Brewers?

I don't brew myself, but i like good beer, especially IPA style beers,

There's a lot of options out there, that's for sure. Being the control freak that I am, I went the system route - things like the grainfather mean you have control over the whole process from grain to glass.

Of course, you don't need a gf style system to do that, but it sure made the process less overwhelming for me initially.

It also helped that I picked up a load of kit off a good friend who showed me the ropes, and went in with another good mate on all the kit and ingredients - kept the cost down initially and the motivation to make up in those early days.

Sharing all the beer made is good too - as well as the social thing it means I get to brew more regularly and have another perspective on the beers I'm brewing. Fortunately we have similar tastes too, and if anything his palette is more dialed in than mine - when I think I've made the best beer ever I soon have someone to tell me what's bad about it!

From a 'is this for me' pov my take is that if you can cook and like the process (and processes in general) brewing is a great option. It also helps if you like the odd pint of course; there's something very satisfying about drinking a beer that's better than the vast majority of beers you could source locally, because it's dialed to just how you like it.

Haven't brewn (??) myself, but as a Belgian you pretty much are born into a landscape full of micro-breweries.

I grew up in the flemish countryside, in the village Anzegem, and when I was about 16, a group of three locals started a super-small brewery with its own accompanying pub. I knew one of them pretty well, and it was fantastic to see them grow. Every friday or so we went to their pub and steadily we saw there own style & tastes develop into a wide pallette of classic Tripels, IPA's, Geuze, Sours,..

They are called 'Brouwerij 't Verzet', and by now they are pretty well known in Belgium, its not unusual to see a list of Verzet beers on the menu in the pubs in Ghent or Brussels. Which makes me proud and is of course just super cool, seeing something blossom from the start! They also stay very true to their roots, they are still relativily small, work with local people only and are very well respected in the brewery scene. And the best thing: they are still experimenting with so many different flavours every year!

Untappd are a bit too hard on them imo, but maybe i'm very biased   
-> untappd.com/BrouwersVerzet/beer

(PS: my favorite beer by them is 'Unwandet tattoo', which is a fantastic IPA with a touch of ginger)

Well I love wine as well (mmm Italian barbera or primitivo), but for me personally the beer world seems so much wider in tastes. Limiting yourself to one fruit (ie grapes) is a pretty bland decision, I love how beer can have EVERYTHING in it, you can put oak leaves or just about any fruit in there, you can use endless options of herbs, and then there is also the hops mmm. Or you can even do totally without the hops! Just so much to explore taste-wise. 

Went into brewing with a mate many many years ago that is until he moved and took the kit with him and I never bothered with starting again.
Was a great process and a relaxed finish. Getting the mates over for a tasting and BBQ was the best part and hearing everyone's opinions and sledging was fun.
The taste was often much better than most of the store ones. I thought anyway......

I remember when the first Home Brew Store opened and walking in was such an exciting thing to see what you could make. Stout was my pick, cant remember the brand.


These days I'm trying to find the perfect non alco drink but alas there are non that I've found yet. 

I could get into brewing Ginger beer I guess........but wouldn't be the same satisfaction I don't think.

Hop water? great idea to sample before going through the whole process. 

mmm carbonated water and hops   you do love it.  could work though.

ok so now you are getting me very interested in trying hops and water.

mmm wonder if there is a store online that sells samples.  Is there such a thing.


Back in the day there would be no way I would even be in the same room as a bud light so I'm hearing you......

Kombucha can be pretty cool. Don't know how well know it is, but its a kind of fermented suger/fruit juice, fermented by a big fat 'scoby' (actually a mix of bacteria and yeast). Cool thing is that it's pretty easy to get good results, and you can experiment a lot with the types juice/liquid you ferment. My mother has experimented a lot with her own kombucha's, and they are waaaaay better than most i find in the store. Although there is a local one with fermented pineapple and chili that is DELICIOUS.

If I remember right and you're in Oz you're in luck - galaxy, Vic secret and Ella are among the best in the world imo.

Ella's lovely - less potent than the other two but just as nice in its own way.

Let me know how you get on - I suggest starting with 8g of hops for every litre of water and adjusting from there. The more you add the more likely you will get a bit of hop burn - you're trying to get flavour but not burn.

Another tip is the hotter the water when you add, the more bitterness you're going to get - I'd let the boiled water cool a little first, safe drinking temp would be fine, though you could also experiment with adding straight to cold or boiling to see what you like.

Aussie hops - you're a lucky man! NZ do some interesting varieties too, though I prefer the tropical fruit forward styles of the Australian big hitters. NZ hops to me are more citrussey and sometimes (white) grapey. If you can get any Nelson sauvin for a decent price it's worth trying just to see how different it is - I don't love it but it's a great blender.

Sabro is my current top of the hops - get the timings/amounts right and you get pineapple, coconut and even a little mint in there. Couldn't believe what I tasted was just made from hops first time around!

Ordered a small sample bag of each of your recommendations. Looking forward to trying something new for a change. Cheers.

Do you have any stories of exploding bottles, injuries or seriously bad or good tastings.

Brewing is definitely not for me, but I'm a huge beer lover (in France I used to live right next to Belgium). I particularly enjoy strong belgian-style blondes and triples, and very dark stouts. My favourite beer is probably the Rochefort 10, followed by the Anosteké blonde.