Poll: How Do You Brew?

[jayse]

Straight forward tick the rightbox.

 

[kook]

I do full boils of extract / specialty malts (including some that require mashing), therefore I've put down partial mash (even if its < 1kg of grain, its still partial!).

I make occasional kits as keg fillers too.

 

[jayse]

yeap that is proberly what most do kook.
i guess like you just vote for your most common or favourite.

 

[big d]

i couldve hit quite a few most commons to me but was only allowed one hit.
but hopefully next year it would be the ag hit.

 

[Batz]

Could'nt find the
F*#@ing Loverly button
So hit the partial

 

[Goat]

Did my first extract with steeped grain (albeit 1.2Kg) today.... It took from 8:00am this morning until about 3 this afternoon - but I just went down the shed (9:30pm) and its bubbling at 1per 30 sec so I'm pretty happy.

I missed the target OG by nearly 20points, the colour is heaps darker than I wanted and there were numerous things that didn't pan out as expected with associated panics and the uttering of many un-Christian sentiments - but it was fun !

 

[JWB]

I mostly use kits with grain additive...
I love to experiment with all grain once in a while but time demands I stick with kits..
I very rarely use the dried yeast that comes with the kits....I have quite a stock of liquid yeasts that I have used and kept over the years....

What ever gets your glass frothy

Cheers
JWB

 

[yankee brewer]

Officially, I brew all grain. On occasion however, I'll brew a kit or a full boil extract/specialty grain brew. I have been known to vint a batch of mead, mellomel or the like.

Whenever I can find fresh-pressed cider that has not been pasturized or sulfited or bastardized in some other way, I snatch that stuff up, toss it in a fermenter and let nature go to work-- I love a batch of spontaneously fermented cider! Jam it into a keg, gas it up, chill it and enjoy! Much more flavorful than using a wine yeast-- yuck! Unfortunately, it is unlawful to sell apple juice au natural in my state-- meddling government MORONS!!! Good thing I have my sources who are willing to break the unreasonable law.

Most recently, I made a wine out of Welch's grape juice concentrate diluted by half as much as it said on the label fermented with baker's yeast. I did this as an experiment to see if I could have made something drinkable if I had lived during prohibition. Results? Better than you think! The baker's yeast fermented the wine all the was to 12% alcohol in three days flat, flocculated out crystal clear and left no off flavors. Tastes like a mid-priced merlot. Next I'm going to make a one or two gallon prohibition pilsner along the same lines. What to use for bittering? Pine needles perhaps??? I think I'll ask for some input on the recipies forum.

 

[fingers]

I don't believe that this poll is a fair dinkum picture of the way brewers brew. I think that there must be a lot of chaps who aren't voting. Every brew shop I've been into seems to allocate a lot of shelf space to various cans of brew, yet only a small space to grains and other useless stuff. Perhaps the Jovial monk or someone else in the industry would care to comment as to the ratio of kits to masher brewers. And whilst I'm throwing fertilizer at the windmill, another question, What would be the all up cost (approx) to make 23 litres of an all grain brew with hops and liquid yeast and what ever other magical ingredient you use, in comparison to buying a can of coopers and a kilo of sugar, and the amount of time taken?
I fully expect a few kicks in the rear over this post, but hell, if ya gonna give it, ya gotta expect a bit back!

 

[JasonY]

Agree that I would expect to see a lot more kit brewers.

yet only a small space to grains and other useless stuff

Aww c'mon this is the good stuff

I have been thinking about the cost thing here is my current estimate on a Jayse's LCPA I have brewed.

4.5kg Pale Malt --- $10
1Kg speciatly Malts --- $5
Hops --- $9
Yeast (assume 5 brews per Wyeast) --- $3
Utilities (Gas, Water) -- $3 (guess)

Total = $30
Time = 5 hours

Certainly not as cheap as K&K that's for sure but I get about 60 stubbies per brew which compare very nicely to LCPA so would have cost me at least $150 to buy. Economics get really good when you compare to boutique beers B)

 

[kook]

I don't believe that this poll is a fair dinkum picture of the way brewers brew. I think that there must be a lot of chaps who aren't voting. Every brew shop I've been into seems to allocate a lot of shelf space to various cans of brew, yet only a small space to grains and other useless stuff.

I think the poll is a fair representation of the people active/voting on this site. I wouldnt take it as a poll of "australian home brewers" though.

I've never had real success with a kit and a kilo of dextrose. It turns out tasting as bad as a cheap australian lager. I dont drink cheap lager (even if its free!), I'm a fussy bastard

Thing is, majority of those people just buying K+K, are probably not joining this site! Most of them are content to read the instructions on the can.

It depends on the HBS you go to as well. The ESB store I visited in Sydney (Leons, not the other one), had bugger-all kit range. Was mostly grain, equipment and a hop/yeast fridge. TWOC in Perth (my favourite Perth HBS) has just as much space dedicated to grain, extract, hops and yeast as they do to kits/kit modifiers. Yet WestBrew (my local HBS which I only frequent if i *have* to), mostly deal with kits.

