Reviled's Comments

Yeah mate, be dead keen. I'm in Whangaparaoa.
We've been talking lots at SOBA meetups about having more homebrew tasting sessions. There's a few of us on the shore. I'll try to sort something out.

Ended up with just over 23 litres into the fementer with an OG of 1.050, which works out to be around 74% efficiency :D It's a little astringent, but that’s probably due to my flatmate (pictured) squeezing nearly every last drop out of the bag. Also we discovered that we can't put any more than about 32 litres and 5.4kgs of grain in, as it came perilously close to overflowing it! After all that though, it went pretty well, mashed in at 65 for 90mins (on advice from the Wigram brewery guys where we bought the grain from, $2kg, crushed!). Also since we have no chiller, we tried the no-chill method by leaving it in the pot with the lid duct-taped on overnight. Pitched it Tues afternoon, alas though I think the first S-05 packet was a dud, as by last night there was still no activity, so I pitched in the other packet and it looks like its starting this morning. Whew, its been an eventful first! I might try Palmer's Lord Crouchbacks Special Bitter recipe next in a fortnight. Mmm, bitter... :D

Its 41 litres, so I might just scale my brews down a little. It was definately a lot of fun and exciting to be doing an all-grain beer, though I was a little nervous as I really don't want to fuck up! An inter-island case swap would be interesting, could get together some of the other ChCh brewers to contribute a couple of their beers each, and you got some Auckland brewers also, we could have a nice selection and see what others are doing?

Yeah, I bottled my IPA on tuesday as well (burping afterwards is as tasty as drinking it!) which brings the beer total up to 6 swappa crates or around 50 litres! Pity the three of us will get through it pretty easily :D! So we're trying to brew ahead so that the beer has enough time in the bottle, especially stouts etc. Yeah, I'm glad I went with 41L, though a larger pot would be good already! Though 100L? Fuck me, thats big hah! Oh well, I guess it's one limitation of BIAB, might just do batch-sparging in the future for higher gravity beers *shrug*

Same here, ran out of beer several months back and it was horrible! I've been drinking home-brew almost exclusively since (plus Emersons/Wigram/Three Boys on special occasions) and with the threat of having to buy Mega Swill hanging over me, its a bloody good incentive to keep brewing! Though with only the one fermenter and a carbouy, we're still limited to about one brew a fortnight, and since we can easily get through a crate in a night between the three of us, its a constant uphill battle to ensure theres enough in the pantry!

Yeah, I know, I know... I've been contemplating getting another one though, I've just been using the carboy as a secondary since I got it at the start of winter. It's worked brilliantly to clear up all the beer since, and I've used it for lagering the pilsner and lager. Yeah, I tried the IPA on the weekend, it was really nice. Having just dry-hopped my IPA with cascade the previous week, I also instantly knew the smell!

Used a Muntons IPA kit as the base, added 1.8kg LME, 250g Crystal 80L, 28g Styrian Golding at 15mins, 38g at 1 and 90g(!) NZ Cascade dry hopped for 11 days with S-04. Its nice, but the Muntons kit was under-bittered, so even though I added more hops, its still lacking the bitterness I wanted. I found my beer was a lot clearer and less "yeasty" after I racked to secondary for a week or four.

Okay, maybe I'll just bottle the stout straight from the fermenter then and use the carboy for dry-hopping/fermenting seeing as its too warm for any pilsners or lagers now. I just realised that I started using the Fermintis yeasts instead of the kit ones at the same time I started racking all the beers to secondary. Could be just the yeast possibly...

I work at Steam Brewing , 186 James Fletcher Drive, Otahuhu.
I'm at work from 7 till 4. I think its about a year or year and a half old. We dont use it anymore so I will give you a couple of kgs for free.

No just during the day, I try not to work weekends. Ring before you come as we are starting to get busy. If I am not here I will leave some in a bag for you at our reception.

Have you sent me your address yet ?

Pale malt, but they said all base malts are $2, and specialty malts $6.

Yeah, I can't say if it includes Marris Otter etc but I'll find out for you (cause I'd be interested also!)

sweet - I'm in Orakei, my boats in Westhaven - I'm pretty free at the moment - in between jobs. The snapper will be coming into the channels in the next month (caught some nearby last Friday) - it's pretty sweet to head out late avo / after work for a fish - just need a nice evening and the missus' permision ;-) Look forward to trying some beers and seeing a BIAB brew.

cool - could be keen for one day next weekend (think Sarah's working...too easy). Be in touch next week...will give you a holler if the fishing looks good too.

hey mate, don't think I will make it this weekend - have some family matters to attend to.
I plan to do a BIAB for my next brew. Thinking of a quaffing IPA or APA. Do you have any good recipes for this style in BIAB?

more than happy to help you get it set up.
it's actually really really easy.
I'd recommend you get all your gear from craftbrewer, it's cheaper and he has all the best bits. If you can possibly spring for john guest fittings, do it. They are _way_ easier.
I've just had a look at the craftbrewer website to see if I can save a list of things you'll need so you can look at it, but it doesn't look like it. So I'll try to note down a list for you tonight (bit busy here today at work).

oh mate, no worries at all. happy to help.
forgot to say about the picnic cooler thing, that can eat a large hole in your budget eh, complete and for sale (seen some on trademe) they run for over $200.

oh instead of a fridge? yeah sure. Couple of things to bear in mind:
kegs are much harder to carbonate when warm - co2 doesn't dissolve into solution as easily.
beer will last better if it's cold
beer will clear up much better at fridge temp

I got my fridge for $20 on trademe, it fits 4 kegs. I only have one picnic tap ($AUD14 from craftbrewer) that I swap between kegs as I wish, it lives in the fridge attached to whatever keg I'm drinking.
I reckon you should keep an eye out eh, you'd be surprised what you can get in the way of fridges for less than $50 - the stainless coil in your jockey box would have to cost that I reckon, not to mention the tap.

I hear you about portability.
I usually just fill plastic 1.125lt bottles from the keg and travel with them, as long as you drink them within a week they're ok
I'd love a portable party keg setup though...