If you love good beer. . .

[boxy]

Ha I've been off the beer for a while, actually. But with the warmer weather finally arriving, I tried a few Carlton Dry a week or two ago. Quite palatable, actually... pity about the pissy little sub-stubbie size bottles though

[Jovial Monk]

I should give up beer M-F. Love good beer, but it does pack weight around the waistline. Some nice dry white wine might be the go. Have done this b4, always works.

[TomB]

.... Some nice dry white wine might be the go. Have done this b4, always works.

Bullshit! Wine has almost twice the kilojoules of beer and drinking a bottle of wine is like drinking a six pack of beer. Forget all the carb and fat BS, it's the total Kilojoules that count. If your total energy intake is greater than your output you'll gain weight, simple as that.

[Jovial Monk]

Wine doesn’t have the protein content of beer.

[Jovial Monk]

Beer less popular with Aussie drinkers
Posted Tue Jan 18, 2011 3:48pm AEDT


Beer consumption in Australia is in decline, a report found. (http://www.sxc.hu: Dave Dyet)

RELATED STORY: Binge drinking linked to heart disease
A report has found that beer consumption in Australia has slumped in the past half century.

At the start of the 1960s, beer made up more than three-quarters of all alcohol consumed.

But a report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics says that has now fallen to 44 per cent.

(ABC website)

No wonder with the high sugar alcopops served up as beer these days!

[boxy]

Oi, Monk... now you're not flogging the homebrew stuff anymore (apparently), tell us, what's the best way for a newbie to get into the game? And no, I don't wanna buy all the yuppy gadgetry and "blended brews" shite... if my great uncle could brew up a decent batch, 30 years ago, it can't be that complicated

[Jovial Monk]

OK so you want to brew kits. For starters, only buy Coopers or Morgans (now 100% owned by Coopers anyway) or Muntons kits (English and expensive) the rest are crap.

Would advise you to wait till March or so—brewing outside a fridge in hot weather gives you lots of Vegemite flavor (literally, Vegemite is made from spent brewers yeast. . .)

Buy a tin of the Coopers Australian Bitter and a tin of the Coopers light liquid malt extract, and buy a packet of Safale 04 ale yeast. Stand both tins in a small plastic basin, pour ≈ 2L boiling water in and let the tins stand for 10-15 minutes. This softens the syrup and makes it more pourable (with honey I put the bucket in the microwave for 3-4 minutes but can’t do that with tins!) Keep your yeast in the fridge until you start the softening process, then take it out to let it come to room temperature.

While tins are standing in the hot water clean and sanitise your fermenter (see my brew manual on-line (http://www.jovialmonk.com.au/chapter1.htm) then pour in the the contents of the two tins and follow that with 4L boiling water (the instructions on the tin might say 2L but you are adding 2 tins of syrup.) Stir the syrup/water mix well for a few minutes. Now we need to add cold water and it makes a difference how you add it: use a 2L jug and fill to the line then pour the water from the jug into the fermenter from as big a height as you can manage, plenty of splashing meaning tons of aeration and plenty of oxygen in the wort (unfermented beer is called wort pronounced as ‘wurt’ when topped up to the right level cut the packet of yeast open and carefully sprinkle the yeast on to the top of the froth so the yeast forms a thin, even layer over the whole of the froth. Fit lid and airlock, let it ferment and (if weather isn’t too hot) leave it undisturbed in your fermenter for two weeks.

This part should not take more than 20 minutes.

You will need to take a hydrometer reading to ensure the ferment is finished (don’t want no exploding bottles!) but we can talk about that later.

You will have a golden colored beer that will not be too bitter for you and will have a good flavor, mouthfeel and body. For variety you could try the amber malt and even the wheat malt with the Australian Bitter. Depends if you like wheat beers, I do but to some people they taste like catpiss.

If you want to get started right the fuck now I recommend the Coopers Irish Stout with the amber liquid malt, dark and roasty enough to override the Vegemite flavor

You will have enough different kit + malt combinations to keep you happy for a long time. If sometime you want to boost the hop aroma/flavor a bit we can talk about hop teas then.

This is the best advice you can get—I have read about all the brew books there are, have tasted customers beers, often a pleasure sometimes not and have won gold medals with my beers.

[Jovial Monk]

Once you have the basic gear, fermenter, stirring paddle or spoon, hydrometer, bottle filler etc don’t forget you can use it to make other stuff: wine (some grape growers will deliver must (grape juice) to your door, mead, cider (not from kits, you can buy juice from some growers) and fruit wines etc.

[Jovial Monk]

Stone & Wood Brewery of Byron Bay draught ale.

Pours with plenty of head, too much in fact. Head is pure white, some big bubbles, some very fine foam. Color of the ale is a bit disapointing to me, pale yellow, lemony. Head has collapsed a fair way but still has a cm or so froth all over the top of the ale, some lacing but not very much.

Aroma—fantastic! The Galaxy (Australian) hops give this ale a clean, citrusy-perfumy slightly sweet aroma and a good amount too. Delightful to smell.

Taste is similar to the aroma, the body a bit thin for my taste, not much mouthfeel, little bitterness and apart from a slight lingering citrusy taste mid palate no residual flavor in the mouth. I was told “an explosion of galaxy hops in the mouth” but alas I guess this stubby was a bit old and while the flavor was there it wasn’t an explosion

Great as a nice, light quaffing ale for summer. Will definitely try and find a much fresher (half) bottle of it.

As I said, not bitter (bit more bitterness in a fresher bottle tho) but very pleasant on a hot day.

[boxy]

I was talking about getting into brewing with a cousin a week or so ago, and he has done a little of it himself, so offered me his brewing kit (sterilising stuff and bottle drain tree), on loan, for a few months. Looks like everything needed is there, apart from the brew ingredients, of course (just a well out of date can of Coopers ingredients). I'll have to grab some when I'm next in town (they're avilable at supermarkets/department stores?).

What are your thoughts on water, Monk? The book I'm reading on it reckons it matters little, as long as you make sure the microorganisms are nuked beforehand. I'll be using rain water, and will either look to boil it, or draw from the hot water service, and cool it before mixing.

Ever tried open fermentation?