Introduce Yourself.

[christmas]

Hey mate,

I'm not a member, but West Coast Brewers are the local brew club and hold monthly meetings (I'm gonna sign up once I finally get my AG rig up and running and a few brews under my belt).

Not sure what area you're in, but decent home brew stores are:

TWOC in Bibra Lake,
Brewmart in Bayswater,
and Gryphon Brewing which one of the members here runs from his house and many people swear by (I'm yet to make my first purchase).

Anyway, welcome to Perth, enjoy our overpriced bars and restaurants!

 

[Blackened]

Hey all,

My name is Peter. 38yo, 2 kids, SWMBO etc... I was brewing all grain for years before the kids came along but have only just rejoined the obsession after 7-8 years absence. I didn't entirely give up brewing, did the odd K+K and regretted it every time lol. I'm noticing a general increase in the number of forum posters who seem to know what they're on about! I'm loving all the gear that is now available too. Looking forward to mashing with a rims at some point, but for the moment I've bought some extract and hops for a couple of simple beers to test out the kettle and chiller, and to make sure the rest of my bits n bobs all work.

Cheers! Hopefully I'll have some useful things to contribute to the group in the future

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Hey all,

My name is Peter. 38yo, 2 kids, SWMBO etc... I was brewing all grain for years before the kids came along but have only just rejoined the obsession after 7-8 years absence. I didn't entirely give up brewing, did the odd K+K and regretted it every time lol. I'm noticing a general increase in the number of forum posters who seem to know what they're on about! I'm loving all the gear that is now available too. Looking forward to mashing with a rims at some point, but for the moment I've bought some extract and hops for a couple of simple beers to test out the kettle and chiller, and to make sure the rest of my bits n bobs all work.

Cheers! Hopefully I'll have some useful things to contribute to the group in the future

I am living this story...except without SWMBO..

 

[Blackened]

I am living this story...except without SWMBO..

Hehe, anyone around here that used to frequent OzCraftBrewers?

 

[DL]

Hi,
I've been scouring this site for a couple of weeks, so I better introduce myself.
I've just started home brewing and can't believe what I've been missing out on! I'll blame a mate's home brew attempt back in 1998 for scaring me off for so many years. (yep, it was bad enough to make someone not drink home brew for 14 years)

Unfortunately I can't drink "real" beer anymore as I can't handle gluten. After a reasonably successful first attempt, I've got my second batch of extract based ready to bottle. I'm also attempting to malt some millet, and am trying to get my head around using it in a brew in the future.

Cheers,
DL

 

[keifer33]

Hey mate,

I'm not a member, but West Coast Brewers are the local brew club and hold monthly meetings (I'm gonna sign up once I finally get my AG rig up and running and a few brews under my belt).

I will hold you to this christmas, but there is no need to wait til you AG'ing there are plenty of varied method brewers.

Hello all,I am an American now in Perth for the next year, and would like to hook up with the local brewing scene.I started with kits in 1986, then AG from 2004 on. Back to kits for this year most likely.
First thing is to get outfitted with a fermenter!
Looking forward to meeting some WA members soon.Anthony

Welcome JapanBrewer. As christmas said pop along to the next WCB meeting if you can and you will meet a heap of like minded people. Plus this month is a competition tasting of Pumpkin Beers so will be a few interesting ones there. The next meeting is on Monday the 13th August. Hope to see you there.

 

[frozensummers]

So.... some of you may know me for my beer reviewing and retailing (and drinking), I just got myself some gear so I can start on the other side of the fence.....

 

[BrewJapan]

Thanks for the welcome. I plan to visit WCB next month (w/o pumkin brew in hand, sorry to say).

Made a run out to the Malthouse on Saturday and picked up the ingredients for my first beer.
Not an overwhelming selection, and the owner wasn't able to tell me what the Lovibond was on the Crystal malt. Might have been 60 or 80.
Next time I think I'll order online, or once I get a car drive to Osbourne park (I am near Applecross).

One nice thing is our room temp is 19C, which should help the flavor a bit.

 

[gtsbrewer]

Thanks for the welcome. I plan to visit WCB next month (w/o pumkin brew in hand, sorry to say).

Made a run out to the Malthouse on Saturday and picked up the ingredients for my first beer.
Not an overwhelming selection, and the owner wasn't able to tell me what the Lovibond was on the Crystal malt. Might have been 60 or 80.
Next time I think I'll order online, or once I get a car drive to Osbourne park (I am near Applecross).

One nice thing is our room temp is 19C, which should help the flavor a bit.

hey Japanbrewer try t.w.o.c in bibra lake he has a great selection of grains. i have been going there for a while now. 2/40 Port Pirie Street, Bibra Lake.
www.homebru.com.au

 

[a_burns]

G'day all

I'm new to the home brewing side of things - started with the good ol extract kits and heaven for it I decided to delve a little deeper and see how it's really done, starting my quest into the world of AG. Just gonna take a while and see how it all works.

