While he rest of the world has been agonising over Covid, I have ….. been making beer.
On tap at the moment, and I generally only make on tap beer, I have 1) the best Pilsner I have ever tasted, 2) an incredible Pale Ale , 3) a good NZ IPA, 4) a really good apple cider, 5) a Kveik semi -lager (not my favorite), 6) a doppelbock (yummy), 6) a Trappist clone getting better every day, 7) a dark lager (oh boy oh boy!), and underway a large batch of Aussie lager for the neighbors who have taste buds of Neanderthals. At least they won’t guzzle the good stuff, which they would do and never know the difference, swine that they are.
Australia is at the cutting edge of home brew – we are arguably the best in the world at it. The BIAB technique was invented here, and I use BIABasket, another Aussie innovation. I brew in 6 gallon and 15 gallon batch sizes. I have 7 taps on the go at all times. I brew all grain, and I brew under pressure. My wife and I built a system from scratch. I have had one batch oxidise, but otherwise, all have lasted the distance. My missus, an honest woman, says I am yet to make a bad batch. She would be quick to say otherwise.
I transitioned from extract brewer (kits), to kits plus specialty grain and hops, and now I brew all grain. I am a rank amateur compared to some folks, but I have pretty good gear, and am getting the hang of it.
The neighbors scoffed when I started “home brew” – they had experienced some very total crap home brew, as had I. Mostly because people tried to bottle home brew – which is hard without proper gear. They scoffed when I called commercial beer shite, after getting better at the craft. They are scoffing no more, coming mug in hand whenever possible these days. Commercial beer is indeed shite. No kidding. My beer is always better than whatever swill the commercial breweries are selling, and almost always better than the craft breweries. I had a friend proudly offer up a commercial craft IPA, which was ok. I offered up in response my IPA. Holy shite was his response.
I study the history of home brew. I particularly am interested in the history of Norwegian home brew, where “Kveik” – locally developed ancient yeast and the brewing tradition associated with it – is of special interest.
Here is what I have as gear: 2 2.5 gallon pressure fermenters, a 10 gallon pressure fermenter, a 15 gallon fermenter, a 25 .gallon brew in a basket brewing system, a 15 gallon brewing system, a glycol chiller system for holding fermenter temperatures, kegs of all sizes, measuring equipment (ph, gravity, etc.), 7 tap system, grain mills, gas and electric burners, temperature controlling systems, various scales, etc. That is more than is what is required, but if it is worth doing, it is worth overdoing,
If anyone wants to get into brewing gear, I would recommend skipping all the way to all grain brewing. Get a pressure fermenter, a grain mill, and a cheap all in one brewing system ( similar to a Grainfather, but cheaper) and a used fridge (if you do not have one) and you are in business, and if you drink beer, the payback will be short indeed, and the beer will be better than store bought swill. A brew in a bag system is cheap indeed.
Cheers!
Did you see what happened at Founders when they spoke some truth à few years ago?
I don’t make malt liquor. Colt 45 has never passed my lips. Good beer is wasted on some cultures.
It’s great isn’t it?
We’ve been pressing apples this month and making hard cider from different apples, have really nice batch of peaches/plums fermenting old school style- just the fruit and yeast. Slaughtered a couple of hogs yesterday and the neighbor who helped cooked up some pork belly and the tenderloins with a tamarind and hot pepper glaze for dinner that was out of this world. Then we sat around the fire under a clear sky with the Moon rising from the East and enjoyed the company.
There is nothing outside of a Michelin starred restaurant that even comes close to what you can make yourself.
If you could recommend some of the components or where you sourced them that would be a huge help, maybe a how to article- we’re still not making beer only mead, wine, ciders, etc.- but would love to have a couple of ales on tap for the younger folks around here.
I would recommend a BIAB system. There are millions of ways. Here is a link with info:
But basically you need a 12 gallon pot, or so, a brew bag, you can buy grain milled, a heat source, a plastic fermenter, a paddle, a means of cooling preferably but not essential (cooler with water in it to set the hot pot will do), a gas bottle and reg, a keg, a fridge to put it in. And some various fittings. Lots of info out there. Wish I could be specific, but there is a wide range of ways to skin this cat.
