Well,
I vaguely recall at one point I said that I would do a post like this so here it is. It's a bit of a long read but if you're curious, then fire away.
Why I am writing this? Not really sure if I'm being totally honest. It's a post that really is just for me to put my thoughts down somewhere about my journey into all-grain brewing which started around 6 months ago (give or take a few days lol) when I made my first all grain lager to where I am now.
This isn't intended to be a post that will raise discussion but I'm open to it if anybody reads and has any queries about something in it.
I am currently sat beside my Brewzilla with it doing a CIP clean after last nights brew and it just hit me that I think that I'm at a point with this hobby where I am comfortable enough with my setup that I can stop trying to get something new to do this other thing that I heard or read about and just enjoy the fruits of the hobby. My setup suits me for now and I can move from there.
If there are any of you reading this who are also beginning their journey into all-grain brewing like myself and maybe have some of the questions that I had, snoop about my profile, you may find what you're looking for. If the answer isn't there, this is a really friendly community, you'll probably find what you need somewhere or there could be somebody who can answer your query.
How it started
I'd just quit my job and I'd been dabbling with kit brewing in buckets on and off since about 2022 with about a 25% success rate. It was kinda demoralising but I wasn't prepared to let it beat me as I couldn't shake the idea of wanting to sit back and enjoy a nice beer or wine that I had made. I don't really consider the bucket kits in my brewing journey all that much but they were certainly a learning experience for me that let me know that I really hated brewing in a bucket. I had a success with a MYO strawberry and lime cider kit and that gave me hope moving forward.
So, with little prospects I had moving forward job wise, spending my days watching the GEB & TMM YouTube channels and coming off the buzz of a successful brew, I went onto the interweb and started looking at brew kettles, regulators, kegs, temperature chambers etc. and it just spiralled from there.
Where I am now
Well, I'm at a point now where I have my brew kettle, temp chamber retrofitted for gas tubing (Both CO2 and CO2/N2) no longer fed from sodastream bottles but instead from 9 kg cylinders that are secured beside my temperature chamber, multiple kegs. A beer bottling gun (yet to be used), steam condenser, ability to filter beers/ciders, and now I've moved into water treatment and dry hopping, which I feel were the last two beasts I needed to work up the courage to tackle before I was happy with it.
Last nights brew was my first ever water treated brew with AMS(CRS) and DWB, and once fermented will be dry hopped in a keg.
So I'm now tackling those beasts and I feel very good about it all.
With ~110L under my belt from I started... I'm happy with this.
Where to go from here
Firstly, I want to learn to bake sourdough and enjoy it with my beer and wine that I'll be making.
Two of the original main goals I wanted to achieve when I started brewing with All-Grain, was to be able to get a proper decent pint for less than the price of a pint in my city. I've got the decent pint part down (and only getting better), now I'm focusing on getting my costs per pint down.
I want to have a go at bottling a conditioned and carbonated beer from a corny keg using my bottling gun, so that it at least sees some use.
Start making wine and mead again. I made a mead once and enjoyed it, I also made a Beaverdale wine kit and really enjoyed it. I have also talked about a project of low oxygen wine making that I may try my hand at this year, still unsure how to approach this one, not that I've given it much thought.
Eventually get another larger fridge so that I can ferment as well as keg condition or ferment wine and beer at the same time in a temp controlled environment. I'm looking at the 60L Fermzilla for larger batches as well as the ability to add a hop bong to my all-rounder. Yeast collection isn't something I'm interested in. (yet...)
I recently have made a spreadsheet (yes I said spreadsheet) that is allowing me to compare the money I have put into the hobby to how many litres I have brewed and that lets me see what my price per pint is currently and after every brew. It updates every time I add something to my "Orders" list and again when I add something to my "Brewdays" list and shows me my price accordingly. It's a real motivator to brew more.
Build a mini kegerator out of a mini fridge that holds 4L oxebar kegs I can plug into an outlet or a 12V port for when I go camping.
What I learned
I want to thank you all for putting up with some of my **** for the last 6 months and helping me get to the point that I am. I'm brewing better beer and now have a lifelong hobby thanks to you all.
Sláinte.
P.S. I'm not going away, I'm still going to be here melting your heads.
I vaguely recall at one point I said that I would do a post like this so here it is. It's a bit of a long read but if you're curious, then fire away.
Why I am writing this? Not really sure if I'm being totally honest. It's a post that really is just for me to put my thoughts down somewhere about my journey into all-grain brewing which started around 6 months ago (give or take a few days lol) when I made my first all grain lager to where I am now.