I live in Perth and would really like to have a chat to other like minded people, would very much like to potentially come round and help someone with their brew day to start learning.

Cheers

Alex

 

[killspice]

Ahh, it feels good to be brewing again. I had a 2-ish year break due to a pregnant wife who hates the smell at the best of times, followed by a 'difficult' (but awesome) daughter, but last night I finally managed to put a brew down.


It was a simple K&K: Coopers Australian Pale Ale, 1kg LDME, 15g Cascade @ 15m, 15g Cascade at Flame Out, and the yeast that came with the coopers can. I wasn't sure about the yeast since it had been in the fridge for the better part of 2 years, so I made a starter first. It worked ok, but I pitched the lot instead of crash chilling and pitching the slurry - it is the first time I made a starter and didn't really know when or how to pitch, I'm not concerned though, it was only a small (400ml) starter in 21L.

Only 6 weeks until I can drink it... At least it's not a lager

I'll be back to high gravity BIAB-ing as soon as I can convince my wife to clear out the food from my brewing fridge's freezer compartment...

 

[joell]

Hey guys,
My name is Joel, and im 18 from wagga. I am new to homebrewing and have just started it because it seemed like a rewarding hobby after picking up one of the coopers diy kit. Just looking for some people in the area i might be able to discuss brewing with and give me some tips and tricks.

 

[johnw]

Hi Folks,

Just wanted to re-introduce myself.

I used to frequent here in the old days before Sunday shopping in Perth was around. Wait...that was recently. Anywho its been a few years

Work and study got the best of me for a few years and sadly i stopped brewing. Now I have taken back my life and thrown my toys out of the corporate cot. I have started 2 accounting based business's and in the process of starting another totally unrelated business. All with the purpose of living my life like I want and doing the things I enjoy more often, whilst working the hours I want and all from my house.

So I am back to my passions of brewing and bbq-ing. One of the best things about brewing beer is that once you have the equipment, you can sub in and out of the game at your leisure. This being said, i have spent the last two weekends re-acquainting myself with the two old ducks - cleaning and sanitizing. Obviously, now i plan on staying in the game.

I look forward to rejoining and contributing where possible to the like minded and helpful community I remember.

Cheers,

 

[Amber Fluid]

Just a reminder and info for those who don't know.... there is a link in my signature that shows the AHB Map which you can check for people near by and include yourself on it as another resource.

 

[neithan]

Hi All,

My name's Joel and I live in the Wollongong area in NSW. Have been in the home brewing game for 6 months now and am doing some great brews with kits. Some people may bash the old kits, but I don't see anything wrong with them per say

I'm currently a full time uni student (so the home brew comes in pretty handy), love football (soccer), and of course love the good old BBQ and fire, can't beat it!

Looking forward to contributing to the community!

Cheers!

 

[Wee Heavy]

Hi guys, I'm new to this homebrewing malarkey so though I'd stop by to join in the discussions and hopefully learn a thing or two! I'm originally from Edinburgh, Scotland (hence the user name!) and currently residing in Perth. Moved into a new place a couple of weeks ago and my house mate has done a few brews before. Really keen to get started and start making some tasty beverages of my own concoction.

 

[bugeater]

Hi guys,

I've been lurking around here for a while and are onto about my 6th brew so far. Rapidly went from the can that came with the fermenter to unhopped extracts, to partials to all grain. It is a fair bit of work but the end result is worth it. I've done two all grain batches so far. I might slow down a bit now though since the temperature is getting a bit warmer here in Melbourne and we don't have space for a spare fermentation fridge. I did brew a couple of times about 15 years ago, but the results weren't particularly great. It was in Perth, so it was probably the fermentation temps I'm guessing.

It was actually Wil Wheaton (of Star Trek Next Gen fame and Big Bang Theory) that got me onto brewing again. I sometimes read the stuff he posts on Google+ and as it turns out he home brews. It inspired me to have another go.

Apart from having lots of tasty beer at the end, I'm also enjoying it because it is very reminiscent of doing lab experiments (which they are really). I used to be a medical researcher so have done plenty of work with enzymes and with micro-organisms. In fact we used to use yeast for some experiments and I always liked the apple cider smell the lab would have if working with them. Now I realise that's probably because of the fermentation temperature (30 degrees). At least I'm getting some use out of those degrees I wasted a fair chunk of my life earning

Anyway, this is a great site and I've learnt heaps while lurking here

 

[kelbygreen]

welcome joel heavy, and bugeater

 

[Danhutch333]

Hi All,

Like many others who are relatively new to brewing, I would like to say that this site is a wealth of knowledge. I have learned so many tips and tricks on here which I probably would have had to discover the hard way. I have had a few mistakes a long the way which ended up with 23l of "beer" being poured on the lawn because of infection. Safe to say that my quality control and cleanliness is now several levels above where it began. ha ha.

