# Who remembers Grumpy's



## Ducatiboy stu (8/7/13)

Long time ago......thems where the days


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## bum (8/7/13)

I remember people trying to pretend posting at Grumpy's was an exclusive club and made people special when I joined up here.

Does that count?


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## spog (8/7/13)

*did my first partial with a Grumpy's kit,a boston cream ale, bloody nice it was.*
*would give a jellyfish a horn.  .cheers..spog...*


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## dicko (8/7/13)

The Grumpy guys got me started in AG and I still hold them fully responsible 

And I agree;
Most of the Grumpy kits would give a jellyfish a horn!!    They were great value..

Cheers


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## soundawake (9/7/13)

Spent some of my buck's show at Grumpy's during the afternoon a few months back. The beer was good.


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## Ducatiboy stu (9/7/13)

dicko said:


> The Grumpy guys got me started in AG and I still hold them fully responsible
> 
> And I agree;i
> Most of the Grumpy kits would give a jellyfish a horn!!    They were great value..
> ...


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## barls (9/7/13)

same here boys. miss that place.


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## Batz (9/7/13)

Grumpy's...Happy Days

This was a while ago hey? Remember the brew shop in Adelaide as well, I can't remember who owed it but he's on the right.


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## Batz (9/7/13)

And of course this one of Jayse's daughter putting her fingers in grumpys starter. :lol:


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## MaltyHops (9/7/13)

That starter looks mouldy! :blink:


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## dicko (9/7/13)

Batz said:


> Grumpy's...Happy Days
> 
> This was a while ago hey? Remember the brew shop in Adelaide as well, I can't remember who owed it but he's on the right.


His name is Dave Stewart (Grumpy Dave), Batz.
Later on he had his own brew shop on Brighton Road...Goliath Brewing.

The bloke serving the beer in the left pic is Grumpy Thomas....He is still about on the forums occassionally.

Hell those pics bring back memories!!


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## TasChris (10/7/13)

Its a long time ago but I remember my first Boston Cream with very fond memories. Would like to try one now to see if they were as good as I thought then.
Grumpy's forum got me to AG as well

Strange now the forums seem to go through cycles. both good and less good.
Cheers
Chris


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## Batz (10/7/13)

dicko said:


> His name is Dave Stewart (Grumpy Dave), Batz.
> Later on he had his own brew shop on Brighton Road...Goliath Brewing.
> 
> The bloke serving the beer in the left pic is Grumpy Thomas....He is still about on the forums occassionally.
> ...



Goliaths, that's it.

Photo was at his shop on Brighton Rd, he also still visits this site occasionally.


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## Batz (10/7/13)

Remember this one Dicko, look at the look on your face as he pours that beer.


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## warra48 (10/7/13)

I was briefly a member of their forum, before it shut down.

There was a really good discussion about LCPA, link here: http://web.archive.org/web/20041220064644/http://www.grumpys.com.au/read.php3?id=18600


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## DarkFaerytale (10/7/13)

very active memeber on the forums there, a long time ago. only ever got there once during a road trip, good beer & pizza


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## AndrewQLD (10/7/13)

Batz said:


> Remember this one Dicko, look at the look on your face as he pours that beer.


The Jovial Monk, now that takes me back, are you sure that was beer Batz?


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## RobW (10/7/13)

dicko said:


> The Grumpy guys got me started in AG and I still hold them fully responsible


Me too - still have a Grumpy's decal on the mashtun.


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## dicko (10/7/13)

Batz said:


> Remember this one Dicko, look at the look on your face as he pours that beer.





AndrewQLD said:


> The Jovial Monk, now that takes me back, are you sure that was beer Batz?


I do remember that day Batz, after all how could anyone forget it.

Andrew, it was the poorest excuse for a beer that you could imagine. Absolutely nothing went right that day...I think he mashed at about 75 deg from memory and those kegs were hot, straight out of the boot of his car, shaken up and as well as brewed badly.

Only thing I learned that day was how not to do anything relating to AG brewing.
That day was a far cry from Grumpy's or Goliath's.

Cheers


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## Ducatiboy stu (10/7/13)

The Jovial monk.......

Mmmmmm....herb beers.......we all wondered about that


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## Screwtop (10/7/13)

Those were the days, waiting on the courier to deliver Grumpy's Partial Kits. Had a few good sessions at Grumpy's in 2004/2005 the forum was a great place too. 

