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dyennie

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I'm going to be on the island for a couple of days and want to know if there are any board members there??? I'll be bringing a few local (Virginia) beers with me for trading/sharing.
 
Hope you enjoyed your visit to Guam. Pretty island lots of nice people but most of them don't realize there is more beer then just Budweiser.


Does gravity affect gravity? Would all beer be lite on the moon?
 
have you already come to Guam? I am on the island and have 15 gals of HB at various stages of fermentation.
 
Mjoh216 glad to here someone on the island is home brewing. When I was there it was difficult to find anyone who would drink anything but Budweiser. Are you Chamorro?
 
I'm getting ready to move to Guam next spring. I'm planning on bringing my whole brewery with me. How hard is it to get supplies locally? Can you buy grain in bulk? Is there anything I should make sure I purchase and pack before I come? I'd love to any tips or hints you have that relate to brewing on the island.

Tony
 
EODtony said:
I'm getting ready to move to Guam next spring. I'm planning on bringing my whole brewery with me. How hard is it to get supplies locally? Can you buy grain in bulk? Is there anything I should make sure I purchase and pack before I come? I'd love to any tips or hints you have that relate to brewing on the island.

Tony
Click to expand...

I know it's been a few years since you posted this, so I'm assuming you got there... and maybe even have left already. ;)

Just curious what you found out... I'm entertaining a relocation to Guam in the next couple of months, and I too will be bringing my home brewery with me, hoping to be able to find ingredients.

Thoughts??
 
I’m still there. Grain and hops aren’t available locally, but there is a shop in Hawaii that ships here pretty cheap compared to the states. You can get a 50lb bag sent to you for $80 - $90, again not cheap compared to the states but doable. I brew all electric and notice a considerable spike in my bill on the months that I brew. Utilities are kind of expensive. Also the water is good for brewing but the ground water temp is a little high for chilling. I fill my HLT with ice and do an ice bath to chill the water before it goes into my plate chiller. I also haven’t quite dialed in temp control here, I’ve tried a few different methods but the ambient temps make it a small challenge.
 
EODtony said:
I’m still there. Grain and hops aren’t available locally, but there is a shop in Hawaii that ships here pretty cheap compared to the states. You can get a 50lb bag sent to you for $80 - $90, again not cheap compared to the states but doable. I brew all electric and notice a considerable spike in my bill on the months that I brew. Utilities are kind of expensive. Also the water is good for brewing but the ground water temp is a little high for chilling. I fill my HLT with ice and do an ice bath to chill the water before it goes into my plate chiller. I also haven’t quite dialed in temp control here, I’ve tried a few different methods but the ambient temps make it a small challenge.
Click to expand...

Hi, could you send me the link to the place you buy grain from? I currently do partial mash and extract because I can get DME fairly cheap compared to grain. If I can get a 50 bag for under $100, I'll definitely start all grain.
 
New to Home Brewing and also on Guam. Im planning on brewing an IPA here next weekend. Any troubles shipping dry yeast to here?
 
No trouble at all getting dry yeast out here, I've even had success getting liquid. Shipping costs can be a pain though. Good luck with your IPA, I'm planning on brewing this weekend too.
 
Brewtallica said:
No trouble at all getting dry yeast out here, I've even had success getting liquid. Shipping costs can be a pain though. Good luck with your IPA, I'm planning on brewing this weekend too.
Click to expand...

Where are you ordering your liquid from? I just went through More Beer and it appears my items have been on island for 5 days yet still not delivered, have to love customs
 
Morebeer has some nice kits, but shipping is what kills it. I buy ingredients in bulk from ebay, amazon, label peelers, or whoever has deals on shipping. Crazy thing is, I sometimes can find DME cheaper than the all grain equivalent (when you count shipping costs). The last liquid yeast I got was from wine and hop shop. It was the only place, at the time, that had Omega HotHead in stock and would ship to Guam. It was expensive, but worth it. Definitely recommend HotHead for here, I've made some delicious IPAs that were fermented in 78-85 degrees.
 
I have been searching everywhere for a way to home brew here in Guam. We moved here from Asheville NC which has a huge home brew and craft brew scene. I miss the fresh taste of good homebrew here.
 
When I lived on Oahu, I used to be a walk-in customer of Homebrew in Paradise, and later, when I moved to Yokosuka, Japan, they would either ship to me or I would keep a list, send it to them a couple of weeks ahead of time, and then walk in and buy what I needed on my next trip to the islands. I'm glad to hear they support Guam as well.

