You Can Lead A Horse To Water...

[Fents]

So i have a mate whos just back from the UK..

First thing i did was pop round his house (now living with parents..read: UK DEBT) to visit..

So i show up and his dad (which i've known for 20+ years) has started brewing K&K's....I was stoked as i know he and his son had drank nothing but VB or MB for the last 25+ years...I was all like, yea great now i can teach them everything!!!

Anyways got talking with my mayes old man about his brewing and he's just doing straight K&K's the old skool way...yep u guessed it 1KG of white suguar and a kit (i tasted a pot of it and almost spewed, i dont mind melb's or VB's or anything but this was just plain horrible, worst bit was i had to be NICE and drink the whole pot then say it was OK). So i suggest he comes shopping with me next time im buying grain and supplies and i can show him the LITTLE stuff that makes kits so much better...steeping, boiling, hop additions etc and he agreed.

BUT....Speaking to my mates old man on the phone last night (first time since i last saw him) and i said are you still brewing? He said yep sure am and loving it, he said his mate suggested put MORE suguar with it and apparently it tastes even better with 1.5KG of suguar... h34r: :blink: So i suggest maybe he tries 1KG dextrose (or any brew blend) and he was adament he wanted to keep it the way he's doing it....which i have ABSOLUTLEY no problem with, if he likes the beer then so be it but i just wanted to see them drink the best K&K out there....

Anyone else know any "old schooler's" that will not change for anything in the world....

 

[Adamt]

Haha, sounds like one of the older guys at work.

"Love me Coopers Lager can with a kilo of caster sugar (mixes in easier, makes the beer taste smoother). I'm now priming the bottles with that brew enhancer stuff, you can really taste the difference!"

Me: "Oh yeah... the more malt the better.... *clears throat*"

We exchanged brews once... gave him an IPA. Opened his bottle at home, sniffed it, sipped it, fed the rest to the sink. His reaction? "Wow there was lots of flavour in that one! Which can did you use for that one?... Still like me coopers lager though"

 

[drsmurto]

Old(er) bloke at footy a few months back hears i brew and so asks me if i know a good recipe for VB. He likes it cos he can brew a batch in 2 days (he brews at 30degC). I suggested he try slowing things down and asked him if he added any hops. I cant put his reaction here in fear the mods would ban me. He likes his beers, i like mine. nothing wrong with that.

 

[Hutch]

Yeah, sounds a bit like my Grandfather.
1 can coopers, 1kg sugar, ferment using an electric blanket at 28deg C - done in 2 days!!

...surprise surprise, tasted like cidery fizzy cats pi$$.

I bought him an aquarium immersion heater and some DME one year, but....you can lead a horse to water, yada yada...

 

[Doogiechap]

I have a good mate who has been brewing for decades and has fine tuned his recipe to absolute perfection.
1/2 a tin of Coopers Stout
2 Kg of White Sugar.

The half tin is for budget reasons.
Gets the job done !
He shook his head in bewilderment when he saw my AG setup.

 

[Wardhog]

Sounds like my old man. Still won't budge from his Morgan's Draught, even after I made him the Assistant Ale.

Thankfully he doesn't subscribe to "Give me a kilo of sugar or give me death" ethos.

 

[wildschwein]

Yeah, the truth is that most people who drink beer aren't going to be doing it from a culturally informed perspective. Sure there are plenty of home brewers around who read all the literature, buy all the extras and then move into the advanced kit and kilo, extract and all grain worlds. But there are lots of folk who don't want to know about Belgian Trappist Ales or Boutique Honey Wheat Beers, they just want to save a few bucks and do a peasant kit and kilo by boiling the kettle and chucking in the kit and a kilo of homebrand white sugar.

I kind of see myself somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. I want to learn as much as I can about beer chemistry/science and taste as many different styles as possible but I also like to work with as many of the basics as I can becuase of my tight budget at the moment. But I'm not keen on using sucrose or even lots of dextrose because it's way too thin for my tastes. So the very least I would use is Coopers BE2 which is 1/2 malt (never tried BE1). I do on occasion buy spec grains, malt extract and hops from the HBS but if don't have them on hand I'll make do with what I can get in the supermarket.

I guess the best way to educate people about trying better beers is just to give them one of your own and see how they like it. Most people I serve up my home brews to always comment on how it tastes better than the usual stuff they drink. You may be able to rouse some interest in your proceedures that they can pick up. In the absence of this just accept that a lot of people have grown up on thin watery commercial beers, so they don't really aspire to anything else when they're chucking their white sugar into the fermenter.

