I give up
Do you consider this Home Brewing?
- Thread starter GerritT
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Devils advocate...sounds like a drink!
Then there was no purpose to polling the question.
Everyone gets that, physically, the beer is brewed but the spirit of the question is how I chose to approach it (I answered "no").
I've watched on the US site, posters likening extract brewing to opening up a jar of spaghetti sauce vs making one's own spaghetti sauce. That logic can be extended (absurdly) in either direction. So you have this new gadget mentioned in the original post at one end and someone who would grow all their grain in their field and their yeast and their hops, make their own oven and on and on and on. In that respect, it's a matter of degree, and that's how I approached it.
If loving making beer by extract is wrong, then I don't want to be right.
Drunkula
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You're learning, which meeeeeans....
.....I steer clear of the bait.
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There have been no wrong responds so far 
There's definitely a semantic side to the story, very true...
If someone asks me what I will cook this weekend, and I answer with "Soup", that DOES include the spectrum from heating up a can to the other end where I slice and dice everything myself. Does that other person expect me to slaughter my own chicken, to make consommé from the carcass? Or does that person expect me to place a bowl with uncanned soup in the machine that goes PIIING?
It's all soup.
My vision of home brewing is (among other, less identifiable things) the grip on the recipe and the process. If that LG for instance offers the option to create own recipes and schedules, that's pretty home-brewy imho.
There's definitely a semantic side to the story, very true...
If someone asks me what I will cook this weekend, and I answer with "Soup", that DOES include the spectrum from heating up a can to the other end where I slice and dice everything myself. Does that other person expect me to slaughter my own chicken, to make consommé from the carcass? Or does that person expect me to place a bowl with uncanned soup in the machine that goes PIIING?
It's all soup.
My vision of home brewing is (among other, less identifiable things) the grip on the recipe and the process. If that LG for instance offers the option to create own recipes and schedules, that's pretty home-brewy imho.
Oneflewover
Landlord.
I just don't get it. Why would you spend all that money to produce something that is undoubtedly going to be inferior to a commercial beer, particularly when there can be no joy in its creation?
I suspect that people homebrew to:
1) save money. Nope, ain't going to do that.
2) brew the beer they really like. No, no opportunity to reproduce your own recipes
3) be creative and try new things. Nope.
Why would anyone bother with one of these things whether it is, in a technical sense only, or not 'home-brewing'??
I suspect that people homebrew to:
1) save money. Nope, ain't going to do that.
2) brew the beer they really like. No, no opportunity to reproduce your own recipes
3) be creative and try new things. Nope.
Why would anyone bother with one of these things whether it is, in a technical sense only, or not 'home-brewing'??
I think it's because some people are lazy and have too much money, we don't know how the finished beer tastes so assuming it's good (compared to some avarage beer you can buy in some pubs) it looks like an easy way to "home brew" of course when you do "proper" home brew you can see its limitations.
Saisonator
Landlord.
Sticking a ready meal in the microwave does not make someone a cook.
I would say it is home brewing but the person filling a machine with water and chucking in a capsule is not a home brewer.
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Mungri
Landlord.
It's brewing Jim..........but not as we know it.
Saisonator
Landlord.
Probably designed for the hipster, who is looking for something to go with the image of beard, plaid shirt and knitted hat.
But does not want any of the hassle of actually brewing properly.
But does not want any of the hassle of actually brewing properly.
Sadfield
Landlord.
Or they'll make a pod that can be filled with ingredients of the brewers choosing.
These discussions always revolve around the brewing process. Brewing is also a creative process, if the system adapts to allow this then I see a future for these devices.
Yes, it's homebrewing, just not very skilled. But, then neither is kit brewing, or only reproducing AG recipes out of books.
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Drunkula
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Hey! I'm the focus of anger around here - you get your head back below that parapet.
But is it brewing?
Some people are making the assertion that it is because you take something that isn't beer and it becomes beer. I wonder whether that is brewing or just fermenting? I don't have an Oxford English Dictionary to hand but might be interesting to see how that defines brewing?
I think the parallel is something like microwaving a ready meal or making a pot noodle being described as cooking - is it, or is it just reheating?
For me, any pod machine is not brewing, it's just making beer.
That does of course open up the interesting question about extract kits. I think a fundamental distinction is that extract kits still require some purpose, skill and judgement. And this is where I think a parallel might be something like asking someone if they are a footballer. Kicking a ball to my son in the garden does not make me a footballer; but if I go down the park and play a game, no matter how badly or how poor a level it is, then I could start to call myself a footballer.
So for me, using a pod type automated machine is not brewing but it is making beer. It is only once you start having some meaningful influence on the output that it becomes brewing.
Some people are making the assertion that it is because you take something that isn't beer and it becomes beer. I wonder whether that is brewing or just fermenting? I don't have an Oxford English Dictionary to hand but might be interesting to see how that defines brewing?
I think the parallel is something like microwaving a ready meal or making a pot noodle being described as cooking - is it, or is it just reheating?
For me, any pod machine is not brewing, it's just making beer.
That does of course open up the interesting question about extract kits. I think a fundamental distinction is that extract kits still require some purpose, skill and judgement. And this is where I think a parallel might be something like asking someone if they are a footballer. Kicking a ball to my son in the garden does not make me a footballer; but if I go down the park and play a game, no matter how badly or how poor a level it is, then I could start to call myself a footballer.
So for me, using a pod type automated machine is not brewing but it is making beer. It is only once you start having some meaningful influence on the output that it becomes brewing.
AdeDunn
Member
I voted yes, for that very reason. No matter how much I may personally disapprove of machines that automate the process too much, it is still brewing. If, however, the poll had asked "would you call the person using this machine a brewer" then I would have voted no without hesitation. It's the same as extract kits. It's home brewing, but using them doesn't make you a brewer (on the path to been one for sure, but not one yet until they take that first step into at least extract brewing, leaving pre-made kits behind), any more than making a wine kit makes you a vintner.
As to the talk about Grainfather and the like, they're just ready made eBIAB rigs. You STILL have to come up with a recipe etc (or use an existing one I suppose), and in the hands of a brewer with some skill they will give higher efficiency and likely better beer than in the hands of somebody with zero skill or knowledge. Where a machine like this, your skill level and knowledge of brewing is going to make absolutely ZERO difference. Heck, if you are going to argue against the Grainfather, you could argue against my DIY rig and Beersmith 3 app on a phone combination.... lol
At least if LG are making it then it's likely to actually work unlike just about everything that rears its ugly head on kickstarter or indiegogo. The risk of being tied to a single pod supplier is always going to be a problem with the irony being that a successful machine will doubtless result in clone pod makers (a-la Nespresso) but low machine sales might result in LG pulling out and clone makers not having any motivation to step in.
The low 5 litre yield shows that this is intended to be a counter-top kitchen unit and could be a gateway into AG brewing for people that wouldn't otherwise even be aware that devices such as the Braumeister and Grainfather even exist.
The low 5 litre yield shows that this is intended to be a counter-top kitchen unit and could be a gateway into AG brewing for people that wouldn't otherwise even be aware that devices such as the Braumeister and Grainfather even exist.
From their website, brewing is defined as 'The activity or business of producing beer'
When tea was made with a teapot and loose leaves there was a whole ritual to the 'Brewing' process and probably some craft involved but nowadays, when we just drop a teabag in a cup, does anyone call that brewing? I think not.
I found that definition on something purporting to be the OED definition but I ruled it out as it's incomplete. For example, it misses tea, the idea of a storm brewing etc.
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