Thanks for the link. I am only at stage of buying the ingredients separately from a brew store, including grains to put in a brew bag, and brewing myself in a stainless steel tank (not pressurized). I have never had a batch go bad and all were at least good for what they were (NZ IPA and other IPAs are my current preference), but I have had the natural carbonation dissipate from those stopper top bottles after a while. I brew Kombucha and have been cap bottling it and have kept it in bottles for several months and it generates and retrains carbonation excellently. Thinking about trying capped bottles on my next batch of beer to see hot that turns out.
I recommend you look at the newish plastic pressure fermenters. If you have fridge space. Cheap, no more bottling. Bottling is a pain, and has driven many out of the craft.
Thanks, will check them out.
I’m salivating, my bellys growling, and my post covid taste buds are dry as bones right now.
Why must I see such temptations at 0730???
Satan, get thee into a red solo cup!!!
I’m in for it all!!!
What will it ru(i)n me, financially??
I used a red cup tonite. If you have a fridge, and use BIAB, I am guessing $500 – pot, keg, bag, cheap fermenter, a few odds and ends, gas cylinder and regulator. You can find a lot of stuff used, as people upgrade, etc.
A couple quick questions, then comments in another post.
1. Starting with nothing, and going the grain route … roughly, how much will it cost?
2. How long does it take from the time you start the batch to when you can drink it?
3. How difficult, for a beginner, on a scale of 1 – 10? I mean, baking bread is not difficult. One of my most favorite is Irish Soda Bread. “Wow, you made that from scratch?”. Umm, yeah, follow the steps in the recipe, which are easy, and you’re good to go! Is it like that?
4. In the beginning, did you ever fuck up? And can a bad batch kill ya … with all them bacteria fellers in the pot.
5. Does it prevent Covid?
1) All grain I would say $500 if you have a fridge to put the keg in. But as they say in Oz, “ how long is a piece of string?” It is a hobby, and it grows in you. But some folks use it to make the same beer over and over very cheaply, and very tastily. It says them fortunes.
2) ale takes from 1 week and up, but say 2 weeks. I recommend only thinking about ales, as lagers take a long time. Another option is Kveik beer, made from Kveik yeast, the historic Norwegian way. It is faster, tolerates high temps, is tasty as can be.
3) not difficult to make good beer. Seeing as I can do it, anyone can, but great beer is another question, but anything you make will be better than commercial beer by a large margin. Scale of 1-10 say a 4. The Pils I am drinking right now is a great beer by any measure. But basically there is a script to follow, and there are programs that will lead you – I use one called BeerSmith.
4) I never had a bad batch, but I fucked up, and still do. But the beer was always good. Don’t oxidise it, and don’t infect it, and it is rare to get a bad beer. I never have. Never heard of anyone getting sick – hops are a natural antibacterial. And beer has a low PH – and bacteria don’t like such.
5) so far, yes.
By Golly, if You aren’t a Beer Aficionado, I don’t know who is. We could hand You a new nickname ….. “Dr Home Brew”. ~ J Smith
Hear Hear!
There’s NO substitute for Beersmith….
Will be good to hear Llpoh’s take. I am not as advanced as he is but you can get a good stainless steel brew pot and all the related equipment for less than $200 if you do your research to get started on the smaller scale before advancing to where Llpoh is. I have never had a batch go bad so have not died yet!
Didi – have to allow for gas, a keg or two, and fittings. But BIAB is reasonably cheap to get started with.
As you have alluded to, I tend toward the “if it is worth doing, it is worth overdoing” side of things.
I’ve been a home brewer off and on for over 30 years. I went the same route as you. Extract kits, partial mashes and then all-grain. I have not kept up on all the newest equipment and ways to brew so, I’m not familiar with under pressure fermentation.
