Introduce Yourself.

[kieran]

G'day everyone,

I'm Kieran, and I'm a keen home brewer. I've been living in Melbourne with my wife for about a year (and we've been married just over a year). I'm a scientist by trade (and so is SWMBO), and I am finishing off my phd now (after far too long - the missus finished 18 months ago :blink: ). I've done a fair bit of lab yeast work (s.cerevisiae) as a part of my phd, and this has helped me along with understanding how our little brewing friends work, and how to culture, freeze, blah blah.

I'm still relatively green at brewing, I've been a kit & kilo person mainly through convenience (since much of my time is occupied with phd stuff) but I've also done a few extract brews using pre-packaged crystal malts etc. with wort from Grumpys brewhaus.

A good mate of mine in melbourne (originally from adelaide like myself) is an all-grain brewer, and I'm working towards doing all grain brews myself (my thesis occupies much of my time now - when that is freed up I'll have time for all-grain brewing). I'm working my way to collecting some gear together in order to do it properly. I have kegs (but no gas, lines, regulator )! (and one for sale if anyone wants one)

I love a beer, and a and really appreciate the craft of brewing. I'm heading to germany for the world cup, with team tickets for TOGO! and will be visiting the monks at Kloster Andechs and Weihenstephan, amongst other things.

anyway, that's enough about me!
I hope to see you all more in the future, and maybe in person sometime..! I'll have a bucketload of questions once I start all-grain brewing I'm sure! (I have 2 mr. papazian books to get me started aswell though).

anyway,
catchya later
kieran

 

[arsenewenger]

Hello Everyone.

I am Arsene Wegner(aka Tony Kapeller from grumpys) , Joined here a long while ago and only started posting just recently. The wealth of information here is amazing and just about evry question that could be asked has an answer here somewhere.

I have ben brewin for a while ,started brewin as a way to save money but got more into the idea of making beers that I liked and wanted to play around with recipies. Last year Brauluver talked me into entering the SABSOSA comp and I managed to pull off a first in the Pale Ale category which was a fluke I think .The brew was a Partial mash of a Grumpys Boston Cream , ut i have somehow lost my notes and have no idea what i put inot it but someone must have liked it

Am very close to doing a mini AG beer in the not to distant future and hope to be able to come here for help along the way.

Thanks
AW, TK :beer:

 

[normell]

Welcome Tony, or Arsene, whatever you prefer.
Normell here, or Norm over at Grumpy's
I use the info that I get from both forums, to help me along, but watch what you say when you mention AG, 'cause some blokes will try to lure you over to the "other" side (sorry Ross).

Normell

 

[normell]

Gday,
I'm Maurie from Khancoban in the Snowies. I am a long time brewer. Love the site.

Mozza

[post="122764"][/post]​

Hey Maurie, which one is real, the bloke, or the fish

Normell

 

[Stuster]

Welcome Goth, kieran, arsene and Khancoban

I had that beer on Saturday Goth at the Lowenbrau. Very smooth. Dark beers. :chug:

Kieran, wow! a yeast expert. Great. We'll be expecting some technical stuff from you. B)

Arsene, great result today. Good luck for the final.

Khan, great looking hat. I think it's a great community. :super:

Cheers
Stuart

 

[JCG]

Hi Everybody,

My name is JCG born in Germany I feel some what connected to liquid gold. I currently work in retail sales and have only just brewing and was reconmended this website. Ive been a member for just over a week and have already learnt a lot from it.

I have brewed and and bottled a cascade porter from a kit and am currently brewing a coopers pale ale. I have found brewing something else and am really enjoying it. My other interests include motorbikes ( I ride a Suzuki SV650), music and camping, as well as beer. The porter has been bottled for just 5 days and I tried one today and was very impressed with its flavour, but was not very carbonarted I guess that will come with time.

I decide I wanted to brew my own beer because I believe I can make a better beer than what I can buy. Already I have found that there are too many brews to brew and such little time to do it in.

My only real concern at the moment is I am having trouble keeping my brew below 28c its tempreture does not vary and is consistantly at this temp, is that too high and what can I do to get it down? And how important is temp when bottle conditioning?

Thanks for your time.

JCG

 

[Phrak]

Hi JCG, Welcome to AHB!

