Home Brew?

[Thanyaburi Mac]

Almost hesitate to ask, but are there any other homebrewers here in Thailand??

Mac

[ercorn]

Never tried home brewing outside of Oz but I used to make a mean brew with coopers though half of the brew exploded before it matured.

[wadsy]

I own a retail home brew shop in Oz so if there is anything you would like to know (hypothetically of course as brewing without a licence in Thailand is illegal apparently) drop me a PM. Do miss brewing good beers here myself, especially the wort packs from ESB which were as close the full mash brewing without doing all the work yourself.......................Cheers.

[terry57]

crickys, now heres a subject that i love.

i am the man, as im right into my brewing back in perth. coopers dark ale and coopers lager being my absolute favorites. had to give it a miss for a while as i was drinking to much of the stuff.

anyway, when i move to los im bringing my kit with me and ill brew in my aircon condo.

thank you very much.

[phazey]

This is something i've always been interested in taking up.

[Pink Mist]

Pale and Lager are great, a tip for ercon

exploding bottles

1 too much sugar for the secondary fermentation

2 primary fermentation incomplete

3 Use plastic bottles, much stronger than glass

I use the plastic bottles, the purists turn their noses up, but it tastes just as good.

[Upcountry]

Legality aside (this is a theoretical question), is there anything about the climate and seasons here that would either help or hinder home brewing?

[heybruce]

Legality aside (this is a theoretical question), is there anything about the climate and seasons here that would either help or hinder home brewing?

Ales need to be kept cool during fermentation, I would say no more than 20 C, and 15 would be better. In the U.S. I used to keep my fermenter in a big tub of water that I kept cool with twice daily additions of ice. Pilsners/lagers need to be kept around 5 degrees, so you'd need a refrigerator big enough to hold the fermenter. The supplies are not complicated; brewers yeast, hops, malt extract or cracked barley ready to be made into wort, very good water, the containers for boiling and fermenting, bottles and a bottle capper. However I have no idea where you would find them in Thailand, and keeping the fermentation cool would be a big challenge here.

In summary, this is definitely a hypothetical topic. Someone would have to be really obsessed with the idea to try homebrewing in Thailand. Too bad, because it's not difficult to make beers that are much better than the mass produced stuff.

[Upcountry]

... and given the pathetic choices we have here, an underground network of microbrews would be just the ticket!

[wadsy]

Legality aside (this is a theoretical question), is there anything about the climate and seasons here that would either help or hinder home brewing?

Ales need to be kept cool during fermentation, I would say no more than 20 C, and 15 would be better. In the U.S. I used to keep my fermenter in a big tub of water that I kept cool with twice daily additions of ice. Pilsners/lagers need to be kept around 5 degrees, so you'd need a refrigerator big enough to hold the fermenter. The supplies are not complicated; brewers yeast, hops, malt extract or cracked barley ready to be made into wort, very good water, the containers for boiling and fermenting, bottles and a bottle capper. However I have no idea where you would find them in Thailand, and keeping the fermentation cool would be a big challenge here.

In summary, this is definitely a hypothetical topic. Someone would have to be really obsessed with the idea to try homebrewing in Thailand. Too bad, because it's not difficult to make beers that are much better than the mass produced stuff.

Trying not to be a purist, you are on the right track about temperature control but slightly off with your recommended temperatures. Ale yeast works down to approximately 18 degrees C. Any lower than this then it just hibernates. Lager yeasts work at an optimum temperature range of 10-12 degrees C. Same deal about hibernation at lower temps.

The 5 degrees you talk about that pilners/lagers beers are made with is the process of 'lagering' which in german means 'to store'. This temperature is used to condition the beer AFTER primary fermentation. An attempt to primary ferment at such a low temperature will result in little or no fermentation with the high probability of airborne bacterial or wild yeast contamination.

Without adequate temperature control, beer brewing in a hot climate is difficult. Higher temperatures produce some strange flavours - phenols, esters and higher alcohols which, although in small quantities (PPM in some instances) alter the beer/ferment dramatically. There are yeasts that have been developed nowdays that are temperature tolerant in that they produce substantially lower 'off flavours' at higher tempertures but these have primarily been used for spirit wash fermentation, not beer. In saying that though I have utilised temp tolerant yeast to make a pretty good alcoholic ginger beer.I hope this info is useful......... Cheers.

[heybruce]

Legality aside (this is a theoretical question), is there anything about the climate and seasons here that would either help or hinder home brewing?

