Home Brew

General Gibberish Forums The Dog's Breakfast
1

I don't drink beer anymore.  I am gluten free, not by choice.  I have been thinking about doing home brew again, I had a Coopers kit around the turn of the century and my first batch was nice, the second was crap and I lost patience.

 

I briefly looked over the ingredients in a couple of home brews and I think maybe I will be ok as one had as part of its recipe dextrose (something I avoid as it is usually derived from wheat) but that you could substitute sugar for dextrose.  There were not many other ingredients that I usually avoid.

 

So I was wondering what other Blitzers do regarding home brew?  Any personal successes or failures?   I saw two brands of home brew, Coopers and Brigalow.  I am looking at the $$$ I can save a bit too. 

 

Ginger Beer (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) can also be made from at least the Brigalow kit.

 

Mods I hope this topic could/should be distinct from the beer thread and that they can happily co-exist.

2

If you are truly gluten free then unfortuantly beer or even homebrew is not for you as you should know.

 

You can get sourghum extract from some homebrew shops that you can make homebrew with.

 

There are two brands of gluten free beer which you can buy off the shelves, one company is o'briens and the other is billabong, both of these should be available at your local dan murphy's.

 

if you are seriously considering making gluten free homebrew then have a really good search of this site - www.aussiehomebrewer.com

 

That site above is possibly the most knowledgeable and has most answers for you, gluten free or not there is an absolutle wealth of knowledge on there.

 

There are basically 3 way to make beer - 1. Kit and Kilo (coopers and brigalow kits like you have discussed). 2. Extract (you make beer from malt extract, can be liquid extract or dried malt extract). 3. All grain (making the sweet unfermented wort from crushed barley/malt/wheat)

 

Number 1 option will tatse OK to a VB or Carlton Draught drinker

Number 2 will taste OK to most beer drinkers

Number 3 will taste fantastic to ANY beer drinker and your mates will never leave your house ever again.

 

Its a steep learning curve but once learned you will have an artisan craft that you will carry for you with the rest of your life.

 

I've been brewing for 15+ years, only brew all grain, have a 100Litre fully customised aautomatic brewery, run a fridge with 3 beer taps at home and own over 13 homebrew kegs! It sucks you right in but i love the craft.

3

If you are truly gluten free then unfortuantly beer or even homebrew is not for you as you should know.

 

You can get sourghum extract from some homebrew shops that you can make homebrew with.

 

There are two brands of gluten free beer which you can buy off the shelves, one company is o'briens and the other is billabong, both of these should be available at your local dan murphy's.

 

if you are seriously considering making gluten free homebrew then have a really good search of this site - www.aussiehomebrewer.com

 

That site above is possibly the most knowledgeable and has most answers for you, gluten free or not there is an absolutle wealth of knowledge on there.

 

There are basically 3 way to make beer - 1. Kit and Kilo (coopers and brigalow kits like you have discussed). 2. Extract (you make beer from malt extract, can be liquid extract or dried malt extract). 3. All grain (making the sweet unfermented wort from crushed barley/malt/wheat)

 

Number 1 option will tatse OK to a VB or Carlton Draught drinker

Number 2 will taste OK to most beer drinkers

Number 3 will taste fantastic to ANY beer drinker and your mates will never leave your house ever again.

 

Its a steep learning curve but once learned you will have an artisan craft that you will carry for you with the rest of your life.

 

I've been brewing for 15+ years, only brew all grain, have a 100Litre fully customised aautomatic brewery, run a fridge with 3 beer taps at home and own over 13 homebrew kegs! It sucks you right in but i love the craft.

Where do you live?  I have a full tank of fuel and the car is warming up; I will be around as soon as I get the GPS input.

4

if we win the flag this year mate i'll be at the after party with a keg strapped to my back pouring endless beers ;-)

5

Thanks Fents.  I am not technically GF, I may be now but I was tested in 2003 and I was high on one test and 'normal' on the other...

6

I did that one year for exams. Did worse in the one I was sober for.

7

Pretty sure I've had some of Fent's beers in some of the AHB case swaps. I can vouch for his work.

