My Homebrewing Escapades

JoshW

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Hi all.

Recently started getting back into homebrewing to save some money (lol).

This evening I poured the result of my first partial mash and I must say I won't be going back to the kit and kilo method of old.

Very, very decent NEIPA/Hazy IPA style

My fermentables were;

1.7kg tin Coopers Australian Pale Ale
1.4kg Barrett Burston Pale Malt
375g rolled oats
500g Light Dry Malt Extract

I used US-05 for my yeasties, and fairly substantial hop additions (which I will post the detail tomorrow - my toddler has taken my brew book into his room and he's in bed).

Starting Gravity was 1.050 and final gravity was 1.010 resulting in a reasonable 5.25%.

My next brew will be saying goodbye to the rim entirely, using ale malt and LDME and doing my own hop additions during the boil.

My system currently is just a Big W 19L pot ($20) and a Bunnings paint strainer bag (3 for $9) - cheap and cheerful, budget BIAB.

Cheers!
 

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So Josh, what kind of price difference would you get making your own compared to say, whatever you used to buy? I'm assuming that the cost of electricity would be negligible?
 
So Josh, what kind of price difference would you get making your own compared to say, whatever you used to buy? I'm assuming that the cost of electricity would be negligible?

Hi Vicky, cost of electricity is zero due to solar. However the BigW BIAB is done on my gas stove currently so there would be some gas cost.

The primary expense was setting up the kegging gear, probably between $4-500, I'm avoiding itemising it :whistles:.

I'm getting an electric brewery for Xmas, which will run another $500 or so, however it will get me valuable time back.

Regarding the beer itself, my batches have been as cheap as $20, and as dear as $65. The $65 brews were XPAs, and the style would usually run you anywhere from $60-85 for 16 cans. My batches get me a 19L keg, plus 1-2L of dregs. Nearly 2 cartons worth.

The brew from my OP, was about $40. I will do a price breakdown to the ingredient my next brew. My notebook still hasn't surfaced :facepalm:.

:cheers:
 
With the impending arrival of kid #2, I decided to put together another batch today. I used;

2kg Barrett Burston Ale Malt @ $3.60
2kg Light Dry Malt Extract @ $12.90
350g Quick Oats @ $0.63
20g US-05 yeast @ $5.15 - actually $4.12 (brick was cheaper than I thought)
100g Citra @ $10.00
100g Amarillo @ $9.00
100g Mosaic @ $9.00

All up $50.28 (really $49.25) for 23L - I'll keg 19L and take 2L in bottles - the rest I'll write off due to yeast cake/trub - say 56 stubbies/cans worth for $0.88 a "serve".

Will update the ABV once fermentation is complete.
 
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Hi Josh, I started my first batch yesterday, I just got a morgans 23L kit to see how I go.

Been making ginger beer & kombucha for years, so figured it was about time I tried beer.

My latest ginger beer batch finished at 3.21%, it goes higher if I leave it longer, but I prefer the taste after 3 days fermenting & another 3 in the bottle.
 
Hi Josh, I started my first batch yesterday, I just got a morgans 23L kit to see how I go.

Been making ginger beer & kombucha for years, so figured it was about time I tried beer.

My latest ginger beer batch finished at 3.21%, it goes higher if I leave it longer, but I prefer the taste after 3 days fermenting & another 3 in the bottle.

Awesome Andrew! Good luck with the brew mate - sanitise, sanitise, sanitise and you'll get a drinkable beer every time. I used to brew probably 10 years ago but had some very average experiences which led me to giving up. A work colleague got me interested again and have brewed maybe 10 batches (no expert)since November and have had some real stunners plus 1 average (which was still drinkable - mowing beer).

Today's batch is my first extract kit with no tinned syrup - makes it a bit cheaper and should hopefully taste better. It's very hop heavy and hops make up most of the cost of this batch. If you start dry hopping, please steer clear of the hop "teabags". See so many infections and you pay so much. For the price you can get 50g of pellets in most varieties.

Happy brewing!
 
Hi Josh, I started my first batch yesterday, I just got a morgans 23L kit to see how I go.

Been making ginger beer & kombucha for years, so figured it was about time I tried beer.

My latest ginger beer batch finished at 3.21%, it goes higher if I leave it longer, but I prefer the taste after 3 days fermenting & another 3 in the bottle.

Oh I forgot the Ginger Beer - please be careful - bottle bombs are not fun. I love ginger beer and would love to have room for a tap of dark and stormy mix with alcoholic ginger beer but fridge only fits 2 kegs.
 
that is awesome ... I make rice beer as a friend of mine is celiac ^_^ ... I use brown rice syrup, which is store bought, but still heaps cheaper than buying the GF beer which is $80-100/carton ... depending ... maybe more.

