Hello from Gippsland, Vic

[djsmi4]

Hi all,

I used to do home brewing in my parents' cellar about 15 years ago. Just kit & kilo stuff & always fudging it with temperature control & fermentation time/alcohol %. Through good luck I never had a bad brew, although I was always 100% on the hygiene of the equipment & bottles! I brewed for a few years in that cellar, until I moved out partway thru uni.

Fast forward to late last year & my work/life situation allowed for me to reboot my interest in home brewing. A mate of mine loaned me his brewing fridge & temp control gear, and I've now got a nice basic setup in a converted dairy shed not too far from the house.

I'm still just doing kit & kilo brews; some directly as per the basic instructions, some with a little bit of experimentation. So far I've only tasted the first of my brews, the others have likely not matured yet.

Since December I've brewed:

* Coopers Dark Ale + Coopers BE2 (23L bottled 12/12)
* Coopers APA + "Brew Enhancer 15" + zest from 3 oranges (23l bottled 24/12)
* Black Rock apple cider + dex + 4L Aldi apple juice (21L bottled 12/1)

I've just returned from an OS trip & am now very keen to do an English Bitter, I'l be hitting up my local brew shop in Sale pretty soon!

Here's some pics of my setup:

^^^ looking out across my front paddock, I find it fairly therapeutic when bottling or just taking notes on a brew out here.

^^^ Double sink yet no plumbing haha

^^^ Test glass of the dark ale upon bottling (also used to dip temperature probe into whilst the bottles were left in the fridge to condition)

Well I've made this post whilst on my lunch break, looking forward to going through the rest of the forum in my own time

Thanks for reading,

Dave

 

[djsmi4]

Remaining pics:

^^^ The Coopers APA (orange zest & yeast are the floaty bits)

 

[droid]

Hi Dave, good stuff mate and welcome!

I'm down in Eagle Point on the way out to Paynesville

 

[Camo6]

Welcome aboard Dave.

Where abouts in Gippy are you and what are you farming?

 

[djsmi4]

G'day,

droid - Eagle Point, I love the place, used to do fishing trips out there with the boys back in my Uni days. I'm well overdue for a return to the Silt Jetties!

Camo6 - I'm between Sale & Woodside, but all I'm farming are two mobs of roos and occasionally the neighbour's sheep. I had a steer but he ended up in the freezer If I can improve the fencing & the pasture (with the help of my recently retired father-in-law) I might look in to my own small herd of sheep & the odd poddy. I'm on 40 acres (15 bush 25 bracken/crappy pasture) & am just letting the place idle.

Cheers

Dave

 

[mudd]

Hi Dave, good stuff mate and welcome!

I'm down in Eagle Point on the way out to Paynesville

Ha
I lived in Eagle Point as a kid until I was about 11. Ride my bike all over the place.

Edit: Welcome aboard Dave

 

[spog]

Love the rustic/rural brewing set up, mind you ill bet he kids are pissed off that Dad has hijacked the trolley for "brewing purposes ".

 

[Charst]

Hi Dave, good stuff mate and welcome!

I'm down in Eagle Point on the way out to Paynesville

I'm in Melbourne now but grew up in Paynesville, parents are on bay road

 

[droid]

I'm in Melbourne now but grew up in Paynesville, parents are on bay road

i delivered your parents mail for the last 7 years pretty much, up until dec 15, PM me their last name and i'll tell ya the address (as a pop quiz haha)

Ha
I lived in Eagle Point as a kid until I was about 11. Ride my bike all over the place.

Edit: Welcome aboard Dave

i probably ride some of your old tracks on old/mid school bmx's with my young fella! we live opposite the primary school

sorry for the hijack Dave

Welcome again! hehe

 

[Mr B]

Nice one Dave

A tip if you are willing - if you get a length of vinyl hose from the homebrew shop, they will likely have a some of a diameter that will go on your fermentor tap and the end of the bottling wand. Correction, it will go on the tap, and get about 5cms of the smaller stuff which will go on the end of the wand, and the bigger will go over the smaller. So you have the wand on the end of the line from the fermentor.

Then you just line up your bottles and fill away. Put caps on loosley when you have filled all, and start crimping.

 

[djsmi4]

spog - I can proudly say I bought that lil' red wagon all for myself haha. But I've scored a much larger one with pneumatic tyres for free, just needs a wheel replaced. It'll be far more forgiving across the terrain between the laundry & the shed, and ergonomic.

Mr B - thanks for the tip, but with my setup I have the empty bottles to my left and fill one at a time then prime/cap at my immediate right & store in a milk crate to my far right. Some of my pics were for showing off rather than detailing my actual process. Also I'm a tight *** & always end up filling one final "nasty" bottle, complete with disturbed residue from tipping the keg to get the last drop out! It'd be impossible to do this with flexi hose

Speaking of final "nasty" bottles, I'm about to taste test the bottom-of-the-barrel stubby from my APA brew. It'll go in a glass of course because it has a good 2-3mm of sediment!

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

Speaking of final "nasty" bottles, I'm about to taste test the bottom-of-the-barrel stubby from my APA brew. It'll go in a glass of course because it has a good 2-3mm of sediment!

My uncle who has brewed 40 years or so has always told me to try using that final bottle with loads of sediment in it as a steak marinade, sediment at all (in fridge overnight before you eat the steak).... I'm a bit of a purist so haven't been game yet to mess with my steak. Might try it one day but let me know if you do first

Welcome

 

[djsmi4]

DJ_L3ThAL - thanks for the advice! The next time we have a steer butchered I'll be sure to douse some steaks in some sediment marinade

 

[djsmi4]

So I went to a party loaded with my three brews. I think I've convinced my mate's old man to get back in to brewing again! :beer:
I'd cracked a cider first, & it was actually my first taste of this batch & is only a month old. It was crystal clear & had good carbonation, but holy damn it was as dry as Saladas! I think next time I'll need to add something prior to bottling, either juice or essence or maybe schnapps?

Next up was the Coopers APA, it's just about at its peak & this got my mate's old man very interested in brewing again. Win!

Lastly he tried the Coopers Dark Ale, & while not as good as the APA (in my opinion) this pretty much convinced him to start looking into his own brew setup.

Another convert to the cause h34r:

 

[Benn]

Sounds like you've got a little brewing club on the rise, good work man