Home Brews

[Ric]

Hi all, just put down the first wort of home brew for this year.

This year I'm starting with a Corona style beer along with a few runs of Coopers Lager and black beers to boost the stocks. :drink:

I suppose that I could call this my summer daytime hobby, I find it quite fascinating in the way that you change the flavours by adding different ingredients and changing the types/levels of sugars.
:einstein:

One of my favourites is a home made Chilli Beer, while your wort is brewing slice open 3 or 4 chillies and drop them in seeds and all, of course the earlier you add them them the stronger it will be. What you end up with is a beer with kick and on a hot summer day it is amazingly refreshing. ;)

Any other members into brewing their own.

Cheers :cheers:

[Jabba]

mmmmmm beer would go down so good on a day like today :P!!!
I have never tried brewing my own beer, wouldnt mind trying it out~

[Darth Wader]

Hi Ric

I've been brewing for a few years now, only just perfected my methods.:lol: Brewing season is coming to a close very quickly as the mercury is rising and my ales just aren't the same when brewed above 18C. At the moment I've got batches of Pale Ale, Stout, Dark Ale and an experimental "Draught" (which is actually a little ripper!) conditioning in the brew shed (garage). When I'm not brewing, I'm usually fussing over the hop vines (Chinook and Saaz) growing out back.

Are you doing all-grain, partial mash or "kit & kilo" brews? Personally I use the kits as a base, with a decent stove-top boil and hop additions... never enough time for a full mash!

You'll have to let me know how the Corona clone turns out, I've been looking to do this style for some time now. Would be great with some noble hop additions such as Saaz.

Cheers!
:cheers:

[DJDD]

good thread! :cheers:


a few friends of mine down here in Melbourne have a brewing competition a couple of times a year. best brew, best newcomer, best this and that. of course, whilst a few are serious brewers the competitions are very friendly (the award for second place is a silver foil covered stubby!).

anyway, I have brewed a few ciders and was happy with the results.
have tried mead but that has not worked, although I believe mead can be difficult.

Cherry beer (brewed by a friend) seems to be a favourite with a few people, even my wife, who does not drink beer.

we have a competition in january, which is not enough time to brew a good cider so will have to resort to brewing a beer, even though I rarely drink it. so, any ideas for a good beer for summer?

[MrB]

Homebrewer here too.
I'm an AG brewer so it's usualy a long brew day(or days!) but the effort pays off in a big way.
Like Wade I also have Hop bines; Hallertau, Goldings, Hersbrucker and Cascade.
Don't realy have much time for it now, but will have to do another brew soon, spending too much money on good German beer.

[Baron von Richthofen]

My father when he was alive and I was just a kid use to make fruit brandy %100 and I still remember when water was added it turned from a clear liquid into a milky color, every body use to love it, never tasted it my self:party:

[TrevorW]

Like a Chilli beer thanks

[coldspace]

I love home brewing. Been doing it for years. I usually brew semi mash brews by getting pure malt, boil up the crystal grain in a boiler with either fresh saz hops or pride of ring wood hops then keg them up after a few weeks of racking and aging. Comes out great on tap and have put this brew on many 21sts and engagement parties for friends and it alway goes before the commercial beers do.

Can brews are good and convient but you can pep them up abit with finishing hops in the top of the brew etc.

I have done a few full mash brews with malt grain as the base and then slow ferment them for 5 to 6 weeks at a constant 10 degrees in a warmish fridge, they turned out excellent but just too much work now for me.

Done alot of spirits as well but beer brewing is my favourite. Been a licsensed beverage / refrigeration tech by trade has had its advantages in setting up my chilled beer on tap on my bar at home.
My wife gets annoyed sometimes trying to get rid of my drunken mates:lol: sometimes.
Brewing can be a satisfying hobby that you can also enjoy the fruits of your labour:drink:.

Cheers and bottoms up :cheers:
Matt.

