At a brewing crossroads

[betarhoalphadelta]

I've been brewing quite a while, and employ most of the techniques discussed here already.

Including fermentation temp control?

 

[bacgabe]

Agree with bwarbiany, this is an important question you have glossed over. Based on you initial description you have a big enough pot and mash tun and a nice method of drinking your beer. A great deal of critically important information is missing that could have profound impact on your beer. In particular, temp control and healthy fermentation (i.e., a starter or adequate yeast) have a huge impact on beer. A world class IPA recipe such as Pliny or sculpin would be garbage if underpitched and fermented at 80.

Instead of offering generalities (such as "I do most of those things" or "my beers just seem off"), if you give specifics such as your actual recipes and your process in detail, this terrific community will help you really hone in on the means to make great beer, which is in fact quite obtainable, in my opinion.

 

[MVKTR2]

Here's the thing....I started brewing for the wrong reason. I brewed, partly because it was interesting at first, but also because it made craft beer cheap.

The crossroads I'm at is that the cost of making my beer better is substantial.

I'm also starting to wonder if drinking 2+ beers a day for the rest of my life is really good for me. It sure would be nice to NOT be tempted to kill a homebrew as soon as I get home.

Others are covering the brewing part well. I'm wondering about the above exerts ... Is there a link between cheapening the cost of beer and 'killing' your homebrew? What I'm asking is, might this actually be something of a realization that you're drinking too much and/or have a problem?

Let me say a perfectly rational way of dealing with onset of addiction is to remove temptation/access. Removing opportunity is actually a fine way of preventing temptation and the reason churches and other organizations have 'safe sanctuary' rules such as doors must remain open during counselings, etc.