Brewing comeback

[brew1000]

Hi guys, I remember my father had a Olinda brewing kit in the 70s and was the first I knew about home brewing. I started brewing in 1996. My brews consisted of various malt kits, mostly Cooper's Draught, some BeerMakers, Wander Draught and Black Rock. I even tried a Woolworths and Franklin's home brand brew kits.

I also had a go at making my own beer using Malt from a Health shop and purchased Hops pellets and leaves. The pellets worked well but the hops leaves produced a very very bitter beer so that batch was discarded.

One of my favourite kit brews was a BeerMakers wheat beer. The first lot I made was very nice. The 2nd lot I brewed (same brand) also nice but suffered from chill haze but I don't know what caused it as the first lot did not suffer chill haze.

I tried making a couple of Stout kits but each time the fermentation was very aggressive and it frothed out through the air lock, the end result was a a head that had very little head.

I kept a log book of all my brewing efforts. I had a go at making Honey Mead ale which took quite some time to ferment out (3 weeks) and I had to roust it once or twice to get it to start fermenting again. It also needed quite a bit of time in the bottle to mature but was a very nice drink. I made this in 1996 before I had access to the Internet (It was mainly BBS around then). Now that there is much more information available I see that Honey Mead ale does take some time to brew and mature once bottled.

In my 2021 comeback to brewing I don't plan on brewing as much as I did back in 1996 but want to have another go at making Honey Mead ale and making some Draught beer and Dark ale from kits.

I will create another topic concerning the Honey Mead ale to ask some questions.

 

[MashBasher]

Welcome back, you prodigal you.

You’ll find things have moved on a bit since the halcyon days 0f the 90’s. I started around the same time as you, way back then.

These days we can get malts from all over the world in every variety , ditto hops, and a fantastic range of dry and liquid yeasts. Not to mention gear, gear and more gear.

There’s never been a better time to be in the hobby. Or obsession. Tick either box.

There is a wealth of advice on here and a bunch of opinions as well. Take some of those with a grain of salt, enjoy the community and again, welcome.

 

[brew1000]

Thanks MashBasher.

 

[yankinoz]

Welcome back, you prodigal you.

You’ll find things have moved on a bit since the halcyon days 0f the 90’s. I started around the same time as you, way back then.

These days we can get malts from all over the world in every variety , ditto hops, and a fantastic range of dry and liquid yeasts. Not to mention gear, gear and more gear.

There’s never been a better time to be in the hobby. Or obsession. Tick either box.

There is a wealth of advice on here and a bunch of opinions as well. Take some of those with a grain of salt, enjoy the community and again, welcome.

I'd add that topics to explore include all-grain, brewing with extracts, steeping grains and hops; partial mashes, BIAB and traditional mashing. Recipes, of course. Start simple on methods and begin with ales.