Good Evening Aussies

[Mayor of Mildura]

$12 for 6!!! they are $12 each here. I wanna go to America.

 

[Crusty]

Welcome to AHB Erik.
This is definately the site to catch up on the latest trends in craft brewing / home brewing that us crazy Ozzies are so passionate about.
Quite a lot of All Grain brewers here using the 3 vessel systems, myself included, that you guys in the states find popular.
Brew in a bag ( BIAB ) single vessel brewing, another crazy Aussie idea is gaining popularity recently & is a cheap alternative to 3 vessel brewing.
Award winning beers have been made this way & there's a few brewers on here using that technique.
If you check out the recipe data base page, there's heaps of recipes in there to have a go at & I'm sure you will be able to get any questions that you may have, answered by some really experienced brewers on AHB.

Cheers. :icon_cheers:

 

[EMalmgren]

$12 for 6!!! they are $12 each here. I wanna go to America.

Holy crap! I think I have a business opportunity here :icon_cheers:

Why is beer so expensive? Is your government going the way of Canada and taxing the hell out of it or what?

 

[humulus]

Holy crap! I think I have a business opportunity here :icon_cheers:

Why is beer so expensive? Is your government going the way of Canada and taxing the hell out of it or what?

Welcome Erik,yep anything fun here they wack a tax on it
Cheers humulus

 

[Samuel Adams]

Temperature here is crazy crazy crazy. Winters can go from mild temps to blizzards in just a few days. In late January we had temps in the high 40s to low 50s, then a week later we had below 0 temps with about 2 feet of snow. Winter doesnt kill my brewing at all, actually I prefer winter when it comes to fermentation temps, but standing in my garage brewing whilst freezing is another story.

Summers here are what kills. High humidity and anywhere from high 70's temps to low 100s. Since I'm not a rich man I really cant afford to keep my house at a yeast pleasing 60-65 degrees so I either keep my brewing to a minimum, brew Belgians, or use a huge plastic tote filled with water and frozen water bottles to keep things cool. Long story short, I need a dedicated brewing fridge!

I just realized that I put all temps in Fahrenheit instead of that crappy system you crazies use. I'll work on that.

To be honest, I'm not a basketball fan at all. I was a wrestler growing up in school and there was a huge rivalry between us and the basketball players. I guess that "basketball sucks" attitude hasnt gone anywhere. Now if you wanna talk baseball (Go Cubs) or American Football (Green Bay baby!) I'm all ears :icon_cheers:

Ha ha dam fahrenheit, I need a conversion scale to work those out (or my thermometers at home which have both)
My ignorant self thought that Illinous wouldn't get even close to hot all year, but 100*F is crazy !

I'm so jealous of your cheap beer prices, we are getting butt f**ked by the government here. It's just a joke really !
Basically they think we are all drunken idiots who would drink ourselves to death if we could afford it....so pretty much spot on haha

:icon_offtopic:
Fair enough about the basketball, we have 4 codes of football here which divides allot of Aussies bigtime.
I thought you'd be a Bears man for NFL, I like Green Bay aswell and was cheering when they won the Super Bowl this year.
Clay Matthews is my fav player !

 

[pdilley]

Fahrenheit is shiite why have 32 as water freezing?

Celsius sets 0 as the water freezing point and then measures everything up from there.

Must be a love of big numbers things wait until you get some 48 temperatures over here :icon_chickcheers:

But I found most of my gear was a hell of a lot cheaper in the States. Australia is still the rip-off capital of the retailer world ($1,100 for $250 Stereo Receivers, $1,200 for $450 chainsaws, the list goes on and is endless.) But at least there is no love of Bud here :icon_vomit: and there is a solution to the rip off domestic retailers over here.

EDIT: Michael, maybe they thought you fit in too well as a ghetto malt liquor brewer over there (did you post your shoe-lace less ghetto bum picture over there as well?), or probably thought you were some Canadian yobbo and ignored your post as a matter of due course.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[Zizzle]

Craft beer isnt cheap here persay. Maybe it is compared to what I've heard about prices in Canada, but I still cant justify a 6er of commercial beer every week. Rogue at my local place (by local I mean 45 minutes away) is about 12 bucks a 6er. I dont know if anyone knows of Stone brewery, but the typical price is anywhere from $13-$15 depending on where its bought. I recently purchased a 6er of their Ruination Ale for $18, the most expensive 6er I've purchased.