Ales need to be kept cool during fermentation, I would say no more than 20 C, and 15 would be better. In the U.S. I used to keep my fermenter in a big tub of water that I kept cool with twice daily additions of ice. Pilsners/lagers need to be kept around 5 degrees, so you'd need a refrigerator big enough to hold the fermenter. The supplies are not complicated; brewers yeast, hops, malt extract or cracked barley ready to be made into wort, very good water, the containers for boiling and fermenting, bottles and a bottle capper. However I have no idea where you would find them in Thailand, and keeping the fermentation cool would be a big challenge here.

In summary, this is definitely a hypothetical topic. Someone would have to be really obsessed with the idea to try homebrewing in Thailand. Too bad, because it's not difficult to make beers that are much better than the mass produced stuff.

Trying not to be a purist, you are on the right track about temperature control but slightly off with your recommended temperatures. Ale yeast works down to approximately 18 degrees C. Any lower than this then it just hibernates. Lager yeasts work at an optimum temperature range of 10-12 degrees C. Same deal about hibernation at lower temps.

The 5 degrees you talk about that pilners/lagers beers are made with is the process of 'lagering' which in german means 'to store'. This temperature is used to condition the beer AFTER primary fermentation. An attempt to primary ferment at such a low temperature will result in little or no fermentation with the high probability of airborne bacterial or wild yeast contamination.

Without adequate temperature control, beer brewing in a hot climate is difficult. Higher temperatures produce some strange flavours - phenols, esters and higher alcohols which, although in small quantities (PPM in some instances) alter the beer/ferment dramatically. There are yeasts that have been developed nowdays that are temperature tolerant in that they produce substantially lower 'off flavours' at higher tempertures but these have primarily been used for spirit wash fermentation, not beer. In saying that though I have utilised temp tolerant yeast to make a pretty good alcoholic ginger beer.I hope this info is useful......... Cheers.

Ok, you know more about it than me. However, my "that's about right" approach resulted is some very good ales and, when I went to the trouble, a decent pilsner. I could never produce the same results twice, but that was part of the fun. I only had to throw out one batch, and I think that was contamination, not temperature. However, way back in the '90's when I brewed keeping the fermentation below average Thailand temperatures was important. I know nothing about higher temperature yeast.

[Goldcup]

Legality aside (this is a theoretical question), is there anything about the climate and seasons here that would either help or hinder home brewing?

Ales need to be kept cool during fermentation, I would say no more than 20 C, and 15 would be better. In the U.S. I used to keep my fermenter in a big tub of water that I kept cool with twice daily additions of ice. Pilsners/lagers need to be kept around 5 degrees, so you'd need a refrigerator big enough to hold the fermenter. The supplies are not complicated; brewers yeast, hops, malt extract or cracked barley ready to be made into wort, very good water, the containers for boiling and fermenting, bottles and a bottle capper. However I have no idea where you would find them in Thailand, and keeping the fermentation cool would be a big challenge here.

In summary, this is definitely a hypothetical topic. Someone would have to be really obsessed with the idea to try homebrewing in Thailand. Too bad, because it's not difficult to make beers that are much better than the mass produced stuff.

You can keep a fermenter cool by setting it in a large dish with some water, wrap the fermenter with a towel so that it can soak up the water, then keep a fan blowing over the whole thing, refill the water as necessary. You can easily keep the fermenter at 20C in a 35C room.

[Thanyaburi Mac]

Legality aside (this is a theoretical question), is there anything about the climate and seasons here that would either help or hinder home brewing?

Hot season, cold (well, cool) season, rainy, dry, I brew (oops,should be "would brew") in a relatively cool part of the house here outside Bangkok.  One reason I like the C

opers kits is

that they seem to be very temperature tolerant.  Hot season, 7 days in the primary, cool season, 10 days or so.  

Haven't had to pour a batch out but some have turned out less than stellar.

Mac

[chuenyongman]

Legality aside (this is a theoretical question), is there anything about the climate and seasons here that would either help or hinder home brewing?

Hot season, cold (well, cool) season, rainy, dry, I brew (oops,should be "would brew") in a relatively cool part of the house here outside Bangkok. One reason I like the C

opers kits is

that they seem to be very temperature tolerant. Hot season, 7 days in the primary, cool season, 10 days or so.

Haven't had to pour a batch out but some have turned out less than stellar.

Mac

I have been home brewing for around 45 years . I have had my fermenter and bottle capper sent from Australia. I need to purchase powdered corn syrup and glucose. Would you know where I can purchase these items? Thank you Gerry. gerryandpon@hotmail .com

[Kilgore Trout]

Pale and Lager are great, a tip for ercon

exploding bottles

1 too much sugar for the secondary fermentation

2 primary fermentation incomplete

3 Use plastic bottles, much stronger than glass

I use the plastic bottles, the purists turn their noses up, but it tastes just as good.

Make sure they are PET!!