Making the move from Australia

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sponge_

sponge_

Dungeon O' Sponge Brewery
Joined
Mar 2, 2016
Messages
101
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51
Location
Australia
Hey all,

The Mrs and I have decided to head to your fine land at the end of the year/start of next for a bit of a change from our current lives in Australia.

I've been all grain brewing for the past 5 years and am currently brewing on a 130L 1V recirc system. I will look at doing some smaller scale BIAB when we have made the move as I won't have a dedicated brew shed as I currently do here.

Currently growing some cascade, chinook and goldings at home with cascade producing heaps of flowers and goldings just starting to flower. Sweet FA from the chinook so far..

Anyways, keen to meet other brewers and attend brew days once we have settled somewhere. Currently looking at Bristol, Brighton or Southampton (bigger towns within a couple of hours of London), otherwise somewhere closer to London if we end up finding jobs there. I'm an electrical engineer with the Mrs being an accountant so any suggestions on where we may find the best job opportunities would be welcomed!

Cheers
 
Welcome to the forum mate. The south coast is probably your best bet if you want to continue growing your hops.

I thought all Aussies that came over here worked in bars? :lol:

130l is pretty hardcore. I know you guys like a drink!! I remember laughing at a story about the anger at the alcohol limit that had been introduced for the Bathurst race... you were ONLY allowed 24 cans of beer per person or 4 litres of wine!! Haha, those misers!
 
sponge_ said:
I'm an electrical engineer with the Mrs being an accountant so any suggestions on where we may find the best job opportunities would be welcomed!
Click to expand...
Welcome.
Ty a few UK recruitment agency sites to get a feel for what's available and where in the UK. If you are not intending to stay long term, contract work will be your option. Your wife will have more opportunities compared to you because of your specialism, but I'm sure you already knew that! If you come to the South East commuting is a way of life :-(.
 
Welcome to the forum.

Returning to the scene of the crime aye ;-)
(Colonial joke) I love Australia, have family in Sydney and two rocks in WA.
 
Welcome back. Have you finished serving your time? Did you steal a apple?
All very tongue in cheek humour. Are you really sure you want to move to the UK?
Its cold and wet.
We have a Government that cant govern
A PM who is just laughable
Opposition Party that is just a joke.
Immigrant "problem"
We rely on Eastern Europeans to do most of the hard work, whilst handing out benefits to anyone who applies
 
sponge_ said:
Hey all,

The Mrs and I have decided to head to your fine land at the end of the year/start of next for a bit of a change from our current lives in Australia.

I've been all grain brewing for the past 5 years and am currently brewing on a 130L 1V recirc system. I will look at doing some smaller scale BIAB when we have made the move as I won't have a dedicated brew shed as I currently do here.

Currently growing some cascade, chinook and goldings at home with cascade producing heaps of flowers and goldings just starting to flower. Sweet FA from the chinook so far..

Anyways, keen to meet other brewers and attend brew days once we have settled somewhere. Currently looking at Bristol, Brighton or Southampton (bigger towns within a couple of hours of London), otherwise somewhere closer to London if we end up finding jobs there. I'm an electrical engineer with the Mrs being an accountant so any suggestions on where we may find the best job opportunities would be welcomed!

Cheers
Click to expand...

Hello!

Job sites, your starters...
http://www.indeed.co.uk/
http://www.agencycentral.co.uk/

edit:
If you're hoping to daily commute from any of those places to London you're not going to have time to do anything else with your life.
 
Good luck. The winter will test your resilience, for sure! I'm 54 and still haven't got used to dealing with them...

But. I have known Aussies come over and have good experiences, it's a very different world of course, I've never been to Australia but I've had close friends who have. And Aussies use England as a base to see Europe, and there is so much variety and so much to see. I really like Brighton and I really like Bristol, I don't know Southampton well, but I think Bristol would be first choice. As for job opportunities, these are very difficult times, I'm afraid, but I don't know specifically about your vocational areas. It's generally very difficult, though, plan ahead would be my advice. Find a job before you leave Oz. And good luck.
 
Thanks all for the kind words fellas. I'm looking forward to the cold, it's too hot here for me even in winter so a chilly change is just what is needed.

Main reason for the change is the opportunity to travel to other countries during our spare time and experience the different cultures outside of our big island. Going from the list JohnnyBoy gave, it sounds almost identical to Australia apart from the cold and wet weather. We have so many issues going on here I like to think the rest of the world sits back and laughs at us. Maybe it's just our bogan accents..

I originally had a 3V 50L system and getting 2 cubes worth of wort out of a brew day, but adding different hops and yeasts to the cubes gave a couple of different brews for some variety. For the last year or so I've been experimenting with 'cube graining' (for lack of a better term) which involves steeping spec malts in cold water and adding the strained liquid to the cubes (unboiled, essentially relying on the near-boiling wort to sterilize the additional liquid).

For example, I recently brewed up 100L of a 1.045 wort of 50/50 pils/alt malt with a FWH addition to 15IBUs. I then split this in to the 4 cubes and added different hops, yeast and grain to each cube to give 4 completely different beers.

Cube 1 (aussie lager) with 400g sugar added to the cube and fermented with Wy2042
Cube 2 (ESB) with 300g heritage xtal and a touch of roast, 2g/L challenger and fermented with 1469
Cube 3 (APA) with 250g xtal 4g/L citra & cascade, fermented with 1469
Cube 4 (schwarzbier) with 200g chocolate and 150g midnight wheat, 0.5g/L willamette and fermented with 2042.