I'm pretty-much a newbie here myself, so I can't answer ALL your questions, but re your Temp problems - My first brew was fermented in Summer at a constant 28C. It turned out not too bad, but the next one I did at 20C has tasted significantly better.

There are several cheap and easy ways to drop your temps.
One that I used frequently (I have a chest freezer and Thermostat temp controller for my next brew!) was to fill the bath with cold water, probably 1/3rd the way up the fermentor. Freeze a number (at least 4, pref 6) of PET coke or juice bottles with water, and add 2 or 3 of the frozen bottles to your bath water. Rotate your IceBottles between your freezer and bath every morning and night. You should be able to get your temps right down.
The volume of water in the bath also helps to maintain more stable temperatures.

Another alternative is, KMart have 100 Can collapsible picnic coolers for $29.95. They're basically a collapsible, cylindrical picnic cooler that's big enough to fit your whole fermentor in, plus a few bottles of ice.

Either option will work

Hope this helps, and once again, welcome.

Regards,
Tim.

 

[monkale]

Hi all
Im Jeff new to this site but oh how I love him. been brewin for a few years kits for a start but right it grain not full mash yet but on the way. Im a big fan of the trappist monks love farther theodores work into yeast isolation god bless him. Iv bottled a lot of good belgian ales (well I think there good ) and to much to the dismay of the handbrake drank heaps to but I tell her think of the money Im saving by producing this fine nector of the gods .oh I have a concrete agie steering wheel attendant on my off drinking dayslook forward to swaping brews and yacking :beer:

 

[barfridge]

Wow, we're attracting all sorts of nice people these days Welcome to you all.

JCG: nice taste in bikes. I was close to buying one, but instead got the ER6-n, the new kawka 650 twin.

monkale: nice to meet you mate. Good to see another Jeff who likes trappists (you even spell Jeff the right way).

 

[monkale]

Wow, we're attracting all sorts of nice people these days Welcome to you all.

JCG: nice taste in bikes. I was close to buying one, but instead got the ER6-n, the new kawka 650 twin.

monkale: nice to meet you mate. Good to see another Jeff who likes trappists (you even spell Jeff the right way).

[post="123183"][/post]​

Hey barfridge I see you have A tripple on tap :beerbang: nice work Ill have to buy the handbrake A new car if I want anything on tap

 

[Paleman]

Gday all !!

Ive lurked this site for a long time now, ( well a few months ) and havnt posted too much. So i thought it was time to give something back.

Im 36 going on 12.

Im a long time k&K brewer from South Aus, ( on and off for more than 15 years ). My brewing interests were rekindled by Grumpys, and some of their fantastic Masterbrews. Thanks to them i am now doing extracts and looking to embark on some partial mashing. Then hopefully, when the confidence is up....i want to craft my own full mash beers. Having said this, ive never tasted a mash or even a partial mash beer. I can imagine they are good, after reading up on this site for so long. I love a good, classy beer. :beer:

My favourite commercial drop is anything from Coopers. But i enjoy my own brews more.

Im married, with two daughters. Love fishing, camping and my Blue Heeler.....Boof !! I work as a coordinator in an open cut mine.

Thats about me. Happy go lucky, take it as it comes. Thanks for all the good advice provided on this top site.

 

[Mr Bond]

Thought the name was familiar.

Onya and welcome

 

[lonte]

Hi all, time for an intro.

I brew in Brisbane South-side, and am a member and Webmaster of BABBs (http://www.babbrewers.com).

Been brewing for over two years now, mainly All Grain since November 05.

Enjoy a good Pale Ale and India Pale Ale. Favourite commercial beer is Little Creatures Pale Ale.

On on, Michael.

 

[Paleman]

Thought the name was familiar.

Onya and welcome

[post="123327"][/post]​

Gday Brauluver. Adam on the Grumpys forum. Paleman everywhere else. Maybe i should use just one name

Thanks for the welcome.

