Any beer brewers down here?

[journeyman Mick]

Ummm,
thanks Skew, I think. I believe I get the general gist of your post

Mick

[Ian007]

Zymurgy

chemistry of fermentation in brewing: the scientific study of the process of fermentation in brewing and distilling

[Spelunx]

Hands up for home brewing!

I have been at it for five years now.... mostly Coopers brew kits, with the occasional 'special' chucked in. I have been doing lot's of Ginger beer lately, basically it's improving a kit by adding extra ginger, lemon, nutmeg and stuff. Tastes awesome, especially after a hot summer's day.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Sorry. One becomes so familiar with some things they forget they're not general knowledge.

Fidonet was the main pre-WWW network (when 'twas barely Usenet), where you rang direct to a local BBS... which later that night would ring a BBS further down the line and pass on/collect mail & files. Then that BBS would ring further down the line... It could sometimes take a week for a post to reach the other side of the world and another for the reply to come back. Ahhh.... those were the days.

And Ian's already explained Zymurgy: the art of brewing.

When I shut the BBS down, it was just hitting the switch. It's exactly as it was, so their should still be several thousand msgs (and beer recipes!) sitting on it. The fun part is remembering how to search 'em... I barely do any DOS work nowadays and have forgotten most of what I once knew, apart from minor batch scripts.

[Schtoo]

IMO a lot of water is wasted when they make Fosters.

Actually, I don't think they use any water when they brew Fosters.

Unless it's toilet water, the little yellow lollies and all...

[masoth]

G'day Bat. I don't 'typically' make any brew but I am a non-stop experimenter.
My best(?) was 9.4% and tasted wonderful at about nine degrees (C), but most Oz drinkers want beer icy and that is why most commercial stuff tastes like Schlitz (is that the right spelling) the American junk, and that's the worst I've tasted, even compared with many Asian brews.
IF you, and anyone else, is interested an excellent Oz website is:

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/

The mentioned 'chocolate' et al, recipes can be found there too. I don't have the time to visit ALL my pet websites, unfortunately - sob!!

Hang on!! I do have the time - I'm simply too bloody slow. Damn!!

[masoth]

By the way, Bat - disregard ALL bragging about Oz states be it beer, football, weather, stupid BIG things, bridges, fishing because the ONLY good state is the State of Intoxication (except when woodworking).


soth

[Ratbag]

Bat, homebrewing is something my whole family gets involved in. After years of trial and more errors than I'll admit to when sober, here's our list of family favourites. Please don't regard this list as definitive or even authoritative. They're just the brews we keep coming back to after having less success elsewhere.

(1) Sassafras beer: A very old endemic recipe from Tassie. A variation of hot water Ginger beer, utilizing Sassafras (Atherosperma moschata) bark. Tasting notes: A most thirst quenching and refreshing drink for hot weather and hard work. Redolent of rainforests and foggy mountains.

(2) Cold water Beer: Traditional Ginger beer like your Gran would have made. Tasting notes: Not too acid, not too sweet. Just enough alchohol to enjoy without any nasty surprises. A great favourite with the kids.

(3) Theakston's Old Peculier: Actually a copy of the famous British brew. Tasting notes: Best served at room temperature. Warm, smooth almost "chewable" mouthfeel. Brewed for winter consumption.

(4) Budweiser: No, not the North American poor excuse for tapwater, but a copy of the original Pilsener from the Czech town of Budvar (hence the name of course), brewed with Beermaker's Czech Pilsener. A great Pilsener style best served cold and consumed in moderation.

(5) Cooper's Canadian Blonde: A beautiful, pale light style beer with lower gas and alchohol content. Our family's favourite daily drinker, and not as fattening as the other beers mentioned.

Become obsessive about hygeine. Rinse all you apparatus, your bottles and caps thoroughly after use. Sterilise rigourously. Instead of Sodium Metabisulfide (nasty stuff) I use dilute household bleach, soak everything for at least an hour or more and rinse everything thoroughly with the hottest water I can stand.

