I'm not really sure how to reply to everything! I'll attempt to reply to many of you individually by PM over the next few days or so as the encouragement and feedback has certainly meant a great deal to me. Special thanks to all you advanced brewers for taking an interest in a thread that must be very repetitive and possibly uninteresting for you. You are the breeders of new brewers and I really hope you realise that. (By the way, the rest of this post will be old hat to you so go and have a beer! I'm hoping it
will be interesting/helpful for less experienced brewers though.)
So, I think the only thing I can do in this post is make some comments on how easy AG actually is. Maybe passing on what I've learned will help some others who are battling to make sense of the AG mystery. Here's the biggest lessons I've learned...
AG Lesson 1 The main thing I learned after going to Ross's a month or so ago was that
the AG business is pretty damn simple.
I had a lot of trouble with kits. I gave up brewing twice before as I never liked what I brewed. It's pretty frustrating spending money and a lot of time to brew something you don't enjoy.
I suspect that, in my most recent foray, it may be that the kits I used were not fast movers and therefore probably old/out of date. I'll do some more kits but when I do, I'll start with the most popular, that being a Coopers Draught or Lager. The last kit I did was the lager and I left it in the fermenter for 4 weeks with no temperature control as I just assumed that it would be crap like the other kits I had done (all from the one shop mind you). It actually turned out to be one of the two drinkable kits I made and was very similiar to one of the German beers that Ross and I had the other day. Like Ross, I have no idea what the beer actually was! The two brews I did like though took a VERY long time to come good. We're talking 3-4 months, all bar one under strict temperature control. So...
AG Lesson 2 AG can be very quick to reach a drinkable stage.
You can drink it in 2 weeks.
I know the above statement is not true for many beer styles but I think that it is good for those considering doing AG to know that there are beers you can make that are more than drinkable (very, very nice actually) within two weeks of pitching your yeast. Aussie Claret and I were dumbfounded when we tasted a few of Ross's the other day and found that they had only been brewed a few weeks ago. I have spent a lot of time working out systems of refrigeration etc to allow my beers to cold condition for 6 weeks. It's nice to know that I can re-fill my now nearly empty fridge quite quickly.
AG Lesson 3 The most mystifying part of AG to people like me is mashing and sparging. Everything else is of course, the same. The answer for beginners is to
batch sparge.
There are quite a few people like me on AHB who have been struggling to understand AG. For us, a lot of threads are too advanced but we don't even realise they are too advanced for our level! I had a whole thread going here recently on my damn esky. I thought it was too big for a mash tun after reading so much information including John Palmer but I didn't realise the differencce between batch and fly sparging. My esky is brilliant for batch sparging and has also turned out to be a great fermenting box. (Other threads I've had here trying to master temp control have me now kicking myself!) For those considering AG who, like me, don't really understand what batch sparging is, feel free to PM me and I'll let you know what Ross has taught me.
AG Lesson 4 If you batch sparge, then the equipment needs are minimal.
All you really need is a few huge pots, an esky, a source of heat and a few fittings.
I have spent a lot of unnecessary dollars but there's nothing like taking one for the team! Spend your money on a decent 70lt pot for a kettle. If you're short on funds get an aluminium pot for $90 or so - nothing wrong with that from what I've read. I'll go SS but I'm a perfectionist. Get 1 or 2 other pots that will boil around 30lts of plain water. These act as your Hot Liquor Tank (I bought a set of 4 SS Pots - 20,16, 12 and 8lt for $40!). Grab an esky like mine ($85 at Woollies at the moment - $120 at Bunnings!) and you can use it as not only a mash tun but as a box to keep your fermenter cool. You'll need another $20 to convert it into a mash tun. A 3 ring burner will cost you $35 from a camping shop. Use your BBQ gas bottle. That's pretty much all you need.
If I had my time over, I'd just save/buy the above.
AG Lesson 5 I'm a great reader but I think it can be very difficult, confusing and costly to learn AG via a forum. AHB is, without doubt, the best brewing tool I have and has given me a wealth of knowledge. For people at my level of brewing it can also provide too much knowledge. As I said above, we don't know what is important at our level therefore,
you need a good basic book.
I don't even know what to recommend! I do have, "Joy of Homebrewing," by Charles Papazian. This is probably a great book but in nearly every paragraph he writes, "Relax. Don't worry. Have a home brew." This drove me mad but I do use it constantly as a guide. Find yourself a good basic book and learn the basics of AG.
AG Lesson 6 As for AHB, as I said, it is my greatest brewing tool. The support and encouragement you can get here is blatantly obvious from the above posts.
Help newer brewers.
I'm not too knowledgable about forums etc and I usually write on AHB after a long day. I have asked stupid questions. I write too longer posts (like this one) but my intentions are probably pretty clear. I like to help other newer brewers. I think it's because of this that everyone puts up with my long-windedness! The best thing for AG that you can get from AHB though is...
AG Lesson 7 I think it would be damn hard for anyone to realise how easy AG is without seeing an experienced batch sparger do it. (Just ask Aussie Claret!) The best brewing experience I have had, even better than doing my first AG, was watching Ross do his. So,
find a mentor.
I look back now and see that Ross had said come up for a brew day several times before I actually accepted. Big mistake. If someone is kind enough to offer you this, take it up as they'll be doing it for the pleasure of teaching you not testing you!
Finally, Once again, I can't believe how much I have written. I started writing after 2 Coronas at work and intended to write two paragraphs. Had a few sips while writing so I hope the above is actually useful to newer brewers.
And Jayse, you wrote about being coherent and being able to type after tasting 21 beers! When I started this thread, just after Ross left, I think I was approaching the level of inebriation where you love everything and everybody. Being able to type in such a state is not always an advantage