8

If you are truly gluten free then unfortuantly beer or even homebrew is not for you as you should know.

 

You can get sourghum extract from some homebrew shops that you can make homebrew with.

 

There are two brands of gluten free beer which you can buy off the shelves, one company is o'briens and the other is billabong, both of these should be available at your local dan murphy's.

 

if you are seriously considering making gluten free homebrew then have a really good search of this site - www.aussiehomebrewer.com

 

That site above is possibly the most knowledgeable and has most answers for you, gluten free or not there is an absolutle wealth of knowledge on there.

 

There are basically 3 way to make beer - 1. Kit and Kilo (coopers and brigalow kits like you have discussed). 2. Extract (you make beer from malt extract, can be liquid extract or dried malt extract). 3. All grain (making the sweet unfermented wort from crushed barley/malt/wheat)

 

Number 1 option will tatse OK to a VB or Carlton Draught drinker

Number 2 will taste OK to most beer drinkers

Number 3 will taste fantastic to ANY beer drinker and your mates will never leave your house ever again.

 

Its a steep learning curve but once learned you will have an artisan craft that you will carry for you with the rest of your life.

 

I've been brewing for 15+ years, only brew all grain, have a 100Litre fully customised aautomatic brewery, run a fridge with 3 beer taps at home and own over 13 homebrew kegs! It sucks you right in but i love the craft.

To be honest options 2 & 3 sound a bit tricky for me, but I will have a look at www.aussiehomebrewer.com and see what I can find out.  Thanks again Fents.

 

EDIT: I am a little confused by the two bolded statements though.

9

 

If you are truly gluten free then unfortuantly beer or even homebrew is not for you as you should know.

 

You can get sourghum extract from some homebrew shops that you can make homebrew with.

 

There are two brands of gluten free beer which you can buy off the shelves, one company is o'briens and the other is billabong, both of these should be available at your local dan murphy's.

 

if you are seriously considering making gluten free homebrew then have a really good search of this site - www.aussiehomebrewer.com

 

That site above is possibly the most knowledgeable and has most answers for you, gluten free or not there is an absolutle wealth of knowledge on there.

 

There are basically 3 way to make beer - 1. Kit and Kilo (coopers and brigalow kits like you have discussed). 2. Extract (you make beer from malt extract, can be liquid extract or dried malt extract). 3. All grain (making the sweet unfermented wort from crushed barley/malt/wheat)

 

Number 1 option will tatse OK to a VB or Carlton Draught drinker

Number 2 will taste OK to most beer drinkers

Number 3 will taste fantastic to ANY beer drinker and your mates will never leave your house ever again.

 

Its a steep learning curve but once learned you will have an artisan craft that you will carry for you with the rest of your life.

 

I've been brewing for 15+ years, only brew all grain, have a 100Litre fully customised aautomatic brewery, run a fridge with 3 beer taps at home and own over 13 homebrew kegs! It sucks you right in but i love the craft.

To be honest options 2 & 3 sound a bit tricky for me, but I will have a look at www.aussiehomebrewer.com and see what I can find out.  Thanks again Fents.

 

EDIT: I am a little confused by the two bolded statements though.

 

http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/glutenfreegrains/f/Is-Barley-Gluten-Free-Or-Does-Barley-Contain-Gluten.htm

 

Barley contains gluten. 99.9% of beers contain barley.

10

Is it expensive Fents? Obviously all the apparatus but purely making the beer now you're set up, is it cheap as?

11

Is it expensive Fents? Obviously all the apparatus but purely making the beer now you're set up, is it cheap as?

I can brew 22 litres of beer with top quality barley and plenty of hops for less than $30. And it's top shelf beer. Sometimes I'll do a "big" beer (i.e. 10% or greater alcohol) or something with crazy amounts of hops and the costs go up, but even then. Say I brew a barley wine I might spend $50 on ingredients. A bottle of barleywine starts @ $10.

 

All grain brewing is cheap, once you're setup. It can even be pretty cheap to setup, although if you're like me you'll soon develop a stainless steel addiction and then the costs can start adding up. And you can brew ANYTHING. I've brewed lambic style beers, ridiculously hoppy IIPA's, strong belgian beers, ice distilled beers...

