Stalking Bonk And Big D

[nick]

big d and bonk, thought i better introduce myself as i have been stalking your posts for the last couple of hours, am a darwin resident, kit brewer,mostly two can brews (should i have gone there?) have done partials many years ago but want to get back into it, where do you get your grains etc from. locally seems to be a bit limited.
ps big d i was in gove a couple of weeks back, would have done some proper stalking if i had of known there was anything but green cans for a five hundred mile radius.
pps am a chat room / forum virgin so please forgive anything odd

 

[bonk]

hi Nick, glad to see another top end brewer on the forums.

yeah grain choice is very limited, there are a few places to get them via mail order. grain and grape, grumpys, esb and country brewer all do mail orders. however the freight is a little bit of a killer, but so worth it.

 

[big d]

hi nick
good to see another nt brewer on this site.if you come over this way again we will have to get together for an ag brew day.
bonk is right ..grain is easy to get but double the price for freight.well a bit more for me as i have to sea freight it to gove.
i buy bulk 100 kg at a time to make it worth while.last order was via grumpys but next bulk buy will be with dave at goliaths.
was in adelaide a few months back and loaded up on specialty grains.just running short(40kg left) of base malt.

give dave at goliaths or grumpys a ring about needs and freight and they will let you know cost.

cheers
big d

 

[SAMEAGAIN]

why would poor old or young nick want to stalk you if he has met you then he well we won`t go into that so how you going, sorry i missed your phone call. we all enjoyed the short time we had to meet you at Goliaths, but it was great. so keep brewing big fella and well talk later.

Regards
mark

 

[bonk]

apologies to the giant one and the jovial one, i forgot about them as well

 

[tdh]

Hi Nick, I work at Grumpy's in Verdun (Adelaide). I'll be in Darwin in a weeks time and can make a delivery (NO FREIGHT CHARGE!!!) of anything from the Grumpy's brewshop if you like.

Check out our website at www.grumpys.com.au and/or give us a call on 8188 1133

 

[nick]

big d, bonk thanks for the info, really enjoyed a cruise around the grumpies site especially after reading(not all of it!!) the two can thriller, anyway got me keen and managed to get few other kit brewers keen for a crack at something more so tdh down at grumpies you will be hearing from me this week. one more question for the top end brewers, temp control and beers of choice. what would you recommend as a starting recipe given i have no greater temp control than a large fibreglass box that i use as an ice bath to keep the brew temp down (brew fridge a work in progress) cheers nick

 

[bonk]

the best way to control is to use a fridge. i'v built one of those son-of-chillers things and its working out good. the difference is amazing.

ice baths, wet towel, air con running all day help to keep things cool.

other ideas are to use ale yeasts wyeast 1056 and 1335 can cope well with our temps ie 30+ and i think the coopers dried ale yeast works ok up in that range ok(ish). wheat beers and belgium yeasts can also cope ok at these temps. as for lagers, the only yeast that will cope is the cali common yeast, but that likes to be around 20C or so.

but if you can get the fridge and thermostat your home free.

 

[big d]

hi nick
first suggestion is to get yourself a job where the company supplies the a/c and power.
2nd suggestion is any good ale.i havent gone down the lager path yet as i definetely require a spare fridge with temp control to do this.
pm me if you want a few recipes or better still if you want to go partial check out grumpys/goliaths web sites for available kits.all good stuff.

cheers
big d

 

[nick]

thanks fellas, i have usually gone down the darker ale and stout path as they seem to put up with the abuse i dish out, the bloke from grumpies is on his way up here so was going to take advantage of that. i was planning a pretty simple ale recipe to begin with. trad ale malt, crystal and POR hops, have used these in the past in partials so i have a bit of an idea what to expect (plus i found some crystal malt and POR cones in my freezer, they are both older than my kids, 3 and 1, i won't risk using them but they jogged the memory) i have an old engel that doesn't freeze anymore so i was going to hack it and put the plate in a large fibreglass esky, that should give me a cooler place to brew.
will let you know how it goes.