Hi, a single dad from Melbourne Australia just recently got more serious about my brewing again.
Started brewing regularly a couple of years ago when the wife left, but just K&K or partial. Of course I've started getting the taste for it again as I improve and recently scored some bargains on kegging gear, then a boiler/tun with temperature control.
When I first tried homebrew there was little available in the way of supplies and good advice and I gave up after a couple of brews. When I moved to W.A. my workmate was into it and I started again, but still wasn't happy with the results. Coopers Brewery here came out with their own kits, but it was never like what I drank commercially. I tried lagering, but it was far too much work and drama and I found my fridge got infected pretty quickly. Then I started hanging around with a girl who was a member of CAMRA back in England and she introduced me to some British Ales which I discovered I liked.
From there I never looked back (though I had a couple of breaks when living where it was too hot and the local water was too hot and undrinkable to brew beer.) I learned to brew Ales at the correct temperature and better sanitation, found places that stocked grains and better hops and yeast, etc. When I moved to Kalgoorlie I found it actually cheaper to buy malted grain than malt and the place I bought it from provided lots of information on mashing, etc.
These days I can buy a wide variety of ingredients locally, and while I am broke again my pommie friends reckon my Tetley's-styled Special Bitter is as good as or better than the original. I am sure I still have the old books somewhere as I "accidentally" produced some great beer with roasted barley recently and it's given me the idea of trying stuff like wheatbix and such again.
To summarise: My favourite style is English Bitter (or Stout in winter,) favourite Hop is East Kent Goldings, and I'm finally going all-grain (BIAB) as I'm as tight as a fish's
Started brewing regularly a couple of years ago when the wife left, but just K&K or partial. Of course I've started getting the taste for it again as I improve and recently scored some bargains on kegging gear, then a boiler/tun with temperature control.
When I first tried homebrew there was little available in the way of supplies and good advice and I gave up after a couple of brews. When I moved to W.A. my workmate was into it and I started again, but still wasn't happy with the results. Coopers Brewery here came out with their own kits, but it was never like what I drank commercially. I tried lagering, but it was far too much work and drama and I found my fridge got infected pretty quickly. Then I started hanging around with a girl who was a member of CAMRA back in England and she introduced me to some British Ales which I discovered I liked.
From there I never looked back (though I had a couple of breaks when living where it was too hot and the local water was too hot and undrinkable to brew beer.) I learned to brew Ales at the correct temperature and better sanitation, found places that stocked grains and better hops and yeast, etc. When I moved to Kalgoorlie I found it actually cheaper to buy malted grain than malt and the place I bought it from provided lots of information on mashing, etc.
These days I can buy a wide variety of ingredients locally, and while I am broke again my pommie friends reckon my Tetley's-styled Special Bitter is as good as or better than the original. I am sure I still have the old books somewhere as I "accidentally" produced some great beer with roasted barley recently and it's given me the idea of trying stuff like wheatbix and such again.
To summarise: My favourite style is English Bitter (or Stout in winter,) favourite Hop is East Kent Goldings, and I'm finally going all-grain (BIAB) as I'm as tight as a fish's