 

Extract brewing is ■■■■■■ expensive and I don't recommend it to anyone. It's a lot of work, expensive, and if you have the gear to do proper extract you have the gear to do simple all-grain.

 

Kit brewing is cheap as hell, but you don't have the flexibility and control of the other methods.

 

Myself, I have an all-grain brewery I've been building for the last 4 years. Every couple of months I buy a new toy for it. But the brewery 4 years ago was capable of brewing beer just as good as the brewery of today, I just like shiny things. I've also got a freezer that I have converted to allow it to store kegs. It will store 5 kegs + gas, served from 3 taps.

12

 

Is it expensive Fents? Obviously all the apparatus but purely making the beer now you're set up, is it cheap as?

I can brew 22 litres of beer with top quality barley and plenty of hops for less than $30. And it's top shelf beer. Sometimes I'll do a "big" beer (i.e. 10% or greater alcohol) or something with crazy amounts of hops and the costs go up, but even then. Say I brew a barley wine I might spend $50 on ingredients. A bottle of barleywine starts @ $10.

 

All grain brewing is cheap, once you're setup. It can even be pretty cheap to setup, although if you're like me you'll soon develop a stainless steel addiction and then the costs can start adding up. And you can brew ANYTHING. I've brewed lambic style beers, ridiculously hoppy IIPA's, strong belgian beers, ice distilled beers...

 

Extract brewing is ■■■■■■ expensive and I don't recommend it to anyone. It's a lot of work, expensive, and if you have the gear to do proper extract you have the gear to do simple all-grain.

 

Kit brewing is cheap as hell, but you don't have the flexibility and control of the other methods.

 

Myself, I have an all-grain brewery I've been building for the last 4 years. Every couple of months I buy a new toy for it. But the brewery 4 years ago was capable of brewing beer just as good as the brewery of today, I just like shiny things. I've also got a freezer that I have converted to allow it to store kegs. It will store 5 kegs + gas, served from 3 taps.

 

how much has your brewery equipment cost to date?

13

 

 

Is it expensive Fents? Obviously all the apparatus but purely making the beer now you're set up, is it cheap as?

I can brew 22 litres of beer with top quality barley and plenty of hops for less than $30. And it's top shelf beer. Sometimes I'll do a "big" beer (i.e. 10% or greater alcohol) or something with crazy amounts of hops and the costs go up, but even then. Say I brew a barley wine I might spend $50 on ingredients. A bottle of barleywine starts @ $10.

 

All grain brewing is cheap, once you're setup. It can even be pretty cheap to setup, although if you're like me you'll soon develop a stainless steel addiction and then the costs can start adding up. And you can brew ANYTHING. I've brewed lambic style beers, ridiculously hoppy IIPA's, strong belgian beers, ice distilled beers...

 

Extract brewing is ■■■■■■ expensive and I don't recommend it to anyone. It's a lot of work, expensive, and if you have the gear to do proper extract you have the gear to do simple all-grain.

 

Kit brewing is cheap as hell, but you don't have the flexibility and control of the other methods.

 

Myself, I have an all-grain brewery I've been building for the last 4 years. Every couple of months I buy a new toy for it. But the brewery 4 years ago was capable of brewing beer just as good as the brewery of today, I just like shiny things. I've also got a freezer that I have converted to allow it to store kegs. It will store 5 kegs + gas, served from 3 taps.

 

how much has your brewery equipment cost to date?

 

I've gotten a lot of freebies, including pots, fermenters, a fermenting fridge... And somethings like the ball valves and camlocks aren't essential, but...

 

Burner - $100

Ball valves + camlock fittings - $150

Mashtun (esky, thermometer + copper pipes which i made into a manifold) - $160

Hot Liquor Tun (pot, heating element) - $100

Kettle (a big pot) - $50

Temperature controllers (i've got a few, plus various probes) - $120

Refractometer and hydrometer - $60

 

Fermenters are cheap. Say $30 (never paid for one)

If you're bottling you'll need:

- Bench capper. $40 ish. Don't get a hand/hammer capper, they suck. Or just go plastic coopers bottles and forget this. Seriously, the plastic coopers bottles are great.

