Introduce Yourself.

[fixa]

Howdy all.
Been on here a while but never introduced myself.
I started around 10 years ago as a poor apprentice brewing K+K's. Had about 8 years off due various reasons, and started again 2 years ago, on and off. Now really back into it.
Bought a keg system a month ago, really loving not washing bottles etc..
Got a few kits to finish then i'll be either extract brewing or going the whole hog- AG. Haven't decided which yet.
Looking forward to gathering more ideas from you all, would like to hear from others around Mackay way.
Cheers

 

[brewski]

Hello all,

My name is Nat and I live on the Central Coast of NSW. I work as a teacher of Plumbing at the local Tafe college.
I have been making spirits for a while now. I built my own stainless steel reflux still and get on average 92% alcohol, cut back to 40% then filter thru activated carbon to remove the headache, mix with my favourite Ambrosia Scotch Whiskey essence (sigh) serve on ice, beautiful.

But I must admit my first love is BEER!
I started making crap home brew about 10 years ago and lost interest.
A couple of weeks ago, while on holidays in Nelson Bay, I walked into the local HBS and while browsing was offered a glass of his finest brew. I liked what I tasted and asked him how he made it and was surprised. Anyway brought the K&K went home dusted off the old equipment and put it down. Now I am drinking my own I cannot stop thinking about what I am going to brew next and next, oh and next.

Its been informative reading your forums, the information is limitless and priceless. Its very easy to find yourself drowning in information. The airlocked links are a great tool for newbies. You all must be congratulated.

I look forward to becoming a helpful participant in the forums.

Anyway cheers for now,

Brewski.

 

[big d]

Welcome to the site guys.Hope you enjoy it.
There goes my old avatar as i see its now in use by brewski. thought it was me posting there for a sec.

Cheers
Big D

 

[Screwtop]

Welcome to our madness all you newb's. The beer bug has been busy.

 

[dicko]

Welcome to the site guys.Hope you enjoy it.
There goes my old avatar as i see its now in use by brewski. thought it was me posting there for a sec.

Cheers
Big D

I'll say this Big D that you have had an assortment of avatars
I recon you have gone from one extreme to the other when you changed from the "beer" to the current one.
Only a Mother could love that face :lol: :lol:

I'd like to say welcome to all the new faces as well and wish them good brewing.

cheers

 

[Batz]

Welcome all from me as well,you'll find this a great site with many helpful brewers
Some slightly batty

BigD I remember your first one with the big arm,scared a lot of us off :lol:

Batz

 

[chimera]

Hello all
My brewing history is rather brief; a good meaning mate of mine started brewing some years back. Believing all his piss swilling mates would give him grief thinking he was a tight arse and couldnt afford the 'real stuff' he kept it secret. After some dozen quite successful brews he found the confidence to offer me one of his finest. From the first sip of his homebrew I was stunned and awed, it was beer, but not a stale smelling piss coloured Aussie bitter, but a smooth sweet floral European lager.
On that day I believe I discovered beer, not the bland local commerical fare but the true amber nectar. I had my first real glimpse into why beer is such an ancient and revered brew, and I liked it! Since that day I've been trying every different import & style I could find, relishing in the variety.

But still, this alone wasn't enough - I knew straight away I had to make my own! I had back in my uni days made some rather bad falling down water, but this time around i think the calling was different.

Ive been working hard at it now for almost a year, brewing anything i can find, and am always looking forwards to my next batch and how I can improve my beer.
My brewery is a very modest affair, as yet i haven't spent much on equipment, although in time I hope to replace longnecks with bowsers and my 1.7Kg cans with malted barley. The missus is being very 'understanding', but money is precious and besides, Im saving for my trip next year where I plan to tour many of the countries and drink the good drop straight from the source.

Keep it real AHB, even if you dont hear from me much, Im here, lurking in the shadows, watching, learning.. always learning! :beer:

 

[bindi]

Welcome Chimera your a poet, you WILL make great beer, just read on and it's quick slide from there.

 

[halminator]

G'day all,

Have been lurking in the background for a few months and thought it about time I stepped up and introduced myself. The good wife bought me a coopers micro brewery for my birthday about 2 months ago and it doesn't seem as though it's been empty since.

Since then, with the help of a few more fermenters I have thrown together 6 brews starting with a standard K & K and moving along to extracts and partials. Keen now to start looking into full AG but want to develop my tastes and style a bit first. Not really knowing what I was doing when I started, with the help of the search function I have learnt an enormous amount from this website and know I have sooooo much more to learn. The best part about it is that I am still keen to try different recipes and not afraid to experiment and try things that I haven't drunk before. As for trying to clone a particular beer, I'm happy enough to find a recipe close enough to the real thing and be happy with that. If I want the real thing I;ll go out and buy it.

As for the inevitable beer gut, I've found that I actually now enjoy jogging to and from work. At 5km each way I've found that the old gut is staying put despite the amount of fluid I now seem to pumping into it!

