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Why do you brew?

Post #1 made 15 years ago
by hashie
As the topic suggests, why do you brew?

I drink so that I can brew. I'm at that stage in life that I enjoy the brewing, the coming together of the ingredients, the smells at different stages of mashing and boiling, more than the drinking. :argh:

I still very much enjoy drinking my beers, but I no longer brew to drink.

So why do you brew? :scratch:
"It's beer Jim, but not as we know it."

Post #3 made 15 years ago
by Lemon
hashie,

good one!

I brew because it's an interesting pastime to make something myself and enjoy the result.

Oh, and I like beer!

Lemon :)
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Australia

Post #4 made 15 years ago
by wizard78
I started brewing when my first daughter was born, trying to save money, then it became a challenge to create great tasting beer, and make it better each time I brew. And here I am! :thumbs:
[center]"All right, brain. You don't like me and I don't like you, but let's just do this and I can get back to killing you with beer."
[/center]
[center]Homer Simpson[/center]
[center]K.I.S.S., B.I.A.B.[/center]

Post #5 made 15 years ago
by PistolPatch
wizard78 wrote:I started brewing when my first daughter was born, trying to save money...
My goodness wiz! How much does your daughter drink? :o

Great topic hashie. Will look forward to doing a proper post in the next few days when I'm not working 14 hour days :angry:
Last edited by PistolPatch on 25 Oct 2010, 21:12, edited 5 times in total.
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Post #6 made 15 years ago
by hashie
wizard78 wrote:I started brewing when my first daughter was born, trying to save money, then it became a challenge to create great tasting beer, and make it better each time I brew. And here I am! :thumbs:
I initially started in the quest to save money. But that was when I was making kit beers. Now that I've discovered AG BIAB, things are very different :)
Last edited by hashie on 26 Oct 2010, 04:41, edited 5 times in total.
"It's beer Jim, but not as we know it."

Post #7 made 15 years ago
by EoinMag
Hmm why do I brew.

I had originally picked up a homebrew carboy off of freecycle, nice glass old style one in a basket, and had it standing around at home for a year or three with the intention of starting to brew some day.

I then got the spur while over in the UK drinking some fine real ale in one of their small brew pubs and thought that if I wanted to drink similar in Ireland, I'd have to make it myself, so I finally started.
http://beernvictuals.blogspot.com/ My blog, If you like what you read post a comment on the blog comments section thanks, BIAB post coming soon.

Post #8 made 15 years ago
by Ralph
Yeah, good question- chicken or egg??...

For me, I was on chemo for a while and wasn't allowed to drink at all, not that I was a big drinker anyway as I always so paranoid of the youthful bowl- kissing hangover which wrecked me for days on end from the mere sniff of alcohol, but when I got off it I was gifted a couple of kits by my brother who is a keen K&Ber, eventually tried them (he went overseas for a few months and said I should use his FVs while he was away, already had their hound) and liked the end result, things snowballed from there. Our family has always had a home- something/ crafty ethos though, so I'm not really the black sheep. Boundaries always need pushing IMO, so I'm always looking to do something different, if that results in me getting on the turps nearly every arvo, then it hasn't been in vain... :whistle:
Last edited by Ralph on 26 Oct 2010, 19:53, edited 5 times in total.
[center]Give me a beer and I will move the world. Archimedes[/center]

Post #9 made 15 years ago
by wizard78
PistolPatch wrote:
wizard78 wrote:I started brewing when my first daughter was born, trying to save money...
My goodness wiz! How much does your daughter drink? :o

Great topic hashie. Will look forward to doing a proper post in the next few days when I'm not working 14 hour days :angry:
:lol: Some times I think she drinks it all, coz for some reason when I go to the tap on a sunday afternoon the kegs are empty :think: I swear it wasn't me, at least I dont remember drinking it all.
Last edited by wizard78 on 26 Oct 2010, 20:19, edited 5 times in total.
[center]"All right, brain. You don't like me and I don't like you, but let's just do this and I can get back to killing you with beer."
[/center]
[center]Homer Simpson[/center]
[center]K.I.S.S., B.I.A.B.[/center]

Post #10 made 15 years ago
by PistolPatch
Yeah, yeah, yeah wiz ;)

Perfect thread for a brewer like me to unwind, relax and muse on hashie. A thread like this, for me , is a licence to ramble :peace:...

I have no idea what pleasure I would put first in being able to brew beer from scratch as so many aspects amuse, absorb, challenge or delight me on different days or at different hours.

Here's a few reasons that come to mind but these are not in any order...

1.) I used to have a lot to do with agriculture but now live in the city. Being able to make a beer from agricultural products satisfies my rural desires to some degree.

2.) Being able to easily and simply make beer that is almost always better than a commercially available product is very impressive.

