blueseamonkey
Well-Known Member
Greetings from Manila, Philippines!
I am hoping to start brewing my own beer here in the Philippines, as after 5 years I am now bored of drinking fizzy yellow lager. I previously made my own wines in the UK with good results, but this will be my first attempt at beer. From all the online searches I've done it seems it is very hard to get any supplies locally (especially malt, hops and yeast which have to be imported.)
There is a small group of homebrewers that meet once a month on the far side of the city, so I will head there for ideas and support next month. In the meantime though a friend of mine in Britain has offered to go to the local homebrew shop, buy enough to fill a Balikbayan box (a cheap way of sending things to the Philippines) and send it to me. As delivery costs when ordering online are usually higher than the cost of what I order, this is by far the best way to get started.
I have a pretty good idea of what equipment to ask him to send and what I can get or improvise locally. Where I am struggling though is what to ask for in terms of ingredients. While I would be ok with making beer from a kit the first time round, I would want to move onto extract or grain recipes fairly quickly. Having home-brewed before (even if it was wine not beer) I am not afraid of moving into the more advanced recipes relatively early. I tend to prefer English style bitters, pale ales, milds and stouts. My everyday drink of choice would be a well balanced pint of bitter.
The problem is I don't know exactly what will be stocked in the homebrew shop. From what I understand its a pretty good one, so should have reasonable variety, though I have no idea of what brands are available.
Basically what would really help me would be a vague idea of perhaps 2 or 3 types of hops, 2 or 3 types of malts and some advice regarding yeasts that he can look for in the shop. I would like to be able to brew a variety of types of beer over the next 6 - 12 months. (I don't know how often my friend will be able to send me boxes, though probably not more than once a year.) With Balikbayan boxes, weight is not an issue, only volume, but ingredients need to be able to cope with a 2-3 month journey by sea, so nothing that will expire too quickly.
Any tips greatly appreciated.
I am hoping to start brewing my own beer here in the Philippines, as after 5 years I am now bored of drinking fizzy yellow lager. I previously made my own wines in the UK with good results, but this will be my first attempt at beer. From all the online searches I've done it seems it is very hard to get any supplies locally (especially malt, hops and yeast which have to be imported.)
There is a small group of homebrewers that meet once a month on the far side of the city, so I will head there for ideas and support next month. In the meantime though a friend of mine in Britain has offered to go to the local homebrew shop, buy enough to fill a Balikbayan box (a cheap way of sending things to the Philippines) and send it to me. As delivery costs when ordering online are usually higher than the cost of what I order, this is by far the best way to get started.
I have a pretty good idea of what equipment to ask him to send and what I can get or improvise locally. Where I am struggling though is what to ask for in terms of ingredients. While I would be ok with making beer from a kit the first time round, I would want to move onto extract or grain recipes fairly quickly. Having home-brewed before (even if it was wine not beer) I am not afraid of moving into the more advanced recipes relatively early. I tend to prefer English style bitters, pale ales, milds and stouts. My everyday drink of choice would be a well balanced pint of bitter.
The problem is I don't know exactly what will be stocked in the homebrew shop. From what I understand its a pretty good one, so should have reasonable variety, though I have no idea of what brands are available.
Basically what would really help me would be a vague idea of perhaps 2 or 3 types of hops, 2 or 3 types of malts and some advice regarding yeasts that he can look for in the shop. I would like to be able to brew a variety of types of beer over the next 6 - 12 months. (I don't know how often my friend will be able to send me boxes, though probably not more than once a year.) With Balikbayan boxes, weight is not an issue, only volume, but ingredients need to be able to cope with a 2-3 month journey by sea, so nothing that will expire too quickly.
Any tips greatly appreciated.
