All Grain Or Extract
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Steve
On the back bloody porch!
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Bravo Stuster
C'mon Franko - two beer labels please - see Stusters post for design!
Cheers
Steve
Stuster
Big mash up
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The horror, the horror.
devo
Str8outtaCoburg
TasChris
Lurking
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I'll bring the tin of petrol to burn the mash tun esky things with metal grates in the bottom!
You bring the grinder to chop up those big keg boil pot things! :lol:
That would be bloody K+K petrol coming out of a tin. Us AG people would distil our own petrol from crude oil pumped from a British rig in the North Sea
You bring the grinder to chop up those big keg boil pot things! :lol:
That would be bloody K+K petrol coming out of a tin. Us AG people would distil our own petrol from crude oil pumped from a British rig in the North Sea
AngelTearsOnMyTongue
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Who's the grand poobah of the Kit Kilo Klan? :blink:
PistolPatch
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(Have had 2 complaints from forum members today that I have not made an excessively long post in at least a week. The following is for them - thought I'd slip it in here. Maybe no one will notice )
Crikey! Over 150 posts to this topic in 3 days! There's no way I'm reading this whole thread but Devo's initial comments were pretty spot on. I hope an idea I have below would be of some help in minimising the vibe that Devo mentioned.*
Firstly though, I haven't voted as I'm unsure as to how to vote. As far as I can work out, it depends on what quality of beer you find acceptable and how much time you've got.
AG: I have recently started AG and am over-joyed with the results. For beers that I want to consume and really appreciate, I would only go AG but there are two obvious problems. As Devo said, AG can be confusing and very intimidating. I believe this can be rectified. AG can also be time-consuming but this is relative (see Kits below).
Extract: I've never done it. I have also never tasted it. But, I know from conversations with other experienced brewers here that you can produce an exceptional beer. Despite this, extract doesn't interest me at all as it still involves the time-consuming aspect. You really need to do a boil. You also need to have a good source of fresh extract and get your hops right etc. I think extract would actually be far harder than an AG when you add in the risk factor of quality of ingredients. For the extra effort of mashing, I'd prefer the peace of mind (and forgiveness) of AG. After all, a mash isn't really too time-consuming - its the boiling and cooling of a brew, whether it be AG, extract or kit that take the time. (Especially if you were taught as I was by very bad and irresponsible people who encouraged drinking at the start of the brew day. :angry: )
Kits: I have tried several times for many months to brew a good beer using a kit - one without that grippy taste on the side of your tongue. I have never succeeded and I think my brewing procedure and control were well within acceptable parameters. The best ones I did were 4-5 months old. Considering many AGs can be drinkable in 10 days after pitching of yeast (assuming kegged), the 'time-consuming' aspect of AG/kit is quite debatable. If I brewed 23 litres per week and had to wait 4 months for it to be drinkable, I would need ennough space to store around 12 cubes/kegs or 720 stubbies!
Kit brews were the reason I gave up brewing twice before but that could be my palate and the age of kits I was supplied with. I have had one kit beer without any sign of the above taste (cheers OldDog) but for all I know, OldDog, might just have a better home brew store than I do (fresher kits). If I could brew a beer from a kit that didn't have that taste, then I would. Be nice to be able to have my mates be drinking that than my craft-brewed beer! (I better get OldDog's secret!)
* The following might be a little off-topic so read on at your own peril. It does contain, at the end, an idea on how to minimise the extract versus AG vibe and also some other vibes that we can occassionally experience here. Feel free to skip to last paragraph if you are actually still reading this!
For those considering starting AG, AHB can be the best and worst of your brewing friends. It's been my worst friend in the fact that I read too much. AHB is not split into beginner, intermediary and advanced sections for any brewing method, let alone AG. This is, as Devo said, can be hugely confusing and intimidating to the newbie regardless of brewing method.
When I joined AHB, I was full of enthusiasm. (I still take several hours to write a post such as this - the fact that I have no current girlfriend is totally unrelated to my ongoing enthusiasm <_< ) I took everything I read here to be gospel and therfore highly important. This lead me into investigating and learning about things totally irrelevant to my level of brewing. For example, when I joined here, there was a big topic about yeast strains or starters or whatever. I read up fully on this but didn't find out for about 4 months that my studies on this and many other things were in vain. It was through PM's sent to me that I found out that if I was buying old kits or even using kits, there's no way I'd be able to brew the beer I was after.
AHB has also been my best brewing friend. I now know I can get on here and search for a specific answer which is great. Far more importantly though I met people through AHB.
Ross taught me how to brew an AG. He put himself out in what I think was a large way, to ensure I succeeded. This was before he started retailing, so him educating me was just for the fun of passing knowledge on and having the benefit of meeting someone as witty as myself. (He'll get that joke!)
Before I met Ross face to face, there were many other brewers, moderators and retailers (MHB and GMK) who looked after me.