[Ric]

Hi guy's, good to see there a few of us here.

Keenan, definitely give it a go. It's a rewarding hobby and these days a basic starter kit with everything you need goes for under a $100.

Hi Wade, at the moment I'm using the Kit & Kilo setup but I have been reading some books on brewing and the full and partial mashes and would definitely love to try them out. I see you mentioned that you grow your own hops that is also something I'd like to try as well.

Spirits is something that I haven't tried but also intrigues me. I have visions of the highway patrol chasing me on my old Beemer full of moonshine down the backroads of Wamboin.

Cheers

[jjjnettie]

I'm the gal to talk to about spirits Ric.
I used to cook up a storm. LOL

[Baddad]

Hi Ric, :)

I used to brew it back in the 70's- early 80's. In Townsville. Friends used to come over with commercial beer to watch the cricket. The commercial stuff was left on the bench. No one wanted to drink it. We all agreed the home brew stuff was better. :lol:

I was in the Army. It was a time when we would sit out on the front deck, high up. The six regulars, eating mud crabs, full of beer and bad manners yahooing at the young ladies walking past on the street. :P:lol:

We were all from the electronics and vehicle mechanics trades. Bad soldiers. Lots of fun.

Cheers Marty

[kinetic]

Ahhhh just reading this thread was like sipping on a homie.

I prefer the dark Ales myself. Stouts being the Rolls Royce.
Black and Tans go well (mixing two cans into one kit).
Definitely brewers sugar every time, no residue.
I love the fact that home brew has less preservatives in it and
so , even after a decent session on the gear , I have virtually
no hangover.

I have made a few ciders too and the kids love the ginger beers.
I'm trying to perfect my holy grail beeyar though...the elusive
Guinness. If I could reproduce that baby, I'd lock myself away from
society and never be heard of again.

Bottoms up fellas...

Steve:thumbsup::cheers::drink:

[Spanrz]

Don't put the sugar in too early.........(pop, bang)

Best I've made, is Coopers Dark Bitter, OMG :cheers:... Yummy!

[jjjnettie]

Have you thought of scorching some hops, stewing them in a couple of pints of water then adding it to your carboy along with your tin of stout? That will add extra flavour.
I've some Bourbon I made from scratch. It's been sitting on french oak shavings these last 8 yrs. Haven't cracked one yet. It better be good. :lol:
My rums don't taste too bad either, made from molasses and good old bakers yeast. The wash isn't very strong, and you do need to be mindful of the amount of methanol you get at the beginning of your run. But that's par for the course when you use anything other than plain sugar.
For vodka I just use white sugar and turbo yeast for my wash.
The only flavourings I buy are Galliano and Southern Comfort. I prefer to flavour it myself.

[Jen]

Yep well i think its a lot easier if i just drive straight to the drive thru bottleshop :driving:straight after work Friday and smile at the guy who is already standing there with my UDL's waiting for me as soon as he sees the Jen number plates coming down the street ;)hahaha talk about good service :lol: I have em all well trained up here lol :thumbsup:

[coldspace]

I have made a few killer stouts, using burnt or toasted brown sugar, works really well full flavour,creamy and dark:thumbsup:.
The brew shop near here sells the sugar already toasted but you can easy toast your own if you are carefull.

Matt.

[coldspace]

Ahh rum, nector of the gods. you can tell your a Queenslander :thumbsup:.
I use to use golden syrup for making my rums, works a treat.
Talking about all this I might have to dust off my still ( or should i say my essential oil extractor:lol:) soon, I have not used it for a couple of years.
It use to be funny going through the check out with about 50kgs of sugar in my trolley, it used to turn some heads. I had 4 or 5 25 ltr washes going at one stage several years back, friends and neighbours kept hasseling me for more.