Thanks, and hope to post more soon.

Hal.

 

[Mr Bond]

Welcome Chimera your a poet, you WILL make great beer, just read on and it's quick slide from there.

Great "Mythological" Name as well,That creature would look good on a beer label!

 

[big d]

Welcome to AHB guys hope you enjoy it as much as we all do.

Hey Batz notice how the membership went up once i put the big arm away.

Cheers
Big D

 

[Chris]

Hi Chimera and halminator,

Welcome, I have only been here for a little while and love it. so many knowledgable and helpfull souls its fantastic.
Ag is the best, but all is good and if you want the misses to really accept it buy a lounge suit with the money you saved from making hb (worked for me ), I guess any furniture would do, just bring it up whenever they use it.

Cheers

 

[sog]

Hello Brew Buddies

From a young age I helped my dad make beer. He had been making it siince the 60's when it was highly illegal (because the govt hadn't worked out how to tax it). Thus he had all the skills required for AG brewing. By the time I was big enough to sterilise a bottle the "Brewer's Own" kits were on the market so he was happy to forgoe the years of hard work and literally just add sugar and yeast to the 23-litre bladder of unconcentrated wort. Quite a pity in hindsight as I never got to learn his mashing skills. We brewed in a plastic garbage bin witha tea-towel over the top and siphoned the beer into bottles using a contraption made from a motorcycle fuel-line and fuel-tap (he was a small-engine mechanic).

By the time I started uni conentrated worts had hit the market in a small way and I made lots of Chimera's "falling down water", which still tasted better than CUB products. After joining the workforce I figured I could afford not to have to make my own any more.

Thanks to a period "between jobs" I started brewing again at the turn of the century and was amazed at the variety of worts, extracts, yeasts and hopping products available. I quickly added a second fermenter, went on crazed crown-seal bottle hunts and was soon drinking the no-expense-spared Century Stout (my 100th brew).

... then I moved house and the brewing stopped for a variety of reasons. Largely due to a recent "whitegoods rationalisation" (the washer/dryer combo is a beautiful thing for Melburnians) I found the room in the laundry to start brewing again. This time I have a very willing apprentice, who doubles as a wonderful girfriend during periods of primary fermentation. So I have started her off easy so that she can see the simple science. I will soon introduce her to the mini-mash concept and eventually join a brewing club with portable mash tun.

In our first month we have made:
a Cooper's Cerveza w/ Coopers Brew Enhancer 2, SAF lager yeast and half a lime (in the fermenter);
a Cooper's Bavarian Lager w/ Coopers Brew Enhancer 1; and
a Cooper's Ginger beer, which I'm very keen to try as this wasn't around when I ceased brewing a couple of years ago.

Having just obtained and second fermenter with an immersion heater (I broke one in the move and the other had an inbuilt grommit that perished) - I can now start using ale yeasts. It's just a pity that the nearest HBS is 30 minutes away (thus the apparent supermarket-friendly Cooper's brand-loyalty).

I'm looking forward to sharing the fruits of our labour with her.

 

[Cognosis]

G'day

I've loved beer from age 16, and only recently (at age 18) have I begun to appeciate finer beer (such as Coopers Pale Ale; love the stuff). One day, a mate somehow remembered a homebrew kit his family had lying around, and so we began to fantasize about having 2.5 cartons of beer for less than half the price of one carton. We were sold, and so the Secks Brewing Co. (a selective mix of our two surames) was formed.

Our first brew was not quite on target. A Coopers Pale Ale can was mixed with 1kg of brewing sugar and 1kg brew enhancer 2, and a teabag of brewiser cascade hops thrown in, all in an excited rush by my mate. We were to slightly regret the hops. After bottling in PET and a few glass bottles with the help of nother mate, we waited a torturingly long month to crack her open. And crack her open we did. Much beer was consumed on the night of State Of Origin III (which lead me to remember little of the night ). The brew was satisfactory, and unbeknownst to us at the time, very potent. However, we were to discover that (thanks to our other mate's bottling efforts), many of the PET bottles had not been sealed correctly :angry: . We've learned from the experience. Our recent second effort fell on Cooper's Cerveza, together with Amarillo hops, brew enhancer 2, and 1kg of brewing sugar (which we were to later learn we shouldn't have done). She's currently bottled and maturing before we crack her out in a month's time.

While my current efforts are small scale, I hope to some day move to all grain and top equipment. In the meantime, I'm relatively happy kit brewing untill I learn enough to make the big jump to AG. I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can from the goldmine of knowledge in these forums

 

[VeeTwinTorque]

Hello all,
Just found this forum, and i'll be spending the next few weeks at work reading and digesting a lot of info im sure.

I've been kit brewing for a couple of years with some old equipment the father in law gave me. Ive now got 2 fermenters on the go keeping my bottle collection full! I've made quite a few of the kits, i've tried pretty much everything the supermarket has to offer. Coopers pale ale is my favourite, but only when it's on special! ha ha. As you can tell im a fan of keeping costs to an absolute minimum, so im not really interested in kegging or taking it much further than the kit brewing im doing now. Its great fun experimenting with different fermentables etc. i've made a few crook brews along the way but soon worked out where i was going wrong.

