Kombinations
New Member
- Joined
- 17/7/15
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So I was out last for a family celebration at a small golf club where Lion Nathan had an obvious monopoly on the taps and came to the realisation that I prefer my own... I thought I'd better introduce myself considering I have gained a lot of knowledge from this forum that has helped me get there.
A bit of back story: I was always someone who found something I liked and stuck with it until I was out with my boss and another colleague and tried the pale ale from the James Squire range nearly 18 months ago. I began to enjoy trying a variety of ales (haven't quite made it to dark beers yet) and a spoke to a colleague about his old homebrew days. I wasn't keen on spending huge amounts for nice beer! He was wanting to clear out his shed so I bought a few bits and pieces off him: a fermenting bucket, bottle capper, hydrometer, bottling wand and a few other items, then found some longnecks from a forum member on here who had upgraded to kegs. It took me another 6 months - 25.12.2015! - to brew my first batch (the wobbly thong recipe from here).
Through reading on here and other sites I had purchased an STC1000 to use with an old fridge I already had before my brewing my first batch as I didn't want to be turned off brewing by some off flavours that could be avoided by something as simple as temperature control. I was reasonably happy with how the first brew turned out considering it was a 'kits and bits' recipe. I then tried a stone and wood extract recipe from another forum which I was also reasonably happy with.
I wasn't real keen on bottling after a couple of batches but wanted to stick with home brewing so bought a cheap ebay keg starter kit for my third batch, which was again the 'wobbly thong' recipe. Cleaning only one keg instead of a number of bottles was a big improvement! I found a free fridge to use as a fermentation chamber with the STC1000 that can just fit two fermenters diagonally (once I cut out the shelves in the door).
My next two batches (batches 4 and 5 total) were both kits 'n' bits recipes, again from here: one the stone and wood clone and the other the hop hog, although both made to 21L to try to get a bit more body than the wobbly thong recipe. I kegged the stone and wood batch on Thursday and am enjoying it (along with the ability to force carb) and have just kegged the hop hog recipe but now need to man up and drill a hole in the side of my 'kegerator' for the gas line as the two kegs only just fit in my original old fridge but the 6kg gas cylinder won't with both kegs in there.
I'm sure I'll move on from kits 'n' bits at some stage but with kids, work and renovations its much quicker and easier at this stage. I might do some extract brews here and there but time isn't really something I have a lot of at the moment. I'll need to get the keg fridge set up with some taps and gas lines but what I have is working for the moment.
Anyway, a long first post but I have gained a lot of information in a short period of time thanks to a lot of reading through some of the masses of knowledge on this forum (and other sites) and am happy to say that I'm no longer a huge fan of what was my favourite commercial beer for a number of years - I prefer my own...
Thanks
Nick.
A bit of back story: I was always someone who found something I liked and stuck with it until I was out with my boss and another colleague and tried the pale ale from the James Squire range nearly 18 months ago. I began to enjoy trying a variety of ales (haven't quite made it to dark beers yet) and a spoke to a colleague about his old homebrew days. I wasn't keen on spending huge amounts for nice beer! He was wanting to clear out his shed so I bought a few bits and pieces off him: a fermenting bucket, bottle capper, hydrometer, bottling wand and a few other items, then found some longnecks from a forum member on here who had upgraded to kegs. It took me another 6 months - 25.12.2015! - to brew my first batch (the wobbly thong recipe from here).
Through reading on here and other sites I had purchased an STC1000 to use with an old fridge I already had before my brewing my first batch as I didn't want to be turned off brewing by some off flavours that could be avoided by something as simple as temperature control. I was reasonably happy with how the first brew turned out considering it was a 'kits and bits' recipe. I then tried a stone and wood extract recipe from another forum which I was also reasonably happy with.
I wasn't real keen on bottling after a couple of batches but wanted to stick with home brewing so bought a cheap ebay keg starter kit for my third batch, which was again the 'wobbly thong' recipe. Cleaning only one keg instead of a number of bottles was a big improvement! I found a free fridge to use as a fermentation chamber with the STC1000 that can just fit two fermenters diagonally (once I cut out the shelves in the door).
My next two batches (batches 4 and 5 total) were both kits 'n' bits recipes, again from here: one the stone and wood clone and the other the hop hog, although both made to 21L to try to get a bit more body than the wobbly thong recipe. I kegged the stone and wood batch on Thursday and am enjoying it (along with the ability to force carb) and have just kegged the hop hog recipe but now need to man up and drill a hole in the side of my 'kegerator' for the gas line as the two kegs only just fit in my original old fridge but the 6kg gas cylinder won't with both kegs in there.
I'm sure I'll move on from kits 'n' bits at some stage but with kids, work and renovations its much quicker and easier at this stage. I might do some extract brews here and there but time isn't really something I have a lot of at the moment. I'll need to get the keg fridge set up with some taps and gas lines but what I have is working for the moment.
Anyway, a long first post but I have gained a lot of information in a short period of time thanks to a lot of reading through some of the masses of knowledge on this forum (and other sites) and am happy to say that I'm no longer a huge fan of what was my favourite commercial beer for a number of years - I prefer my own...
Thanks
Nick.