Brewing - What a FANTASTIC hobby!

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BrewStew

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I thought i'd share my thoughts and ramblings on this 'ere hobby that is Brewing :)

As the sun was setting and I was admiring my hard work in the garden, supping what seems to be the last of this round of Genius and taRd (the kegs are getting light :cry: ) I was pondering about my hobby that is brewing.

I'm one of those people that gets bored so bloody easily. Where i'll take up a hobby or project and never finish it because it's too much work for so little reward. That got me thinking about how cool brewing is, even AG brewing. Sure with AG brewing it's 7 or 8 hours intermittent work, but i get several times that in enjoyment, and not to mention it's saving me a pretty penny too! i've been doing it about 14 months now and that's a record for me to repeatedly go back and do the same thing over and over hobby wise.

I think for me, the most fun part of brewing is the sciency bit. i've always been a fan of chemistry and physics and making things work, then improving them. This hobby hits that nail so many times in so many ways, and more so when i get to grips with mash PH etc.

I suppose it's sorta like being a chef. You get to experiment with different ingredients, experience different smells, tastes and sensations on the palate.. but best of all, as a side effect of all this, it gets me ****** :D

i've a feeling though, that i'm going to end up pursuing the perfect brew much like a golfer pursues the perfect round, because i'm very competitive and a perfectionist.

I fuckin' (scuse french) LOVE brewing :D and reckon i'm in it for life... even if it'll be short lived because of knackering my liver :lol: :lol:
 
:clap: :clap:

I love the never-endingness of it all :grin:

Always something to do, always something to try and always challenges to keep you interested :cool:
 
oh yes, definitely.

even though the process is the same everytime... the outcomes can be VERY different.

I especially like the unknown factor... Like when i'm recreating the Genius recipe. i like that little edgy feeling that it might not turn out as expected, like say the water being slightly different on that day, or that my mash was slightly higher than normal. that little bit of unexpected that might make or break my brew. Especially when it comes to cock ups. take my taRd recipe. through a lapse in concentration, and the effects of alcohol at the time, i completely buggered up that recipe, but it turned out to be better than the originally planned.

i especially love that first sip of a young beer from the trial jar... that anticipation of whether it's drain cleaner or something quite drinkable hehe.

god i'm such a risk junkie haha!

edit - that's probably why i'm not too arsed about my efficiency and mash PH etc. :twisted:
 
You sound just like me BS :D
The questions I've been pondering for a while are:

When I perfect my perfect pint of different styles...will I stop experimenting :hmm:

How can I do enough brews to do justice to all the different tastes/styles that are out there :hmm:

I see lots of brewers doing the same brew several times, changing certain things each time, to get the best result.
My question is, do you develope this sort of patience as you get older :D , and how do you find the time :hmm:

Those 3 core questions keep me going.

The only thing that really annoys me about home brewing is finding the time :cry:
I know if I could dedicate more time I'd be quite good and that frustrates me.
 
I dont think there is such a thing as the "perfect pint" but i'm stupid enough to convince myself otherwise and seek it anyway :lol:

as for time, i think even if i were retired i'd never have enough time to brew as often as i needed/wanted. and even if i did have all the time in the world, iv'e still got to drink the stuff!, and without becoming an alcoholic i'm not quite sure how i'd brew more but drink the same sensible amounts hehe.

it's a catch 22 this malarky aint it :D
 
it's a catch 22 this malarky aint it

Yup :D

I dont think there is such a thing as the "perfect pint" but i'm stupid enough to convince myself otherwise and seek it anyway

Sorry...that was a slip of the tongue :roll: .

By 'perfect pint'...I meant to me. As an example, take the Sam Smiths Oatmeal stout recipe I do, which is one of my all time favs. I love my HB version, but don't like the bottled version :hmm:

To me the perfect pint is one that I personally can drink to the end of my days. It could be **** to anyone else, laced with diacetly and this and that, but as long as it tastes good to my tongue then that's all that counts :cool:

I personally think that a lot of confusion regards perfect pints/styles comes from the fact that we each percieve everything differently, and in trying to translate a taste into a quantifiable item, we are already limiting out vast armada of taste buds, which have been doing a grand job for millenia, by our inept abiltity to describe what they're telling us :lol:
 
agreed :) that's the kicker though. this Genius recipe and all it's derivatives/mutations etc, tastes frickin' gorgeous to me and my mate, and although other's have given compliments i'm pretty sure there's some haters out there waiting to taste it and screwing their faces up in disgust haha.

tis a fickle business. i think beer has got to be the most criticised thing we consume. what's good for one person, may taste like ***** to someone else. even food doesn't seem to have such a vast amount of grey area that beer does.

but hey it's a challenge :)
 
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