Skydiver
New Member
Hey Guys,
I have been living and working in Thailand as a consulting engineer for the past 11 years.
As a young lad, I spent my formative years drinking Fullers ales and love the myriad variety and complexities of real ale in general. I've lost count of the amount of times I said I would dip my toe into home brewing, but always found a reason to put it off. The lockdowns we've all been through over the past couple of years, resulted in me working more than ever from home and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to finally bite the bullet, so I jumped in with both feet.
Although many beginners take the kit route, it didn't appeal to me. As I contemplated (but delayed) my foray into home brewing, I did take the time to read much about the methodology and felt confident enough to give all grain brewing a go, right off the bat.
In October 2021, I bought a Grainfather G30 Connect brewing system (I love the counter flow chiller which works extremely well) and had it shipped from the U.K. to Thailand. I didn't buy their conical fermenter and glycol chiller unit; as a newbie, it felt like a bit too much of an investment until such time as I was sure it would be a long term pursuit (which I'm pretty sure it now is). I thought it would be a problem to source the type and variety of grist, yeast and hops I needed to try and clone my beloved Fullers ESB, but I was delighted to discover that there is a thriving home brew community in Thailand, even though it is ostensibly illegal to home brew here (turns out this only applies if you want to sell what you brew commercially). I can buy a wide selection of Thomas Fawcett grist, a number of yeast varieties, and Challenger, Target, East Kent Golding and Northdown hops are all available here, much to my surprise and delight. As I type, my third batch of ESB clone is fermenting, and I am frankly amazed at just how well the first 3 batches have turned out, with minor tweaks between batches.
The year round ambient temperature of approx. 30c presents challenges, but as creative engineer
, I came up with a slick way of reliably controlling fermenting temperatures up to 20c (to develop those nice fruity esters) and cold crash all the way down to 2c.
I joined the forum because... well... let's be honest, who brews beer better than Brits? I have much to learn (and a pending question about bottle conditioning real ale, which I will post in a follow up thread) and am looking forward to benefitting from your collective years of home brewing experience.
Cheers Guys...
I have been living and working in Thailand as a consulting engineer for the past 11 years.
As a young lad, I spent my formative years drinking Fullers ales and love the myriad variety and complexities of real ale in general. I've lost count of the amount of times I said I would dip my toe into home brewing, but always found a reason to put it off. The lockdowns we've all been through over the past couple of years, resulted in me working more than ever from home and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to finally bite the bullet, so I jumped in with both feet.
Although many beginners take the kit route, it didn't appeal to me. As I contemplated (but delayed) my foray into home brewing, I did take the time to read much about the methodology and felt confident enough to give all grain brewing a go, right off the bat.
In October 2021, I bought a Grainfather G30 Connect brewing system (I love the counter flow chiller which works extremely well) and had it shipped from the U.K. to Thailand. I didn't buy their conical fermenter and glycol chiller unit; as a newbie, it felt like a bit too much of an investment until such time as I was sure it would be a long term pursuit (which I'm pretty sure it now is). I thought it would be a problem to source the type and variety of grist, yeast and hops I needed to try and clone my beloved Fullers ESB, but I was delighted to discover that there is a thriving home brew community in Thailand, even though it is ostensibly illegal to home brew here (turns out this only applies if you want to sell what you brew commercially). I can buy a wide selection of Thomas Fawcett grist, a number of yeast varieties, and Challenger, Target, East Kent Golding and Northdown hops are all available here, much to my surprise and delight. As I type, my third batch of ESB clone is fermenting, and I am frankly amazed at just how well the first 3 batches have turned out, with minor tweaks between batches.
The year round ambient temperature of approx. 30c presents challenges, but as creative engineer
, I came up with a slick way of reliably controlling fermenting temperatures up to 20c (to develop those nice fruity esters) and cold crash all the way down to 2c.I joined the forum because... well... let's be honest, who brews beer better than Brits? I have much to learn (and a pending question about bottle conditioning real ale, which I will post in a follow up thread) and am looking forward to benefitting from your collective years of home brewing experience.
Cheers Guys...