- Bottling wand. No idea. couple of bucks?

 

My keg setup...

- Freezer: $500. I use a temperature controller to get degree perfect temps. The temp controller get's part time use in the brewery as well

- Wood for sleeve: Free (brother worked in hardwood mill)

- Taps: $230 each. You can get them A LOT cheaper. I went top of the line Celli's

- Plumbing... $100ish

- CO2 bottle: $200

- Kegs: around $60 each. I've got... umm..7? 8? dunno...

- Filter: $130

 

My keg setup was expensive. You can do it a LOT cheaper. And kegging is AWESOME. Save so much time. I filter it also to get consistency but many don't.

 

When I first moved to all grain, i did it all using a cloth bag, a $20 big w pot (20l) and an element from an old kitchen kettle. The various upgrades to the brewery have made it much easier to brew, and allowed me to do bigger batches and stronger beers, but the quality of the beer is only better now because I'm a better brewer, not because i have a better brewery.

 

If you join a community like AHB too, there are heaps of hand-me-downs on offer. I scored a free fridge for controlling my fermentation which made the single biggest improvement to my beer of everything I've done. There is always people giving away or practically giving away good gear.

 

The coopers kits you can buy at k-mart that contain everything you need are a good place to start. If you really like beer though, all-grain let's you make stuff better than you can buy. Or at least, better than MOST stuff you can buy. Those crazy Belgians make some amazing stuff that I can still only aspire to...

 

If you're considering starting, I'm happy to give you a list of things and how/where to get them to get you started

14

Pretty sure I've had some of Fent's beers in some of the AHB case swaps. I can vouch for his work.

Ahhh zebba i didnt know you were a bomber boy! nice one mate.

15

Is it expensive Fents? Obviously all the apparatus but purely making the beer now you're set up, is it cheap as?

VERY Cheap once you are setup.

 

I make 68Litres each brew. Each 68L brew costs me about $70.

 

There is 9L in a slab of 375ml cans or stubbies and what a slab costs about $45 these day's? So 2 slabs is $90 and it only amounts to 18L's.....Im making 68L (7.5 slabs) for $70 of the best quality beer you can drink!

16

 

Is it expensive Fents? Obviously all the apparatus but purely making the beer now you're set up, is it cheap as?

VERY Cheap once you are setup.

 

I make 68Litres each brew. Each 68L brew costs me about $70.

 

There is 9L in a slab of 375ml cans or stubbies and what a slab costs about $45 these day's? So 2 slabs is $90 and it only amounts to 18L's.....Im making 68L (7.5 slabs) for $70 of the best quality beer you can drink!

 

:o

17

Home brewed for many years now, had excellent results from Muntons brand canned wort, the wheat beer in particular.

 

Using raw sugar or a kilo of a mates Manuka honey for variants & brewing with no additional sugars for a light version.

 

 

 

Cost is around 25c per stubbie.

 

Would be keen on any info as to how to add some extra hops into the mix for some more flavour experiments though.

 

One day when I have the time, would love to go the whole hog and set up for full grain, but til then the KISS rule works well.

18

You would have had to have paid me to brew a beer before going to this thread, now all I want to do is do it hahaha. Funds are an issue I might look into it next summer uni hols as a project. Is it hard to make a good drop? Do you just get other peoples recipes at first then move onto creating your own?

19

Home brewed for many years now, had excellent results from Muntons brand canned wort, the wheat beer in particular.

 

Using raw sugar or a kilo of a mates Manuka honey for variants & brewing with no additional sugars for a light version.

 

 

 

Cost is around 25c per stubbie.

 

Would be keen on any info as to how to add some extra hops into the mix for some more flavour experiments though.

 

One day when I have the time, would love to go the whole hog and set up for full grain, but til then the KISS rule works well.

I don't brew wheat beers so can't comment on those. Hate them myself. If you are planning to brew any other beers in the near future, let me know what it is and I'll give you some tips.