Hello, new to this forum and to home brewing

[Shaytan]

.... and I've never even been to Australia either.

Hello everybody. A guy I know from a rock forum pointed this forum out to me, I don't know if he posts here himself, but he showed some of his work in the beer thread on said rock forum and it looked pretty good what he was doing (to a not-even-beginner like myself). NCR600, are you there?

Okay, I'm from the Netherlands, I currently live in China. Before I packed (and sold, and threw out) my things and moved here, I was contemplating home brewing, because after 25 years of guzzling lagers and a 4 year crash course in American craft brews, I thought I might give it a try myself. Craft brewing is really taking up in the Netherlands, and although I really love what De Molen and Emelisse are doing, some of their black beers I find too sweet and I was thinking, 'maybe I can find a middle road that has their hoppy goodness without that overdose in sugars.'

If you come across beers from the above two breweries, check them out. I highly recommend them. Other semi-professional brewers in the Netherlands I'm fond of are Klein Duimpje (Tom Thumb? from the fairy tale) and Leids bier (his IPA and Morspoorter are rocking), and Ramses. I don't think a lot of them export, but when in the Netherlands, they're well worth checking out.

Here in Beijing there is a small club of beer enthousiasts brewing. I know only the expat branch of the Beijing Homebrewing Society, but there are quite some Chinese doing it too. The available materials are limited for the moment, but I managed to find Saaz and Hallentau, Golding (Kent Golding, I hope) and Simcoe, Citra and Chinook hops. I think Cascade and Centennial are also available. Last December there was a 1st Beijing homebrewing festival, with some 15 brewers representing.

My plan is to first try about six 'standard' recipes to look how things work, then I want to start experimenting, if I can. I looked at what a French couple was brewing last January (they brew 8 liters every weekend), and although they warned me that their 'twist' in a classic Belgian white beer (lemon peel instead of orange peel) was completely undrinkable the first 3-4 months, I'm going to try it myself too. I don't even like Belgian whites or German wheat beers for that matter, but I do it for the experience only. If I manage to brew it this week, It has 4 months to mature, and I can drink it when the temperatures are fit for that kind of beer.

Next up will be a porter, which I wanted to do first actually.

Okay, this is me, I'm going to look for some recipes.

 

[fletcher]

welcome mate! happy brewing.

 

[Bizier]

Welcome mate. Just be aware where your hops come from, esp in China. Other than that, go hard.

 

[Yob]

Will you be targeting mash or extract brewing? Be aware that the recipes area of this forum is currently under redevelopment and will come back online in due course.

Do you have access to specialty malts? Yeast?

Good luck with it, it's a great and rewarding hobby!

 

[warra48]

Welkom, en ik hoop dat alles goed gaat.

 

[Womball]

Nice one mate. I've got a few work trips to China coming up this year visiting Shanghai and Suzhou in the north and then Shenzhen in the south. I've been researching any decent brew pubs/breweries to visit while in town........any tips??

Cheers.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Add HK to that list. Any craft in HK yet?

 

[Fat Bastard]

Howdy Yob!

I don't use the NCR handle over here. And as you've seen Yob is already taken too!
You need to check the 'What are you listening to" thread in the Off Topic, there's some SR.Com ish tastes here!

 

[ADev]

Hello Shaytan,

I am likely to be moving to Tianjin latter this year. As an all-grain home brewer it seams like there is limited access to supplies in PRC. Although there is potential for cheap hardware.

Cheers.

 

[mariaheache]

クラークスブーツ

 

[Bribie G]

 

[bum]

You show that bot who's boss, Bribie!

 

[Shaytan]

And sorry for my long absence right away. I tjekked out the Dutch homebrewers forum a lot and it's pretty active. There are a lot of people that respond within a day to my questions.

Okay, this Yob guy has to change his name, that's my given name, and I already was in a fight with a band from Oregon about it before and I lost the battle (did get a t-shirt, though). I don't take no quarters this time. Nice seeing you here Fat ******* (you don't post pics of yourself on sr.com/obelisk, I think, because I don't think I have a mental picture of you being fat).

Okay, so far I brewed two beers, and I bottled the second one last Monday. Not ready for consumption yet.

My first beer was a Belgian white (even though I don't like 'em), but I made a bit of a weird one. I used lemon and tangerine peel instead of orange (you don't taste the tangerine, because the lemon is so strong), and I miscalculated when I downgraded the recipe from 40 L to 8: I divided everything by 5, but the hops by 2.5, so I got a strongly overhopped 'Belgian' white. I tried one last week, but it was not very carbonated yet (how long does that take?), I didn't filter it very well, so there was an insane amount of sludge on the bottom of the bottle (which I left in the bottle) but it tasted alright. Next time I'll taste one, I have to look for the coriander, because I didn't really recognise it.

Second beer was a 'robust' or Baltic porter. Recipe also came from the Dutch homebrewing site and it was a bit too brief for my lack of experience. I didn't rinse the grain well enough after mashing (wanted to, but I had too much of that stuff to be able to), so I'm 'afraid' my brew might get to around 10% abv. It may have lost some already, because it was done fermenting long before I bottled it. Had to leave the barrel open after transferring it to another vat for a day too, because some sludge in a sieve with cheese cloth had to wait all night to lose all the beer. Bottled it with some 'fresh' yeast to guarantee carbonation. Seems to be catching on after two days.

Bytheway: I brew all grain from the start. It is fairly easy to get supplies, but the sellers don't know about 'pilsner', 'pale ale', or whatever malts. I've found black, chocolate, cara (I hope) and pale malts, but I can't find out how pale. Things like Münchener or typical Englis malts you can just forget about. I'm looking for some more interesting hops to buy from the US or Oz, or NZ, as I'm definitely interested in Nelson Sauvin, Amarillo and maybe some Galena and other more aromatic hops. All the yeast is dry, but I'm trying to cultivate my yeasts from Belgian bottles (I have Hoegaarden going 'strong', I think, bought some Westmalle, which seems to be a strong MF), I asked about wyeast on the Meetup of the BJ Homebrewers Society, but no response yet. I think the cultivating of my own yeasts is going well so far. Managed to save enough after my first brew to let the next one ferment with. If I can keep that going on, I don't have to buy yeasts anymore.

Tianjin is a lager desert. I'm even outside Tianjin, it's terrible. If I want a decent beer I have to bring it from Beijing in the weekend. I'm looking for a job in BJ for after summer. There's an Irish bar but it has never heard of a 'black and tan', in the fridge they only have Belgian crap (Hoegaarden, Chimay brune (red label), some others. In the 'Italian style town' there are a bunch of restaurants that have mainly German beers. NOT what I'm looking for.

Next weekend, I'll be brewing my first IPA. I'll look at some recipes here too for reference. I more or less have my plan and hopping schedule figured out, but I'm looking for some other input.

 

[Yob]

Well it's on then mate.. It may be your name its what I am... lol

Cheers

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

<snip>
Tianjin is a lager desert.

<snip> in the fridge they only have Belgian crap (Hoegaarden, Chimay brune (red label), some others. In the 'Italian style town' there are a bunch of restaurants that have mainly German beers. NOT what I'm looking for.

Methinks it's not the Chinese approach to beer that's the issue.

Give me Chimay over lager any day.

If you want lager, Tsingtao export is cheap as chips and makes HB not worth the effort.