It reminds me a bit of the home bread making market where people just go and buy a bread kit, dump it in their breadmaker and make a loaf without understanding what the bread making process actually is. Homebrew kits can, to a certain extent, promote this same type of home made ignorance, as you take a part in the production process but you actually may be unaware of the process as a whole. This is where the desire to learn comes in and some people simply don't want to go beyond what they already know.

 

[Fents]

But there are lots of folk who don't want to know about Belgian Trappist Ales or Boutique Honey Wheat Beers, they just want to save a few bucks and do a peasant kit and kilo by boiling the kettle and chucking in the kit and a kilo of homebrand white sugar.

Thats the thing though, im not even into stouts, belgians even dark ales really i just brew simple Pale ales and now pilnsners really, although as someone else said up there i do also enjoy knowing how beer is created..

Brew on and drink the kind of beer you enjoy! :super: :chug:

 

[boingk]

I second letting people brew the beer they enjoy...but also in informed choices: which the masses clearly don't have in abundance.

Myself, I like to learn things as I go along, and am VERY willing to take advice from people. That said, AG may be the proverbial ducks guts, but i can't see myself going there unless its in BIAB form.

Extract and the odd advanced kit seem like a good place to be right now for me :beerbang:

 

[Tony]

"Wow there was lots of flavour in that one! Which can did you use for that one?...

:lol: i have come across soooooooo many of them. You tell them you brew and offer to swap a bottle. you give them a bottle of award winning beer and get a coopers lager brewed with packet yeast at 28 deg on the veranda in the sun.

one fella i worked with (an old cocky and a Kiwi too) heard along the grape vine i was brewing and won a few awards. He aproached me (oh i wish you could meet him..... he had a few teeth left was scared all over from working in the sun all his life and a BIIIIG very old floppy acubra hat. He was a top bloke) about brewing and asked me what kit i made. I dont i said i use barley and mash it.

"You WHAT?" he said.

I explained for half an hour and he said that it sounded tops. I drove home...... only 5 min away..... and grabed him a bottle of my AG tooheys old clone and a bottle of the AUssie Pale Ale that got 1st in class at the state comp. He gave me a bottle of his K+K tooheys draught kit.

I tried his and was suprised to find it was drinkable, over gassed but clean, thin and flavourless

I saw him a week later and told him his beer was good, better than most would make and he was chuffed.

He told me he shared my beers with his best mate while they were cooking a BBQ on the weekend. His mate wanted to know where i lived so he could come and see if i wanted to sell what i had in stock. Mothers milk he reconed.

I got him started using malt and dextrose, S-04 (pre US-56), racking and bulk priming instead of the lollies.

he was chuffed.

Goes to show that some old horses will be helped to drink better beer. Its a rare one though. HE actually was the type to look deeper into things..... he went deep into composting and improving his vegies, he had that drive to do better. thats what it takes.

It reminds me a bit of the home bread making market where people just go and buy a bread kit, dump it in their breadmaker and make a loaf without understanding what the bread making process actually is. Homebrew kits can, to a certain extent, promote this same type of home made ignorance, as you take a part in the production process but you actually may be unaware of the process as a whole. This is where the desire to learn comes in and some people simply don't want to go beyond what they already know.

Very true and well said. it backs up my rant above.

I also had a fella i worked with (young fella, 30 year old, smart, driven person) that drank nothing but pilsner cause beer had to be as pale and low flavour as posible. HE astually was proud to tell me that he didnt like beer he could taste. He firmented in a freezer with a 100W light bulb mounted in it.

"holds it at 27 to 29 deg......... done in 2 days, bottle and dring in 3 more........... brewing your own is tops hey "

mmmmmmmmmm its a worry

cheers

 

[matti]

I say, Everytime I go to the local brew shop, I stop and talk to the man.
Just the other week he said to me how it baffles him how shy people are about asking him of advice.
I said in a jokingly fashion that it is probably not him, but his advice is driven by the $$'s and he wasn't to be blamed.
We then got talking about his business, and he said that most home brewer are really stingy in spending money. I responded in how true, and spent $36 for my next 2 brew and we both had a hardy laugh about it.

Though I must say that a friend of mine which I am about to visit soon brew his beer with kit from k-mart and brown sugar. They are reasonable because he keeps them clean these days. But he has absolute no interest in spending $5 or $10 to improve his kits so I generally bring my own and we are both happy.

This thing doesn't bother me, because brewing is a hobby after all and he is brewing at a level that pleases him.

It was only a couple of years ago, I was beaming after I managed to brew a Kit of Aussie bitter with a brew enhancer and S-04.


Thank god for Grumpy's and the SA fellows who led me in the right direction LOL

I think the two biggest inspiration were, you Tony and GT.

