Hello from Ireland

[peterfuse]

Hey im from the North of Ireland near Belfast and i have recently began homebrewing, my interest being sparked from great brews that i discovered during my year of study last year in Oregon, USA. I am currently in final studying Web Design in Belfast. I have 2 19litre batches under my belt, the first being a kit beer called Executive bitter from the John Bull masterclass range and an extract pale ale using crystal malt, Northern Brewer(bittering) and Cascade(finishing). hope the second one turns out ok.
By the way this homebrewing business is non existent in ireland as i have never heard of anyone else doing it. i Have to buy all my ingredients over the internet from England. i have had some success and failures including smashing one carboy and a hydrometer so far.

 

[bradsul]

Welcome to HBT and the best hobby going! I'm right with you on the carboy front, I broke one a couple weeks ago. You might want to look into acquiring some better bottle carboys if you can get them from your suppliers. They're PET plastic and they won't break. I ordered a bunch to start replacing my glass after my little accident.

 

[olllllo]

Welcome.

There are a number of brewers in Ireland
Among the ones I can think of are:
Conno, KenMc, niall

 

[peterfuse]

yeah actually ive seen the better bottle plastic carboys and was probably going to get a few. a quick question about them. here in Ireland and UK the carboys are 23litres compared to the US 5gallon/19 litres. ive been brewing according to US 5 gallon ingredient spec, should i add more water to make it 23litres as ive previously had lots of headroom?
Thanks

 

[GoatFarmersInternational]

I wouldn't worry too much about the headroom; it will be fine either way...

What uni in OR did you attend?

I would be surprised if there weren't any homebrew shops in Belfast, but even so, a lot of us end up ordering stuff online most of the time and it ends up working fine...

 

[peterfuse]

Im pretty sure there are no home brew shops in belfast, ive checked yellow pages and online. Possible business venture? maybe maybe not.

I went to Linfield College in McMinnville to study business for a year. it was lovely there. you're from Montana? i visited Billings Montana last january for a seminar weekend, was a very flat and industrial town, not really what i expected from a mountainous town.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Im pretty sure there are no home brew shops in belfast, ive checked yellow pages and online. Possible business venture? maybe maybe not.

I went to Linfield College in McMinnville to study business for a year. it was lovely there. you're from Montana? i visited Billings Montana last january for a seminar weekend, was a very flat and industrial town, not really what i expected from a mountainous town.

Everyone's been to Billings....

Welcome. Slainte!

 

[delboy]

Hi Q
Hows it going, there is one or two brewers in N.I. i can confirm, even some on the dark side doing all grain (myself included).
There is a homebrew shop in belfast on the newtownards road up at ballyhackamore beside dave kanes cycle shop its called natures way.
Its actually a health shop first and a homebrew second but you'll find they have all the bits and bobs you'll need carboys, buckets, syphons, kegs, malt kits, DME etc.
Its a grand wee shop as long as your doing extracts/kits but no so good with regards to all grain.
At the moment im sending away to england for grain/exocitic hops and it is a PITA. But im contacting the two local breweries Hilden and whitewater to see if they will sell grain to homebrewers (was just talking about this with someone from n.ireland on a uk homebrew forum, they might be more inclined to sell larger amounts so we could start a grain co-op of sorts) Anyway all the best with the brewing and don't forget to check out the LHBS natures way.

PS if your interested in moving to the dark side (AG) feel free to get in touch.

 

[GoatFarmersInternational]

I went to Linfield College in McMinnville to study business for a year. it was lovely there. you're from Montana? i visited Billings Montana last january for a seminar weekend, was a very flat and industrial town, not really what i expected from a mountainous town.

McMinnville is lovely, as is the Linfield campus...

I may live in Montana, but I am most certainly an Oregonian

Yeah, Billings is like that... Too bad you didn't get to see some of the more scenic areas in the state (of which there are many).

Good luck with the brew shop search!

 

[peterfuse]

Thanks for the great welcome guys and hello delboy, thats amazing to here of fellow homebrewers in n.ireland. im definitely gona call into natures way if i get time next week. was thinking of trying an oatmeal stout or a lager next. eventually of course i do intend to move over to all grain but i guess im going through the teething stages at the minute. How are natures ways prices relative to prices you'd see on UK websites? a decent hops selection?

 

[dibby33]

yeah actually ive seen the better bottle plastic carboys and was probably going to get a few. a quick question about them. here in Ireland and UK the carboys are 23litres compared to the US 5gallon/19 litres. ive been brewing according to US 5 gallon ingredient spec, should i add more water to make it 23litres as ive previously had lots of headroom?
Thanks

Top of the morning to you! Nice to hear a different accent so to speak, I am from Scotland but living in Tasmania just now.

Yeup - watch out for the different measures being banted about on this site. If you add more water you will water the beer down. You need to scale it all up. There is software available to do this - but I don't know much about it. I have beersmith but there are others available.