3.) Doing (2) above is really easy with the right information, equipment and recipe. It is not hard. With these three things, many new brewers will win a competition. More importantly, they can achieve (2) above which is often even a better beer than the one that will win a comp.

4.) I find the freely available information on brewing often very good and just as often, very flawed. Like Chinese Whispers, often fiction becomes fact. My mind occasionally enjoys... sorry - wrong word... compels me to explore / question / investigate things. This is not always enjoyable but maybe for me it is like another person doing a crossword - frustrating, challenging, aggravating but always absorbing. It is often pleasing but sometimes you wonder whether the pleasure was worth the work :scratch:.

5.) If you wanted to have a hobby and avoid fanatics, then brewing is a great one. Most of the brewers I have met or have the good fortune to correspond with are a real pleasure. They are down to earth, not obsessive, heaps of fun, very interesting and often way more intelligent than they realise. Most of the funniest, interesting, intelligent and absorbing people I know are brewers. (BIAB brewers seem to be an especially nice lot but this is probably a generalisation biased by the fact that a lot of my dealings are with BIABers. Most all-grain brewers I know are good fun etc.)

There's a heap of other things I find satisfying with brewing that I probably forgot. There's also frustrating things.... Paradoxically, making the frustrating things easy is something I always like to explore.

Did I write enough hashie :think: (Thought I better stop when I wrote, "paradoxically." :sneak:)

:smoke:
PP
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Post #11 made 15 years ago
by hashie
No you didn't write enough PP, you didn't even mention drinking, hops or malt. You are getting very slack :P

Ralph I agree with you on the hangover part. I used to hate the morning after a session on VB or some other such mega-swill beer. My body enjoys and appreciates naturally brewed and fermented beers much more and there are none of those nasty preservatives to keep my corpse fresh for a few extra days after I die either.
Last edited by hashie on 27 Oct 2010, 06:27, edited 5 times in total.
"It's beer Jim, but not as we know it."

Post #12 made 15 years ago
by jestersdarts
I brew becasue I really enjoy creating something amazing from something so intrinsically simple. I've always loved beer, and Ive always loved cooking - and really, brewing is similar to cooking.

I'm finding now that I drink different beers to taste creations that I may have the possibility of brewing myself!

if that makes any sense.. :)

Post #13 made 15 years ago
by PistolPatch
hashie wrote:No you didn't write enough PP, you didn't even mention drinking, hops or malt. You are getting very slack :P
LOL ;). Can't believe I wrote all that. I really should have just said what jesterdarts said - far more eloquent and much shorter!

I should have mentioned drinking because the drinking part is usually, in the true sense of the word, "sensational." I didn't mention hops or malt because I don't have the skill/knack/knowledge to know why a combination of ingredients makes a beer taste especially good. Any great beer I brew is always thanks to other brewer's recipe or advice. My skill in this area is very basic.

Brewers that have the recipe knack or the ability to describe a beer in detail truly amaze me.

May the brewing gods bless 'em :salute:
Last edited by PistolPatch on 28 Oct 2010, 20:47, edited 5 times in total.
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Post #16 made 15 years ago
by Ralph
hashie wrote: Touched by his noodly appendage :)
Strippers and a beer volcano. The beer volcano doesn't get enough emphasis IMO, at least this guy noted it but I don't see the strippers:
Image
Last edited by Ralph on 31 Oct 2010, 06:03, edited 5 times in total.
[center]Give me a beer and I will move the world. Archimedes[/center]

Post #17 made 15 years ago
by iijakii
Honestly? I needed a new hobby.

I'm pretty obsessive in nature. I currently work full time and go to school full time (and I have a full time girlfriend :p), so in theory I shouldn't have any free time. But the reality is that homework blows and I like being unproductive. I need stuff to read and research.

I constantly am theorizing and tweaking something. First computers were my main hobby. I've put together all of my machines, can do the whole IT stuffs. But I quickly lost interest in that. I'm pretty adept, but I KNOW I have no desire to make a career out of it.

Then I randomly move on to a few video games here and there. I used to sit in middle and high school with a calculator and notepad deriving attribute points and items for Diablo 2 characters. :p

Jump ahead a few hobbies and it's brewing. I love that there is a plethora of subjects to read, and it's a constantly evolving subject so you can never really reach the pinnacle of brewing knowledge. But what I also love is that even if you don't know all of the ropes, or mess up along the way, you still make damn tasty beer! For awhile there I didn't even calculate gravity/efficiency or stress too much about stuff because I became quickly dissuaded and slightly discouraged when I was sitting there reading a few advanced books and blogs thinking "Damn, I can't understand any of this, I'll need an organic chemist degree just to comment!" and I still cracked open a few homebrews next to popular commercial offerings (Rogue, Sam Smith, etc) and mine were tastier.
Last edited by iijakii on 02 Nov 2010, 10:55, edited 5 times in total.