Screwy


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## mje1980 (10/7/13)

Haha I do remember the forum. A while ago now. Wasn't a pretty website


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## TonyC (10/7/13)

The bloke serving the beer in the left pic is Grumpy Thomas....He is still about on the forums occassionally.

He now owns and runs [email protected] Newton.


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## TasChris (11/7/13)

mje1980 said:


> Haha I do remember the forum. A while ago now. Wasn't a pretty website


That horrible olive green background is the reason I wear glasses now I reckon!! Too many late nights staring at the screen trying to get one eye to focus


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## Rod (11/7/13)

Would love to have the recipes of the kits

made most of them


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## Tim (11/7/13)

I was a grumpy's forum regular as was Jayse, Doc, Pumpy, Ross, Batz, Big Beer Belly (Dicko on AHB?), Ducatiboy Stu and GT who was the brewer there at the time. Great discussions - AHB at the time was quite a close knit community as well. Everyone was learning how to all grain brew, John Palmer's book was the bible and besides the Jovial Monk there were no dickheads to be found.

It really was a great time to learn how to brew. There were no silly questions and all brew equipment needed to be DIY as besides Grumpys and maybe ESB at Peakhurst you couldn't get decent equipment.


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## dicko (11/7/13)

Tim said:


> Everyone was learning how to all grain brew, John Palmer's book was the bible and besides the Jovial Monk there were no dickheads to be found.
> 
> It really was a great time to learn how to brew. There were no silly questions and all brew equipment needed to be DIY as besides Grumpys and maybe ESB at Peakhurst you couldn't get decent equipment.


Yes Tim, Things have come a long way since then mate.

We certainly have a lot more equipment available now, and needless to say a lot more dickheads as well. :lol: :lol: h34r:

Cheers


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## TasChris (11/7/13)

Tim said:


> I was a grumpy's forum regular as was Jayse, Doc, Pumpy, Ross, Batz, Big Beer Belly (Dicko on AHB?), Ducatiboy Stu and GT who was the brewer there at the time. Great discussions - AHB at the time was quite a close knit community as well. Everyone was learning how to all grain brew, John Palmer's book was the bible and besides the Jovial Monk there were no dickheads to be found.
> 
> It really was a great time to learn how to brew. There were no silly questions and all brew equipment needed to be DIY as besides Grumpys and maybe ESB at Peakhurst you couldn't get decent equipment.


There was also Pete from Wagga!!


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## Tim (11/7/13)

TasChris said:


> There was also Pete from Wagga!!


Yes, wasn't he trying to flog mash paddles?

What happened to the Mash Paddle comp? That was the gold standard all grain brewing comp in Australia for a long time.


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## Batz (11/7/13)

Tim said:


> What happened to the Mash Paddle comp? That was the gold standard all grain brewing comp in Australia for a long time.



The original is gone, I've never entered it since.



Screwtop said:


> Those were the days, waiting on the courier to deliver Grumpy's Partial Kits. Had a few good sessions at Grumpy's in 2004/2005 the forum was a great place too.
> 
> Screwy


I was full AG at that stage, never did a Grumpy's kit. I did buy my all my grain and hops from Grumpys, that's until Goliaths started up then everything came from them.

Batz


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## jimi (11/7/13)

About 10 years on and the marga mill that Thomas modified for me is still going strong. Grumpy s was my initial oracle of brewing info, went there once a few years ago and the brewery was closed until later in the day, and I missed my opportunity to step onto the hollowed turf.


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## Paleman (24/9/13)

Sorry to dig up an oldish thread. Was at Grumpys just two weekends ago. Grumpy Andrew still runs it, although no homebrew shop. The woodfire oven pizzas are to die for, and the beers he makes are still superb. I was a member of the forum way back then too, good fun. I think spam got hold of it in the end.


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## bradmcm (14/1/14)

I bet he still gets a few people going in there asking for brew supplies too.


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## Ducatiboy stu (14/1/14)

Beamish....

Oh how I wish that was still available.


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## warra48 (15/1/14)

I was briefly a member of Grumpy's forum, before it disappeared.