Matt

[jjjnettie]

My essential oil extractor is made from a 5lt pressure cooker.
Copper tubing is inserted into the top and the other end coils through a condenser made from a 25lt plastic drum and all the goodness drains from the tap at the bottom. On a big run I have to either add ice to the condenser or change the water regularly to keep it cool.
I've jammed copper scourers into the tube to get a little bit of reflux going.
You wouldn't believe what I use to seal all my joins.:lol: As you don't want super secure joins, (kaboom:eyepop:) I make up a paste with flour and water and the heat of the brew cooks it into place. If you do blow a seal it's easy to fix, after you've checked for blockages of course.
I learnt that trick from a little old lady in Jamaica.

[coldspace]

Nice little oil extractor, and the old lady in Jamaica sure knows her tricks.
Mine is one the home brew shop sells, with a 25 ltr boiler and its a reflux tower so can get upto 90 % but carbon won't purify that high, I usually water it down to 45%.
I run the cooling water through an old refigeration fan coil like a radiator in a car and back into a bucket so i can keep the cooling water at ambient temp and use only 20 ltrs of water all weekend.

Matt.

[jjjnettie]

I enjoyed making my own extractor.
It's only small and it takes ages to go through a 25lt wash, 3lt at a time, but it does the job quite nicely.
I've never had a bad hangover from drinking my own home made.

[coldspace]

i don't have to work tommorow, drinking as I speak and will stagger down to the observatory soon.

Matt.

[jjjnettie]

I've just started an imaging run on Mr Ed. So I'll be outside for quite a while yet.
Think I'll join you in a little drinkie.
No work for me either.:P
What a nice night it is too. No clouds to harass us like last night.:thumbsup:

[coldspace]

Yep, no clouds here.
Ching ching.

Matt.

[Darth Wader]

Steve

The best way to add flavour is to gently boil the hops for a short while. Scorching them will destroy the lupulin glands in them and kill much of the flavour. For flavouring, I use 4-5 litres of water to boil about 15 or so grams (or a little more or less, depending on taste) with your additional sugars/malts per 23L batch.

If you're aiming for a fuller bodied beer like Guiness, I'd suggest using 500g light dry malt extract and 1kg Coopers Brew Enhancer 2. For aroma, add 15g at the end of the boil, then add the contents of the extract can and give it a good stir. Let the wort cool slightly, then top up the carboy with cold water to achieve your desired volume/temperature. For a Guiness clone, you'll want to use Goldings or if they're not available, Cascade. You'll also want to use a good quality yeast - Safale US-04 is a traditional English ale yeast and will change the flavour of you brew immensely, provided you keep the temp at around 18 degrees. There is a lot more to making a great Guiness clone, but this is a pretty easy and relatively inexpensive start that you should find quite drinkable. Good luck!

Cheers
Wade

[jjjnettie]

I'm still having problems with my guiding. I can go 10 minutes, but I lose a lot of subs. So I'm back to 5 minutes. Which is fine concidering only a few weeks ago I was happy to go 20 seconds. LOL
Whatcha drinking Matt?

[coldspace]

I am just looking at the tarantula now with an O3 filter and Mallincam. Just slewed over to it and is one of my favourite targets can get quite deep with the o3 filter on this one.

I am drinking tooheys extra dry, sometimes commercial beers are good, I like it all ;), probally will go back into the house a get a couple of rumbos's later:thumbsup:.

Trying to get my focus sorted out, its a hard one with the 3.3 reducer and the video system. But for live viewing its ok.
Luv this imaging stuff, getting more addicted, next year will make the jump to "proper imaging" with a real camera, but for now its alot of fun.
Going to chase some nice NGC galaxies next with a CLS filter to clean up my bad light pollution down here in the burbs:(.

Matt.

[jjjnettie]

Rum and ginger beer here.
I bought my 20d off the forum here. While I loved my Gstar, for the full colour experience, you can't go passed a dslr. Relatively cheap to buy and they're duel purpose, unless you get it modded.