I think I have now written a reasonably excessively long post. So, in summary, if there are any new brewers out there getting frustrated with the results of their brewing method, just put a post up here saying, 'I'm unhappy with my beer.' There's heaps of people here that will soon get your fridge full of a beer that you are happy with.
Oh! And as for my idea...
I think it would be great if, when you started a topic or made a post on AHB, there was a drop down list that allowed you to categorise your post as, 'Beginner,' 'Intemediate,' or, 'Advanced.' On the latest threads list, these could have a colour. This way, experienced brewers wouldn't be reading stuff they have read a million times before unless they wanted to offer some advice. Newbies would also feel a bit less inhibited in posting to the forum - they could progress and advance with people at their own level and also have a little help from time to time from more experienced brewers. They would also not be distracted by topics irrellevant to their experience. I think this would be really easy to implement and would stop most people from giving up brewing like I did twice before. It would also dissolve or at least reduce those, 'vibes,' experienced amongst brewers of different skill levels/methods.
OK, that's long enough!
Cheers
PP
) Crikey! Over 150 posts to this topic in 3 days! There's no way I'm reading this whole thread but Devo's initial comments were pretty spot on. I hope an idea I have below would be of some help in minimising the vibe that Devo mentioned.*
Firstly though, I haven't voted as I'm unsure as to how to vote. As far as I can work out, it depends on what quality of beer you find acceptable and how much time you've got.
AG: I have recently started AG and am over-joyed with the results. For beers that I want to consume and really appreciate, I would only go AG but there are two obvious problems. As Devo said, AG can be confusing and very intimidating. I believe this can be rectified. AG can also be time-consuming but this is relative (see Kits below).
Extract: I've never done it. I have also never tasted it. But, I know from conversations with other experienced brewers here that you can produce an exceptional beer. Despite this, extract doesn't interest me at all as it still involves the time-consuming aspect. You really need to do a boil. You also need to have a good source of fresh extract and get your hops right etc. I think extract would actually be far harder than an AG when you add in the risk factor of quality of ingredients. For the extra effort of mashing, I'd prefer the peace of mind (and forgiveness) of AG. After all, a mash isn't really too time-consuming - its the boiling and cooling of a brew, whether it be AG, extract or kit that take the time. (Especially if you were taught as I was by very bad and irresponsible people who encouraged drinking at the start of the brew day. :angry: )
Kits: I have tried several times for many months to brew a good beer using a kit - one without that grippy taste on the side of your tongue. I have never succeeded and I think my brewing procedure and control were well within acceptable parameters. The best ones I did were 4-5 months old. Considering many AGs can be drinkable in 10 days after pitching of yeast (assuming kegged), the 'time-consuming' aspect of AG/kit is quite debatable. If I brewed 23 litres per week and had to wait 4 months for it to be drinkable, I would need ennough space to store around 12 cubes/kegs or 720 stubbies!
Kit brews were the reason I gave up brewing twice before but that could be my palate and the age of kits I was supplied with. I have had one kit beer without any sign of the above taste (cheers OldDog) but for all I know, OldDog, might just have a better home brew store than I do (fresher kits). If I could brew a beer from a kit that didn't have that taste, then I would. Be nice to be able to have my mates be drinking that than my craft-brewed beer! (I better get OldDog's secret!)
* The following might be a little off-topic so read on at your own peril. It does contain, at the end, an idea on how to minimise the extract versus AG vibe and also some other vibes that we can occassionally experience here. Feel free to skip to last paragraph if you are actually still reading this!
For those considering starting AG, AHB can be the best and worst of your brewing friends. It's been my worst friend in the fact that I read too much. AHB is not split into beginner, intermediary and advanced sections for any brewing method, let alone AG. This is, as Devo said, can be hugely confusing and intimidating to the newbie regardless of brewing method.
When I joined AHB, I was full of enthusiasm. (I still take several hours to write a post such as this - the fact that I have no current girlfriend is totally unrelated to my ongoing enthusiasm <_< ) I took everything I read here to be gospel and therfore highly important. This lead me into investigating and learning about things totally irrelevant to my level of brewing. For example, when I joined here, there was a big topic about yeast strains or starters or whatever. I read up fully on this but didn't find out for about 4 months that my studies on this and many other things were in vain. It was through PM's sent to me that I found out that if I was buying old kits or even using kits, there's no way I'd be able to brew the beer I was after.
AHB has also been my best brewing friend. I now know I can get on here and search for a specific answer which is great. Far more importantly though I met people through AHB.
Ross taught me how to brew an AG. He put himself out in what I think was a large way, to ensure I succeeded. This was before he started retailing, so him educating me was just for the fun of passing knowledge on and having the benefit of meeting someone as witty as myself. (He'll get that joke!)
Before I met Ross face to face, there were many other brewers, moderators and retailers (MHB and GMK) who looked after me.
I think I have now written a reasonably excessively long post. So, in summary, if there are any new brewers out there getting frustrated with the results of their brewing method, just put a post up here saying, 'I'm unhappy with my beer.' There's heaps of people here that will soon get your fridge full of a beer that you are happy with.
