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m3taL Brewer's Journey into brewing!!

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10 years 11 months ago #574 by m3taL_Brewer
m3taL Brewer's Journey into brewing!! was created by m3taL_Brewer
Well i thought it might be time to share my story with people and let you all know how easy it is to go from a New brewer to making nice beer easily and cheaply.

First a bit about me

I'm 30 from Melbourne VIC AU, Iv got a large family of 5 kids and iv always enjoyed a brew, the missus likes a cold one here n there as well. For years iv been buying beer ususally a 6 pack here n there the odd slab or two when iv got mates over or family visiting.

I had a mate who was a brewer, and i visited him a few years ago and seen his setup, along with the process and he made it seem so technical and it was hard for me to get my head around making beer, I never sort of looked into it again.

My Brewing Start up
It come down to the point when i decided i need something to do, an outlet from work and kids... i tried golf and all i wanted to do was get to the end to have a beer.... I spoke to the missus about making some beer and she was a bit hesident to start with but i went and got a kit from Grain and Grape in Yarraville and had a crack.

My first beer got infected because i was opening the lid, Moving it around, trying to find that "Spot" to keep it at temp..... I quickly asked around for anyone who had an old fridge that i could tinker with, so i got one for free and that then gave my beers somewhere to stay at temp.

My 2nd beer was terrible, as i didnt have my fridge yet it went between 18-24c it was a mecican cerveza ended up tasting like soda water with about 2 drops of beer in it.... I drank it though....

3rd brew was another kit the coopers pale ale and it was drinkable but it was still just that homebrew taste.... so i thought to myself i need to get into Extract brewing...

The next Step

Using my Stove top pot 9lt and some hops and crystal malt along with dried light malt and dried wheat malt i took that next step and made some extract beer... It was Insane, still to this day my favorite beer id ever made..... and iv now adapted the recipe to an all grain beer that i call Jamo's Pale Ale or JPA.

This lead me to want to do more, so i got an old esky and made it a Mashtun, got a bigger pot 35l and got into all grain.... I done a Brew in a Bag while it was easy and worked well i wasnt very impressed with it so i made the mash tun with a plan i found online using uPVC which is cheap to make and works very well.

iv now adapted my brew pot into an electric brew pot, iv got a hot liqiour tun for heating my Strike/Sparge waters and im slowly streamlining the whole process.

Yay the end!!! :)

The main things you need to take into account when brewing;
-Find a community to talk to, and take on all advice and use what works for you, Some brewers have a closed mind and their way is the only way of brewing and no other way works.

-Have fun with it.... Find some local brewers in you area organise brew days and make it a worhtwhile Hobby that brings as much enjoyment to you as it can.

-Experiment with things... thats how iv built my system, keep an eye out at markets for pots and other vessels that could help, a good selection of clean food grade buckets are very handy on brew day.

-Take your time.... it takes a while to make good beer, Drink the bad beer and work out what went wrong, Slowly build your system up, you can start out kitting, move to partial boil, full boil then mini mashing, to full mashing and right upto 3v brewing.... each step will give you a new experience

I hope i can share my experiences with others because iv had the time of my life building up my brewery and i just love brewing.

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Drunken Ramblings

Finnroo's Avatar Finnroo - Fri 2 Jun - 16:22

Kit Brew Day Tomorrow, Black Rock Pale ale and number 40 larger brew enhancer by mangrove jacks. And possibly some honey. Yeast US05 ??

Finnroo's Avatar Finnroo - Fri 22 Jul - 12:19

3 weeks into dry July and going strong, im on the homeward stretch.

Finnroo's Avatar Finnroo - Wed 15 Jun - 13:39

If anyone has trouble logging on , clear your computer with CCleaner or similar and youll be able to log on. Cheers

Finnroo's Avatar Finnroo - Sun 29 May - 08:09

lol

SkidBaxter's Avatar SkidBaxter - Sat 28 May - 15:27

Brewing a familiar Dark Mild later today. (hint: Was the bastard tired? Or was he run over by a tire (tyre). No one really knows). One thing for sure. It will be a treat when done. Cheers!

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