Wow beer is a fair bit more expensive up there.

I got a 12er of Sierra Nevada on special for $13 the other day. Suck it Australia.

Most 6 packs are $7-10. Stone is usually a bit more at $11.

It may be state taxes.

Our staple beers here are usually SNPA, Dale's Pale Ale, Santa Fe Happy Camper.

So why homebrew?

It's still fun to come up with interesting recipes.

Since excise here isn't based on % alcohol most of the good beers are 6%+. So it can be good to homebrew a 4-5% full flavoured APA or stout.

Also good EPA or Bitter or ESB can be hard to come by at times in the US.

Was at a small local music festival on the weekend. A tough weekend when you wander around with 7% beers for 2 days. Going to another one this weekend. http://www.desertrocks.org/

Taking a keg of our stout, and a party keg of our IPA. Will probably hit Moab Brewery for some growler refills too. Good times Might even hang the Aussie flag outside the tent and see if there are any other ex-pats around.

 

[ekul]

Well, thats a hard question to answer without really having an idea of what the benefits of brewing in Australia are like, and being able to compare/contrast.

Craft beer isnt cheap here persay. Maybe it is compared to what I've heard about prices in Canada, but I still cant justify a 6er of commercial beer every week. Rogue at my local place (by local I mean 45 minutes away) is about 12 bucks a 6er. I dont know if anyone knows of Stone brewery, but the typical price is anywhere from $13-$15 depending on where its bought. I recently purchased a 6er of their Ruination Ale for $18, the most expensive 6er I've purchased.

Its funny because I first started brewing thinking that I could make Budweiser type stuff cheaper than I could buy it for at the store. I learned real quick that wasnt the case, of course.

More later on this topic, its time for my sons bath.

In Australia it costs $12 a sixpack for crap beer, the cheapest carton of 'craft' beer is $50. So if you make a 23L batch (2.5 cartons) and it costs you $20 for everything, you're making a $100 saving. Equipment setup is a bit steep but after you've got it you're ready to roll, and these costs are offset by the savings in beer.

I don't know about others but most 'unititiated' people i've met when they think of 'homebrew' they think of terrible kit beer, fermented with shitty unviable yeast in a garage sitting at 25C+, thats what i thought before i joined here.

So i think that if you have that idea in your mind, the only thing that would drive you to make homebrew would have to be the cost savings, because you're not doing it to make great beer. When i first started i was hoping that i would be able to make something nearly as good as my favourite beer (plus i was underage and woolies doesn't check ID when you're buying homebrew supplies )


So i'm assuming in america that the homebrew industry is better marketed, because if you can get cheap good quality beer, and there aren't considerable savings to be made then there must be some other reason that people START brewing. Maybe the beer education over there is better so people think of homebrew as homemade crafted beer, rather than the thin 'fruity' stuff that your dodgy mate brings to a BBQ so he can drink everyone elses beer.

BTW, i'm not saying that everyone in australia brews because it is cheap. Once you've tasted a well made homebrew you'd be a fool NOT to want to make it! I'm just interested to know the perceptions of homebrew in america.

 

[EMalmgren]

Ha ha dam fahrenheit, I need a conversion scale to work those out (or my thermometers at home which have both)
My ignorant self thought that Illinous wouldn't get even close to hot all year, but 100*F is crazy !

I'm so jealous of your cheap beer prices, we are getting butt f**ked by the government here. It's just a joke really !
Basically they think we are all drunken idiots who would drink ourselves to death if we could afford it....so pretty much spot on haha

:icon_offtopic:
Fair enough about the basketball, we have 4 codes of football here which divides allot of Aussies bigtime.
I thought you'd be a Bears man for NFL, I like Green Bay aswell and was cheering when they won the Super Bowl this year.
Clay Matthews is my fav player !

Oh man, Illinois does get hot during the summer. The worst part is the humidity. Imagine taking a shower, then walking outside for a few minutes, then feeling like you need to shower again. It really is that bad.

I was telling my co-workers about your beer prices this morning, and everyone was simply amazed. What we got to wondering is how much a pack of smokes or a can of chew costs. Does anyone even chew in Australia or is that an "American Hick/Redneck" thing?