I'm not a complete noob. 20 years ago I was regularly called in as slave labour while my parents were brewing and bottling a very rough and ready K&K operation. They were looking for lots of cheap beer and not overly concerned about the quality. As long as it wasn't off and it was made from their favourite can, they were happy. These days I cringe when I remember how many kilos of refined white sugar we happily dropped into the fermenter. As an experiment I primed a few (5) bottles with white sugar just to remember what it was like and, even with that small amount, the difference was surprising.

Anyway, I'm gradually getting my set up together. I've commandeered a corner of our laundry. Which was looking a lot more impressive BEFORE my AFL/NRL grand final BBQs. There are now MANY empty bottles waiting to be refilled.


I've grabbed an old bar fridge (not working) which fits the fermenter in and acts as a great insulator if I have to ferment out side. Temp controller, so I can heat/cool.
Sadly, my freezer is unable to accommodate the fermenter so if I want to create a lager or pilsener I have to mix it up and then split it into two cubes, but at least I can do it if I'm keen.

I have been reading and applying so many of the posts on this site that its hard top know where to start the description of my learning curve.
Thanks to Chiller and Wolfy for the yeast farming/ rinsing posts. I had a crack at those by creating a healthy starter, pitching half and then rinsing the remains. Pretty happy with the results. Both in the fermenter and in these vials. You can't see it in the pic but there is clean water above the yeast in the bottom.


Why bother with US-05 some of you might ask? Because it is better than the kit yeast and is cheap enough that I would not have been overly bothered if it had all turned to *****. Liquid yeast will come later.

Then I came accross Wolfy's Top Cropping post and just had to give it a go. I pitched the collected yeast into a starter and the difference in the Erlenmeyer flask was substantial. The original starter didn't go anywhere near this high.

I'll wait for the yeasties to finish off all the LDME, then rinse and deliver them into more vials. Is having all this US-05 necessary? Probably not but I'm using all of this a learning opportunity.

In the medium term I can see myself moving on to a BIAB set up which will take advantage of the limited space in my house but for the moment its Kit & extract all the way. Some extra hops into the brews so I can tweak them a bit and I'll see where it goes from there.

Thanks again to all who have posted before. Awesome info.

Hutchy

 

[jaypes]

Greetings Folks

Jaypes here, long time drinker, first time brewer.

Started my first kit brew yesterday, loving this site and all the helpful feedback.

Hopefully in the future I will be able to tackle my fav beer - Duvel

Cheers
Jaypes

 

[Droughtmaster]

Greetings Folks

Jaypes here, long time drinker, first time brewer.

Started my first kit brew yesterday, loving this site and all the helpful feedback.

Hopefully in the future I will be able to tackle my fav beer - Duvel

Cheers
Jaypes

guaranteed ya will make all of ya favorite beers here and welcome to homebrewing

 

[Bizier]

Hopefully in the future I will be able to tackle my fav beer - Duvel

Awesome! Set your goals high.

Duvel is a little bit of a holy grail because it is a little more complicated than the average beer, but with some learning and if you are not afraid to get into all-grain brewing early (you don't need to know everything, just enough to get you through), you should be able to get started on that path pretty quickly, just start brewing Belgian golden strongs using proven sound techniques and good quality ingredients. Mashing and yeasts will be big players there. You might not have Duvel straight away, but you might have some good beer that is in the same postcode, and at a fraction of the price of Duvel.

There is a lot of guides on cheap and easy all-grain setups, whether it is brewing in a bag or using buckets as mash/lauter tuns.

The main thing is that you have fun. You already know what good beer is, there is a cool journey ahead.

 

[fattima]

Hey Blokes,

As they say in the classics, long time reader first time poster.

Been reading the forum for a while and have not needed to ask any questions as the volume of information on here is fantastic and I'm nowhere near skilled enough to be answering questions on here. Anyway wanted to say thanks for a great forum, I've been brewing and bottling for around 15 years and took the step into kegging recently. The information on here made it much easier to work out what to buy and having a chat with Ross was a big help. I ended up buying a KekKing fridge as they are localish to me and the Mrs wanted something that looked OK in the house. I upgraded it to Perlick 545 taps so balancing would be easier for a newbie and not to have line everywhere.
Anyway had my first pour the other night, a Mountain Goat hightail imitation (a fairly poor one) and all I can say is I'm really happy.

Cheers!

 

[brettprevans]

Hey Blokes,

As they say in the classics, long time reader first time poster.

