Taking – and Ignoring – Beer Brewing Advice
Josh Button, a customs officer and home brewer in Western Sydney, Australia, says that his brewing has improved “infinitely” from the time he started seven years ago: “I began as most homebrewers do in Australia as a kit and kilo brewer. I have progressed through doing full boils to now doing all grain brewing when time can allow. I measure specific gravity more often so that I know where my brews are at with regard to fermentation.”
Much of the improvement Josh has experienced can be credited to his eagerness to learn all he could. He counsels brewers, “Listen to anyone who will give you advice. Ask questions of those more experienced than yourself.”
And what sources have helped Josh’s own brewing? “I learned through a number of sources. Talking to the local homebrew store owners was a great way to get into trying new things.” He also gets good information from aussiehomebrewer.com, an online forum for Australian home brewers. And he recently purchased the book Designing Great Beers, which he says, “has helped me understand the history of some classic styles of beer. From the background of the beer it then gives guidelines for ingredients and methods for creating your own interpretations of classic beer styles.”
But as enthusiastic as Josh may be about accepting advice, he insists that sometimes a brewer just has to take a risk and follow his own instincts. “Don’t be a robot,” Josh asserts, “If you really want to try something for the sake of it, have a go. I was told by numerous people not to bother with a decoction mash for a pilsner as the result is only minimally better than using specialty malts. I tried it anyway and have made the best pilsner of my brewing life. The malt character is so much more complex. I am very happy with how it has turned out.”
Josh brews about once a month and uses a “a 15L drink cooler as a mash tun, three 25L fermenting buckets, 45L stock pot for boiling, immersion chiller created by bending copper tubing, bench capper, two fridges for fermenting and serving beer, two 18L kegs and one 11L keg served out of a tap at the front of my beer fridge.” He has been concentrating on pilsner-type lager and Beglian wit recently, and hopes to soon brew a brown porter and an Australian Pale Ale in the style of Cooper Pale Ale.
Josh certainly seems to have found the right mix of following advice and trying experimentation. One of his beers won the 2005 New South Wales Homebrewing Championships Best Pale Lager and was awarded a silver for Australian Lager at the Australian Amateur Brewing Championships. “I was completely amazed when I won the NSW comp,” Josh tells us, “Unfortunately for me, I had brewed that beer for a couple of mates who were heading to the snowfields, so I only got to drink a handful of those.” Lucky mates!
Josh has a brewing section on his website (which he warns us hasn’t been updated in a while) that describes his methods and kegs, and offers dozens of his early recipes, including Pale Ale, Candian Blonde and Scottish Heavy Ale.
