What Does A Professional Brewer Brew At Home?

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deebee

The Bludgeon Brewery
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At the West Coast Brewers meeting last night we were graced with the presence of Roger Bussell who first started working in breweries in 1960. After completing his Bachelor Degree in Biochemistry and post graduate Diploma in Malting and Brewing in 1964, Roger went on to work in just about every aspect of the brewing field. He has worked for Harp Brewery in the UK, New Zealand Breweries in Auckland, Courage/Tooth Breweries in Melbourne, the Swan Brewery in Perth, Joe White Maltings in Port Adelaide and Perth, and has worked as a consultant to Wander, Chinese Maltsters, Lion Nathan, AMCOR, DME Brewing Services, Dingo Brewing, and Little Creatures (Rogers Ale is named after him). Roger was also an Australian International Beer Awards Judge from 1993-2002 and is currently the Secretary/Executive Officer for the Institute of Brewing and Distilling in the Asia-Pacific Region.

He talked to us about identifying flaws in beer and walked us through a beer-tasting kit with eight chemicals representing common beer flaws. He was a modest and restrained fellow with no need to boast given his very smart credentials. He clearly knew his material from a very practical as well as scientific basis.

In between flawed samples I asked him how he let his creative juices flow in brewing and he commented that honing the Rogers Ale recipe over a couple of years was something that allowed him to be creative and there were other instances of creativity in professional brewing. I asked whether he did any brewing for his own private consumption and he said he enjoyed home-brewing English ales. Goat asked him what sort of system he ran at home as everyones imagination ran to something big, shiny and automated neatly set up in a dedicated Brewery Room at home.

Oh I brew those Coopers kits. They make very good beer you know!

There is nothing quite so annoying as a kit brewer vindicated so I will say no more.
 
I've never had a complaint about Coopers Draught or Lager.

Non brewers who just buy slabs love it. - Too much they always put dents in my supplies and wont to take some home.
 
Yeah, but what does he do with the Coopers kit?

I'm guessing it may not involve a kilo of sugar, heat belt, chlorinated tap water and sodium met as a sanitiser.

Either that or he likes thin watery tasteless beer just like the commercial stuff.
 
Does he have shares in Coopers :ph34r:

I would have thought he'd have an interest in all grain :blink:
 
If he's doing British Ales I think it's safe to assume he uses the Coopers kits as a base only and throws in some nobles.
 
He has access to all the good stuff from the brewery (little creatures i assume) :eek:)
He likes english beers so he replicates those using coopers kits, additional hops, hop extracts etc.
SWIMBO wont let him have an all grain brewery at home :D but lets face it if your surrounded by the bling stainless steel of Little Creatures all day, you must get you fill of SSteel shiny things?

What a good guy he was for coming in to speak to us too.
 
Yes he was a genuine good guy and not a fleck of pretension about him. Certainly not embarrassed about brewing kits anyway. Obviously enjoys talking about beer enough, after all these years, to drop in and yarn to a bunch of amateurs with silly questions.

And sorry for the little crapstir. Sometimes find it hard to suppress my smartarse streak. Particularly when someone with such clout agrees you can make genuinely good beer using a kit as the base.

Then again, even the fussiest chefs will have a pie when they go to the footy.
 
And a lot of chefs can't be bothered cooking when they get home, either. I imagine the same thing applies to brewers.

I think you can make an alright beer with a kit. It just depends what you want to make.
 
As much as i enjoy my homebrewing, i wouldnt be going through the whole process if i had access to free (cheap) Rogers or the likes......

No Way...!
 
Deebee -

I notice the date and time on your topic posting was this morning.
I'm surprised you could hold it in for that long, did you sleep with a big grin?

:lol:
 
I'm glad you asked!
The last time I brewed at home I used a specialty grain I'd never used before (Weyermann Carared) and homegrown Cluster hops with a liquid yeast (Wyeast 1007).

Nothing special, too bitter and hoppy for most but added up to an enjoyable brew to do at home.

tdh
 
Don't worry Thomas, as you gain more professional experience you might progress to coopers kits.
 
I was sad that Roger wouldnt give us any hints on a Roger's clone.
oh well cant have everything, it was one of the best WCB meetings I have been been to big thanks to everyone who organised it

cheers for now

Sean
 
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