Decline in Hombrewing.

Trialben said:
Palmwoods Sunshine Coast SE Queensland.

Heart of Craft Beer Queensland!

Oh ad Gluten Free Craft Beer to that lol:D

Where you at?
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I know EXACTLY where you are, down the road from the big pineapple. I lived in Mooloolaba for 4 years, Brisbane for three. I had a house in Minyama on a canal. I got busted having a bit too much fun with a girl on the beach in front of the Mooloolaba surf club one night... I was lit and she had a dress on, told the copper I was just laying there.. It didn't work. This was 20 yeas ago... There was this Irish pub in a hotel/condo (can't remember which) on the Esp or just off it, that had the best Killkenny on tap. Those were good days. The stories I have... I still have personal affects on the bottom of a canal in Minyama from some mentally ill chick I dated that was pissed off I was having fun with mates down in Caloundra at a club and wouldn't come home when she demanded and she decided to toss everything of mine she could carry into the canal off the jetty in my back yard.... :mad: I lived in Paddington in Brisbane and watched them build the stadium. The Paddo Tavern was my hangout there.

Now I live in redneck country working on building a winery 20 miles east of Sarasota Florida.
 
Brewer #400075 said:
I know EXACTLY where you are, down the road from the big pineapple. I lived in Mooloolaba for 4 years, Brisbane for three. I had a house in Minyama on a canal. I got busted having a bit too much fun with a girl on the beach in front of the Mooloolaba surf club one night... I was lit and she had a dress on, told the copper I was just laying there.. It didn't work. This was 20 yeas ago... There was this Irish pub in a hotel/condo (can't remember which) on the Esp or just off it, that had the best Killkenny on tap. Those were good days. The stories I have... I still have personal affects on the bottom of a canal in Minyama from some mentally ill chick I dated that was pissed off I was having fun with mates down in Caloundra at a club and wouldn't come home when she demanded and she decided to toss everything of mine she could carry into the canal off the jetty in my back yard.... :mad: I lived in Paddington in Brisbane and watched them build the stadium. The Paddo Tavern was my hangout there.

Now I live in redneck country working on building a winery 20 miles east of Sarasota Florida.
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Well it sounds like you well and truly left your mark :D.

Yeah the sunny coast has exploded in population as well as countless craft craft breweries I'd say if you came back it'd be just a bit different.

3 lane highway now between Maroochydore and Caloundra has sure opened things up as well as talk of a rail line into Maroochydore in coincidence with the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.


Exciting times for sure.

As well as you building a winery
 
Trialben said:
Well it sounds like you well and truly left your mark :D.

Yeah the sunny coast has exploded in population as well as countless craft craft breweries I'd say if you came back it'd be just a bit different.

3 lane highway now between Maroochydore and Caloundra has sure opened things up as well as talk of a rail line into Maroochydore in coincidence with the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.


Exciting times for sure.

As well as you building a winery
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I'd say so. It was a fun place 20+ years ago and I was in my 30's, Noosa was great too. Where I live now looks exactly the same, same pine trees, same sand soil only the trees are not in plantations anymore, just growing wild. My property is covered in them. Thankfully there are no fruit bats here, can't image having to deal with them big bastards while trying to grow grapes. The trash pandas are bad enough.. I can't imagine what my house in Minyama would be worth now.... Two things I dont miss, Milton Mangoes and Bundaberg rum. That was shockingly bad beer and paint stripper rum.
 
Brewer #400075 said:
I'd say so. It was a fun place 20+ years ago and I was in my 30's, Noosa was great too. Where I live now looks exactly the same, same pine trees, same sand soil only the trees are not in plantations anymore, just growing wild. My property is covered in them. Thankfully there are no fruit bats here, can't image having to deal with them big bastards while trying to grow grapes. The trash pandas are bad enough.. I can't imagine what my house in Minyama would be worth now.... Two things I dont miss, Milton Mangoes and Bundaberg rum. That was shockingly bad beer and paint stripper rum.
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Well I can't agree with you on the Rum but I don't drink it much myself these days just HB.

I'd say easy over 1 million in Minyama
Especially that Minyama Island i hear Steve Irwin's miss lives over there as well as some big arse property developers.

So yeah if you held onto it you'd be owning that winery lol.

Think of this average mean rentals Sunny coast 600 pluss !
 
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Trialben said:
Will I can't agree with you on the Rum but I don't drink it much myself these days just HB.

I'd say easy over 1 million in Minyama
Especially that Minyama Island i hear Steve Irwin's miss lives over there as well as some big arse property developers.

So yeah if you held onto it you'd be owning that winery lol.

Think of this average mean rentals Sunny coast 600 pluss !
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I lived on Minyama
Trialben said:
Will I can't agree with you on the Rum but I don't drink it much myself these days just HB.

I'd say easy over 1 million in Minyama
Especially that Minyama Island i hear Steve Irwin's miss lives over there as well as some big arse property developers.

So yeah if you held onto it you'd be owning that winery lol.

Think of this average mean rentals Sunny coast 600 pluss !
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I lived on the island, #19 Kumbada Ct was my address but it wasn't so flash 20 years ago. The houses there are nothing special unless they are tearing them down and building new ones.
 
Brewer #400075 said:
I lived on Minyama

I lived on the island, #19 Kumbada Ct was my address but it wasn't so flash 20 years ago. The houses there are nothing special unless they are tearing them down and building new ones.
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Oh how things have changed then.

Honestly I'm no local that's for sure ticking up my 8th year I think here now.

Here's a quick real estate link to one of the houses on minyama 7k a month to pay this bad boy off but as you see quite lavish in the photos

https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-minyama-141679476
 
Brewer #400075 said:
You can get some good Concord kettles on Amazon for cheap and use weldless fittings to make your own, I made a 25 gallon for a friend: $200 for the pot, $100 for the false bottom, $55 for thermometer and fittings, $50 for the BIAB to fit. He had the burner for his aluminum crayfish pot... $150 for a 50 L Milk container for a fermenter, another ball valve, pack of grommets for a airlock.. he's in business and that's a good size setup for $600.
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Yup, my 1st kettle was a 10 gal Concord pot. Paid around $110 for it. I replaced it a few years later when I discovered a defect in the inside wall. My current kettle is a Spike 10 gal I bought for $220. Still not too expensive but, getting up there if you are trying to keep costs low. When I went all-grain bought a 13 gal cooler to use for a mash tun (about $50) bucks. Add a Dark Star burner and a DIY immersion chiller and DIY stir plate...and of course hoses & ball valves and I was all set. This was 10 years ago but I think the total cost for my all-grain setup was around $300.
 
So just herd on radio Government raising spirit excise tax in Australia will put spirit price up to $100/lt

You know what that means to me
More people getting into distillation in Aus...
 
Trialben said:
Oh how things have changed then.

Honestly I'm no local that's for sure ticking up my 8th year I think here now.

Here's a quick real estate link to one of the houses on minyama 7k a month to pay this bad boy off but as you see quite lavish in the photos

https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-minyama-141679476
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Actually, where I live a house on the water like that wold cost you 5-7 million US so that house, in a great place like Mooloolaba is a BARGAIN. And it's a much better looking house than this place.

$37,865 a month.....

https://www.realtor.com/realestatea...sota_FL_34236_M54782-93307?from=srp-list-card
 
Trialben said:
So just herd on radio Government raising spirit excise tax in Australia will put spirit price up to $100/lt

You know what that means to me
More people getting into distillation in Aus...
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I remember people selling chopped tobacco in Australia like they were selling weed. Go to the drug dealer to get a KG of chop chop because smokes were like $13 a pack.

There is a reason I left OZ even though I qualified for residency. Everything was so "bloody dear"
 
All good points here which bears out that any decline is not any one thing but rather the result of a million paper cuts. Lack of money, lack of time, interest, patience, skills, passion, space, on and on.

The main demographic that made up a large majority of this hobby is aging out and the normal seed corn for any hobby, young people, have so many other options wrestling for their leisure time than 20 years ago. I'm more inclined to agree that it's an ebb and flow thing.

Gift someone a Mr. Beer kit and hope for the best!

PS digging the home town talk about Queensland " Down the road from the big pIneapple "! Sounds just like around here..." Jus acrosst da road from da old Miller place" !
 
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Ward Chillington said:
All good points here which bears out that any decline is not any one thing but rather the result of a million paper cuts. Lack of money, lack of time, interest, patience, skills, passion, space, on and on.

The main demographic that made up a large majority of this hobby is aging out and the normal seed corn for any hobby, young people, have so many other options wrestling for their leisure time than 20 years ago. I'm more inclined to agree that it's an ebb and flow thing.

Gift someone a Mr. Beer kit and hope for the best!
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Maybe it has something to do with how the younger generation lives, in a 700 square foot apartment where there is no place to really set up brew equipment. Doing a boil on the stove top creates a lot of steam and really can be messy if it's all grain, extracts are limiting, don't have a garage to do anything in...
 
Brewer #400075 said:
Maybe it has something to do with how the younger generation lives, in a 700 square foot apartment where there is no place to really set up brew equipment. Doing a boil on the stove top creates a lot of steam and really can be messy if it's all grain, extracts are limiting, don't have a garage to do anything in...
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Yup...Lack of space indeed!
 
I've just been looking at homebrew courses offered in the Netherlands and there are more than I have ever seen!
So there may be a decline in some places and an increase in others?
Lot of people are, or are becoming, more conscience about what they eat and drink
 
I was doing the pomebrewing thing up until Katrina hit us in New Orleans in 2005...
I had graduated from extract to all grain...using a couple of full sized kegs we'd cut tops off with an angle grinder....and drilled and put spigot and I think it was called an EZ-Masher...little mesh filter over the outflow spigot.

I used a propane burner on my patio and I was turning out some decent beers, at least I and my friends liked it...brewing 10 gallon batches, kegging in corny kegs that friends donated (don't ask, don't tell...the source)....

Anyway, after Katrina...my stuff went into storage for a few years as I bounced around, and even when I settled down...I just get got around to it...

Well, a friend of mine I used to brew with...started doing little 1 gallon batches of mead...and I followed suit and went for that and ciders and remembered how fun this all was.

Then I discovered the BIAB electric systems. These days...well, I can afford more toys than I could back then, and I'm older and don't have the stamina for all day cooks like I did...so, this works for me. My friend got an anvil system, I got the Spike Solo system....and wow...I'm having fun again!!

For me...it's coming back to the hobby after a VERY long hiatus. I started with the Papazian book all those years ago...with put together stuff, doing it in the kitchen, etc.

In the New Orleans area....breweries and brewpubs are popping up all over...seems to be going strong down here. We have a decent brew shop. I guess he does enough business to stay in business.

From what I can tell, the Homebrew scene down here, at least...is alive and well. I'm wanting to get a few more brews under my belt...learn my system and techniques better, but I plan to look into finding and maybe joining the home brewers club(s) down here. I went to a tasting last year and there was a HUGE turn out...so, I'd say the hobby is healthy down here.

Then again..in NOLA...drinking is part of everyday life...so, stands to reason.

Anyway, I just found the forum and this site and tools....hello everyone!!

C
 
Ward Chillington said:
All good points here which bears out that any decline is not any one thing but rather the result of a million paper cuts. Lack of money, lack of time, interest, patience, skills, passion, space, on and on.

The main demographic that made up a large majority of this hobby is aging out and the normal seed corn for any hobby, young people, have so many other options wrestling for their leisure time than 20 years ago. I'm more inclined to agree that it's an ebb and flow thing.

Gift someone a Mr. Beer kit and hope for the best!

PS digging the home town talk about Queensland " Down the road from the big pIneapple "! Sounds just like around here..." Jus acrosst da road from da old Miller place" !
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There is this weird thing tourist traps do In Australia that has become a cult phenomenon, they have the big (insert something here) everywhere you go and they become these iconic landmarks. So you don't need to know the name of where it is, just know where the big (insert something here) is. It's pretty funny actually.

This explains it in more detail (And a picture of the big pineapple) And it's REALLY big.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_things_(Australia)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_things_(Australia)#/media/File:GiantPineappleNambour.jpg
 
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