 

[Batz]

Yep just a matter of choice

If you like K&K , and most of us started out doing that , and must have been a little happy with the results otherwise who would take the plunge to bother with grains.

I am partial mash man but good on ya K&K dudes , at least your don't buy chemical beer
Cheers

 

[Hoops]

Jayse

I mainly use Morgans unhopped malt, some specialty grains - roasted barley, munich or crystal malt plus whole or pellet hops, with a Saflager or Safale yeast.

I have done one all grain recipe and this is the way I intend to go in future.

Hoops

 

[fingers]

Calling all K&K brewers, surely there has to be more than 4 of us out there!

 

[johnno]

Well i'm sure ive already voted for K+K plus hops.
Yeah its a good way to start. One day I'm sure I'll go to grain. Got damn temp control probs now that its summer so I'll have to wait till i get another fridge. That wont be for a while so cant wait till autumn. Figured I can get away with doing the MSB kits as i can store that appropriately in the big esky.
While I havent tried AG homebrew yet I still find the kits pretty good.

Cheers

 

[Snow]

Fingers

I agree the cost and time issue is certainly a factor in determining what people brew. However, I think taste is more a determinant, at least in my case. I started with a kit and a kilo of dextrose. It made beer but was not what I'd hoped for and certainly didn't challenge the commercial brews out there for taste, aroma or appearance. I then moved to K&K+hops+Safale yeast. Better, but still missing that certain "something". I then tried maltodextrin, and some grains (chocolate and black malt), which gave me my first beer i was proud to hand over to my friends and say "here, try this - I think you'll like it".

Moving on to steeping crystal malts and other specialty grains and dropping the maltodextrin was a big improvement and only increased the time to make a brew by about 30 minutes and increased the cost by about $2 per brew. Next came liquid yeasts and another big improvement in flavour. Of course the next natural progression was to partial mashing and I am now making beer that I can confidently say is better than most Australian commercial (big name) beers. The extra cost is minimal, especially when you split your yeast starters. I estimate a good quality full strength beer will cost me $25-30 to make, which is less than half the price of a carton of similar standard commercial beer, with the exception that mine tastes better and I get to unleash the mad scientist/artist in myself every 3 weeks!

As for time, I have it down to a fine art: I arrive home from work and (after greeting the family, of course) immediately put my grains in the hot water (in my small partial mash esky), whack a blanket over it and leave it. This takes about 15 mins. I then spend the next 90 mins having dinner and putting the kids to bed. Ususally by 7.30 I head downstairs and lauter and sparge, which takes about 30 mins. Then I boil (1 hour 20 mins), chill (with ice - 20 mins), top up, aerate and pitch yeast (15 mins), then clean up (20 mins). So, all up it takes me about 3 hours of physical brewing time to make a batch (4hr 30mins if you include the mash time). I'm in bed by 10.30 happy with the thought that I've got a quality brew fermenting away through the night!

Cheers - Snow

 

[Trough Lolly]

Calling all K&K brewers, surely there has to be more than 4 of us out there!

I was a Wander/Coopers K&K brewer for years - and that's why I stopped. I got bored with making flat, no-head washing up water / sub-standard beer!

Since finding this forum and doing some reading, I've discovered malt extracts, grains, steeping, yeast varieties, hops and mashing etc ... and I've never looked back

Cheers,

TL

 

[fingers]

I was a Wander/Coopers K&K brewer for years - and that's why I stopped. I got bored with making flat, no-head washing up water / sub-standard beer!

T.L.
I used to make that kind of mop bucket stuff years ago,as I said in the "calling the Jovial Monk" post, not trying to give myself a jolly good pat on the back, but my k&k brews are as good if not better than some professionaly brewed A.G. beers I have tasted at some micro brewerys.( one had even won awards) Certainly not trying to ruffle any ones feathers, but I am having trouble understanding why people go to great lenghts to make a brew with grain and other stuff and special gear, when you can make a beer better than the pubs sell out of a can. If the flavour of a A.G. beer was heaps better than the k&k I would be on my bike and down to the hbs to gear up for A.G. I have been playing with home brew now for 20 years and make a damm fine product. I guess there is something to be said for starting with nothing and creating a great brew, when all I do is basically add water but,,,I'm a pisspot more than a fusspot
Didn't even know much about A.G. untill we bought a computer about 6 months ago.
If I ever do get to taste a great great A.G.brew I might be tempted to give it a go, but for now I am very satisfied with what I'm making.
(and it's good fun stirring up the mashers)
cheers .Fingers

 

[Hoops]

Fingers

As the saying goes, if it aint broken don't fix it!
I am choosing to go to AG as I have only had a couple of really good extract brews,(and I love to tinker with stuff like mashing) and from my experience in a homebrew club, I found the AG brews much better, but at the end of the day if you're happy doing what you're doing, why spend more money and time!

Hoops

 

[JasonY]

I agree hoops, really I just like to get into the nuts and bolts of stuff and given that I like beer .... the question I had was why the hell not go all grain I had great fun doing K&K for a long time but once I read up on AG and realised I could have a crack at it .... well my wife is certainly shaking her head these days