Recent content by geoffi

I fermented for years in a non-working chest freezer, just rotating frozen bottles of water. Even in the middle of summer I had no trouble maintaining steady temps for ales. More of a challenge with lagers, but still achievable, and in winter no problem at all.

Friday I made 45 litres of unhopped low-grav pale wort from a mix of pale, pils and wheat malts with a sprinkle of crystal (my usual AG CPA recipe). Friday night I threw a cube of this into a fermenter with Cooper's Dark Ale can, topped up with water. OG 1.042. Fermented at ~17c with slurry from...

When I first got into brewing the WWW was still science fiction, and there was not even 1% of the ingredients and gear available we now take for granted. We pretty much had the instructions on the can and that's about it. These days it's so easy to get the good oil on good brewing techniques...

It's a good point about the process. Compared to when I started out with kits, every aspect will have improved out of sight, temperature control (ie not just trying to get it as warm as possible) and yeast selection (ie getting something decent and using the kit yeast as nutrient...) being top...

This one I'm drinking now (yes, right now) isn't exactly Sam Armytage when it comes to a 'full body', but for just an 'arvo' type of beer, I've no complaints. Some aroma hops might be interesting, though.

Like just about everybody else I started out doing kits. But like many I found myself moving inexorably towards the dark side. It's now been many years since I brewed anything but AG. But a few months back I tried a couple of kit brews that knocked my socks off (h/t Eddie and Vicki...). Clean...

Got one of these for Christmas last year. Hopefully St Nick swings by Mr Murphy's again for me this Yuletide...

I first encountered Mel in 1990 at his Clovelly shop. His 'dry pack' kits were the gateway drug to AG, and made a very nice beer besides, especially when coupled with some yeast cultured from a CSA, which he suggested to me (long before the days of White Labs and Wyeast, that was). He was a...

Then there's this... http://www.ebay.de/itm/2-X-5-Liter-Dose-Pa...9#ht_2261wt_689 10 litres for 21 euros...faaaahk....

Yes, you certainly can find some superb beers on eBay.de... http://www.ebay.de/itm/Das-Bier-der-Aussie...8f#ht_500wt_689

My father in law bought some of the Storm 'premium' (sic) light the other day at Aldi Albion Park. Annoyingly sweet vaguely alcoholic mouthwash. Not in a hurry to try their other offerings if that's the 'premium'...

Uses English hops and yeast...the Republicans will probably crucify him as 'un-American'. (Could be worse I suppose...he could have used Kenya Goldings...)

I've just harvested my Goldings (about 100g wet), Columbus (a few handfuls), and about 1/3 of my POR (good crop, maybe 1.5kg wet.) The POR and Goldings smell nice and hoppy, as expected. But the Columbus...wow. It really hits you. I'm looking forward to next year when this one hopefully starts...

I've heard the first year is usually not too productive. I had a bumper crop of POR first year, and have had moderate to almost nil with the other varieties. I did pay my POR a lot of attention last year, with plenty of food and water. This year I was overseas all of January, so everything had...

My hops is getting close to harvest time. This year I have four varieties planted: POR, Goldings, Columbus and Tettnanger. They are producing in that order, with the POR loaded with cones; the Goldings might have enough for a brew or two; Columbus has just a handful, but they look great...