After a recent visit to no tax on beer Vietnam where a 600ml Tiger had a local price of $1 or $2 in a tourist spot, I couldn't cope with $60 for a case of beer at home or even $18 for 3 Tallies. I thought I'd have another go at home brewing.
It's been 30 years since my last encounter and hasn't it all changed. Now we have computers and the Internet for some direction and expert brew shops everywhere. I have 5 brew shops within 15 minutes of here.
You can buy everything from milled barley to hops and exotic yeast strains. Cooking up a mash is not easy and requires exact temperature control. Not to worry, you can buy fresh worts. One of those shops near me specialises in making craft beer worts. Dump that in a sterile fermenter add yeast and go. Maybe throw in some dried hops a few days before fermentation stops for that hoppy aroma. Amazing.
I got a brew kit off Gummy with everything for $40 but I remembered bottling from the old days, what a pain. Admittedly, you can get PET plastic bottles and screw caps now and you drop carbonation drops into the bottles instead of sugar but the thought of cleaning and sterilising and filling and capping and storing 30 bottles, not again. I found a 2nd hand kegging kit at a reasonable price so away we go bottle free.
Just got the 7Kg CO2 bottle filled, not cheap, cleaned and refurbed the 3 kegs and the filter setup and tested everything for leaks. My first brew which is a 150 lashes clone should be ready next Tuesday odd. It goes into the donor keg and it is then low pressure fed through the 1 micron filter into the maturing keg and sealed. That keg goes into the fridge with the gas and should be carbonated in 5 days.
I've already got the next 2 brews planned. The down side, the fridge in the garage is too small. But there are plenty of free, big, pickup fridges on Gummy. I'll get it sorted.
$8 odd in tolls to get to the closest and back Chris.
If I get a job over there I'll look in.
Look at this ripoff at Dan Murphy's: Stone & Wood Pacific Ale is $73 for 24 stubbies. Under 8 litres.
That's outrageous. Brew it from a brewery wort at $50 for 23 Litres. An ale fermented with a lager yeast.
God Damn Government. It's all about the cash. Blood suckers.
$8 odd in tolls to get to the closest and back Chris.
If I get a job over there I'll look in.
Look at this ripoff at Dan Murphy's: Stone & Wood Pacific Ale is $73 for 24 stubbies. Under 8 litres.
That's outrageous. Brew it from a brewery wort at $50 for 23 Litres. An ale fermented with a lager yeast.
God Damn Government. It's all about the cash. Blood suckers.
Here here. Wowser hypcritical cretins
I still hate Kruddy boy for increasing taxes on premix drinks, look at the prices of those, bloody $20 and up for 4 cans. $6-8 for individual can/bottles.
It's ludicrous how they preach the reasons for these poxy taxes on beer and premixes as a method of "protecting ourselves from ourselves", yet at the same time, a 4 litre goon sack can be had for practically half the price of a 6 pack these days. How does that work?
And ofcourse thanks to indexation, prices just keep going up and up. Slabs will probably avg $100 by the time I'm middle-aged
I miss the cheaper stuff in Aldi, it was funny seeing things like Magners cost literally half of what it does in Dan's. We got an Aldi here recently, but the worthless defective wowser SA gubbermunt doesn't allow Aldi and other such places to sell booze Even the Coles next door doesn't have a liquorland, must be the only one in the country seriously
I have a mate over here thats been keg brewing for a few years now and he has it down pat , some of his brews are as good as the stuff you buy on tap in pubs , and hangovers dont seen as bad .
Cheers Brian. So long as you keep containers clean and sterile it's pretty straight forward. Fermenting really requires temperature control. Lagers need to ferment at around 10C and Ales around 20C depending on the yeast so you need to ferment in a fridge.
I just got hold of a working $25 fridge that'll cool 4 kegs and the fermenter fits perfectly into the tiny old fridge. Got a temp controller on the old fridge, it just turns it on/off to keep it around the right temp and spent the last day and a half working on the $25 special.
It's now clean, rust free and red. Looking a bit like a coke machine but killrust epoxy is $10/litre at supercheap so it's red. Needs a couple more coats and we are done.
First brew has finished and will go in the first keg in a couple of days. Not expecting a lot as I brewed 23ltr which is the amount you make for bottling but I bought kegs inbetween and kegging wants a 20ltr brew. So it will probably be a bit watery and weak. Sure smells like beer
The $25 special has the fridge on top and came with an ants nest under the seals on both doors for free ....
How's the clarity? And more importantly, the taste?
Back in pommie-land decades ago, Boots the Chemist sold a kit where, during secondary fermentation, the sediment on the bottom of the bottle set solid. So you didn't have to be careful pouring as you wouldn't disturb the sediment.
Hi Paul,
It's a bit hoppy for my tastes and it has a chill haze but it's the first I've made in about 30 years so I'm drinking it
Proteins in the beer left over from the boil can clump together when cold and you get a milky haze. No taste to them.
In these pics, beer 1 is at 2C and beer 2 has been sitting in the sun to warm up.
I filtered it again after these pics but that didn't make a lot of difference.
Second brew went into a keg yesterday.
Not me. Samsung S5 decided to focus on the background instead of what was right in front of it. I just can't get used to a non cooled camera.
This swamp water is only 3.6%. The second batch is cold crashing now at 2C and gets filtered into the final keg tomorrow arvo.
It measures 5.6%
I got a third brew started. It's an traditional IPA and is so active it was foaming the steriliser out of the airlock within 24 hours. I had to replace the steriliser with boiled water. This one will be strong. I'm expecting over 6%.
When i was brewing "rocket fuel" brews, i never bothered with an "airlock", i used to cover the carboy with gladwrap ( with a small hole in it ). Once it settled down from the initial fermentation, i replaced it with a clean one and actually watched the wort till it stopped bubbling, vs look at what came though an airlock )
Much simpler
Bubbling is not necessarily fermenting. Yes that shocked me too. Way back when, we'd bottle after the bubbles stopped. You should use a hydrometer or a Refractometer and if it's stable over 3 days it is finished even if it's still bubbling. But leaving it longer doesn't hurt it, just lets the yeast settle. I've been putting gelatin in the kegs to drag the yeast to the bottom.
My first all grain beer. No cans or extracts at all.
Smash beer, Single malt and Single Hop.
Vienna malt and galaxy hops.
Clarity is absolutely flawless.
And that's near freezing.
Miles away from coopers cans 30 years ago.
Yes it's flat, give it 10 days on the gas.
End of the month would be best for it.
Kegged an IPA today and it's just as clear.
Looks like I got the process right.
An Irish Red is fermenting in the tub now.
Move to a keg and cool the brew. I can get it to 2-3C which seems to work. Toss in some gelatin to drag the yeast down. 1-2 days later squirt out the crap at the bottom with a pluto gun then run the rest through a filter to the serving keg. Filtering removes any CO2 so it's flat, gas it.
Had an event here last weekend. Put out 2 kegs and they all loved the beer. They drank the lot. Full grain beer is great. No hangovers.
Moving on. Got an RO water filter. This filter gives me near distilled water. I have to add chemicals to this water for it to be healthy brew water. But all the crap has been removed. No more chloramine.
They don't add chlorine to the water here. They add Choromine. It's a compound of chlorine and ammonia and can't be boiled out. Campden tablets will kill it or you use an RO filter and start from zero.