Hi Everyone

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Stu McKinlay on July 1, 2008 at 8:17pm

Hi weevaa. Welcome aboard.

Probably a good time to all re-introduce ourselves. There seems to be a few new names around the fold recently.

I'm Stu - been lurking about here for a few years now. Posted a 1,000 times on the old forum but, besides tonight, I.m not quite as active these days (I'm spread a long way with kids, and loads of beery stuff!).

I brew about 10-15 batches of all-grain beer a year (40L at a time). Have done for the last few years. Brewed extract and partial mashes on and off for about 5-7 years before that. Hoppy dark ales and low gravity UK styles are my favourites but I love any style done well. Love handpumped beer. Real ale is nice but happy with kiwi keg beers through the handpump too - I just love the low carb styles (excuse the pun). Baltic Porter recipes are bouncing around in my head too - strong dark beers really get me going.

Try everything I can get my hands on, which I find has really helped my ability to formulate recipes and evaluate my own beer.

I'm really really into recipe formulation and brew days processes. Don't grow my own hops, or smoke my own malt, or propogate my own yeast, or build my own equipment... yet. Like to take notes and write a bit about beer, when I get a chance. I used to blog here and there but don't have the time these days, so just post once a fortnight at www.pc.blogspot.com (in tandem with Neil Miller - the real beer writer).

I almost put all of my equipment on trade me about a month ago... but I didn't go ahead with it, thankfully.

My profile sums up about everything I'm up to when I'm not here (family man, dreaming of tramping or a cycle touring).

Again, welcome aboard...

Slainte mhath
Stu

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Permalink Reply by Dan on July 2, 2008 at 12:42am

I almost put all of my equipment on trade me about a month ago... but I didn't go ahead with it, thankfully.
Not you too Stu! was it Andrew Hough who done that a couple of months ago? I hope its not contagious! Andrew claimed he was drinking too much but Im sure its these outdoor pursuits that are to blame for this.

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Permalink Reply by denimglen on July 1, 2008 at 9:36pm

Might as well introduce myself, have never done so properly.

I'm (denim)Glen. Been a member on realbeer forum for a year or so.

Been brewing for about 3 years, only extract+grain and all-grain for the past year or so. I average about a 20L batch every two weeks. Will drink and brew almost anything but tend to stick to brewing pale-er/hoppy ales, with the odd darker-maltier one thrown in everynow and then.

Probably don't drink enough commercial beer as I should, so my actual practical knowledge of styles isn't great.

Grow my own hops - CascadexUnkown, have started to farm/freeze yeast, DIY a lot of my equipment (as most of us have to do).

Building a single tier, single pump system at the moment. Next big project is a temperatured controlled fermentation chamber.

That's all I can think of right now.

Welcome weevaa, and all the others,

Cheers and beers,

Glenim.

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Permalink Reply by Dan on July 2, 2008 at 12:04am

Might as well introduce myself as I have nothing better to do but drink beer and stare at a monitor for the rest of the night, oh yeah and then there's sleep but that can wait for at least a few more brews and a couple of hours on Americas army online!

Been brewing for just over 2 years now, a few kits then straight into all grain.
Usually brew 25-50 litres per week (1-2) brews, sometimes more, sometimes less! Love it! always good to pull out something different out of the cupboard.

Im a big fan of trying styles ive not done, then working on improving them, more so from guess/intuition/comparisons than maths or science.

Ive built some of my own gear which has served me well, most notably my stirplate, lauter tun and aerator, which have proven to be valuable tools which have cost next to nothing.

I brew mainly ales as they dont tie fermentors up too long and there are so many differences in styles, also its easy to brew lots.
Time, fermentor space and temperature limits me but I like to brew lagers, some have been great, some not so, Its a long road to get your lager in a bottle but boy can it be worth it, it can also be disappointing after 3 months of conditioning and its no good, which fortunately has only happened twice to me.

Been thinking of upgrading my equipment since day one, its pretty basic but does the job! one day I will get around to it.

