Home brewing for the people

Everyone is their own worst critic. Which is why when tasting my latest home brewing experience, my thoughts automatically wander to how I could get this ‘domestic airline house beer’ up to ‘jet fighter dogfight pilot experience’ with the addition of hops amongst other things whilst simultaneously playing a game of ‘did the carbonation drops work with this one or not?’

But then I had some family around on the weekend who looked at the latest effort out of the home brewing production facility (the shed) with completely different eyes and quite enjoyed the experience.
Even though I almost poisoned one of them years ago when I went a little overboard brewing up a beer…

It’s Lager Jim and exactly as we know it!

Lager Jim, it’s a planetoid full of base lager!

Yes the Lovely Donna Lager from my first home brewing day in forever is finally done and as expected, it’s emerged as a lager that ticks the lager box with little fanfare. It smells like a pub, tastes like a lager, there’s no lingering notes and it goes very well with meaty things which is good, because I cook a lot of meaty things.

This is the type of beer you’d pay too much for at a wrestling event but you momentarily forget that part when you throw it cup and all when heat magnet 2000 aka Dom Mysterio grabs the microphone and attempts to say anything before the crowd rise as one and attempt to drown him out in an ocean of noise and thrown objects. As previously mentioned a domestic aeroplane beer that you order just to get the horrid taste of whatever that rubbishly small gourmet sandwich you just consumed was supposed to be (it sure wasn’t chicken!).

On a good day with a good pour, it looks like this – beautifully golden, bubbling away with a nice foamy head and just aching to be sampled after a hot day pushing a mower around:

home brewing gone well
I was quite impressed by this one!

And I say on a good day with a good pour because there have been a couple in the home brewing collection so far that have poured flatter than a crap carters hat with barely any head and they’ve had the same treatment as everything else – 2 carbonation drops, time in the shed, time in the fridge, nothing out of the ordinary etc. Next time I’m going back to the spoonfuls of dextrose sugar because I know that works very well for head generation.

Still at the end of the day I’ve made 23 litres of ready to go beer and it’s delightful having enough to not only last me the next few months, but also guests popping around for a feed from the smoker after my wife has watched it like a hawk, lest it drop a few degrees whenever she turns away for more than half a second.

Like the weekend just gone actually!

Not Baz’s first home brewing rodeo

When we lived on the Gold Coast, Baz was always up for a visit!

Ahh where would I be without my super handy father in law Baz? Actually that’s an easy one really:

-Down thousands of dollars in car repairs. As an ex mechanic he taught and helped fix a tonne of things including my old Mazda Rx7 which worked well about 30% of the time. He also got my Soarer roadworthy again, helped swap a blown turbo on my Stagea and so on. The Duke of DIY, there hasn’t been a car job he hasn’t wanted to take on. Well aside from the Subaru head gasket, I think he wasn’t so keen to try that one on..

-He helped tile our old place and renovate the shed. He put in a swing for the kids, installed a dog door and helped clean up when it was time to go. Plumbing, basic wiring, painting, plastering, fence installation, he built his own house and then helped us fix ours always asking for nothing in return.

-He’s built go karts for the kids, billy karts and just about every other hand crafted kids too you could name for the myriad of grand kids. An absolute top father in law, grand dad and he’s the first one to dip a hand into his pocket to help with whatever you need.

And so a few years back I figured I’d whip up a home brewing special beer in his honour for his next visit… which just about poisoned the both of us.. whoops!

Behold the one off 2018 Bazweigan Blonde Ale!

Okay I’m exaggerating slightly, it wasn’t poisonous per se, more packing far more hop acid than anything should because working on the recipe, somehow I went a little silly on the green stuff and the bitterness hit the red zone:

Wrong on three counts, a new record! (red: Very bad..)

It tasted like a lifeless dry desert that never failed to leave a bad taste in your mouth and after he soldiered through a couple because he is such a nice bloke, I figured things weren’t about to get any better and poured the remaining back down the sink.

And since that was his last experience with my adventures in home brewing, you could imagine how tentative he was on the weekend just gone when I uttered the words ‘Would you like some home brew there Baz?’

This was Brother Trev’s first home brewing rodeo though..

Trev looks mightily impressed at the thought of a home brew!

Amazingly in all the time I’ve known Trev (and been married to his sister) I haven’t tried to poison him with some home brewing yet! (Although he did sample some of the original batch of mead recently which he seemed to enjoy.)

And so I had no idea what he’d think of a LDL straight out of the fridge, to go with the smoked lamb and brisket Donna had crafted across the day. Turns out he was quite the fan! Yes, a fan of the odd brew to compliment a meal, he found my effort pretty good, I could easily knock off a couple of those with a big meal. And if he didn’t have the kids on board and had to be home by 7:30, then he probably would have which was pleasing!

What I thought was decidedly average he enjoyed quite a lot so it just goes to show how hard I am on my own beer brewing efforts when the proof is actually in the pudding…er…brewing, and given to family members to enjoy. (Even Baz finished his without grimacing which was a proud moment for me.) Which is what home brewing should be really – a fun hobby that you’d be pleased to share with others.

Home brewing sampling then leads to home brewing chat

Which I honestly get a big kick out of to be honest because hey, who doesn’t like talking about their hobbies? And Baz and Trev had plenty of queries from ingredients cost (making a beer for under a buck a bottle is sure an eye opener especially with the cost of drinking out!) to various flavours to what I planned to home brew next.

Which is an interesting question really and one that I’m still working on. Having ticked off a Lager, an IPA, a delicious Munich helles and a raspberry infused cerveza (an interesting experiment for sure) I could try something new but there’s always the one that got away – I tried an Irish Red once but the batch got infected so maybe I should try and tackle that one next? Apparently you start with a Coopers Pale Ale tin and work your way from there..

Is it Irish Red time??

Whatever I choose, I know Trev will be keen to pop round for a sample or two (and Baz will pretend) – either way the first one was a better success than I gave it credit for and here’s to many more fine brews in the future! Happy home brewing to all!

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