# Brisbane International Big Brew Day



## jgriffin (6/4/05)

Well the passport is stamped, SWMBO is out of town, and i will be holding a Brisbane Brew day on the 7th May.

We'll be putting down the Rye IPA, i'll be trying to stay sober, and hopefully fun will be help by all.

I'm out in the West side of brisbane in Kenmore, if you want to come and join us, please contact me via PM or on 0410 489 586. Please let me know if you intend on coming so arrangements can be made at least 7 days in advance.

Details are still being worked out, but BYO HB for tasting (duh!) , and a chair to sit on as i'm rather short of them.


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## Hoops (6/4/05)

As long as I'm in Brisbane I'm there
:chug: 
:chug: 
:chug: 

Hoops


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## Hoops (6/4/05)

S#$T I better get some beer brewing


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## jgriffin (6/4/05)

OK brewers, i think i'm going to use Ray's recipe here 
http://www.beertools.com/html/recipe.php?view=4317
No i spoke to Tony, and they only had the Ale and Carapills from the list below

6.3 kg. Australian Traditional Ale 
1.5 kg. Rye Malt 
0.10 kg. German CaraMunich II 
0.3 kg. Carapils
0.25 kg. German Wheat Malt Dark

Anyone know where i can get the rest in Brisbane?


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## Dunkel_Boy (6/4/05)

I've seen dark wheat at Annerley, might have caramunich too.
Unfortunately, you might have to get it shipped from one of the grain suppliers.


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## Hoops (6/4/05)

I will ask some of the guys at the HB club next thursday night, might have some ideas


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## Ray_Mills (6/4/05)

Hi
Its only 100 grams of Caramunich so use some crystal you have, Use normal wheat. You will not notice the difference. I dont know where you can get the Rye, Try ESB I think they have some.
Ray


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## Dunkel_Boy (6/4/05)

Was the two different AA levels of the halletau (3% and 5%) a mistake?
I was very happy with the halletau mittlefruh, I assume that's the stuff you use, that I got from ESB, but you've probably got the hops sorted.


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## Ross (6/4/05)

Quality Homebrew supplies at Underwood has Rye malt - just used some in my last porter...


+++

P.S. If I'm not travelling, I'll be there - will give you plenty of notice either way...


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## Dunkel_Boy (6/4/05)

Ross, the man with all the answers!


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## jgriffin (6/4/05)

Thanks Ross!

Oh and everyon who PM'd me, i'll get back to you all in a day or so when i get organised.


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## Ray_Mills (6/4/05)

Was the two different AA levels of the halletau (3% and 5%) a mistake?
I was very happy with the halletau mittlefruh, I assume that's the stuff you use, that I got from ESB, but you've probably got the hops sorted

It was what I had at the time in my hop stock
Cheers
Ray


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## Dunkel_Boy (6/4/05)

No worries, that explains it.


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## dreamboat (7/4/05)

Unfortunately I am out of town that weekend... 

Have a good day guys!




dreamboat


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## Snow (7/4/05)

John,

are you sure Tony doesn't have caramunich? I've bought it off him plenty of times in the last 6 months. He definitely has crystal wheat, which is quite dark (I bought some last week), so it would sub for dark crystal wheat no problems I would suspect.

- Snow


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## jgriffin (22/4/05)

I sent the following message to everyone who had PM'd me, however i think a few were missing, so if you haven't got one, please PM me for details.


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## Ray_Mills (22/4/05)

Hi
Ring the IBU's on the day and let us know how its all going
Ray
0403 340 374


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## mobrien (7/5/05)

Righto - the brew day is still going, but I had to leave - sorry guys!

Was a heap of fun - great to see an all mash happen - its not nearly as hard as it seems on paper. As soon as my kegs get here I'm going for it!

Some photos of it all happening....

1 - the pep talk before it all started - thats our host 
2 - it was forcast a sppon might be broke - and sure enough it was!
3 - and this is why it broke! 9kg of grain makes a thick brew


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## mobrien (7/5/05)

Some more photos...

4 - Of course you wouldn't stir it while you are sparging...
5 - On to boil
6 - Rolling boil

My batteries ran out and I had to leave at that point... I'll let someone else finish the report!

It was great to meet eveyone!

Matt


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## Dunkel_Boy (7/5/05)

Too busy to come, I'm really disappointed so many things had to be done on this special day. Hope you guys had a ball. I was even in Kenmore! But alas, other things begged my attention.