[coldspace]

Yep, the Mallincam shows all the brighter Nebs in full colour live but the chip is too small and I want to start going into more dedicated imaging next year.
The mallincam has provided me some wonderfull views in colour in real time that rival DSLR's in one tenth the exposure time but lack the resolution and fine detail so post proceesing is not very advantages but for real viewing with the kids or the punters it can't be beat, but now its time to start getting more resolution and cleaner images for me to start mucking around with, I will never sell the mallincam as my daughter and her school love it.
I will probally go a cooled CCD camera next.
I went from visual observer, to video, next long exposure, long focal length, narrow band for the burbs, I am serving my apprenticeship well and don't want to be a sissy like AlexN says.ha ha

i got NGC 1365 up on the CRT now. Its one of my favourites, I love the two spiral arms and the way they sweep back, I always pop over to have alook at this every night if its up.

Next target will be NGC1316.

Matt.

[jjjnettie]

This thread is about home brew, we shouldn't hijack it.
I'll start another.

[coldspace]

Ngc 1316 is up on the monitor, two blobs:lol:, I have tried again as the night is clear but no more detail than other nights.

Going over to see NGC1566 its usually a nice spiral. Just waiting for Orion to gain alittle more height.

Rum time now. Bundy with lots of ice and a dash of coke.

Matt.

[MrB]

And for the real deal, get a Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale smack-pack.
This yeast was cultured from the Guinness brewery.
Getting the right yeast is the most important ingredient when cloning brews, and then temperature control.
Edit: ah, and water profile. Dublin water is very high in carbonates... it's the whole reason Guinness is so dark... they couldn't mash lighter grains!
It's also why Pilsner is so light... Plzen water is almost pure, almost no mineral content at all... they couldn't mash dark grain.

[coldspace]

Sorry for the high jack, got into the drink now its clear, in the observatory, drinking, talking about Astronomy and brewing piss, life's good especially that I have an RDO tommorow.
Anyone want some receipies for some nice brews PM me.

Matt.

[GrahamL]

I was always terrible at brewing my own beer

I met my nieces new partner at my sons wedding a little while back
talk about a beer nut , after attending many lauches of new
products by a lot of differant breweries and flooding them with questions ,etc, they started offering him work . Cut a long story short he shut down his profitable buisness and now runs a brewery .:thumbsup:

They met at a launch of a new beer , she who had not long been working at a home brew supplier, went up and told him she thought his presentation was pretty crap.

A match made in beer:D

[Darth Wader]

Aah, too true. Never used the smack-packs before! Will have to give this a go myself.

[Ric]

This is turning into a very interesting thread.

I've picked up quite a few good ideas in the short space of time already.

It looks like we have quite a few seasoned and talented brewers in our ranks.

Cheers

[StephenM]

Hi guys,

Good to see there's a few other brewers out there! I've been brewing for over 15 years now. Mostly Coopers kits these days because they re so easy and reliable (and with 2 young kids there's not enough time to do anything more complicated). Don't mind the Blackrock Pilsner kits from NZ either. I bottled a Cooper's Ale about a week ago, and that will be my last for a while, as it's a bit too warm for good fermentation over the summer. I've got about 6 cartons maturing in the garage, so that should do me for the next few months. There's a European Lager that should be reaching it's peak just in time for Christmas!:)

Cheers,
Stephen :cheers:

[Ric]

I have a little spot reserved in the cupboard under the stairs. I've found the temp to be perfectly stable between 19 & 22 degrees all year round.

I never even needed to use a heater pad even in the middle of winter.

[White Rabbit]

I've often thought about it, but never gotten around to doing it. I thnk the thing that puts me off brewing it is that I drink to much as it is and I think I'd kill myself if I had cases and cases of beer lying around hhaha.

My Ex's dad use to brew his own and it was pretty good. Might look into it again.

Sandy

[Ric]

Has anyone tried brewing the old ginger beer?

From some of the stories I've heard about exploding bottles I'd reckon it would be safer tap dancing in a minefield.