Introduction.....

[Sam Lind]

For lack of anywhere else to put it I'm going to write an intro here and tell you a bit about myself (you know, get the ball rolling). 

I'm Sam and I live in the absolute best part of NZ (Dunedin).  I have always wanted to get into homebrewing and the wife went ahead and bought me a starter kit for xmas.  The extract kit which came with it is currently sitting in bottles but in the mean time I have been doing lots of reading and have almost everthing required to get started with all grain BIAB.  Would like to do my first brew with a pilsener so if anyone can suggest an easy recipe it would be greatly appreciated.

My background is in chemistry (PhD) and I currently work as the regional Account Manager for a large scientific supplies company.  So if people have chemistry questions or are looking to gear up with some slightly higher tech stuff (pH meters, glassware etc) I could probably help you out.

Looking forward to getting into the scene and making some nice brews.

P.S.  A few years ago (before I knew anything about craft brewing) I was in Northern California on a conference, one night a group of us stumbled into this BrewPub (without knowing anything about it) called "The Russian River Brewing Company".  After trying a few listed on the blackboard we settled on a wee gem called "Pliny the Elder" and proceeded to get right stitched up (as only Kiwis know how to do.)  After doing some reading I only see know how famous that place (and Pliny) is, looking forward to see if I can bring back those memories...    

[Barry]

Hey Sam,

Welcome! Jealous that you've been to Russian River.

Quick question – do you have temperature control on your fermentation?

Reason is, pilsners (and any lagers) really need to be fermented at around 10-12° which I'm guessing even in the deep south is going to be tricky during summer.

It's going to sound dreadfully clichéd but a simple hoppy pale ale is always a good place to start, you can use a very simple recipe and it's a very forgiving style malt-wise, hops-wise, water-wise and yeast-wise.

At a pinch, 96% pale malt, 4% crystal, hops at 60/12/5 minutes.

Try for an original gravity around 1.050 - 1.055, and a bitterness no more than 40-ish IBU. Ferment with S05 as close to 18° as you can manage.

[Sam Lind]

No to temp control....  I hear you on the pilsiners, might be something for winter then.

I'll take your advice and go for the hoppy ale, hedge my bets and hopefully not stuff it up.

Yea the trip to RR was great.  Ended up missing the bus back to my hotel and had to write a talk for the next day at around 2am...

[Druid]

Past sanitation, temp control is probably the next most important thing you can do for good tasting beer whether that's lagers or ales.

I'd second what Barry says - a pale ale will give you a lot more joy as your first all grain brew plus it won't take 4 weeks to lager out properly (assuming you can keep it cold enough at this time of year in the best part of NZ!)

Interested to hear you 'go on' about pH meters as someone in the know - I have 2 pen meters that drift all over the show, even after calibration on the day. Tends to destroy any confidence in your readings so I've stopped using them.

[Peter Smith]

I also think a great recipe is very very important,  while you learn you need to focus on process not recipe creation,  go with some classic recipes while you learn.

[Sam Lind]

On pH..... If you are super anal about cleaning and storing your pH probes (in high conc KCl, NOT water) then you would be lucky to get 18months out of a prob, that means with those pen jobs you need to throw it away and get a new one..... Also, I read parts of a thread on here about ATC at wort temps. The buffers you buy are calibrated to their pH value at 25C, do not heat them! Calibrate at around 20C, chill your wort to around this temp and take a reading, that is the best you can hope for.... Like I say, unless you want to make the proper investment then the strips are really the best way to go.

First OG brews (x2) this weekend - 'Nierra Sevada' and 'Fat Tyre Clone', I have about the next month worth of recipes already sorted. Since I am starting out and wanting to try lots of different things I am going with 10L batches, otherwise I couldnt drink it all..... Once I find some favourites I'll make some 23L batches of those.

I'll make an incubator at some point when I find the time, currently alot of projects already in the shed.

[Pete Harrow]

Hey mate, Good on you for getting straight in with 2 x OG brews in a weekend. It will definately be worth it!

Thanks for the info on the PH meter, I have a mate coming over from the US & he is going to try & find one there (hopefully cheaper)

[Pete Harrow]

Hey Sam.

I'm actually in the market for a PH meter at the moment, could you let me know which one you would suggest?

Cheers

[Sam Lind]

Here's my 2c about pH....

To get a proper pH meter you really need to spend ~$400 (Eutech ph5+), that one would be a good option for brewing as is temp compensated all the way up to 100C.  You can get the 'pen' type meters for quite cheap (Ecotester) but in all honestly they are a bit of a waste of money and you would be better off using indicator strips in the long run.  The probes on the pen meters cannot be replaced so you have to replace the whole thing after 1-2 yrs.  

I could go on about pH measurement for ages as it is highly misunderstood (even amongst those in the scientific community).