One of their great threads was about LCPA. Link here to the archive of that discussion:

http://web.archive.org/web/20041220064644/http://www.grumpys.com.au/read.php3?id=18600


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## Steve (2/3/14)

Was a regular on their site as well. Great fun. Good bunch of guys. Learnt a lot. Was actually going through my old brew folder yesterday looking at all the Grumpys kits I made back in 05-06. Loved it when the courier arrived at work with my kits. As usual my first was the Boston Cream. Can still remember the flavour now. Would love to try and make that again. So simple to make, a quick 30 min boil. I think from memory Voosher took over doing the kits for a while after the grumpys shop closed. Wonder what hes up to now. I remember suggesting to GT that they should give a prize for their 1,000th order.....guess who won it! Too funny. And ole staggalee only ever got a free grommet. Good times.
Cheers
Steve


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## Ducatiboy stu (2/3/14)

Stagalee was a funny man. I remember RayH and his attempts at force carbonation with a soda-stream.


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## Rod (2/3/14)

Would love to have the Boston Cream recipe , great brew :icon_drool2:

I got a free fermenter , tight fit on the tap , still going 

ps maybe the kilkenny too

also , also , also


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## Weizguy (2/3/14)

I've been around here for a while and took a few peeks at the Grumpy's forums abck in the day.
Seemed like a bunch of good mates there, and less friction than AHB (which was still a lot better than it was to become).
Hell, it was even before I went to ag, and the Grumpy kits were a bit too something for me (maybe too complex or expensive or something else).
Maybe we need a thread to remember all the good and decent members who no longer visit or post here?
Or perhaps a name and shame all the boof-heads who no longer are ALLOWED to post here? (*OK, prob not - lol)

Les out


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## Cube (2/3/14)

Bum
NickJD.



Too soon?


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## Weizguy (2/3/14)

Cube said:


> Bum
> NickJD.
> 
> 
> ...


Sorry, should have said "New" or "Separate" thread for those. Otherwise it's off-topic. Good take-up, though!


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## Ducatiboy stu (2/3/14)

Les the Weizguy said:


> Hell, it was even before I went to ag, and the Grumpy kits were a bit too something for me (maybe too complex or expensive or something else).


No....

They where awsome. Back in the day they where what got a lot of us to go AG. 

Little bags of hop pellets, cracked grains that we had to boil....

I even remember one post where it was asked if the grain bag was contaminated with "mouse poo"........to which the answer was " Its roast barley you f%#@/*t".....absolute gold


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## barls (2/3/14)

Cube said:


> Bum
> NickJD.
> 
> 
> ...


Cube soon to join them



Just kidding. Hang around for a while


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## Weizguy (2/3/14)

Ducatiboy stu said:


> No....
> 
> They where awsome. Back in the day they where what got a lot of us to go AG.
> 
> ...


I remember a similar kit from ESB with grain etc. Not sure what it was, but I wasn't too impressed.

Maybe it had to do with the grain boilling (astringency)?

I did love the ESB fresh wort kits though. The pils was grainy and very tasty, brewed with the YeastLabs pils yeast from the now-defunct brew shop in Hunter Street Newcastle (similat yeast to W2124 - Bohemian).

As you can tell I'm not brewing today, as I'm spending too much time hunting YouTube and AHB.


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## Steve (2/3/14)

Please don't tarnish our memories of the old Grumpys website in this thread with people who aren't allowed to post on AHB anymore. I for one don't care even though I rarely (once a year) visit AHB.(Actually surprised to hear Bum isn't allowed to post).

Why did Grumpys close the shop anyway. Surely it was a decent business? What happened to GT and Voosher? I seem to remember GT posting on AHB quite a while ago.

I think I remember you Rod. Didn't you move out to Dubbo way? Did I sell you something?

Long distant memory though.

Cheers
Steve


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## Ducatiboy stu (2/3/14)

GA suffered a heart attack and had to scale back. GT moved on into the winery world. Voosher and Brad took over the kit side, but I think, from poor memory that they ran it from a different premises. The kit side was never a huge part of the business, just an aspect of it. It was more geared to the restaurant/brewery side of things.

There may have been other factors...but I dont think they need digging up.

The forum gradually suffered from trolling/spam that proved too costly to stop given the nature of the business.


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## TidalPete (2/3/14)

I looked at Grumpy's a few times in my liquid/dry extract days but happily for some I concentrated on AHB. :lol:
Just Googled Oliver & Geoff's which was another homebrew forum ATT & seems like they're still going strong. 
I remember a lot of names including yours Steve. :beer:


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## Steve (2/3/14)

My brew fridge is still adorned with one of your brewery stickers Pete.
Cheers
Steve


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## Batz (2/3/14)

I spent a few nights there years ago, and I was living in the Pilbara WA then, it was a bit of a drive. 