Oh! And as for my idea...
I think it would be great if, when you started a topic or made a post on AHB, there was a drop down list that allowed you to categorise your post as, 'Beginner,' 'Intemediate,' or, 'Advanced.' On the latest threads list, these could have a colour. This way, experienced brewers wouldn't be reading stuff they have read a million times before unless they wanted to offer some advice. Newbies would also feel a bit less inhibited in posting to the forum - they could progress and advance with people at their own level and also have a little help from time to time from more experienced brewers. They would also not be distracted by topics irrellevant to their experience. I think this would be really easy to implement and would stop most people from giving up brewing like I did twice before. It would also dissolve or at least reduce those, 'vibes,' experienced amongst brewers of different skill levels/methods.
OK, that's long enough!
Cheers
PP
Well I've avoided chiming in up until now but things have really gotten out of hand
back in my day.....
I actually have something to say about this.
With K+K there are so many things runnning against you (from personal experience)
there are just so many different kits :blink:
where do you start - which one is any good? (how many threads have we had on that - very few replies ususally)
if you want to tart one up cause you found it really average which hop?s - how much extra extract?
so many possiblilties and when starting out you need to cut down possibilities so you dont end up with slops and blow the whole thing off. Ther is no asy way of calcing it unlike with AG - you can only really do trial and error - for instance what diff does boiling a kit make - how can you work out what adjustments to make to the recipie if you can't work out what boiling it does to IBU-OG-yeast nutrient - hops flavour - its a like opening a can of worms (just like this thread)
esp with 1.7 Kg of malt - why sell 1.7 kg of malt that is bittered to produce 23L?
I rekon the only reason they sell them in that size is cause dog food cans are mass produced and cheap.
For this reason I have more faith in the 3kg tins - at least you know that it is designed as a 20L~ batch without sugar which should never be used (with a few rare and obviuos exceptions like beligians)
I have tasted some excellent K+K to my own suprise. but again same person diff can was bollocks - he got lucky
how much malt do you want to waste before you hit the button?
and what about bulk xtract - is it fresh? what about dodgy yeast everywhere (I know it happens alot- up here in brissy gets very hot in summer - does the hbs have a fridge?
brew on :super:
lou
back in my day.....
I actually have something to say about this.
With K+K there are so many things runnning against you (from personal experience)
there are just so many different kits :blink:
where do you start - which one is any good? (how many threads have we had on that - very few replies ususally)
if you want to tart one up cause you found it really average which hop?s - how much extra extract?
so many possiblilties and when starting out you need to cut down possibilities so you dont end up with slops and blow the whole thing off. Ther is no asy way of calcing it unlike with AG - you can only really do trial and error - for instance what diff does boiling a kit make - how can you work out what adjustments to make to the recipie if you can't work out what boiling it does to IBU-OG-yeast nutrient - hops flavour - its a like opening a can of worms (just like this thread)
esp with 1.7 Kg of malt - why sell 1.7 kg of malt that is bittered to produce 23L?
I rekon the only reason they sell them in that size is cause dog food cans are mass produced and cheap.
For this reason I have more faith in the 3kg tins - at least you know that it is designed as a 20L~ batch without sugar which should never be used (with a few rare and obviuos exceptions like beligians)
I have tasted some excellent K+K to my own suprise. but again same person diff can was bollocks - he got lucky
how much malt do you want to waste before you hit the button?
and what about bulk xtract - is it fresh? what about dodgy yeast everywhere (I know it happens alot- up here in brissy gets very hot in summer - does the hbs have a fridge?
brew on :super:
lou
Bizarre
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(Have had 2 complaints from forum members today that I have not made an excessively long post in at least a week. The following is for them - thought I'd slip it in here. Maybe no one will notice
.............
Snipety snip
.............
OK, that's long enough!
Cheers
PP
Hey I saw this post PP and I thought - "Should go grab a beer it'll be a long one"
LOL You didnt disappoint either mate! Just out of interest - How long do keyboards last you on average?
Millet Man
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Technically I'm the only All Grain brewer on this forum - I start with Grain and make my own malt.
You're either K&Klansmen or All Malt brewers. Does your husband know how to brew?h34r:
Cheers, Andrew.
P.S. Apologies to any biological ladies out there.
P.P.S. Is there a tounge in cheek smilie?
You're either K&Klansmen or All Malt brewers. Does your husband know how to brew?
h34r: Cheers, Andrew.
P.S. Apologies to any biological ladies out there.
P.P.S. Is there a tounge in cheek smilie?
Millet Man
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come on Millet man! Your not a real brewer till your got some gluten in your brew!
oops just kiddin.
vl.
<_<
Nice one!Time for another pint of lager, sans gluten.
Cheers, Andrew.
Millet Man
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The only 'all-grain' brewer? I'm sure most of us are happy using hops and yeast as well as grain
OK I'll allow hops and yeast - just no dogs.
Cheers, Andrew.
AngelTearsOnMyTongue
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