Plenty of information available on this site and lots of people that know what they are talking about.
...Very additive hobby this

 

[delboy]

Hi i was off watching nufc caning az alkmar :rockin: . Natures way doesn't really compare to the english online sites but saying that it is good. The prices imo are reasonble but i have seen things that i think are way overpriced (glass carboys) and some things that seem cheap as chips (loose leaf fuggles).
Its very much on a par with the english sites when buying beer kits etc except you don't have to pay for the postage :rockin:.
They probably won't have the same range of the internet but they a pile of good stuff muntons/woodfordes, tom bull, caxtons etc and what they don't have the will order for you (at no extra charge).
They don't carry much hops but they do normally have goldings, fuggles and northern brewer from youngs (stored in fridge but unfortunately in see through plastic and not vacumed packed).

I guess i'm like a born again grainer once i was in the dark and now i can see double vision :cross: . All i can say is its easier than you think esp when you see it.

 

[Aelfwyn]

*waves* Allo, mate! Glad to see someone just a step away....

 

[eager_brewer]

Welcome and greetings frolm Northern Vermont. I can't wait to visit Ireland. It is a life long dream of mine. I want to go on a small pub tour. Welcome again.

 

[dibby33]

I want to go on a small pub tour. Welcome again.

There is a pub in Dublin called, "The Hairy Lemon". My fav pub name so far. I had my 30th b'day in Dublin which was wild. v.drunk on the good stuff.

 

[RichBrewer]

Hey my name is Peter Hughes from the North of Ireland near Belfast and i have recently began homebrewing, my interest being sparked from great brews that i discovered during my year of study last year in Oregon, USA.

Welcome to HBT!
Your statement made me smile. You are from Ireland and you you discovered great brews here in the US? I here tell that there are a few decent beers in Ireland as well. Maybe the US is headed in the right direction after all.

I hope you enjoy home brewing and HBT. I'm sure you will find lots of good information here that will help you make great beer. Here's to you finding a HB supplier that is close and convenient.

 

[peterfuse]

Welcome to HBT!
Your statement made me smile. You are from Ireland and you you discovered great brews here in the US? I here tell that there are a few decent beers in Ireland as well. Maybe the US is headed in the right direction after all.

I know that is funny, i suppose we Irish are famous for drinking beer or so it seems. i think we are great drinkers of beer but not drinkers of great beer. i mean in most pubs we have stouts and ales like guinness and smithwicks which i like but most of the rest is crap lagers like Carlsberg and Budweiser. its usually big commerical crap on tap. not a great selection. there are a few small breweries here doing a great job as well as well as some greta imports like German whet beers and stuff like sierra nevada pale ale. great to be in a place with such friendly and helpful people.

 

[kenmc]

Hi Peter,
I'm down in Dublin, and also find it difficult to get stuff. Least you don't get whacked so much for shipping if you order in the UK online shops - they tend to charge more for us down south, cos we're 'international'!
All the best
Ken

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

Hi Peter.

Warm hello from GErmany. Just got back from Ireland last week.. man, I love your country. Yea, the pubs are pretty said on beer selection, but I come mainly to get my fill on fresh Guinness anyway.

I just graduated college in North Carolina with a degree in Multimedia ARts and Science, with a focus on interactive design. Are you freelancing much? Do you have an online portfolio? I'd love to see some of your work... you can see a small amount of mine at:

http://www.seefresh.net

Cheers!

 

[Rodanrodanadana]

Welcome Peter.

The Better Bottles are slightly smaller than the Mexican/Italian glass carboys. So if you are doing a true 23 liters, you don't have much space left over. I have been converting to Better Bottles. Even though the glass only weighs maybe 10 pounds and the liquid 40 pounds, a full Better Bottle seems to weigh half of what a full glass one does. I think it is the psychological factor that you don't really care if you drop or bang the plastic one. Plus there is the ease of cleaning, you can just pick up a Better Bottle and shake the crap out of it.

 

[peterfuse]

hey seefresh some of your work is really nice. well i suppose you can see some of my university work here at http://ijsr32.infj.ulst.ac.uk/~12846603/ and follow through to my design portfolio or whatever else interests you. do you find it hard to get work after university in our field?

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

Very nice designs man! Very clean. Did you program that shockwave game yourself? How did you implement the 3D?

I'll tell ya, man. I had 2 clients throughout college that kept me pretty busy, and pushed me beyond what I was learning in school and they still use me today. Basically, they needed lots of programming, so I had to learn asp.net/php/javascript/actionscript/sql on my own, alongside learning all the software they were teaching me in school (photoshop/illustrator/flash/etc.).

Sad thing is, I don't think my University realized this. They made us take 3 Computer Science classes, only one really touched on the core elements of object oriented programming. I had a ton of classmates that graduated with me that weren't even close to as skilled as a Graphic Design major, and had 0!!! programming knowledge. Seemed like the only thing they got out of the degree was how to use Photoshop.

I'm stuck freelancing for now, but its pretty good money thanks to the clients that keep coming back. One is the owner of Travelresearchonline.com which I built and now maintain/update at an hourly rate. The other is a guy who runs his own web design company, but he can't program at all, so he hires me for all of that. + the random project here and there. I'd like to get a job with a well-established company, but my wife's in the military, so we move around too much. I'll probably start the job-searching process in a couple years.