As far as sports go, I'm kind of an anomaly here in IL. I somehow fell in love with the Packers when I was very young despite growing up in here in the middle of Bears country. Yet I love the Cubs. Go figure. Funny how I love both a winning team and losing team, only of different sports.

Clay Matthews is a badass, period. What I find funny is that he tries to play this "bad-boy" role. A few weeks after the SuperBowl he was on Jay Leno. Let me tell ya, the guy is WAAAAY too shy to be the badass type, despite his leather jacket and ponytail. Still seems like a cool down to earth guy. I only hope that none of the todays Packers end up being the primadonna Brett Farve type. That guy could have been in the Hall of Fame if only he knew when to call it quits and retire with at least a shred of dignity. Its funny how last year the Packers fans cheered him when he came out on the field with the Vikings. Then this past year they booed him like never before. Must be something to do with those text messages

I miss the days of Sterling Sharpe, Mark Chamura, Reggie White and Chris Jackie.

 

[ekul]

the tax on a can of chew is around $20-25, thats the tax, not the price of a can. Needless to say its not a thing in australia.

I quit smoking ages ago, but i'm pretty sure cigs are around $15 a pack, and rolling tobacco is around $30 a pack? Yeah tax is really expensive in australia, but we also have things like hospitals for everyone and social welfare...

For smokers, here's a website that sells tobacco to other countries, so they don't have alot of the taxes. Check out how much tax you're paying! http://www.tobacco.net.au/ Australians can't buy these products though.

 

[EMalmgren]

the tax on a can of chew is around $20-25, thats the tax, not the price of a can. Needless to say its not a thing in australia.

I quit smoking ages ago, but i'm pretty sure cigs are around $15 a pack, and rolling tobacco is around $30 a pack? Yeah tax is really expensive in australia, but we also have things like hospitals for everyone and social welfare...

For smokers, here's a website that sells tobacco to other countries, so they don't have alot of the taxes. Check out how much tax you're paying! http://www.tobacco.net.au/ Australians can't buy these products though.

Wow. Thats crazy man. Tax tax tax, and I thought Illinois was bad as we are notorious for higher taxes than the rest of the country.

I knew that you guys have the universal healthcare deal and all that, but thats for another thread, as I have many questions about your country that I'd like to learn firsthand from fellow brewers, opposed to some schmuck on Wiki.

Cheers everyone, this brewer is up past his bedtime :icon_chickcheers:

 

[yum beer]

Cheers everyone, this brewer is up past his bedtime :icon_chickcheers:

Goodnight our sleepy American brew friend,
may all the beers in your dreams be frothy..as well as the beer maids :icon_cheers:

 

[TmC]

may all the beers in your dreams be frothy..as well as the beer maids :icon_cheers:

mmm beer maids with rabies :chug:

 

[yum beer]

mmm beer maids with rabies :chug:

not quite the froth I was thinking of....
more the 2G1C type of froth :icon_drool2:

 

[TmC]

not quite the froth I was thinking of....
more the 2G1C type of froth :icon_drool2:

 

[Mayor of Mildura]

not quite the froth I was thinking of....
more the 2G1C type of froth :icon_drool2:

I had to google that. I'll never be the same again.

 

[Bribie G]

When I was travelling in Turkey in the 70s I did the typical, at the time, free love thingo for a few weeks with a honey called Mary Anne Zack from Kalamazoo MI, anywhere near Canton? Of course by now she's no doubt a granny with knockers down to her waist, so won't be looking her up

 

[TmC]

I had to google that. I'll never be the same again.

Never will you look at a cup the same way :icon_vomit:

 

[Asha05]

welcome Erik,

As i type watching the Giants Vs Marlins going at it in the top of the 12th inning...Love my beer and baseball...Im a Braves man though.
You can get a hold of chewing tobacco here, seems to be a baseball thing. Anyways enjoy the site, heaps of useful tips and very helpful people.

 

[Zizzle]

Wow. Thats crazy man. Tax tax tax, and I thought Illinois was bad as we are notorious for higher taxes than the rest of the country.

Well I think most Aussies see high tobacco tax as being pretty fair.

Tobacco users put a higher burden on the medical system, so they should have to pay for it, not the rest of us.