Post #18 made 15 years ago
by hashie
Top reply Jak, I'm with you on the whole evolution thing. Life is about learning, moving forward. Not stopping in one place stagnating.
Like you said, you don't need to be at the top of the information tree to make great beer. In fact being at the top of the tree doesn't mean you will make great beer either.
But what better way to quench a thirst for knowledge than with some hand made beers :)
"It's beer Jim, but not as we know it."

Post #19 made 15 years ago
by goldy
I brew cause it's fun & totally addictive, after doing some kits etc, found that making good beer was not that hard with BIAB. It totally opened up a new world of learning, fun & experimentation + you get to drink the spoils :thumbs:

I like to make things from scratch & this is another in a long line of tinkering & drinkering for me :drink:

Post #20 made 15 years ago
by Beer O'Clock
Yeah ! What they said ! :thumbs:

But seriously, I started because I like the idea of making something that is a reflection of me and my taste. Ego, or what ?
I cook and I brew in the same way. I know what I like, so then I aim to produce each to that taste. :scratch:

It rarely works out that way but hey ho :dunno:

The thrill for me is getting as close as I can and then working at it until I can say, "Yeah, that'll do."
:smoke:
[center]Royalty ? I like the show but can't stand the actors.[/center]

Post #21 made 15 years ago
by SacSoul
I brew because it is fun, addictive, and the results are amazing. I'm totally enthralled with both learning more about traditional brewing, experimenting with flavors, and thinking of completely unnecessary ways to make BIAB more complicated through overly engineered toys (though this definitely ups the "cool" factor IMO).

Actually, if it weren't for the discovery of this forum, I probably would have eventually grown tired of brewing. AG is the only sensible way to explore the endless possibilities of beer, and BIAB is the only sensible way to do 5 gallon batches of AG.

Now, what is some random sugar source that I can attempt to incorporate into my next beer...
Arrogant Bastard Ale: "...Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you're mouthing your words as you read this."

Post #23 made 15 years ago
by SacSoul
Haha, I did use homemade invert sugar in my holiday red ale :)
Arrogant Bastard Ale: "...Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you're mouthing your words as you read this."

Post #24 made 15 years ago
by PistolPatch
SacSoul wrote:I brew because it is fun, addictive, and the results are amazing....

Actually, if it weren't for the discovery of this forum, I probably would have eventually grown tired of brewing...
Always love reading your posts SS. Can you comment more on your reasoning for the latter bit I quoted above. You have me intrigued - yet again ;).
Last edited by PistolPatch on 08 Nov 2010, 21:07, edited 5 times in total.
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Post #25 made 15 years ago
by SacSoul
PistolPatch wrote:
SacSoul wrote:I brew because it is fun, addictive, and the results are amazing....

Actually, if it weren't for the discovery of this forum, I probably would have eventually grown tired of brewing...
Always love reading your posts SS. Can you comment more on your reasoning for the latter bit I quoted above. You have me intrigued - yet again ;).
Being that I'm a geeky scientist, I love to experiment. Kit brewing offers hardly any variety, and partial mash brewing only offers partial variety (you are still stuck with the same malt extracts as a base of which you have no control how they were made). AG brewing, on the other hand, offers endless variety and experimentation because it offers complete control. Now, while I want complete control, I live in a smallish three bedroom townhome with little room for a brew room, and as such needed complete control without needless clutter and crap. Enter BIAB; I gain complete control without needless clutter and crap. I can now be a geeky scientist and experiment to my hearts content, and so far the results have been consistently great. I must admit though, my efficiencies have been pretty crap (usually ~65% into fermentor), but I blame this on me having a slightly smaller boil pot than I actually need (I'm using an 8.3 gal boil pot and trying to pull off high gravity beers at 5 gal :) ). It doesn't really bother me though as I just adjust accordingly and have been shooting for 4 gal into fermentor with a 1 gal dilution lately. Adding a touch of malto-dextrin helps keep the water from thinning out the beer too much (I've had friends end up with watery beer and it is rather unpleasant).

So, in conclusion, if it weren't for this site and learning the ins-and-outs of BIAB, I would have grown borred with the limited opportunities offered by partial mash and probably would have just gone back to buying beer again (which isn't a bad thing in Colorado; we have the third highest number of micros in the nation and easily over 30 within a 30 minute drive from me).

PS - sorry for the spelling errors, I typed this in note pad at work and am too lazy to pop it in word to check for errors (stupid IT guys won't let us install Firefox or Chrome for auto-spelling).
Last edited by SacSoul on 08 Nov 2010, 23:45, edited 5 times in total.
Arrogant Bastard Ale: "...Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you're mouthing your words as you read this."
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