Who can brew beer at home

[Leon103]

If you don’t mind an old crop they are a bit cheaper, but if you don’t mind paying what you are paying, I suspect you would mind an old crop!View attachment 22411

Freshness is key

 

[dwhite60]

Posted earlier but have to add:
No beard, no ink, no piercings.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[Drunkula]

benefit to the smart meter is that I know it costs me about £1 - £1.50 in electricity to brew a batch

Did my first induction full boil brew the other day and £1.50 is exactly the cost I worked out for the strike water, mash and boil. It does still work out about twice the price of gas but it'll be fun testing how much it costs in the summer with the solar panels at full pelt.

For me if I cost per pint goes over 20p I gasp and swoon. But I am making beers out of base malt plus whatever I can dig out a skip.

 

[foxy]

I have never voted labor, but I do love their money losing schemes, my electricity bill for this month is $142.83 credit. In 2009 I took up the governments offer to pay me 66 cents per kilowatt hour feed in tariff and charge me 22 cents a kilowatt hour until 2024. I can't increase my solar panels but now the state labor government is offering to pay 50% of the cost if I install batteries! You have to love the way they use other peoples money, especially when those people who voted them in are struggling to pay their utility bills.

 

[chthon]

Software and electronic engineer here, 54 this year. I do have a beard, but I had that before I started brewing because my wife liked it. No body art, not an athlete, but in fairly good shape. I do yoga and a bit of power training every evening, and twice a day a walk with the dog.

I started brewing as an outflow of liking to cook, so I started and still brew in my kitchen. People here are more like WOW! if you tell them you brew at home. On the continent nobody but other homebrewers seem to have experience with kits (and they mostly all dislike it).

 

[Covrich]

I work in IT - managing patching troubleshooting servers. I don't have a beard.

All my friends and acquaintances know I brew beer to be able to drink the types of beer you can't easily get elsewhere. I compare it to buying a microwave ready meal rather than cooking something yourself. They get that. I do it to get better beer not cheaper beer. The fact that it is usually cheaper is just a bonus.

You sound like me , I couldn;t even grow a beard if I tried

I like the ready meal analogy although I have tended to use that as a kit vs cook it yourself myself.

 

[johncrobinson]

For anyone in UK who likes to drink beer and wine, Homebrew is a saving NOT an expense.
There are not that many hobbies that can actually save enthusiasts money

 

[pms67]

For anyone in UK who likes to drink beer and wine, Homebrew is a saving NOT an expense.
There are not that many hobbies that can actually save enthusiasts money

I will show swmbo this post but I think she stopped believing me a year or so ago, I must get my shed it’s own postbox

 

[chrisb8]

I will show swmbo this post but I think she stopped believing me a year or so ago, I must get my shed it’s own postbox

Will it stop mine moaning about the smell?

 

[Ian Piper]

I run my own IT business. I think my interest in brewing came from two sources; one, the conviction that it must be possible to improve on the dreadful stuff I concocted when I was a poor student (Oh, the hangovers...) and two, the fact that it has all become much more accessible with the high quality kits, ingredients and equipment available to amateurs like me.
It might eventually work out to be economical, but that's not my main interest. It's just a thrill to open a bottle and pour a glass of delicious ale and know that I did it myself.

 

[Ian Piper]

Will it stop mine moaning about the smell?

Is that the smell of the shed or the beer?

 

[obscure]

For anyone in UK who likes to drink beer and wine, Homebrew is a saving NOT an expense.
There are not that many hobbies that can actually save enthusiasts money

In principle I agree with you, however once I factor in all the random bits of brew kit I buy on a whim, the fact that I sometimes want a particular strain of liquid yeast, shipping costs and electricity I doubt I save all that much in the end. It also doesn’t help that I do 11 L batches which brings up the cost per bottle (i.e, a vial or sachet of yeast costs the same on an 11L batch as on a 23 L batch.

Of course if I really wanted to I could increase my batch size, reuse yeast, buy a grain mill so I could buy base malts in bulk and stop buying bits of kit on a whim, which would rapidly bring the cost down.

 

[Drunkula]

buy a grain mill so I could buy base malts in bulk

You don't need to. Store milled grain in something like one of those vacuum bags for going under beds and it'll last a year or more easily.

 

[Spinningwoman]

I’m a Vicar - people are mildly surprised when I tell them I brew beer, but as far as I am concerned it’s all of a piece with making jam, bottling fruit, baking bread etc etc. And I also learned to unicycle at 60, so my bar for ‘normal behaviour’ is fairly low. I think in many people’s minds, the idea of homebrew is to produce as much alcohol as possible from a tin of malt extract and two buckets of sugar, so they are surprised when they try mine and find it is good.

 

[dad_of_jon]

Me. I can't bloody stand overly hoppy beer.

sours for you then, no hops required

 

[Brew Dad]

Great thread.

50 years old, married, 4 kids. VP in a venture capital firm. No beard, no ink, no piercings. Fat b*stard. Got into the hobby because I want to make the type of beer I like (trad bitters) which are pretty much impossible to find in Canada.

Wide range of reactions when people hear about my hobby. Older son's friends love to try my beer, but they are all uni students, so no surprise there. I find reactions from colleagues usually are a good indication of their general views and relationships with alcohol.

 

[chrisb8]

Is that the smell of the shed or the beer?

The moan about the shed is 'it's full up with all your bikes'...

 

[Dutto]

I have never voted labor, but I do love their money losing schemes, my electricity bill for this month is $142.83 credit. In 2009 I took up the governments offer to pay me 66 cents per kilowatt hour feed in tariff and charge me 22 cents a kilowatt hour until 2024. I can't increase my solar panels but now the state labor government is offering to pay 50% of the cost if I install batteries! You have to love the way they use other peoples money, especially when those people who voted them in are struggling to pay their utility bills.

From the $ and cents I presume that you aren't in the UK.

Here we don't have any problems with electricity prices. A Tory government privatised the electricity supply many years ago. The generating companies were subsequently bought by foreign investors. The foreign investors keep increasing their profits by increasing their prices. Everyone is happy ...

... but God only knows why!

 

[pms67]

No nasty four letter words Dutto

A **** government comment could close this thread ​

 

[Rodcx500z]

I am waiting for all the moaning and groaning when they ban wood burners, its already in the pipeline