I also make mead as I have a friend whose hives produce about 60KG of honey a year ...
 
Funny this should pop up. I should be receiving my first bee hive this week (originally to pollinate my garden/property), but I am also going to give a shot at brewing a few meads. Ill also have blueberries, muscadines, and pineberries, so maybe flavored as well. Woot.
 
I dry hopped with 60g (other 40g were used during boil) each of the above-mentioned hops yesterday before heading off to the hospital to spend time with my wife and new little one. The beer was smelling brilliant. Starting gravity was 1.042 - should get me a nice 4% ABV brew if I hit around 1.011 final gravity.
 
I dry hopped with 60g (other 40g were used during boil) each of the above-mentioned hops yesterday before heading off to the hospital to spend time with my wife and new little one. The beer was smelling brilliant. Starting gravity was 1.042 - should get me a nice 4% ABV brew if I hit around 1.011 final gravity.

I have been getting pretty high ABV ... and yeah I also make my own 'wort' with the boiling the hops and then setting it. I know for a more hoppy flavour a week or two before bottling you can drop hops it ... depending on your set up...

My partner has a fermentasaurus and it reduces the need for as many carbonised tablets when bottling ... but then you can also get fermenting kegs or use them to put straightinto a fridge as it brews under pressure ... so you get the good heads

I 'open' ferment my rice beer, so it is not as bubbly, but when bottling i add a little bit of raw sugar to give it a little carbonisation. (the carbonisation drops are basically sugar)
 
I have been getting pretty high ABV ... and yeah I also make my own 'wort' with the boiling the hops and then setting it. I know for a more hoppy flavour a week or two before bottling you can drop hops it ... depending on your set up...

My partner has a fermentasaurus and it reduces the need for as many carbonised tablets when bottling ... but then you can also get fermenting kegs or use them to put straightinto a fridge as it brews under pressure ... so you get the good heads

I 'open' ferment my rice beer, so it is not as bubbly, but when bottling i add a little bit of raw sugar to give it a little carbonisation. (the carbonisation drops are basically sugar)

I love kegging, control carbonation perfectly. Never had a bad head yet since kegging, although it is more appearance only. Conception is if it has head it's good, not always the case with homebrew. My high ABV days are over for a while, they aren't child friendly (as in how my children see me, not children drinking it).
 
My high ABV days are over for a while, they aren't child friendly (as in how my children see me, not children drinking it).

Well i don't have micro humans ... and I have just been brewing to formula and seeing what the abv is at various stages and when it finally finishes ...
 
Kegged this brew on Wednesday, came out at 3.95%. I got 19L in the keg + 3L in bottles. Very juicy looking and smelling (which was the target). Sample got me excited for what's to come. Currently carbonating so will begin sampling from Sunday (I don't force carbonate).

I also made a batch of "prison" cider with a bottle of apple juice my wife opened, had 2 cups and left it after telling me not to drink it. 5 days went by so I slapped some yeast in it and used a balloon over the neck as an airlock. I didn't take a starting gravity or final gravity to calculate alcohol content, but from my past experience with cider this should be at least 6% if not higher.
 
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Been a bit quiet on here due to kids/work but the brews are still happening (it's dad/son time ) - kegged an 8% ginger beer a week or so ago and have a Galaxy Ale not far off being kegged as well. Can provide recipes if any interest
 
:-) i used to work in a brew pub as brew master , and owned my own homebrew supply store for a decade that grew from 1 to 7 stores but alas late wife when she had cancer i had to let them go to pay off bills. i met Grant from Morgans brewing company years ago, sent him back home from new england with some vermont maple syrup :-) . i make a maple beer that is good , my specialty tho is a 120 wee heavy
 
:) i used to work in a brew pub as brew master , and owned my own homebrew supply store for a decade that grew from 1 to 7 stores but alas late wife when she had cancer i had to let them go to pay off bills. i met Grant from Morgans brewing company years ago, sent him back home from new england with some vermont maple syrup :) . i make a maple beer that is good , my specialty tho is a 120 wee heavy

I'm sorry to hear about your late wife Dave. F**K Cancer
 
The wife and kids levelled up my brewing kit for Christmas - did my first all grain brew today. My SS from another forum sent me a Cheeky Peak Farmhouse Ale (Saison).

I'm using the no chill method so I will pour from the cube into the fermenter and pitch the yeast tomorrow after work. And then I'll see how efficient my system was against the expected OG.
 

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re-circulation mash :-) nice. but question when you say no chill?? as in not chilling during fermentation or at the time you rack it over to fermentation vessel?? i actually have a two vessel re-circulation mash in storage, a system that i made decades ago it is a bbl and half and uses a scottish ball instead of a sparge arm
 
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