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## nonicman (7/5/05)

Had a great afternoon at Jgriffin's with the Brisbane brewers. Snow will have some good pictures. In the mean time here are a couple. The flick by Jgriffin (attempting to correct a slow sparge) and the boil. A enjoyable afternoon of talking beer with good people, a little trading and wide range of delicious beers to taste.


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## jgriffin (8/5/05)

Thanks to everyone that turned up. Hope you all had an enjoyable time.
Well we all learnt a few things during the brew day yesterday.
I learnt that a stuck sparge in from of a dozen ag brewers is somewhat embarrasing.
Also learnt that my new CFWC works a treat, and i need to put some markings on my new boiler.
Nothing like doing your largest ever brew, with all new equipment in front of other brewers....


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## Ross (8/5/05)

Had a fantastic day John - Don't remember too much after I got home, seems I passed out fairly quickly - LOL.

Tried some great beers :chug: - Hoops LCPA was sooo hoppy, lovely - Snows Witbier was equally memorable & Steves Belguim Ale (I think?) with the wonderful banana on the pallete was outstanding... I didn't taste a bad beer all day - can't wait for us Brizzy guys to do an Xmas case, salivating already...


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## mobrien (8/5/05)

I meant to also say it was great trying everyone's beers - it really opened my eyes to the possiblilities of AG brewing - and now my kit beers taste crappy 

So I spent the morning looking at drink coolers for a mash tun today - can't find a nice round 40L one... but it'll happen I hope. Maybe I'll come across one second hand.

Anyway, all excited to get into AG now - just need my kegs to get here and away we go 

Matt


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## nonicman (8/5/05)

The advice and motivation is already paying off. Just simple things like to wind the discs away from the air intake on the 4 ring low pressure burner so air can mix with the gas, producing a blue flame instead of the yellow sooty flame that I had come to expect . 

Jason


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## Snow (9/5/05)

It was a good day for sure. Great to meet some AHB regulars and put faces to names - and try some amazing brews. Standouts for me were Ross's Oktoberfest, Porter, bitters, pretty much everything Ross brought! Steve's Bavarian Hefeweizen (the banana one) was up there, too. Learned a few tricks about AG and had some great yarns. A good day all round and can't wait to catch up again at Ross's. Hopefully we'll have a few nicely conditioned bottles of the Imperial Rye IPA to bring along!

I'll post some photos of the day when my film is finished (sorry It wasn't digital).

Cheers - Snow.


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## jgriffin (9/5/05)

Some pics of the brew. First one is 12 hours after pitching, second is 24hours after pitching. Note the colour of the airlock in the second. For a 19L beer, i'm impressed that it hit the airlock.


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## Kai (9/5/05)

Some nice photos so far, guys. It seems your pics are a little more... on topic than ours were.


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## Hoops (10/5/05)

After talking to a few of the other Brisbane brewers about burners I think I will have to bring my NASA burner along to the next brew day.
It truly is an experience in itself, although we wouldn't be able to stand around it talking when it is fully cranked up! B) 

Hoops


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## Hoops (10/5/05)

Woops, thought I'd already replied on this thread h34r: 
Was a great day to meet up with everyone, a few of the regulars and some new faces too, good to see.
Even with the brewing problems encountered during the day it seems we may have converted at least one brewer to AG, good on ya Matt!

All the beers were great, there wasn't a bad one there, was just a pity I had to drive at the end of the day  Having a Wit in the fermenter at the moment means Snows Wit sticks firmly in my memory, very nice. Again nice beers Ross and a nice little keg setup, might have to investigate down that road myself. Also remember Nonicman had a nice beer too - brown ale?

Good to finally put a few more faces to names although I'm sure we'll see most of those faces again at the next brew day........Ross???

Thanks to John for hosting the day and providing a feed and teaching us all the "flick sparge" method.

Hoops


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## dicko (10/5/05)

> Thanks to John for hosting the day and providing a feed and teaching us all the "flick sparge" method.





> "flick sparge" method.





Tell us more Brissy brewers!!

Cheers


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## jgriffin (10/5/05)

Seems that my manifold doesn't like having 9kg of grain with 1.5kg of rye malt "glue" added into the mash.
Calling the sparge stuck doesn't do it justice. It ended up taking around 1.5 hours to sparge.. during which several tricks were tried to increase the flow rate.

Ross demonstrated how to use a bit of suction to get the flow happening, i was flicking the tube to try to get the air bubles to move up the tubing.