Welcome

Dan

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Permalink Reply by Tony on July 2, 2008 at 8:37am

Hi Weevaa

I am also on the North Shore. I have just begun to brew again after a long hiatus, so I am basically relearning. I have just brewed my first full mash, but have done a couple of partial/extract brews as well. I love most styles of beer, but prefer hoppier ales, pale ales and Pilseners/lagers.

Like others (and appears to be a common trend), I have built my own gear, mash tun. I brew outside (that was the condition my wife gave me, in order to go ahead), so I have assembled an outside cooker. I also tend to spend some evenings drinking beer and playing online (Dan!).

I use a beer kit fermenter, so brew around 20-23 L a time. Like Stu, I enjoy formulating recipes and the act of brewing. My wife tells me I look like a mad scientist, when I am brewing.

I am pretty new here and I know you will get a lot of support here. Feel free to PM me: tolak68@hotmail.com

Happy brewing

Tony

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Permalink Reply by delMonte on July 2, 2008 at 11:01am

Good idea for a discussion.
Here I am in Chch.
I construct stuff- mostly art related.
As an immigrant, I'm involved in the Hispanic community with Spanish etc.
Used to brew in America where ingredients were more plentiful and affordable.
Grew up around Seattle, so my tastes truly lie there with the strong bite of the Pacific Northwest hops (Chinook/Cascade/Willamette) used in those ales.
It seems that style is increasingly popular here among you folks too. Why aren’t there more commercial breweries headed in that direction? Why do they think our taste buds crave only sugar? …& Why is Epic so expensive? Tried Summit last week on tap, not bad.
Anyway,
Tasted 100’s of different beers from around the world. Enjoy all styles except when they have berry additions or weird things like chilli.
Also have gotten into whiskeys; not distilling my own though…yet.
Love baking bread too.
Average two Swappa crates bottled each month, but currently more since I’m stocking up for xmas.
It’s been about 15 batches total for me now. Never done all grain.
Why are wives so adverse to wort smell?
Would love to grow hops.
Thinking about cooking up beer keeps me up at night and distracted at work.
I can’t wait to try it, or move on to the next recipe.
I give away more than I drink, which is bad when I don’t get the bottles back or when they say it tasted “ok” but really it was awful.
Not super confident at all yet. Wish I could make a refreshing golden lager like Corona. Can’t seem to get it right. Will keep trying, and listening to the advice you all post.

Raising a glass to all.
Salud!
RealName is Gaby

"More hops please"

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Permalink Reply by Barry on July 2, 2008 at 1:27pm

Calling all brewers, yeah this is overdue especially with the spate of new sign-ups.

I'm Barry from Whangaparaoa and I brew my own beer.
I brew all grain beer. I started brewing a little over 10 years ago when my now wife's poppa showed me how he made a pretty decent drop (or so I thought at the time) from supermarket kits. My now parents-in-law bought me a startup kit for Christmas, I think 1996/7?

My wife's poppa used to regale me with tales of all grain brewing, he'd always brewed, long before kits came into existence.

I brewed about 10 kit batches off the bat. My last one I tried dried spray malt to prime and had no idea of amounts. So it never primed. Those bottles sat undrunk in a bonita banana box downstairs for 8 years.

Fast forward to 2004.
Wife and I bought house off parents-in-law and I found my old gear (and a box of undrinkable flat beer). I cleaned up my old fermenter to give it another try. Not at all sure what prompted me. Call it fate.
I'm a web designer, so spend an inordinate amount of time online. Inevitably I was curious about brewing so I researched and came across howtobrew, realbeer, morebeer, aussiehomebrewer etc etc. So I moved onto extract pretty quickly, and quickly developed an appetite for hops. As you do.
For a while I swore black and blue that I'd never all grain, the results I was getting from extract were pretty good and I'd been put off by sparging and things like ph, run-off speed, not sparging under a certain gravity or you'll get tannins, etc etc. Heady stuff involving expensive equipment. But then I read all I could find on batch sparging and decided I could do that. I bought a chillibin and converted it to a mash tun. At this stage I was still in the kitchen with one big pot, not big enough for full boils so I did partial mashes with grain I bought crushed from Tiffany and Hauraki home brew. The difference was remarkable.