Awesome way to get a bunch of different beers from a single brew day.

As for commute, if we found jobs within London we'd look for somewhere to live within 30min commute or so, otherwise I'd ideally like to find work in Bristol (top of the list) or another large town. We'll see how we go with the job hunt though as that will be the biggest factor on where we reside.

I will admit, I'm going to miss the 6-tap setup I currently have. I think I'll be looking at fermenting and serving from cubes as it will be much more economical than purchasing more kegging gear.
 
sponge_ said:
Thanks all for the kind words fellas. I'm looking forward to the cold, it's too hot here for me even in winter so a chilly change is just what is needed.

Main reason for the change is the opportunity to travel to other countries during our spare time and experience the different cultures outside of our big island. Going from the list JohnnyBoy gave, it sounds almost identical to Australia apart from the cold and wet weather. We have so many issues going on here I like to think the rest of the world sits back and laughs at us. Maybe it's just our bogan accents..

I originally had a 3V 50L system and getting 2 cubes worth of wort out of a brew day, but adding different hops and yeasts to the cubes gave a couple of different brews for some variety. For the last year or so I've been experimenting with 'cube graining' (for lack of a better term) which involves steeping spec malts in cold water and adding the strained liquid to the cubes (unboiled, essentially relying on the near-boiling wort to sterilize the additional liquid).

For example, I recently brewed up 100L of a 1.045 wort of 50/50 pils/alt malt with a FWH addition to 15IBUs. I then split this in to the 4 cubes and added different hops, yeast and grain to each cube to give 4 completely different beers.

Cube 1 (aussie lager) with 400g sugar added to the cube and fermented with Wy2042
Cube 2 (ESB) with 300g heritage xtal and a touch of roast, 2g/L challenger and fermented with 1469
Cube 3 (APA) with 250g xtal 4g/L citra & cascade, fermented with 1469
Cube 4 (schwarzbier) with 200g chocolate and 150g midnight wheat, 0.5g/L willamette and fermented with 2042.

Awesome way to get a bunch of different beers from a single brew day.

As for commute, if we found jobs within London we'd look for somewhere to live within 30min commute or so, otherwise I'd ideally like to find work in Bristol (top of the list) or another large town. We'll see how we go with the job hunt though as that will be the biggest factor on where we reside.

I will admit, I'm going to miss the 6-tap setup I currently have. I think I'll be looking at fermenting and serving from cubes as it will be much more economical than purchasing more kegging gear.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry too much about finding work, there aren't many unemployed electrical engineers. You night need to spend money getting local certificates, depending on what kind of electrical engineer. As far as accountancy is concerned, it's all about convincing employers you have what they're looking for. I suggest you do some searching on those sites I linked, good idea to check on the pitfalls and mitigate them as much as you can.

Bristol is a great city. Not least because of its proximity to Cardiff. :lol:
 
HebridesRob said:
Bristol is a great city. Not least because of its proximity to Cardiff. :lol:
Click to expand...

get off train at cardiff central.

2-3 mins walk and you have, brewdog, zero degrees the queens vault & tiny rebel. Plus Waen's gravity bar is by the fag end of st. davids shopping centre.

re: commuting, Bristol to London is still a fair distance. Not quite like the distances you can get in AUS but it's still an hour 30 plus.

Staying north of Bristol gives you commuting opportunities to Bristol, Cheltenham Worcester and Gloucester as well as Newport.

and a better chance of holding yours brews to 21 deg C especially if you live in a house built in the 90's or later :grin:
 
We definitely wouldn't be living in Bristol if we found work in London - we'd be looking at living a lot closer to central London if so.. Bristol seemed to have a fair few job opportunities and have only heard good things about the area, but still within a couple of hours drive to London for ease of travelling on weekends, etc.

I'm just keen to explore local pubs and breweries, meet local brewers and have some traditional real ale. My local brew club here in Australia do an annual real ale festival where we mostly serve our beers through engines so where better to try the real deal than jolly old England, ey? Plus I'm sure the black pudding would be even nicer than the stuff we can buy here.
 
sponge_ said:
We definitely wouldn't be living in Bristol if we found work in London - we'd be looking at living a lot closer to central London if so.. Bristol seemed to have a fair few job opportunities and have only heard good things about the area, but still within a couple of hours drive to London for ease of travelling on weekends, etc.

I'm just keen to explore local pubs and breweries, meet local brewers and have some traditional real ale. My local brew club here in Australia do an annual real ale festival where we mostly serve our beers through engines so where better to try the real deal than jolly old England, ey? Plus I'm sure the black pudding would be even nicer than the stuff we can buy here.
Click to expand...

Ah, for black pudding you have to come North. Those southern monkeys can't do black pudding properly. If you move to the south, i'll bung you one in the post.!
 
I can't wait for my first letter in the mail to be a log of black pudding :lol:

"I told you dear, this is a sign of friendship in England, not a blood-disguised threat.."
 
I sincerely hope that you have deep pockets!

Check out the average house prices around the UK here ...

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/503000/Jan_2016_HPI.pdf

... at the moment, the average house price in London is £530,409 which at the current exchange rate (£1 = A$1.9278) is A$1,022,522 plus Bank Robbery on Exchange Rates, Stamp Duty, Solicitors Fees etc and to quote Sam Goldwyn from MGM ...

"Overspend a million dollars here and a million dollars there
and it's not long before you are talking big money!"​

If we leave the Euro the doom and gloom boys reckon that the GB Pound will plummet against all other currencies so you may get away with spending a lot less if you wait until later in the year!
 

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