Been reading the forum for a while and have not needed to ask any questions as the volume of information on here is fantastic and I'm nowhere near skilled enough to be answering questions on here. Anyway wanted to say thanks for a great forum, I've been brewing and bottling for around 15 years and took the step into kegging recently. The information on here made it much easier to work out what to buy and having a chat with Ross was a big help. I ended up buying a KekKing fridge as they are localish to me and the Mrs wanted something that looked OK in the house. I upgraded it to Perlick 545 taps so balancing would be easier for a newbie and not to have line everywhere.
Anyway had my first pour the other night, a Mountain Goat hightail imitation (a fairly poor one) and all I can say is I'm really happy.

Cheers!

Welcome to the forum. Kegging is great. Youll never look back.
Now you've just got get yourself to a brewclub. If kegking is close to you, then come check out Melbourne brewers.

 

[thenymang]

Hi all,

I've been lurking for a while soaking up knowledge, but finally have some questions and some experience of my own to add.

Setup is a crown urn for BIAB and a two-tap kegerator. Living in the Sutherland Shire, I've been brewing for a bit over a year or so after seeing a second hand cooper's kit for sale on the local bulletin board. I started with a few kits, but wanted to make something from scratch, so moved to AG pretty quickly. Now I'm an IPA machine

It's awesome to see such an active community here, it's definitely been a big help in my learning curve

I've just started using liquid yeasts for experimentation with differnet flavours, having used dry yeast for about 12 months. Next step is to add more control to my process, especially fermentation temp control, so I'm not at the mercy of the seasons

Cheers!

 

[en1gma]

Hi guys,
Been browsing around the forum for a little while picking up tips and tricks but thought I should say hi.
I started getting into homebrew a few years back but after six months or so i managed to hit across a few bad batches and packed away the gear.
In the meantime a friend of mine got into AG brewing and is making truly awesome beers. His passion for it has gotten me back up and running and now I have a basic setup going with beer fridge, fermentation fridge but still running kits although so much better this time around.
Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be brewing my first AG batch. Going to try and keep it simple but who knows what'll happen
My biggest problem now is not being able to drink the beer quick enough to free up that next keg

 

[Juzdu]

Hi guys,
Been browsing around the forum for a little while picking up tips and tricks but thought I should say hi.
I started getting into homebrew a few years back but after six months or so i managed to hit across a few bad batches and packed away the gear.
In the meantime a friend of mine got into AG brewing and is making truly awesome beers. His passion for it has gotten me back up and running and now I have a basic setup going with beer fridge, fermentation fridge but still running kits although so much better this time around.
Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be brewing my first AG batch. Going to try and keep it simple but who knows what'll happen
My biggest problem now is not being able to drink the beer quick enough to free up that next keg

Welcome aboard...I know the problem well, I only started a few weeks back and already have 7 slabs of home brew either conditioning or fermenting. And all the ingredients ready to go for my first partial/extract, the Dr Smurto Golden Ale of course.

What do you reckon caused your bad batches a few years back? Sanitation? Fermentation temps? i.e. what are you doing differently now with your kits that are much better this time?

 

[Giddo]

Another newbie checking in.

Great site with a lot of very useful information. Hope to keep learning as I progress from utterly clueless to head brewer at a brew pub (I wish!).


I got the bug after going to the Beer Factory in Seven Hills with some mates. Beer turned out extremely well and we decided it was too easy not to have a crack. That was Extract brewing we did at the Beer Factory.


I was going to start with an extract in the same way as we'd done previously, but time overtook me and I've had to shortcut everything to have beer for Christmas by buying a FWK or three - has saved me going out and buying urns etc for now.


The FWKs are from Brewers Selection. I'm 3 days into the fermentation on an English IPA, an Australian Pale Ale (Norwest) and a dark Czech lager (Cervy Pino or similar) and they're doing stuff (ie bubbling away) so assume I did ok - hard to screw it up but you never know.


Next step probably will be Extract Brewing or possibly even a jump straight to BIAB.


Anyway, just saying hello and thanks for the forum.

Cheers,

giddo

 

[tigertunes]

Hi all

Coops here, been lurking here for ages and thought it was time to say G'day. Have been brewing for about 3 years and have progressed to AG using BIAB and no-chill in the last 18 months thanks to the help of AHB.
Hopefully the next progression will be a keg set up,(once i can convince SWMBO).

Any way thanks for all the great info,
Cheers Coop.

 

[TribalChicken]

Hi all,

Have been brewing for the past year or two just by chucking a can of extract and something sugary into the fermenter but recently have setup a basic keg system and will hopefully get a bit more serious, eventually moving up to all-grains.

Looking forward to slowly absorbing the huge amount of info here.

Cheers,

Thomas