This isn't intended to be a post that will raise discussion but I'm open to it if anybody reads and has any queries about something in it.
I am currently sat beside my Brewzilla with it doing a CIP clean after last nights brew and it just hit me that I think that I'm at a point with this hobby where I am comfortable enough with my setup that I can stop trying to get something new to do this other thing that I heard or read about and just enjoy the fruits of the hobby. My setup suits me for now and I can move from there.
If there are any of you reading this who are also beginning their journey into all-grain brewing like myself and maybe have some of the questions that I had, snoop about my profile, you may find what you're looking for. If the answer isn't there, this is a really friendly community, you'll probably find what you need somewhere or there could be somebody who can answer your query.
How it started
I'd just quit my job and I'd been dabbling with kit brewing in buckets on and off since about 2022 with about a 25% success rate. It was kinda demoralising but I wasn't prepared to let it beat me as I couldn't shake the idea of wanting to sit back and enjoy a nice beer or wine that I had made. I don't really consider the bucket kits in my brewing journey all that much but they were certainly a learning experience for me that let me know that I really hated brewing in a bucket. I had a success with a MYO strawberry and lime cider kit and that gave me hope moving forward.
So, with little prospects I had moving forward job wise, spending my days watching the GEB & TMM YouTube channels and coming off the buzz of a successful brew, I went onto the interweb and started looking at brew kettles, regulators, kegs, temperature chambers etc. and it just spiralled from there.
Where I am now
Well, I'm at a point now where I have my brew kettle, temp chamber retrofitted for gas tubing (Both CO2 and CO2/N2) no longer fed from sodastream bottles but instead from 9 kg cylinders that are secured beside my temperature chamber, multiple kegs. A beer bottling gun (yet to be used), steam condenser, ability to filter beers/ciders, and now I've moved into water treatment and dry hopping, which I feel were the last two beasts I needed to work up the courage to tackle before I was happy with it.
Last nights brew was my first ever water treated brew with AMS(CRS) and DWB, and once fermented will be dry hopped in a keg.
So I'm now tackling those beasts and I feel very good about it all.
With ~110L under my belt from I started... I'm happy with this.
Where to go from here
Firstly, I want to learn to bake sourdough and enjoy it with my beer and wine that I'll be making.
Two of the original main goals I wanted to achieve when I started brewing with All-Grain, was to be able to get a proper decent pint for less than the price of a pint in my city. I've got the decent pint part down (and only getting better), now I'm focusing on getting my costs per pint down.
I want to have a go at bottling a conditioned and carbonated beer from a corny keg using my bottling gun, so that it at least sees some use.
Start making wine and mead again. I made a mead once and enjoyed it, I also made a Beaverdale wine kit and really enjoyed it. I have also talked about a project of low oxygen wine making that I may try my hand at this year, still unsure how to approach this one, not that I've given it much thought.
Eventually get another larger fridge so that I can ferment as well as keg condition or ferment wine and beer at the same time in a temp controlled environment. I'm looking at the 60L Fermzilla for larger batches as well as the ability to add a hop bong to my all-rounder. Yeast collection isn't something I'm interested in. (yet...)
I recently have made a spreadsheet (yes I said spreadsheet) that is allowing me to compare the money I have put into the hobby to how many litres I have brewed and that lets me see what my price per pint is currently and after every brew. It updates every time I add something to my "Orders" list and again when I add something to my "Brewdays" list and shows me my price accordingly. It's a real motivator to brew more.
Build a mini kegerator out of a mini fridge that holds 4L oxebar kegs I can plug into an outlet or a 12V port for when I go camping.
What I learned
- It's a difficult one to be able to do at the beginning but knowing what you are wanting achieve from your setup instead of wanting to be able to do it all with your setup with save you a lot of money. I should know, I've spent enough money to start this hobby again threefold.
- New is good, used can be just as good. Be patient and shop about. I spent too much money on things because of this.
- That shiny bit of kit that does that specific thing looks cool, but do you need it? I fell into this trap and spent more than I should on things I haven't yet used and others that I have likely forgotten about.
- Bucket blaster and low-volume CIP were a life saver for cleaning.
- Water treatment really isn't all that scary. It looks daunting as all hell but once you scratch the surface, it isn't. There are plenty of people on the forum here who have helped me see that and plenty of discussions about water treatment.
I want to thank you all for putting up with some of my **** for the last 6 months and helping me get to the point that I am. I'm brewing better beer and now have a lifelong hobby thanks to you all.
Sláinte.
P.S. I'm not going away, I'm still going to be here melting your heads.
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