(Can I change my avatar status to "Another Frequent Poster" rather then BEER GOD?

matti

 

[PistolPatch]

Nice post Matti - Tony and GT will like that. Donya.

Kit-brewing has me buggered...

You know that tasting kit-brewers beer inspired me to home-brew, not once but twice!

Their beers were tops! That was years ago and I gave up twice trying to duplicate their efforts.

I reckon kit-brewing is the hardet brewing of all.

InCider has the knack and he just brews pretty much in the wild (he'll tell you that - no sanitisation and no temp-control!) and Old_dog can brew a kit with bugger-all twang. These four have me buggered!

Anyway, to you buggers that brew kits well, thanks (well sort of ) for getting me into this hobby.

Spot ya,
Pat

 

[Tony]

Cheers matti, glad i have made a difference to your brewing.

GT was my mentor when i was starting out. Hell i still chat with him about beer, brewing and whatever. I have never met him but im sure i will one day. someone that inspires and helps you so much is worth meeting at laest once in your life and i do owe a lot to GT. I have worked out heaps from others here and by myself (which i try to pass on to you lot) but GT got me started, he set me on the path of "quality brewing methods", not just brewing beer to make beer.

I wanted something more and i have it on tap when i get it all right.

Unfortunatly for my family and friends who like drinking my beer, i like to experiment, which means the odd dodgy, yucky or outragous beer but thats life

they can live with it........ i do

cheers

 

[matti]

Awesome Tony.
Recieved a pm from the man not long ago and in my opinion his a farkink Foof/leg end.
Cheers for all the beer and as you said it would be awesome to meet the great GT and yourself for that matter.
I hope your property held up in the wet mate.
Keep posting it's just great to hear from people that are heppy about what they are about. you know what i mean.
By the wey your spelling still suck hehehehe

 

[Tony]

:chug:

gees tjanks matr

no pronlems

amy tine rice gulls



sheers

 

[jimmylt]

Best topic i've read in ages guys. It was like i could see my future layed out in front of me (lol), as i have been doing basic K & K's for a couple of years, and was starting to wonder if i would be stuck doing them for ever.
Thats the main reason i went surfing the net and found this site, to find out more about it.
However, the more i read, the more daunted and confused i get.
I'm ready to take the next step, but don't really know what my next move is. My HBS guy is a bit funny and talks in circles.
Don't know if i'll ever get into all-grain but i am definetely ready to try something.
Would love some feedback from others as to what my next step should be, as i'm sure most of you were in my position at some stage.
Please explain it simply though, cos i get confused easily with all the terms you guys use. some basic instructions would see me on my way.

I'd love to get into kegging as well, but i wonder if the benefits outway the cost. i dont mind investing in some gear, but man, the cost of the gas seems excessive for sitting at home drinking a few pots. i've got plenty of room for bottles and don't mind the cleaning and bottling as much as some of you guys seem to loathe it.

Cheers guys.

 

[Thommo]

Jimmylt,

Best advice is to watch someone else do a brew and go from there. Really takes away alot of the mystery. Fill in your location and someone nearby will no doubt let you come over for a brew day.

Cheers,
Thommo

 

[yardy]

I took a few bottles of an AG APA out to work and shared them with an old bloke one night in the camp, he liked and asked how i made it etc, showed him a couple of pics on my phone of the brewrig and explained the process.

He's ordered the steel and is on the lookout for some kegs etc, as soon as he's got all the gear i'm going to build it for him and he's going straight into AG, he's never brewed a drop in his life.
He's building a shed/house and is already working out where the Bar is going.

Yard

 

[Bobby]

hahaha - give him a month or two and he will have racked up 500 or so messages on AHB too.

 

[Brewer_010]

I'd love to get into kegging as well, but i wonder if the benefits outway the cost. i dont mind investing in some gear, but man, the cost of the gas seems excessive for sitting at home drinking a few pots. i've got plenty of room for bottles and don't mind the cleaning and bottling as much as some of you guys seem to loathe it.

Cheers guys.

Jimmy

I would certainly recommend kegging, maybe start off with hiring a cylinder for a year and buy one or two kegs to see if you're into it. Kegging can be as expensive as you want it. My system started small (2 kegs) and grew over a couple of years. I now have 5 kegs and usually run two or three at a time. Kegs are simpler and u get more consistent tasting beer, and there really is something special about pulling a pint from your own system.... :chug: especially for new guests.
My 9Kg gas bottle ($200 new, $40 to fill) lasts me around 18 months but I don't go thru beer as fast as others maybe
Cheers