Until recently, I was using a chest freezer that I had built a cedar “collar” on where I drilled in the front of it and installed 4 taps. (My chest freezer would only accommodate 4 – 5 gallon Cornelius (Corny) kegs. Sitting next to the chiller is a 20lb CO2 tank for dispensing.
Get one of these and it simplifies things. You can pressure transfer right into your corny kegs – no air issues, etc. I expect you have that all under control, but for newbies this is a godsend.
https://www.morebeer.com/products/fermzilla-rounder-30-pressure-brewing-kit.html
Interesting. That does reduce/remove the chances of oxygen introduction.
Very interesting… and out of stock.
Waiting to get unloaded off’n the boat.
Thanks for sharing, love a good beer.
There is more than one supplier and type around.
I want to stress this- anyone who thinks homebrew is swill has not tasted what is currently available. I have not made a single beer that was not better than standard commercial beer. Not one, and no kidding.
This is an ancient craft, and if you keg your beer, it will be excellent. Bottling homebrew is a pain in the ass, and has myriad issues that I won’t go into. There are new plastic pressure fermenters that are fermenters and kegs all in one. If you have a spare fridge, they are cheap, and work great. The beer carbonates itself while fermenting. You still need a gas cylinder, but you don’t have to transfer from fermenter to keg – no chance of bacteria or oxygen spoilage.
Agree with you 100% on the commercial brews. The craft breweries, as you say earlier can be good but doing it yourself is satisfying and less expensive and you may become an expert brewer yourself in the process!
Nice to see a non-covid article.
I have no doubt your beer is awesome. There is hardly anything homemade that isn’t better, by far, than store bought.
I make my own lemon juice … that Real Lemon stuff in the green bottle is crap … mostly water. I just put 7 lemons, including the peel (only removing the seeds), add 1/4 cup water, and blend it in the Vitamix until I have a nice thick yellow sauce, about 2 minutes. I can dilute it later when a recipe calls for lemon juice. Lemme tell ya, adding the real stuff makes a YUGE difference to any recipe. Of course, the best damned lemonade is made with an entire real lemon … and it takes so little work.
I believe I was 5 years old when I got my first miniature German beer mug … holds less than a cup … I still have it … been drinking beer for 60 years now … NEVER got drunk (on beer), not even once.
Dad used to say, a lot, that every bottle of beer adds 10 minutes to your life. I think he really believed that. Dad also never got drunk … on anything.
My uncle’s favorite beer was made with wheat (do you make that) … the brand was Berliner Weiss, iirc. A bubbly beer, like champagne. He would add a shot of raspberry something … Cognac, Schnapps, I don’t remember … but whatever it was the beer immediately started foaming, a lot! I thought that was pretty cool, like a science experiment, and it didn’t taste bad either.
CHEERS!!!
Nice story, Stuck.
I use wheat, to add foam and mouthfeel. But not a fan of all wheat beer, generally.m
The raspberry shot is traditional I believe.
You would get drunk in my Trappist if not careful – it runs around 12% alcohol. Some friends got to guzzling it, even tho I warned them, with predictable results.
Glad to see your out of the quarantine camps, Loopy. Be nice to have a neighbor with your skills.
I’m kinda’ partial to dark beer. I thought about getting into brewing my own , but decided against it for the same reason . I never want an abundant supply of something I love that much. It becomes less of a treat and more of a habit.
I have a beautiful dark lager on tap now. You have a point.
I used to make 10 gallons of wine every year from my muscadine vines and you’re right the bottling was a pain in ass. Delicious stuff, though and I always ended up consuming way too much, at one time and regreted it the next morning.
Irish heritage, most likely.
i leave my wine in the barrel. I never add anything to it, no sulfite or anything. I do however pour a good layer of paraffin oil onto the top (food-grade of course) , it floats over the wine and seals it off from the air. As there are no chemicals, it’s picked by hand, and pressed underfoot, some years it evolves into flavors that arent very appealing and other years it’s downright brilliant. old timers say the wine is best when the grapes are picked and pressed with a full moon. It could just be coincidence but the best wine i ever made, by far, was the year when indeed i picked and pressed them under a full moon.