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## Snow (3/6/05)

I finally got the film developed from the brew day:



Ross, Mobrien, ?, Nonicman and Steve Catchpoole



Jgriffin demonstrating his now famous "flick" method!



Ross explaining to Steve that although he wears Belgian beer shirts, he only drinks English bitters.



Hoops and Nonicman raising a toast to all the Aussie Homebrewers.



Jgriffin, Hoops, Nonicman, Snow and Ross taking a load off. Ross is asleep after drinking a middie of my tripel  



Jgriffin beginning the long, slow, arduous, stuck, sparge.....



Hoops in the middle of his evangelical tyrade over how rich he's going to get from selling sodastream adaptors.

And a good day was had by all!

Cheers - Snow


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## TidalPete (3/6/05)

Snow said:


> I finally got the film developed from the brew day:
> And a good day was had by all!
> Cheers - Snow



Is this going to be an annual event Snow?


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## Snow (3/6/05)

Annual? I think we should make it weekly!  

- Snow


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## TidalPete (3/6/05)

Snow said:


> Annual? I think we should make it weekly!
> 
> - Snow
> [post="62150"][/post]​



Quarterly Brisbane Big Brew Days might well be the way to go ? :beer:


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## Batz (3/6/05)

Tidalpete said:


> Snow said:
> 
> 
> > Annual? I think we should make it weekly!
> ...




Quarterly sounds good to me Tidalpete , count me in for the next one

Batz


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## Ross (3/6/05)

Yep, I'd be in on that - given I can stay awake  ...


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## Batz (3/6/05)

And perhaps not always in Brizzy?  

Perhaps a few in the outer brewery type places?  

Batz


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## nonicman (3/6/05)

I'd be in. Is that your hand in the air Ross?


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## sluggerdog (3/6/05)

Spewin I missed the last one, I'll be up for the next one for sure!


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## Ross (3/6/05)

nonicman said:


> I'd be in. Is that your hand in the air Ross?
> [post="62164"][/post]​



Hold one here anytime lads as long as I'm here  -

I'm away for 3 weeks driving round NSW VIC & SA from Monday & then off to UK for some beer inspiration from 16th july till 28th Aug.

So if you're keen on one here  It's either gotta be early July or nothing till September, so let us know your thoughts....


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## TidalPete (4/6/05)

Batz said:


> And perhaps not always in Brizzy?
> 
> Perhaps a few in the outer brewery type places?
> 
> Batz



I'll be interested in attending any BBD's. Maybe I'll pick up a few tips? :blink: 
On these outer meets, would the name have to be changed to Batz Big Brew Days?


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## Hoops (4/6/05)

Ross said:


> So if you're keen on one here  It's either gotta be early July or nothing till September, so let us know your thoughts....
> [post="62191"][/post]​


Early July's good with me, but if it's at your place Ross I'd better pack a cut lunch and take a sleeping bag :lol: 

Hoops


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## jgriffin (4/6/05)

Just tasted the Rye IPA tonight with Snow. Cloudy as hell, but tastes pretty damn nice, certainly never pick the 77 IBU's or the 8.1% abv.

If any of those that attended want a bottle, let me know. First in best dressed and all that.


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## Ross (4/6/05)

John,

Put me down for a bottle - just got back from a brew day & feeling slightly the worst for weather....
Go Nicky Hatton in the boxing tomorrow - late notice, but feel free anyone to join a few of us for the fight tomorrow morning....

Early july is good with me hoops - anyone else up for it??

Cheers Ross


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## Hoops (5/6/05)

I'm keen for a bottle :chug:


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## Beerpig (5/6/05)

You can bet on Hatton if you like but it will Kostya


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## nonicman (5/6/05)

Go Kostya, I should be at the pub watching this with the Lions supporters who put up with me watching the Bay of Plenty go down. Early July is good.

Edit: almost forgot, put me down for a bottle of Rye IPA or at the least a glass of the said ale.


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## Ross (5/6/05)

What a fight - Seems Hatton wanted it more hey


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## nonicman (5/6/05)

"Kostya came up to me after and he said, `you were the better man and you deserved to win', he said, `if you ever need any help and advice I'll give you my phone number and I'll be there for you' and I tell you what, that's not a champion, that's a champion and a half."

And Kostya is a homebrewer.


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## Ross (5/6/05)

He was certainly gracious in defeat - A true champion in every way....


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