It was always a great time back then, I remember (or some of it) when Dicko, Jayse and myself booked a cabin in Handorf for the night. We stayed at Grumpy's well after closing time, Thomas drove us back to our cabin, we then drank many of Grumpy's take-aways.
In the morning we drove into Adelaide and I was guest brewer at Goliath's, waked into the shop to see heaps of people. Hang-over to the max, it was the hardest brew I have ever done.  

Batz


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## dicko (2/3/14)

Yes Batz, I don't think I could have walked up that hill after that session. :chug:


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## Ducatiboy stu (2/3/14)

Was that the infamous "Who ate all those baked beans" lets drink heaps of homebrew before sleeping in a small cabin trip....


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## Steve (2/3/14)

They used to do a kind of online news feed to their forum with pics included when they there having their monlhy stammtischs.....made us out of staters well jealous. Mongrels springs to mind! LOL.


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## Jaded and Bitter (3/3/14)

Yeah I remember Grumpies. Got me brewing their spruced up kits and I was hooked.

Goliaths got me brewing partials, think he was only open about a year though.

The man with the bad beard (Jovial Monk), what was his name? always used to tell me how his chiahawa(?) Jess was going at obidience school. Then Id try and find out what malt's and hops he had and try and figure out what I could brew with it.

Then there was his drill driven grain mill...

Think Jovial Monk closed in 2010.

Thank God craftbrewer opened and someone was doing grain bulk buys.

Cant remember what name I used to post under on the Grumpies forum. I've forgotten and rejoined a couple of times on this one too. In fact I remember someone posting on the grumpies one to check out this new AHB forum.

Thems were simpler days.


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## Ducatiboy stu (3/3/14)

Jovial Monk sure was a character. Some of his ideas where....um.......different


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## Barry (3/3/14)

Tom Smit


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## Rod (3/3/14)

Here is my list which I made when buying Grumpy's brews

the list is not all of the brews available as they stopped supplying before I did the lot

I used to buy in $100 lots as shipping was free with >$100

Grumpy's brews made so far

LONGREACH XXXX DRAUGHT
CZECHMATE PILSENER
AUSSIE PUB DRAUGHT
COLONIAL MILD IRISH STOUT
CLASSIC ENGLISH DRAUGHT
DOUBLE HOP PALE ALE
RED STAG 80/- SCOTTISH AMBER ALE
YORKSHIRE TOFFEE
BASS WORTHINGTON WHITE SHIELD IPA
KILKENNY IRISH BEER
STELLA'S PRIDE BELGIAN LAGER
BELFAST GOLD STOUT
GRUMPY”S BELGIAN WHEAT - Hoegaarden Wit
LONGREACH XXXX DRAUGHT
CLASSIC ENGLISH DRAUGHT
BOSTON CREAM
ARKELL'S 3B
COPY OF BELHAVEN 80/-
OLD SPECKLED HEN


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## dicko (3/3/14)

I remember that Czechmate Pilsener was a beauty......first lager I ever brewed. :chug:

They were all good though.


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## Hoppers (3/3/14)

I remember ordering 3 or 4 grain kits at a time for the free postage to NSW

The Boston Cream ales were fantastic,

Never went in person....Shame they stopped the home brew side of things


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## pat_00 (3/3/14)

I fondly remember stopping in there on a road trip with my brother, I must have been barely legal.

We bought a stout kit, that we later made and it got us both hooked on homebrewing.


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## Jaded and Bitter (3/3/14)

Barry said:


> Tom Smit


Yeah, Tom. Thanks Barry. He got me onto Windsor and Notta and NZ Hops.

Stellas Pride was my first brew.


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## spog (3/3/14)

Had forgotten the Czechmate Pilsner but not the Boston Cream Ale,my first ever non full can of goo brew.
The results really got into brewing,mmm Boston Cream Ale mmmm.


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## Florian (3/3/14)

So how did these kits work, were they just grain and hop additions that you 'mixed' with a coopers or similar can, or did they send out their own extracts as well?


