A Guide To Starting Out In Ag

[Screwtop]

Admit it, you've been coaching him haven't ya Pat. Never have seen a longer post!

Top work Justin!

 

[PistolPatch]

Dear Screwtop,

Justin and I have been intimate for some time now and we thought our secret was safe with you. We try and keep our personal and brewing lives separate. Whilst your post was quite revealing, (I thought I only snored in my sleep, not talked,) we would appreciate it if you kept your comments to yourself.

Sincerely yours,
Pistol Patty.

P.S. OMG! I think this is one of those posts that you think is funny when you post it but the next morning you go, "FFS!" LOL.

EDIT: FFS! (Sorry Justin.)

 

[Fingerlickin_B]

:lol:

 

[Bizarre]

Dear Screwtop,

Justin and I have been intimate for some time now and we thought our secret was safe with you. We try and keep our personal and brewing lives separate. Whilst your post was quite revealing, (I thought I only snored in my sleep, not talked,) we would appreciate it if you kept your comments to yourself.

Sincerely yours,
Pistol Patty.

P.S. OMG! I think this is one of those posts that you think is funny when you post it but the next morning you go, "FFS!" LOL.

Or some people reading it might think "Maybe I should avoid meeting Pat when he comes back over to WA"



LOL

 

[Thommo]

Not too sure why you're worried about the length. I wrote more words in my census just on the, 'Where does the person usually live?' question.

Somehow Pat I wouldn't be surprised if you were still filling out your census form.

Great read Justin. And very true. I've assembled my rig on the cheap, and even though I still don't have a HLT it still makes pretty good beer.

 

[jayse]

So how did this thread get turned into talking about this Pat guy who ever the fruit he is? :beerbang:



Alcohol fueled brewtality
Jayse

 

[Justin]

LOL! You guys are madder than me! Loose lips, sink ships PP, you've really blown our little secret LOL My girlfriend is asking question now too, I'm really in the pooper LOL! h34r:

Thanks for PDFing the file Doc, and thanks again for the comments guys.

Cheers, Justin

 

[big d]

Great post.Now for my 2cents worth.Due to my location i didnt have the luxury of attending a ag brewday first up which i reckon for the first timer would be worth its weight in hops.
If you can get along to a brewday ask heaps of questions as it will help immensely.

Cheers
Big D

 

[benno1973]

At the risk of sounding just like everyone else, I have to give two big beery thumbs up to Justin!

In the past I did some AG brewing with a borrowed rig. Actually I had the rig for around 3 years, and I'm now cursing myself that I didn't use it to its fullest. I've been back on partial mashes and extract brews now for a few years, and in my head I've been designing my own rig, with bells, whistles, pumps and a kitchen sink.

After reading this post, I've decided to scale it down. First things first - get a burner and a good boiling kettle and work from there (I already have the mash tun). Realistically, I don't have the cash to buy the fancy gadgets, and my wife restricts the credit card use on each trip to the homebrew store. So a fancy rig might get built by the time I'm 50, but for the meantime I'm going to start simple, work out what things really annoy me and slowly buy equipment to address these issues.

Thanks again Justin! (you've made my wife very happy - she can now afford that new ivory back scratcher)...

 

[Lukes]

That's a great post Justin.
My 2 cents.
Mixing, power, water, gas and 2 liters of your last brew can be a deadly cocktail.
Keep it safe as we don't want any members to suddenly stop posting here only to have loved one's post in the back pages of the local news print (births and deaths).
:blink:

 

[Justin]

Yep, best thing you can do is get that kettle and burner first. I might emphasise that in the post a bit more when I edit it.

Once you get that kettle there isn't much you can't do and you really can do the rest of it with various bits you have around the house as you can find/afford them (most people have an esky and a big bucket).

Extract brewing using unhopped malt extracts is pretty big in the states, doesn't seem as big here but it's a pretty good way to start building your own beers and learn about designing a recipe or two. All you need is the kettle, burner and maybe a chiller would be handy but people have been using the no chill method too.

Cheers, Justin

 

[PistolPatch]

Hey Justin! Thanks for your very high tolerance levels and great sense of humour. Much appreciated.

I saw you mentioned that you would be editing your original post (imagine the benefits if everyone did this!) I was just thinking that maybe people could post here any links to other great reads that they found particularly useful when they were at the stage of contemplating AG. Hopefully it wouldn't take too long to add these add these at the end of your Post #1 to make it a, 'One Stop Thread.'

One link I remember finding very informative wasPaul's Brewing Page

Cheers
PP

EDIT: Won't say how long this post was last night.

 

[browndog]

Pat, you should be out (reconoiterrung) sussing out where all the girls will be when we come down there

cheers

Browndog

 

[PistolPatch]

If there is anything else that I might have missed out I'm happy to add it in...

Was just having a re-read here Justin and thought I'd mention (briefly as always )three things...

1. Use a NASA burner if you have a keg-shaped kettle. A 3 ring burner is fine, maybe even better, for pot-shaped kettles from 40-70 litres in size doing a 23 litre batch. A 4 ring burner is too wide for most kettles.

2. Evaporation rates can be hard to work out at first so err on the low side. It's far easier topping up at the end than extending boil time and trying to get flavour/aroma hop addition timing right.

3. As I've been pretty heavily involved in the new full-volume brewing methods, it's probably a little arrogant of me to bring it up but I can now honestly say that this is the simplest and cheapest way to start doing AG for most people. It's producing very good beer (maybe even as good as traditional methods) and requires a bare minimum of equipment and knowledge. There are currently 2 full-volume methods that work. Both of these do not require any knowledge of sparging or strike temperatures. This makes all-grain very easy. One of these methods also only requires a burner and a kettle. Maybe links to the relevant threads would be a good addition to the guide.

I better go now Justin and find some girls for Browndog :lol:

Cheers
Pat

 

[Adzmax]

Awesome thread Justin, glad I had a good read before taking the leap to AG. I'm a self confessed technology junkie so reading your thread has brought me back to earth Start simple and work my way up! Cheers!

 

[Kleiny]

great post helped me a lot to get started and reminded me to get back to brewing rather than making my brewery look good

 

[Dicko ACT]

Great article Justin. Much appreciated.

I'm looking at joining the dark side and becoming an AG brewer.

Unfortunately, I have a tendancy to buy the biggest and best, rather than what I really only need.

I believe your article will greatly assist my transition. Im sure it will also keep the Mister of Finance (Mrs) happy...

Dicko

 

[shimple]

Howdy...I have been brewing kits for years, and a weeks back decided to try AG brewing.

I have been researching what is required, and what i have found is that everyone has a different opinion. This is a good thing, as now i can find the right approach for myself and my situation.

Cheers Justin, for some extra info, that will go along way.

I am so excited.

 

[gsharratt]

Hi Justin/All,

I've been looking at getting into AG brewing and came across your article(06). Very helpful. I want to set up pretty simple operation at the start but as you point out in the article, there is a lot of conflicting info out there regarding exactly what equipment you need. Can anyone help with a basic list of equipment and where in Sydney I can get it. Daves Homebrew are putting together an AG kit but it sounds a bit $$.

Cheers,

Greg

 

[phonos]

Many people have recently been starting All Grain brewing using the Brewing in a Bag (BIAB) method.

[topic="11694"]BIAB[/topic]

The topic is 50 pages long now, but the first page has the most relevant information.

For this method you only need a pot (www.allquip.com.au) a burner (BBQs Galore) and a bag (Spotlight).