I generally wait til there are a fair number of the grapes turning to raisins on the vine, but not more than rough guess 1/20 to 1/12 of them.
the OP’s beer descriptions are mighty interesting. not a beer drinker here but i still really dig people making things themselves.
we need more of that.
I brewed a honey ale and an American blonde ale this weekend. I used to keg all my beers then I got a mysterious leak I was unable to trace, so now I bottle in 1-liter and 2-liter bottles. I rarely drink commercial beer and when I do, I quickly remember why. I have an old fridge and an inkbird to control the temperature of my fermentations. I do ales only and usually start fermentation around 64 degrees and hold that until it’s almost done, then I raise it up to around 72 to finish. Seems to dispense with any diacetyls that hang around from primary fermentation.
The Kveik yeasts are fermented into the high 80s. Give them a try sometime.
If I have a leak I suspect the neighbors.
We’ve been pressing and making hard cider but can’t seem to get rid of a hard alcohol edge to the apples. The perry turned out great so I’ve been adding some pear juice to the apples but wonder why the pure apple hasn’t turned out as well.
Have books but they don’t seem to answer this problem, like is this taste bitter , acidic, too much or little tannin?
A couple of suggestions: are you using proper cider yeast? It is better with cider yeast. 2) are you adding yeast nutrients? Cider is lacking in nutrients that yeast need, and it stresses the yeast if you don’t add the nutrients = bad flavours.
If you must buy commercial beer … go GERMAN. On every bottle of authentic German beer you will find this; “Brewed according to German purity laws”. The laws are strict and followed. Better than Llpoh’s beer or other home-brewed? No. Better than every other commercial beer, especially American beer? Absolutely!!
Yeah … here’s your Coors “Rocky Mountain spring water” …
Watchu Talkin’ ‘Bout, Stucky?!? Man … I can swill down that Coors Lite SWILL All Day and All Night ….. HAhaHahahaha ~ Pax Vobiscum
German is ok. But I prefer Czech generally.
OK LLPOH…I gotta’ ask when are you coming out with the Pow-Wow Pale Ale ?
My brother is a craft beer junkie. He buys limited bottled stuff….some cost upwards of 50 buck or more . I love it when he visits ’cause he’s always got a great selection he’s brought with him.
My wife’s family loves to party…no matter where they/we are there’s a craft beer pub crawl happening.
I make pale ale. The one on tap at the moment I call Not For Paleface Ale.
I had to laugh out loud while reading your article, thank you for it. Everything you’re saying is true about Australia, you lot do love your beer!
When our ship hit port in Sydney for the weekend, right as we walked down the gangplank and stepped onto the dock proper, there was a gigantic billboard nearby which advertised all sorts of businesses, but also had an “Adopt-A-Sailor” section on it, which was generally nice Aussies who would take you in and show you the sights (some of which included the ‘exactly-what-you’re-thinking’ kind). Just marvelous. And many sailors took these offers — why wouldn’t they? Times were certainly different back then (mid-’80’s, “Crocodile Dundee” and stuff).
A few of us decided to catch on with one of the Tours, go see a bit of the country. It’s a very beautiful place. Lots of fucking rats, though, even back before they infested the government. And, naturally, the closer you stay to the beaches, the less the people wear, which is true in every country I’ve ever visited. But lots of Sun people in Australia. I know this lockdown has been hideous to them.
Anyway, we made it to a place called Sans Souci, which sounds like a haven for hedonists yet is anything but. It’s three of my shipmates and I who step into some dusty dive which looked as bad as it smelled. Fucking place had kangaroo skins on the walls, for god’s sakes. So we slide onto some bar stools and someone I suspect was Jack Thompson came over for our drinks; of course, we had no idea about how every single town, village, commune, and possibly mud hut brews their own beers, and proudly, so ole Jack had us try his own stock; he had casks in the ceiling, with great big tubes hanging down from them, and he selected the proper one, setting our drinks down in front of us as he made them.