Use the best ingredients available. For the first two abovementioned brews you can use ordinary sugars, preferably Raw and if possible Organic. The others need proper Brew Enhancer style sugars. Ordinary sugar, or even proprietary Dextrose just won't cut it if you want a good head and mouth feel. Fresh hops and young yeast are desireable.

Most important of all, however, is your water. Tasmania is renowned for having the clearest air and water in the world, and yet what comes from my tap is barely fit to bathe in, let alone drink. I try to bring home fresh mountain water for brewing, and when I can't I'll fine filter my tapwater until I'm satisfied it's sweet enough to drink. It's not possible to make good beer if you cut corners with your ingredients.

If anybody wants a copy of any of our recipes to try then drop me a line. But don't take my word for it. There's an amazing home brewing subculture out there in cyberspace with an awful lot more expertise than I might pretend to have, with better ideas and recipes available I'm sure.

[Iain]

I generally have one cider and two beers on the go at any given time,I do AG brews as well as partials.
For partials I like like Coopers Old or Dark Ale with 1.5kg of Light Malt Extract and 15g Fuggles.
I have also made one using 500g DExtrose, 500g DME and 500LME, it is at present lying in wait.
I tried a Mexican Cerveza, mixed thoughts on it, drinkable, just.
At the end of fermentation I rack the brew for a week before bottling, I will get around to kegging one day.
Bat, if you are concerned about temps, try lagers in winter and ales in summer, lagers like a cold fermentation 12-18c whereas Ales like a higher temp, and toss the propiety yeast that the kits come with and use Safale or similar.
Never use sugar (white), it is absolute crap, will not ferment out completely and leaves a horrible 'my first home brew' flavour, use dextrose, sucrose, honey if you are really keen or malt extracts.

[scooter]

Enjoying the thread, keep it coming!

Ginger beer is on the gunna list, will pick your brain at some stage Gra and others for some pointers on getting started, when we were kids we used to have a "plant" in a jar on the window sill.

Mick, I had a neighbour who started home brewing as well, I thought I was set, turned out he was a real tightasre with it and wouldn't share it. Bugger

The mention of malt extract brings back memories, as kids we used to have a spoon of Saunders Malt Extract and a spoon of plain yoghurt each night. Hated the yogs but love the malt. Maunders Salt we used to call it.

My sister-in-law's intro to the family was a dinner, followed by "here, try a spoon of this, it's lovely"... Couldn't stand it, she ran out of the room, embarrassed, had to spit it out, good thing she recovered her composure and got over it.


Cheers...................Sean, up yer ginger

[journeyman Mick]

............Mick, I had a neighbour who started home brewing as well, I thought I was set, turned out he was a real tightasre with it and wouldn't share it. Bugger ................

Sean,
my neighbour is very generous but unfortunately my allergies make beer consumption rather hazardous.

Mick

[scooter]

That's a bugger, Mick, your allergies have whiskers on 'em.

Good to have a nice neighbour tho'.

[ubeaut]

Have never brewed any but get phone calls every day from idiots who don't know the difference between
U-Beaut and U-Brewit a Geelong business that bottles your home brew for you.

Cheers - Neil

PS May not have brewed any but don't mind a drop or two. Hic

[himzol]

Hand going up now,

I've got two ginger beers going at the moment, one is a straight Kit and kilo with some minor changes to the can recomendations. i.e. Brown suger instead of raw and chamagne yeast instead of the yeast supplied.

The other is a recipe I found on the net and had to do the thing from scratch, I'm worried about the amount of "eye of newt" though.

I have a pilsner which was straight K/K bottled last week which will be what I call BBQ beer, tastes better than factory beer but not quite a real pilsner.

Another month or so and it should be OK to brew some nice Largers around here.
I've got Grumpy's just up the road and they are real helpfull. http://www.grumpys.com.au/

Himzo.

[Christopha]

Ok, you lot have got me intrigued....
How do you recommend a bloke who;
A: Ain't real bright...
B: Lives in the bush...
C: Knows absolutely NOTHING about brewing......
....get started brewin' 'is own cos he is now a single old fart who can't afford to buy his occasional slab of Coopers. Now make 'em good cos if I can do this and do it gooderer I might be forced to share some with this old bugger I know who brews your favourite finishes....