Your best excuse for not going AG

[Ducatiboy stu]

. I'm stuck living with parents while i finish my degrees.

Living the <insert politician> dream

10 REM Politics and beer are a bad combination
20 if not Labour GOTO 30
30 If not Liberal GOTO 20

 

[Kingy]

Turn the tv off its toxic. Get down the shed and get creative and use your brain instead of making excuses while being hypnotized by the square box.
My latest creative ideas are some thermals to wear outside on cold nights so i can still do things when i get home and its dark and cold and gum boots so i don't get wet cold feet when cleaning brew related things. The smallest things just to make the day more enjoyable.
Money is definately an excuse for upgrades but picking up little things along the way is better as you get to study up longer on what you really want need.

 

[Matplat]

On my last brew, I was weighing up doing it BIAB split between two pots as that is the equipment I have at the moment.

However I decided to stick with extract for two reasons

1) I have 13kg DME in stock
2) Even if I were to buy the grain in bulk, the cost of the grain is not much less than using all DME i.e. $13 for grain vs $16.50 for DME, add on top of that the extra time taken and the fact that the brew in question tastes awesome anyway. It's hard to justify.

That being said, I'm fairly sure that I will end up doing AG at some point, it seems like a lot of fun.... maybe when my two month old is less demanding!

 

[Killer Brew]

I can't find a good excuse not to AG and I'm well along the way to being there with a number of partials under my belt. Am looking around now for a bigger pot so I can BIAB then it will be game on. Slightly OT but the one change I can't seem to justify to myself is moving from bottling to kegging....that **** be expensive!

 

[quantum8]

Lack of space here.

Probably something to do with having too many other hobbies that demand space!

 

[Matplat]

I can't find a good excuse not to AG and I'm well along the way to being there with a number of partials under my belt. Am looking around now for a bigger pot so I can BIAB then it will be game on. Slightly OT but the one change I can't seem to justify to myself is moving from bottling to kegging....that **** be expensive!

this looks like a good option:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-COMMERCIAL56L-STAINLESS-STEEL-STOCK-POT-SAUCE-SET-/171784346667?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Yeah I am not much for kegs. Prefer bottles. If I have a few brews under my belt then it means I have a wider selection to choose from, rather than having to have just what is in the keg(s)

 

[pcmfisher]

K&K makes better beer. h34r:

 

[Killer Brew]

this looks like a good option:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-COMMERCIAL56L-STAINLESS-STEEL-STOCK-POT-SAUCE-SET-/171784346667?

Wowser! Thanks for that. I wonder if the walls are strong enough to add a tap.

 

[Yob]

On my last brew, I was weighing up doing it BIAB split between two pots as that is the equipment I have at the moment.

However I decided to stick with extract for two reasons

1) I have 13kg DME in stock
2) Even if I were to buy the grain in bulk, the cost of the grain is not much less than using all DME i.e. $13 for grain vs $16.50 for DME, add on top of that the extra time taken and the fact that the brew in question tastes awesome anyway. It's hard to justify.

That being said, I'm fairly sure that I will end up doing AG at some point, it seems like a lot of fun.... maybe when my two month old is less demanding!

buying grain by the sack (25kg) is vastly cheaper than the equivalent DME

 

[Tahoose]

so my best excuse for not going AG will most likely be - it's just really tricky to mash in, get to the AA meeting and then get back in time for the boil. :lol:

You need to looks at a semi automated setup haha go HERMs!

 

[pist]

There's a couple of reasons I can think of why some might not want to venture into AG.
Time, cost of setup (things like stock pots and burners or even urns are not cheap if your aiming to go full volume) and space I think are all valid reasons.
I went AG as I just couldn't produce a beer that I was happy drinking, even after mucking about with steeping grains and hops.
Haven't looked back since. There are ways to address the time constraint issue though. Jump straight into double batches with no chilling and this gets you more beer for the same amount of time invested = less brewing.

 

[Matplat]

buying grain by the sack (25kg) is vastly cheaper than the equivalent DME

Can you back that up with actual figures? I've read people saying the cost of grain is $7-8 for a brew and I've looked into sourcing it to get that cost but the best I can come up with is this:

To achieve let's say a 1.050 wort you use around 5kg of ale malt? (i'm guessing here as I obviously don't AG) and to keep things cheap I'l use barrett burston ale malt bought for $65 from my LHBS per 25kg sack which works out to $13.

In the other corner I've bought 20kg DME from Ross for $110 of which I need approx 3kg to get to 1.050 which costs $16.50.

If it can be done significantly cheaper, please enlighten me as I would love to add weight to the argument for going AG!

Cheers, Matt

 

[Yob]

Sure I can.. Quality of the wort aside from DME V's Grain extract.. and thats a big aside IMO... it really does depend a great deal on the grains you buy, sure, JW goes for what? $45 a sack.. $9 for a base beer.

Its not really about that though for me, I step mash and can target any sort of wort I like with bugger all stuffing about or changing any process other than adjusting a digital temperature controller, I rarely use any spec malts, I can mostly get what I want from a mash and boil, except of course for darker styles. I tend to only buy by the sack these days for base malts, specialties I'll still get by the kilo if I'm doing something like a black IPA or a RIS or whatever I cant do with a mash / boil profile.

It was one of the reasons I jumped right into AG from Kits and bits, I was doing partials anyway and the step wasn't a large one.. well.. ok.. the step to HERMS was a decent one, but more so just in my understanding than anything else and since I had the desire to make better wort/beer, it was easily justifiable, I kept doing my partials (which were a pretty damn fine drop in their own right as I recall) while I built my rig and my understanding of process.

as said before, I still throw the odd kit brew in.. experiments etc.. turns out fine (if lacking a little body)

 

[Matplat]

Hmmmm, they key point there is that you're able to buy grain for $20 per sack less than I am... i may yet make the jump but i think the main reason to do so will be to remove limitations on what i can brew. I would love to make an Oktoberfest but can't get no Munich extract at a reasonable price!

 

[Markbeer]

I all grain. But all graining once started can be a slippery slope.

Biggest excuse for not going AG is the beer variety you can make is that large, the quality that high that temptation can ultimately get the better of you.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I all grain. But all graining once started can be a slippery slope.

Biggest excuse for not going AG is the beer variety you can make is that large, the quality that high that temptation can ultimately get the better of you.

NEVER

 

[Goose]

where I live , malt costs 7$ /kg and hops cost $180 /kg.

why would I do AG ?

 

[slcmorro]

Jeepers. Where do you live?

 

[Yob]

Singapore?