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## ben_sa (4/3/14)

Shit talk about memories... Im the lanky one on the left haha must have been about 18 at that stage! :lol:


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## Steve (4/3/14)

Florian said:


> So how did these kits work, were they just grain and hop additions that you 'mixed' with a coopers or similar can, or did they send out their own extracts as well?


From memory you could get a low, medium or high hopped can of extract to go with a bag of grain. The kits required a 30 min boil. It also came with hops (pellets). Depending on which kit you bought you but some of the extract in 4 litres and brought to the boil, and then added the 30 min hops. Leave for 15 mins then ad the grain and then 15 min hops and rest of goop and let simmer. Then strain into fermenter. So bloody simple isn't wasn't funny. The taste of grains and hops compared to just a kit n kilo was what got most people hooked on AG.
Cheers
Steve


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## Rod (4/3/14)

I would pay to get the recipes 

maybe in book format


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## spog (4/3/14)

Years ago my daughter wanted to decorate my store room door in the shed so she peeled labels off and stuck them on.


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## Ducatiboy stu (4/3/14)

The hopped extract tins where re-labeled Coopers kit tins


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## spog (4/3/14)




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## SG9090 (4/3/14)

I loved their Boston Cream, I might look into brewing something similar soon. I used the 25ibu tin. What is the Boston Cream classed as. I mean is it a Cream ale, or American Cream ale, it's not really an American pale ale is it.


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## ben_sa (4/3/14)

In that photo, i spy Jayse, Dave (goliath) and i believe a bloke used to be known as Ozdevil???

I'll have to drag up the Batz world tour thread from 200(4?) Up at GMKs iirc


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## Batz (5/3/14)

ben_sa said:


> In that photo, i spy Jayse, Dave (goliath) and i believe a bloke used to be known as Ozdevil???
> 
> I'll have to drag up the Batz world tour thread from 200(4?) Up at GMKs iirc



Kids on the roof?


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## nifty (5/3/14)

Looking back at those old photos reminded me of how jealous I was of you guys that had such easy access to Grumpy's and the very active HB scene in SA. I did a lot of the Grumpy's kits and bought a lot of gear from there. I was also a victim of the AG bug because of Grumpy's.

I was on a work trip to Adelaide years ago and had some time to spare so I took a drive out to Grumpy's but unfortunately it was closed. After reading all those posts and seeing all those photos, I was so disappointed.


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## bradmcm (2/5/14)

Ducatiboy stu said:


> The hopped extract tins where re-labeled Coopers kit tins


Not quite. A company in Victoria did the canning for us. I can't recall the company name but they made most of the brew cans for the Australian market. Yes, the extract was 100% Coopers malt but it was to Grumpy's bitterness specs. So Low, Medium and High were Coopers light malt with equivalent of 20,25 & 30 IBU/25L. The wheat was 50:50 light and wheat and the dark kit was really just Cooper's stout from memory.
They did all the canning,capping and our request for 2 x 7g packets of yeast. They required a large order, naturally. I can't remember how many pallets of cans where a minimum order but yes, I remember unloading the pallets from the delivery trucks!


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## TidalPete (2/5/14)

Sort of :icon_offtopic: but what happened to GMK?
I met Kenny a long time ago & sampled his current Barleywine which was an absolute gem. You remember that Andrew?
A new & very enlightening experience for a noob like me it really was. :super:

Onya GMK! :beer:


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## barls (2/5/14)

i remember kenny, was still kicking around on the defence message boards 3 yrs ago before i left. dont know now.


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## Rod (3/5/14)

Would love to buy the recipe book :beerbang:


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## Batz (3/5/14)

TidalPete said:


> Sort of :icon_offtopic: but what happened to GMK?
> I met Kenny a long time ago & sampled his current Barleywine which was an absolute gem. You remember that Andrew?
> A new & very enlightening experience for a noob like me it really was. :super:
> 
> Onya GMK! :beer:



That was a long time ago Pete.

I wonder how Kenny's doing?

Batz


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## AndrewQLD (3/5/14)

Batz said:


> That was a long time ago Pete.
> 
> I wonder how Kenny's doing?
> 
> Batz


Best. Day. Ever.
That was truly an awesome experience, Pete I remember it very well, wouldn't it be great to have a reunion.


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## Batz (3/5/14)

AndrewQLD said:


> Best. Day. Ever.
> That was truly an awesome experience, Pete I remember it very well, wouldn't it be great to have a reunion.



I believe the first ever Queensland brewers get together.


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