It was delicious, a dark ale with a very strong kick. We had (quite) a few more while we sat and chatted with Jack, and as the sun went down more people started coming in, including some of the aforementioned Sun people who all look like models, and they got chatted up as well. Alcohol, sailors and women, what could possibly go wrong here?
I heard it before I saw it, a hard punch being thrown at my shipmate beside me, which smacked him into me. I get up from my stool; my other shipmates do; about six big Aussie bastards do the same. Lots of cursing, some of which is quite hilarious; that’s another thing, Australians are unmatched in their profanity skills. Truly.
Not looking good for the home team here, so I’m swinging my head around wondering who’s going to set it off, and right about then a group of 3 Marines, who had just happened to come in a few minutes earlier, unseen, kicked back their barstools and asked if anyone wished to take it outside. The minute yawned.
“No, mate,” came a small voice, “it’s cold outside!”
It was about 75 degrees.
After that bit of fun, we somehow made our way back up the coast, stopping at a few more places and drinking their beer, some of it outstanding, some absolute filth, but it was a great time, with wonderful people and in a wonderful land. The memories are obviously worth it.
Will that Australia ever be a thing again?
It is outside the big shitties. Nice story!
Hey Chief,
Australia is getting a pretty good reputation for making some world class wines.
You ever consider that? (IF you like wine, that is.)
Our neighbors on the 3rd floor in Newark, Portuguese folk, made their own wine in the basement. Always gave us some. Parents loved it (I was not allowed any, too young to drink wine, they said. Bastards.). True story … it was an old building, with coal burning furnaces. Really. Well, ya need a storage bin for the coal. They stored what must have been hundreds of pounds of grapes in the coal bin! Not in the winter, of course. You know what gobs of grapes attract? Rats, flies, and spiders … lots of spiders. I HATED that fucken basement.
You are correct here. Oz has some top notch full bodied Shiraz especially. now that we are back in the states, we are feeling deprived as only so far been able to find two or three of the good Ozzie Shiraz here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMYWTOnXyZ0
I love Australian wine, but I’m really not picky. In a pinch, Tickled Pink or Strawberry Hill might make the cut. MD 20/20 only once.
LLPOH,
You are the best at 1 thing…self-aggrandizement.
🙂
What do you mean by this?
Looked it up and due to no context or knowledge of you I ask.
Edit, I think I understand, reread the article and got this quote from LLPOH, “Australia is at the cutting edge of home brew – we are arguably the best in the world at it.”
It was a Barb, hence the smiley face.
Thanks LLHOP! I’ll take Your word for it, that Australians make some good home brew, but the best I ever drank was brewed by GranMa Ila, a Country Lady and equestrian extraordinaire from the hills of West “By God” Virginia, who worked hard everyday of her life alongside my GranPa, a coal miner from Levasy, WVa.
AAaaHhhh … but for life’s simple pleasures. No stress here. ~ J Smith
PLEASE Sir,
Some photos of the system!!
Hi Ursel- sorry don’t know how to do that. But basically I have 2 sizes “brew in a basket”, small overhead crane for lifting grain baskets which are very heavy when saturated, various pumps, grain mill, 4 different types of fermenter, multiport glycol chiller for holding ferment temperatures, wort chillers, hop spiders, a couple kegerators and a keezer, assorted gas cylinders, mixers, scales, keg cleaners, testing equip (ph, gravity, abv etc), various gas burners, and sundry odds and ends including all the chemicals for cleaning and water adjustment. There are numerous sites where you can get pictures and info. It is an endless craft. I am a rank amateur. But I have good gear, but I opted not to get a three vessel system. The Brew in a Basket system works very well and takes up less space.
As I said, I over do things. It is a hobby, a craft, a learning experience, and it does provide some payback, as it costs me very little to brew compared to buy. I just two days ago brewed 15 gallons of lager for about $35 US. And it should be terrific. In 4 weeks tho.