Im in Nowra on the south coast of NSW.

 

[brownie-Who-Took-My-Name?]

Hey fellow drinkers

Just found this site and saying hello from the Gold Coast

Cheers
Brownie

 

[tangent]

hey AHBers
almost 3000 members! surely that's enough to start something bizarre.
go 1/3000ths in on a Lamborghini and every 3000th day, it's yours
The AHB political party - dole recipients have to brew for the elderly and disabled.
One massive bulk buy! - 3000 fermenter taps please, can I get them individually gift wrapped?
Maybe we could have a bi-annual piss-up/brew fest somewhere nice. Book out a town and brew and drink the place down.

 

[brownie-Who-Took-My-Name?]

Maybe we could have a bi-annual piss-up/brew fest somewhere nice. Book out a town and brew and drink the place down.

That pub -shed -whatever in Beaudestert looks nice. Lets phone the reception desk.

It's pretty close to my place too.

 

[Fingerlickin_B]

Welcome Brownie and I know who took your name...Brownie did :lol:

Seriously, this place is great, you'll love it :beer:

PZ.

 

[brownie-Who-Took-My-Name?]

Welcome Brownie and I know who took your name...Brownie did :lol:

Geez I would have never guessed that :blink:

Seriously, this place is great, you'll love it :beer:

PZ.

I think I might.

 

[gavor]

Hiya,

gavor from Brisbane here. I'm a newbie brewer in love with all the beer styles of the world, though I've had my fair share of crappy beers too.

So far I've made 3 extract beers. 2 lagers and a pale ale. The first lager wasn't too bad for a first go and I found myself enjoying it over commercially made chugging beers like XXXX.

Unfortunately my second lager is a bit rubbish. I did practically everything wrong, short of it getting an infection, and as a result the beer is fruity, watery and under-carbonated. Sigh.

The PA looked and tasted good, though young, when I bottled it. Fingers crossed.

Now to plan how I can rid myself of these bad beers.

I have two cans of extract in the cupboard ready for brew #4...so where is the best place in the forum to ask for suggestions? I'm prepared now to try something slightly more difficult.

Sorry, I always type a lot

g

 

[goatherder]

hey there gavor, welcome aboard.

if you are looking for a suggestion for what to brew with your tins of goo, try a post in the recipe section. Maybe tell us what type of beers you like while you are at it. You should get a response or two.

 

[Screwtop]

Maybe we could have a bi-annual piss-up/brew fest somewhere nice. Book out a town and brew and drink the place down.

Now your talking, if you've ever attended a case swap this would appeal. Like the annual Harley Davidson Rally in the town of Sturgis in the US. We could all gather in some centrally located town, bringing kegs of brew and recipes to share. Bet the publicans would you do their damnest to have it banned.

 

[Mr Bond]

Maybe we could have a bi-annual piss-up/brew fest somewhere nice. Book out a town and brew and drink the place down.

We could all gather in some centrally located town, bringing kegs of brew and recipes to share.

So alice springs it is then,We could set up a tent city in the Todd river :chug:

 

[Thommo]

Does anyone from the hills want to volunteer to be designated driver? Doc? Duff?

I need a lift to the Todd.

 

[Doc]

Does anyone from the hills want to volunteer to be designated driver? Doc? Duff?

I need a lift to the Todd.

Bugger driving. I'll be flying.

Doc

 

[big d]

Welcome to all the new members.
The Alice hey? reasonably closeish to me and i wonder if the tv show the Alice? still has the baa bar around.Looked ok in the show. :blink:

Cheers
Big D

 

[Coodgee]

I reckon an AHB meetup atop Ulura. BYO kegs, dry ice will be supplied.

 

[big d]

Your welcome to carry the kegs up top of Uluru Coodgee.Too bloody high for for me thanks.

 

[Brewtus]

Hiya,

gavor from Brisbane here. I'm a newbie brewer in love with all the beer styles of the world, though I've had my fair share of crappy beers too.

So far I've made 3 extract beers. 2 lagers and a pale ale. The first lager wasn't too bad for a first go and I found myself enjoying it over commercially made chugging beers like XXXX.

Unfortunately my second lager is a bit rubbish. I did practically everything wrong, short of it getting an infection, and as a result the beer is fruity, watery and under-carbonated. Sigh.

The PA looked and tasted good, though young, when I bottled it. Fingers crossed.

Now to plan how I can rid myself of these bad beers.

I have two cans of extract in the cupboard ready for brew #4...so where is the best place in the forum to ask for suggestions? I'm prepared now to try something slightly more difficult.

Sorry, I always type a lot

g

Try searching the site by the name of the can of goop you have. It works for me. There is lots of experience out there.

Good luck!