That said, I also found that MoreBeer, Brewer's Hardware, Adventures in Homebrewing, and Brewer's Warehouse would also ship OCONUS, though shipping costs could make quite a difference. I also had a military APO/FPO address, so it might also be that these folks would go a little out of their way to support our vices. Midwest Supplies USED to ship overseas, until they were bought out by Northern Brewers, and they stopped supporting us shortly after that - I guess it just takes to much effort for them to use the U.S. Post Office instead of UPS and/or FedEx.

I'm betting that, with a little coordination, there are probably enough of us making runs to Honolulu and back that we could pick up ingredients for each other (staying within the airlines weight limitations and our frequent flier benefits).

I have a couple of questions... I'm assuming that it is legal to homebrew on Guam, but I'm not absolutely sure. My research indicates that there appears to be no state statute either allowing or prohibiting it, so it falls back on Federal law, which would allow it. Specifically, beer produced per household may not exceed: (1) 200 gallons per calendar year if there are two or more adults residing in the household, or (2) 100 gallons per calendar year if there is only one adult residing in the household. ANy thoughts beyond this??

Second question... is there an active homebrewer's club on the island? How popular is the hobby, given that ingredients and equipment is so hard to come by economically?

I'm up in Alaska right now, but although "negotiations" have taken longer than I had hoped, I may still be relocating to Guam in February/March, and I sure wouldn't mind sitting around a table and discussing the finer points of brewing.
 
I am about to PCS to Guam next month and I am an active home brewer in California. Is there any equipment you wished you had before you arrived on island?
 
Bobble said:
I am about to PCS to Guam next month and I am an active home brewer in California. Is there any equipment you wished you had before you arrived on island?
Click to expand...
Hello Bobble, I’m in Guam currently. There isn’t anything brew related on the island. I wish I had brought everything I had and extra Lol. Amazon’s and homebrew in paradise out of Hawaii become your brewing life line here on the island. Oh and not sure what your wort cooling system is but may need a change, the tap water here comes in around 70 degrees. Speaking of water quality though everyone says it’s hard water and it may be but it’s ph is pretty spot on after tested. There is only one craft brewery on island and Im using the term craft loosely Lol. I live in Tumon and the pizza restaurant Brixx has brought in a brewer to open a brewery and I have been talking with him and he has offered to provide grain and yeast for purchase by home brewers. That would be huge if it happens.
 
Hi Bobble, congrats on orders to Guam. If you don't have a fermentation chamber, AKA chest freezer, you might look at getting one of those. You might find one here but I'm sure it will be cheaper in the states. Also, if you were planning on getting kegs, larger kettle, bigger propain burner, and bulk grains, you will want to get those now. Shipping sucks so stock up on anything bulky or heavy.

Like Heath mentioned, look at upgrading your cooling system. I fill a large sink in my laundry room with ice and use a water fountain pump to push the ice water through my immersion chiller.

The water here is pretty hard. I use a RO filter for brewing water and add salts if needed, so a RO system might be something to look at.

Congrats again on the orders.
 
Sure thing, Brewtallica is totally right about fermentation temp control. I was able to get and stay in the 62 to 65 (us 05) range with the ole swamp cooler and frozen bottles swap every 12 hours. I used the freezer for a kezzer. I don’t really have an area for bottle conditioning so I only keg now. Safe travels to Guam. It’s pretty awesome here!
 
Thanks for the info. Guam is actually home for my wife and I so being stationed there is a dream come true.

I do use a converted chest freeze as a keezer with 3 taps. I also have a smaller freezer I use for a fermentation chamber.

Do you guys use liquid yeast or are forced to only use dry yeast because of shipping time?

-Joel
 
Man, I wish I would have got into kegging before I moved to Guam. Lol

I've used both liquid and dry. The only liquid yeast I bought is Omega HotHead and it likes to be warm (and highly recommend it). It took about a week to make it here using priority mail. I made a large starter with it and saved half. It worked great, no issues and very little lag.
 
Me too.. Both dry and liquid. Primarily dry, because I really like the fermentis yeast. I just do a big starter and fridge enough to make a second starter I can usually get 6 batches out of my original us 05 starter. So the first batch dry the other 5 liquid lol.
 
I dunno about having liquid shipped. I did twice and got lucky both times. More beer and homebrew in paradise use dry ice packs. You never really know how long shipping will take. I had grain take a month to get here no idea why. Poor yeasties wouldn’t survive that
 
Got to Guam back in July...

I can't tell you how happy I am to see this thread. I have been really interested in home brewing lately--never actually done it. I have been looking at some products from Northern Brewers to get the deluxe starter kit, but realized they don't ship here. I was hoping to get everything I needed on island and sync up with some education on how to get started. I am not sure if I want to make mash the first time--perhaps skip that part and go straight to wort/fermentation.

