some specialty grains to add to the wort & also additional hops via various means.
Somewhat curiously I've never been a voracious beer drinker so we'll see how it plays out. Have done a crapload of reading up and whilst the all grain route is definitely the pinnacle am lead to believe that very good quality brews can be done with hopped extract & some well picked extras....particularly if you're able to absolutely control the ferment temp (which I will be- and thats a HUGE advantage).
Love to hear if there's any other lurkers around who dabble in this kinda thing.
PS. AHB is really overwhelming ...great info there but big learning curve for noobs. Which I have to say is not helped by the alarmingly bad info on brewcans/kits etc....kinda weird business practices on a number of levels by the makers of these!
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2011
- Location
- Western Australia
Well the main push for home brewing for me was the fact that it was very hard and insanely expensive to get anything other than the average tasteless Aussies lager/piss. Mind you, still great for after a blindingly hot day. Now you can buy all kinds of great beers at a reasonable price. I like the idea of getting it done in kegs and having a CO2 bottle and a tap at home but as HI doesn't really drink it that much it's a bit of a waste of space.
A very good friend of mine runs and is soon to be the licensee of one of the original craft beer pubs in Amsterdam (In De Wildeman, a must if you're ever in Amsterdam) and he's introduced me to an enormous variety of weird and wonderful brews. He has 30yr old bottles that come in special holders that hold it at a special angle and get delivered to your table with specific glasses made by the brewer. When you become a beer nerd you also become a glass nerd. I refuse to drink beer out of a bottle now. It's beer snobbery. I've sworn off cider and wine and most other forms of alcohol. It's dangerous. Turn back now @Nick the Knife or this, even without the alcohol content, could become another addiction.
A very good friend of mine runs and is soon to be the licensee of one of the original craft beer pubs in Amsterdam (In De Wildeman, a must if you're ever in Amsterdam) and he's introduced me to an enormous variety of weird and wonderful brews. He has 30yr old bottles that come in special holders that hold it at a special angle and get delivered to your table with specific glasses made by the brewer. When you become a beer nerd you also become a glass nerd. I refuse to drink beer out of a bottle now. It's beer snobbery. I've sworn off cider and wine and most other forms of alcohol. It's dangerous. Turn back now @Nick the Knife or this, even without the alcohol content, could become another addiction.
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- Joined
- Sep 4, 2012
- Location
- Coffs Harbour, NSW
You make excellent points @Pjotr - alas I think I'm too far from home already to turn back without giving it a pretty fair crack.
That said, my normal modus operandi is to do copious amounts of research before jumping into something and in doing that with a view to starting home brewing I have to say it's really odd that the kit makers (as most folks have had some experience with home brewing and I'd say generally it's a negative one with the very cheap result not comparing well to commercial offerings).
Now you'd think that the kit makers e.g Coopers would REALLY do everything they could to ensure that whoever buys their kits would get as good a result from them as possible but now I've a bit of an idea about what best practice etc I can see they're really setting folks up to make very poor tasting beer. e.g all their home starter kits come with a can of Lager extract (which is far trickier to do properly than an ale), brewing temp recommendations on the cans are always well above the professional & HB community agreed levels (~12c for lager, ~18c for ales), only 7g of yeast - which results in significant underpitching & opens up multiple potential issues (infection, stall), recommendations to remove from primary fermenter after gravity the same on 2 consecutive days (generally regarded as fraught with issues and too general as advice), often confusing references to using sugar etc etc etc.
Scary thing is every guy who makes ordinary home brew ends up sharing it with a bunch of his mates and all of them drink it but think,"Ah it's kinda ordinary" and doesn't bother to try himself as he figures it's not worth the effort.
Anyway it's an odd thing as all the hopped extract makers are equally to blame - the Coopers website is excellent and much closer to giving bang on advice but like many others I've encountered MANY a bad home brew and thus had a strong preconception about the quality of beer that can be made (without going nuts about it) but I'm know lead to believe that if you do the PROPER basics right there's a very good quality of result that compares much more favourably with commercial efforts.
Haha big talk eh?
That said, my normal modus operandi is to do copious amounts of research before jumping into something and in doing that with a view to starting home brewing I have to say it's really odd that the kit makers (as most folks have had some experience with home brewing and I'd say generally it's a negative one with the very cheap result not comparing well to commercial offerings).
Now you'd think that the kit makers e.g Coopers would REALLY do everything they could to ensure that whoever buys their kits would get as good a result from them as possible but now I've a bit of an idea about what best practice etc I can see they're really setting folks up to make very poor tasting beer. e.g all their home starter kits come with a can of Lager extract (which is far trickier to do properly than an ale), brewing temp recommendations on the cans are always well above the professional & HB community agreed levels (~12c for lager, ~18c for ales), only 7g of yeast - which results in significant underpitching & opens up multiple potential issues (infection, stall), recommendations to remove from primary fermenter after gravity the same on 2 consecutive days (generally regarded as fraught with issues and too general as advice), often confusing references to using sugar etc etc etc.
Scary thing is every guy who makes ordinary home brew ends up sharing it with a bunch of his mates and all of them drink it but think,"Ah it's kinda ordinary" and doesn't bother to try himself as he figures it's not worth the effort.
Anyway it's an odd thing as all the hopped extract makers are equally to blame - the Coopers website is excellent and much closer to giving bang on advice but like many others I've encountered MANY a bad home brew and thus had a strong preconception about the quality of beer that can be made (without going nuts about it) but I'm know lead to believe that if you do the PROPER basics right there's a very good quality of result that compares much more favourably with commercial efforts.
Haha big talk eh?
boldsworth
Member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2015
I have brewed for many years all grain full mash. 3 vessel all gas. If you want @Nick the Knife I can give you a detailed spreadsheet I've written for recipe construction. It is Libre Office format not Excel. I have a full keg system and "farm" my own yeast strains from many sources. Looking at the Adelaide forecast Friday or Saturday at 24c could be a brew day in the making.