Hello from Sydney

[Jordansr]

Hello everybody! I'm from Sydney, only recently turned 18, and really fascinated with this little world of homebrewing. I've made one post before about cider, but never introduced myself, and have a niggling question that I thought would only be appropriate in the introductions forum. As someone fairly new to both drinking and brewing (Only recently 18 etc) I've only really been exposed to beer that's been prevalent at a couple of parties. I've consistently found the majority of this beer to taste much like flavourless bitter soda water (Would tell you exactly which ones they are but I'm not sure whether I'm allowed to explicitly criticise beer on the forum) and consequently not to my liking (So I've stuck mainly to cider). I have recently tried three beers that I actually quite liked though, one called Hop Hog, the other Sunset Ale (These two I liked a lot), and the third a Hefeweizen by a company called 6 pines (?). So my basic question is, how hard is it to make beer that's better than the stuff that gets passed around at 18 year old parties, and how hard would it be to emulate beers like the ones I just mentioned?
Cheers guys, happy brewing!

 

[Dae Tripper]

Fresh wort kits are the way to go for great beer, made simple. Recently brewed a hefeweizen and Oktoberfest, both turned out awesome. They where from ND Brewing from around the shire I think.

 

[Jordansr]

Thanks for the tip Tripper I know extract and AG brewing, is fresh wort something different?

 

[Dae Tripper]

The Fresh Wort Kit is the pretty much having a Brewery make your beer up to the point where you put yeast in. It comes in 15L cubes. This pic will help, it is the sticker from the side of the cube.

 

[Blind Dog]

Welcome to the forum

to answer your question, it's a question of what better means - if you mean more flavourful and interesting, the answer is reasonably easy using extract and hops, and remarkably easy but more involved with all grain brewing, if you can control the fermentation temperature. (Can't comment on fresh wort kits as I've never used them but Ive heard good things re quality of beer made)

 

[4KingAle]

It is easy to make beer that is better than the ones shared around at most parties. The advantage you have is the ability to use better ingredients because your not trying to make a profit... You just need to control your process like a scientist.... Think...breaking bad.
As to making exactly the same beers as you mentioned. different story as you don't know the exact ingredients and process used to make that beer..however you can make something similar and perhaps better....broadly speaking..quality ingredients, sanitisation and fermentation control. Good luck .its a slippery slope.

 

[crozdog]

Hi & welcome.

Brewing is a heap of fun, like the others have said, you can not only make beers better than the mainstream, but also ones you can't buy here.

I'll take 4kingale's comment 1 step further - you need to understand the process in order to control it, so read, learn, experiment. ask questions, try some more, try something different. Take notes. Sanitation & temperature control are keys to success.

Where in Sydney are you? There are several top brew clubs in town who will welcome folk new to the wonderful world of beer & help em learn & grow.

Most folk start out with a coopers kit & go from there as it give you lots of stuff you will need at a reasonable price. From there, you can do all sorts of brewing kit & kilo, fresh wort kits, extract & all grain, but you will continue to use most of the bits in the kit.

I agree that fresh work kits will give you incredible beer for little effort, however they are a bit dearer. Only saying that as I recall $ being a bit tight when I was 18 ;-)

Beers
Croz