In any case, if you have any resources online that I can look into that will help out, I'd appreciate the info.
 
if you like podcasts there are some really good ones. When i was first starting out I learned a lot from BeerSmith. I use the BeerSmith program on my Mac. It has all the calculators and everything else i would ever need. My goto podcast now is Brulosophy. Their exbeeriments are all fun and very interesting.

Starting out brewing is much easier in the states then it will be on Guam. Once you decide you are going to get into it, I would recommend buying the good stuff from the start. I started with the basic bucket kit, simple turkey fryer kit and a crap load of bottles. Within a year I upgraded 95% of all the stuff I originally bought. Here is a good list of equipment the creator of brulosophy uses

http://brulosophy.com/methods/equipment/

My first three batches were extract (which i think you mean by "go straight to wort/fermentation") but I think you will have trouble keeping extract cool as it is mailed to Guam. Some companies (MoreBeer for example) ships their yeast with cold packs so I am sure you could get extract mailed with it also.

I personally only do BIAB (Brew in a Bag) and keg all my beer now.

www.brewinabag.com

I built a keezer from an old chest freezer I found on a facebook yard-sale page. Here is what I used as a template to build mine.



I am currently stationed at Vandenberg AFB, CA and I order most of my ingredients and equipment online. I use (www.morebeer.com) and I know they send to Guam. I buy my kegging gear from (www.kegconnection.com). Their starting kits are actually really good. I just bought stuff the other day from them in preparation for my HHG pickup next week and Guam was an option. When I used Guam to estimate my shipping as a test it kept the shipping cost the at $7.95 flat rate they offer for their stateside orders.
 
Bobble...

I can't thank you enough. I am clearly still breaking ground on this and will do much more reading and listening before I jump into it. This is some great information! It will take some time to process it as I find a way forward.

Thanks again!
 
one thing that can be a struggle on Guam is temp control during fermentation. If I could go back in time I would have bought a small used deep freeze for fermentation. Right now I just run the A/c in my back bedroom.
 
Yea...gonna hold off on that one. Not sure I am that into it yet--haven't started brewing. I did decide to go with a son of fermentation chiller. I can get all the parts pretty cheaply and the home depot sells the foam.
 
Bobble said:
if you like podcasts there are some really good ones. When i was first starting out I learned a lot from BeerSmith. I use the BeerSmith program on my Mac. It has all the calculators and everything else i would ever need. My goto podcast now is Brulosophy. Their exbeeriments are all fun and very interesting.

Starting out brewing is much easier in the states then it will be on Guam. Once you decide you are going to get into it, I would recommend buying the good stuff from the start. I started with the basic bucket kit, simple turkey fryer kit and a crap load of bottles. Within a year I upgraded 95% of all the stuff I originally bought. Here is a good list of equipment the creator of brulosophy uses

http://brulosophy.com/methods/equipment/

My first three batches were extract (which i think you mean by "go straight to wort/fermentation") but I think you will have trouble keeping extract cool as it is mailed to Guam. Some companies (MoreBeer for example) ships their yeast with cold packs so I am sure you could get extract mailed with it also.

I personally only do BIAB (Brew in a Bag) and keg all my beer now.

www.brewinabag.com

I built a keezer from an old chest freezer I found on a facebook yard-sale page. Here is what I used as a template to build mine.



I am currently stationed at Vandenberg AFB, CA and I order most of my ingredients and equipment online. I use (www.morebeer.com) and I know they send to Guam. I buy my kegging gear from (www.kegconnection.com). Their starting kits are actually really good. I just bought stuff the other day from them in preparation for my HHG pickup next week and Guam was an option. When I used Guam to estimate my shipping as a test it kept the shipping cost the at $7.95 flat rate they offer for their stateside orders.
Click to expand...


Hmm, I placed an order with Kegconnection and they emailed me back giving me a quote for Guam shipping. It was something like 65 bucks for 2 kegs and a draft kit. Also more beer charges a lot to ship to Guam. Norcal Brewing and Hop Hero gave me a low flat rate though.
 
Bobble said:
if you like podcasts there are some really good ones. When i was first starting out I learned a lot from BeerSmith. I use the BeerSmith program on my Mac. It has all the calculators and everything else i would ever need. My goto podcast now is Brulosophy. Their exbeeriments are all fun and very interesting.