The ATO will be around shortly as you have exceeded the liter limit for “Hobby brewing”
Excise is due + penalties of 100% of amount determined.
Just offer them a IPA or two and run like hell from the Tax man
NICE!
I have a Sabco BrewMagic with a Chill Wizard plate heat exchanger, 3 1/2 bbl jacketed SS Brewtech Chronichal Brewmaster Fermenters with heating pads and a Glycol chiller, along with a 1/2 bbl Brite Beer Tank, plus 16 Corny Kegs. I only have a two-tap kegerator, though it will hold 3 Corny Kegs.
I too only brew all-grain, but I don’t have a mill yet. The place I buy my supplies mill it for me.
I primarily brew a wicked American Amber using mostly Marris Otter, with a couple of other specialty grains, dried sweet orange peel, with Centennial and Cascade hops. I use the Wyeast British Ale yeast. It’s a pretty “Malty”, rather than “Hoppy” ale, with an original gravity of about 1.074, and an ABV around 7.2%. I do my batches so that I have about 15 gallons after the boil is done. 60 minute mash-in, 60 minute boil, and then dry-hop about a week into fermentation.
I just force-carbonate either in my Kegs or the Brite Beer Tank…..
Zero – nice gear! I am moving more away from malty and more into hoppy. I am right now sucking down a great citra/Amarillo IPA. Made about 8 gallons. It may never clear given the amount of dry hop citra I dumped in it. I use about the same timing as you, but usually add a mash out for about 15 minutes, followed by a batch sparge, but if say making a Pils I add a low temp mash in so as to try to kill as much protein as possible. The basket is a great Oz invention – it makes the three vessel not necessary. I mash, then hoist the grain with my crane and sparge back thru the basket. I am not very careful with milling or would get better efficiency. I am looking to get a counter flow chiller shortly, but given I am on rainwater here, I may have to got to hot cubing in the summer months as the water is warmish.
I again recommend Kveik for any IPA, amazing what you can get from those yeasts.
Btw, you must get a fair bit of residual sweetness at 1.074 and 7.2%?
I go a little heavy on the yeast to ensure there’s not too many residual sugars, but I prefer the “Maltier” flavor. I also go a little light on the hops for the same reason. My usual Poison is a clone I’ve modified, (for Personal Taste), of a local Seattle Microbrew called “Mack & Jack’s African Amber”. Theirs is quite a bit heavier on the hops, and if I’m out to dinner, it’s what I order.
I’ve also got a really good Cream Ale, a Belgian Whit, and a damned good Guinness clone, (the Mrs. likes this one best).
Both of my sons come over to use my system when I’m gone fishing. I forced them to buy their own Corny Kegs, because I’d come home from Alaska to find I only had a couple left, or they weren’t clean. They usually do an extremely heavily-hopped IPA I came up with in Beersmith, but I personally don’t care for it all that much. It’s so Hoppy that it makes my teeth hurt.
I haven’t lagered yet, although that was the intention when I added the Brite Beer Tank early this year. Because of the Stupid Covid Bullshit, I’ve spent an additional 6 weeks this year in “Quarantine” before we do crew change, so a good portion of my usual time off has been wasted in a Fleabag Hotel in Dutch Harbor, rather than doing the things I prefer to do in my time off. When I go home again in early November I’m going to try lagering a batch of the Cream Ale, and see what shakes out.
One word of caution regarding the plate heat exchanger: I’ve found over the years that if you use the pellet hops, they have a tendency to coat the plates pretty quickly, so you have to backflush it with caustic soda far more frequently than if you use whole-leaf. It’s obviously not an issue with the dry-hopping, but you’ll see a degradation in heat transference after only a couple of batches. Of course, I always clean & sanitize after a batch, but it doesn’t really clean the plates. Gotta use caustic for that.
The heat plate issue is why I am looking at a large diameter counter flow.
By fermenting under pressure you minimize many of the lager flavor issues that can arise, just a fyi. It suppresses the off flavours, according to research. People are getting good lager at much higher temp than previously thought possible.
Get drunk cheap!