I made it my mission to sort out some kit and get my all grain on.

I DIY'd my all grain setup, it's an old copper hot water cylinder cut in half - one half HLT and the other boiler. As such it's 100% electric. I love electricity and the fact I can brew indoors down in my man-cave (albeit with the windows and doors open). My mash tun is the same rectangular chillybin, 45lt I think with a braided hose manifold. My fermenters are plastic, I only have 2, one if which is my original 10 year old brewcraft one.

I brew mainly English session beers, ordinary bitters and milds. I'm thirsty by nature, I like a pint or 2 most days so my staples are in the 3%abv range. I alternate with hoppy ales (APAs, American browns) and darker beers - porters mainly.

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Permalink Reply by Soren on July 2, 2008 at 3:25pm

My name is Soren and I'm relatively new to the forum. I followed the old site for quite some time though, but for some reason my membership was never approved and I couldn't post!!??:)
I'm originally from Denmark but then I met a girl from Hamilton and the rest is history...
The same girl also got me a starting kit for christmas a few years ago, again, the rest is history:)

So far I have mainly been brewing Pale Ales (although I like experimenting with speciality grains and usually they are not so pale... Guess you could call them amber ales...) and (hoppy) stouts. However, I have gained a new passion for high gravity and complex styles, such as tripels and barley wines and this is where I will be venturing in the near future.

We have just come back from a long trip overseas and unfortunately most of my gear had to go before we left, so I'm in the process of restocking equipment. Once I'm done with that, I'll be brewing hard out:) I wont be set up for all grain just yet, doing sort of an half and half grain and extract.

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Permalink Reply by Greig McGill on July 8, 2008 at 6:28pm

Introductions eh?

I'm Greig. I've never really bothered with online nicknames, since my name is unusual enough that there's not usually many collisions. It's pronounced just like "Greg" if you're wondering, but it's not short for Gregory.

I'm in Hamilton, have been most of my life for some reason. I guess it's just inertia. I work in IT, but my passion lies in beer. I discovered "good" beer some time around 2000, via Pink Elephant Mammoth at the Malthouse in Wellington, and then later, courtesy of my good mate Kempicus, I expanded this new love with many English ales.

I've been brewing for about 4 years now, and all grain for the last 18 months or so. My setup is pretty basic - Malt mill, mash tun (chillybin with braided stainless steel filter for drainage), 30L SS Pot, various other pots and pans, 3 ring gas burner. Where I'm lucky is in having a very understanding wife who also loves beer, so my dining room is now a bar, with two handpumps, and kegs rotated on as quickly as I can brew them. She loves a good beer. I wish I could make one! ;)

I mainly brew English style ales - I love them, they're relatively low gravity for drinking in quantity, and there's so much variation. I have been known to make a mean American style IPA, but the current hop shortage has put the kibosh on that. I have recently arrived back from a couple of months touring around England, Scotland, Belgium, and Germany, and I've come back with a serious love of German beers. My latest project is a Kolsch style ale. The long lagering process is a bit tedious though! I just want to drink it!

I was a co-founder of SOBA, along with Luke, Stu, Kieran, Brendon, and others who lurk here. I'm quite proud of this, and will be even more proud when we take over the world!

That's about me.

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Permalink Reply by denimglen on July 8, 2008 at 8:47pm

>...Where I'm lucky is in having a very understanding wife who also loves beer...

Lucky indeed. Oh how it would be a lot easier if the other half enjoyed beer as half as much as I did, jeez, and I'm not married or living with her yet!

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Permalink Reply by Greig McGill on July 9, 2008 at 7:57am

Plenty of time to train and educate then! ;)

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Permalink Reply by Stu McKinlay on July 9, 2008 at 8:20am

Fritha has tried at least two hundred beers, probably three hundred.
She ain't going to be a beer lover. She likes Liefman's Kriek, doesn't mind Goudenband and could share a bottle of Duchesse de Bourgone.
I use her as a barometer of my beers - the more she hates it, the better it is.
She's constantly pregnant anyway, so there isn't a lot of scope for becoming a boozer.

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