Starting out brewing is much easier in the states then it will be on Guam. Once you decide you are going to get into it, I would recommend buying the good stuff from the start. I started with the basic bucket kit, simple turkey fryer kit and a crap load of bottles. Within a year I upgraded 95% of all the stuff I originally bought. Here is a good list of equipment the creator of brulosophy uses

http://brulosophy.com/methods/equipment/

My first three batches were extract (which i think you mean by "go straight to wort/fermentation") but I think you will have trouble keeping extract cool as it is mailed to Guam. Some companies (MoreBeer for example) ships their yeast with cold packs so I am sure you could get extract mailed with it also.

I personally only do BIAB (Brew in a Bag) and keg all my beer now.

www.brewinabag.com

I built a keezer from an old chest freezer I found on a facebook yard-sale page. Here is what I used as a template to build mine.



I am currently stationed at Vandenberg AFB, CA and I order most of my ingredients and equipment online. I use (www.morebeer.com) and I know they send to Guam. I buy my kegging gear from (www.kegconnection.com). Their starting kits are actually really good. I just bought stuff the other day from them in preparation for my HHG pickup next week and Guam was an option. When I used Guam to estimate my shipping as a test it kept the shipping cost the at $7.95 flat rate they offer for their stateside orders.
Click to expand...


Hmm, I placed an order with Kegconnection and they emailed me back giving me a quote for Guam shipping. It was something like 65 bucks for 2 kegs and a draft kit. Also more beer charges a lot to ship to Guam. Norcal Brewing and Hop Hero gave me a low flat rate though.
 
Guam home brewer here. Just found this discussion. Would like to meet others and beer share if anybody's interested.
 
I'm down. Another guy I work with brews as well. we do 1-2 brew days a month, generally a drunken good time
 
Nice! I've got a grapefruit IPA kegged and maybe a growler left of a belgian quad brewed in December. Itching to try a horchata recipe I found. I'm not usually the organizing type. Anybody know a good venue for a beer share?
 
What’s up Guam brewers?! Nice to know there are more of us out there brewing. Just wanted to join the thread.
 
I'm still in negotiations with the Navy, but my wife, daughter and I are planning on relocating to Guam in April/May from Anchorage/Eagle River, Alaska. During one of our more recent meetings up here of the Great Northern Brewers Club, I was talking about the relocation, and one of our members mentioned that he knew about the interest in starting up a new brewery on Guam, and I thought he said that the brewer they brought in was a local guy from up here in Anchorage. I may be wrong - the homebrew was really flowing at that meeting, and my ears are always the first to go!! It would sure be nice if he would be willing to part ways once in a while with a couple bags of grain at his cost (including shipping), plus a little extra for all of his troubles. I know I'd likely be a regular in his brewpub. ;)

I started brewing in the kitchen back in 2005 while on Okinawa, and I'm now an all-grain, all-electric brewer with a 3-kettle, 3-pump, 20-gallon automated rig that runs on a BCS-462 using a touchscreen. I guess my other hobby is industrial automation/process control - that and wasting money chasing rabbits down holes. I'm just hoping that some of the homes on Guam have a 240V/30A electric dryer outlet that doesn't blow the panel up. ;)

Looking forward to hooking up with some other homebrewers.
 
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Man! Who knew there were so many homebrewers on this rock. Brew share day would be pretty awesome. I have a Coffee stout on tap ( primarily because I’m a sports guy and sports come on at F****** early here and coffee beer makes it seem okay) and a Citra IPA in the fermenter. Just finishing up my keezer this weekend actually. I’m lacking one tap that’s coming VIA Florida? I had been using a picnic tap until a guy at work forklifted by me with a pallet made out of 2x8’s. SCORE! Looked this island over for a month for non pressure treated 2x8 or 2x10’s lol.
As far as supplies here, I get grain and everything out of Hawaii from Bill at Homebrew in paradise. Shipping is pretty reasonable. Oh and Amazon.
The brewer from Alaskan brewing. His name is Mike and he’s the head brewer for the brewery Brix is supposedly building in Tumon. He’s a cool old school cascade shinook brewer. I ran into him again at gun beach last week and they are still waiting on the bbl system and the canner.
Fermentation temp on Guam is tough. I have been sticking with US 05 and a swamp cooler ice bath. It’s really hard to get anything other than pretty good beer from us05 it’s one hardy yeast! I can keep steady around 68 if I swap out 9 frozen bottles before and after work. I think it will be cheaper and more efficient to bite the bullet and just pick up a another freezer for fermentation.
After moving to Guam I decided to go minimal brewing and not rebuild my 3 kettle system. I got one of the Brewers edge mash and boils. I love that thing. Keeps things simple and Less stuff to clean lol.
I look forward to hearing from you guys!
 

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