 

[Vangleator]

G'day all, I'm Clive, the name of Vangleator is from my brewery name Vangle Ales of Angle Vale. Being brewing since 1995, and entering comps since then. Gawler Show was the first, and the feedback on the judging sheets and a couple of second prizes spurred me on to bigger & better things. From then on I kept winning best beer of show at Gawler (7 out of 10 years) til I got asked to start judging. Now I judge at various country shows north of Adelaide, a tough job, but someone's gotta do it. :beerbang:
Along the way I been 'most successful brewer' at ANAWBS in 2000, and 'best brewer' at SABSOSA in 2003. Been a steward a various shows, now I'm Convenor of the beer section at the Tanunda Show. Got asked to start up the beer section in 2003 along with amateur wines. Passed off the wine section to the steward as numbers became too great. Don't drink much of that horrible stuff anyway. Beer is my favourite beverage, and a 3068 based wheat beer is my fav drop. Looking at making the Tanunda show a certified BJCP event. Slowly getting a great team together to make the show better every year. Next year aiming for free tastings of homebrew. The show already does that for the wine section, and it's proved very popular. Just starting out with a BJCP study group in Adelaide. GMK got me involved with that & now this website. Those of you who know GMK will certainly know the "laugh", which I hear when I turn up to the Barossa Brewers Club. I was the photographer at the recent 'Bee Sting' Brewery visit. Very nice drop that.
Thanks to being beer convenor I have been given the chance to promote homebrewing as much as I can. In the 3 local papers, on the community radio station, and even on rural ABC radio, and a small mention in the big smoke press. It sure helps being part of a larger community event for the ability to get these doors opened. My former workmates said I was a 'media tart' as every time they opened the local papers in Feb/March there I was with a glass of homebrew in hand talking about beer.
Made hundreds of batches of beers, all sorts of flavours, nothing's sacred. How about a smoked, oaked chilli beer the 'Bushfire bitter'. Not that keen on precise brew styles, that cuts out creativity in brewing. Mainly a malt extract brewer & modified kits always using Adelaide tap water, dabbled in some mash brews, but takes too long. Brew only in winter, due to temp concerns. Just got a spare fridge so that won't be a prob next summer. Got 8 fermenters & the spare room dedicated to beer. Recommend using Wyeast to give any brew the 'edge'. I believe the two most important things in brewing are hygiene & temp control.
Studied for most of the Cert IV in Food Technology, but gave it up when I recently left the food industry to go back into engineering. I'm originally an engineering tradesman who's now doing tech & QA/QC stuff.
Cheers! :chug:

 

[redmond]

Hi All,

My name is Jason but everyone calls me Red. I live in the Redlands in sunny Brisbane and have been brewing on and off since 1997 all kit brews. I started AG in December last year and haven't looked back. I am amazed at the difference in taste. Currently I am only using recipes that I find in books or online but would eventually like to formulate my own.

Look forward to getting some great ideas and hopefully being able to offer some advice too.

Jason.

 

[Ross]

Welcome guys - to the best beer forum in Aus :beer:

Jason, good to see another local into AG brewing - Are you a member of a brewing club? If not, you might want to come along to one of our meetings "Brisbane Craft Brewers".

Drop us a line if you're interested...


Cheers Ross

 

[darkhorse]

Alright, my name's John... DarkHorse comes from my love of Dark Ales.

First brewed around 15 years ago for a short while and only in the last year or 2 have got interested again.

I'm most into it for a hobby and because "mega-swill" generally doesn't do it for me and the budget doesn't stretch much further.

Have tried mashing and extract brews but will mainly continue Kit and more for now.

SWMBO thinks I'm insane as I make more beer than I consume... I like to share with friends... interesting that some love the variations I have produced whilst others prefer basic homebrews or mega swill commercial.

I remarked to a friend that a beer I made was probably going to taste like Crown lager (I found a clone recipe that was similar to what I had just done). He was excited, whilst the idea of spending my precious brew time making Crown really annoyed me!

Anyway Horses for Courses...

Been on the Forums around 6 months and love getting feed back and helps in developing confidence to try new things.

 

[Ash in Perth]

Gday.
Im Ashley from Perth. Ive been brewing for only a couple of years but most of that time has been all grains. Untill now i have been doing 12-16L brews because of limited equipment but im finally building a full on SS setup.

Got a love of great beers of the world, especially traditional english and belgian ales (got a couple of thomas hardy ales and westvlet 12's in the 'cellar').

Studying Chem and a bit of micro/biochem and will be going into the beer industry at the start of next year as long as i dont fail more units.

Hope to learn alot form you all and hope i can help aswell

Cheers! Ash

 

[Stuster]

Welcome Ashley. Good to have somebody who can help us with the science of the brewing process. Care to look at the No-Chiller thread for us. h34r: :lol: