Brewing beer for me started when I was 26. My uncle had a little shed in his backyad, it was actually a second hand railways flagman's box, the small one's you see by the tracks every so often, about 2.5 x 1.5 metres with a shelf at the end. He would make his brew in there and the walls were lined with bottles, some full , some empty and the scribble of black marker on the walls recording dates and batch details. We shared many brews in that little shed and it drove me to start brewing my own. 

So i bought myself a kit from a nearby home brew shop and I was away, saving and collecting empty bottles and milk crates to keep them in. I made some drinkable beers and was pretty stoked with myself, this lasted around 18 months before the arrival of my second child put paid to the brewing.

Fast forward about 14 years and after having Coronary By-Pass Surgery I was recovering at home and bored silly started thinking about brewing. It was by pure coincidence that around this time on one of my first proper outings post surgery I found myself at a garage sale with my wife, and lo and behold they were selling some home brew gear. $20 got me up and going again.

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I started with Coopers kit tins and thanks to the internet was able to source so much info that my brewing was evolving at a rapid rate; adding malts, steeping grains, adding hops, oh the excitement. This time also opened a new found interest in all things beer and the huge amount of commercially available styles and variations. I soon found myself tracking down new and different beers every chance I got....it was a little difficult with a limited range available locally so trips to Wollongong, Sydney or Canberra often involved slipping into a bottle shop for some new beer adventures.

My brewing was also evolving with the move into Brew In A Bag, which involved a 20 litre tradie pale and 2 19 litre stockpots. I was splitting the boil between the kitchen cooktop and an old upright cooker in the garage.

 So I was brewing with grain and boiling hops, and learning more all the time. I was putting together recipes and found that I was now making decent beer.....most brewers think they are making good beer with their kits and sugar but until you do an all grain brew of your own you just don't get it.

The next step was a 40 litre esky kindly gifted to me by my younger brother for a birthday present. Very quickly followed a hand made copper manifold and tap to use it as a mash tun.....things were evolving. Not long after came the donation of an old keg which was cut down and made into a new boil kettle to go with the newly acquired 3 ring gas burner. Holy shit, I had a brewery in my garage, al beit a very manually powered one. Water was still heated in the 19 litre stockpots on the the old cooker and transferred by hand in a measuring jug, the same jug transferred wort to the kettle.

I used this system for around 3 years and turned out some very good beers.

I then introduced myself to the Robobrew, all in one brew system, which I use most often today.

I still brew with various methods on the odd batch but the automated ease of the Robobrew keeps me using it regularly,

All the time this has been going on, I have had a desire to help other brewers; help them improve, learn the ways to make their beer better, how to use different ingredients, what they do for the beer and the effect on taste and quality.

As I spent time learning, asking questions and watching others I found that there was not a lot of clear information for new brewers or even experienced brewers, who wanted to improve their brews or just have a better understanding of the processes and ingredients they were using. This was to become the start of LittleJohnsBrewing as it is today.

I now make videos of almost everything I do in the brewery, every brew day, tasting days, experiments and trials, successes and failures. My youtube channel was underway and now continues to grow every day.

I brew a constantly changing variety of beer, in fact, in over 200 batches I have not made the same beer twice. I have my couple of 'standard' beers I change only a little each time I brew, but mostly I play with the grain and hop bills from brew to brew, knocking out a different style each brew. So, I have plenty of variety available both on tap and in bottles. It is not unusual for there to be over a dozen different beers kicking about at the one time. This site is a record of what beers I am brewing, some of the experiments I have been doing, or am doing and the results. Plus the occasional rant or observance on current beer culture.

Little Johns is a place of beer learning and enjoyment, if you're passing by, call in and join me for a cold one, or three.