monkeymath
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- Joined
- Jan 18, 2019
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To me, homebrewing is a strange hobby. The actual act of brewing is, for the most part, boring. Cleaning and paying attention to sanitary practices is fundamentally tedious. But there is an element of wonder, of magic, when that dull mass of wort suddenly comes to life: fermentation begins and transforms this sweet, bitter, unpalatable concoction into the nectar of gods. Unfortunately, the result would not always please the gods; at least not all of them.
[You can skip this paragraph, which just covers the background of my question]
I still get excited about every single batch I brew, and the batch I currently work on is always the essential one. A couple of weeks back, I brewed my first Münchner Hell. I put a lot of thought into the ingredients I would use, the process I would employ. Then I waited for a long time during the cold fermentation and maturation. At bottling day, the sweet sweet whiff of lager stink was intoxicating. I tasted the first bottle yesterday: it was good, pleasant to drink, but it was lacking in several respects compared to my idea of a Münchner Hell. Living in Munich, I can easily find better examples of the style. Much better even, to be honest. What frustrates me even more is that I don't really have a clear idea what I could do to improve this brew in a future iteration, how I could move it in the direction of my ideal Münchner Hell.
So, how do you deal with setbacks in homebrewing? Do you just immediately jump into the next attempt at whatever you have in mind? Do you sometimes take a break off brewing? Do you manage to turn your disappointment into initiative to change something about your brewing process? Do you have your "signature brew" that you've made numerous times and that you can reproduce without fail?
The latest option sounds quite appealing to me right now, except I have never really brewed the same thing twice. I'm still very much in "exploratory mode" (you'd think I'd be done by now, after more than 50 batches ...). I could rebrew one of my past successful recipes, but there is a significant risk involved: what if it won't live up to my memory of the brew? It's quite possible that I remember a couple of them as being better than they actually were...
Anyway, I'd love to hear about your coping strategies
Cheers,
Daniel
[You can skip this paragraph, which just covers the background of my question]
I still get excited about every single batch I brew, and the batch I currently work on is always the essential one. A couple of weeks back, I brewed my first Münchner Hell. I put a lot of thought into the ingredients I would use, the process I would employ. Then I waited for a long time during the cold fermentation and maturation. At bottling day, the sweet sweet whiff of lager stink was intoxicating. I tasted the first bottle yesterday: it was good, pleasant to drink, but it was lacking in several respects compared to my idea of a Münchner Hell. Living in Munich, I can easily find better examples of the style. Much better even, to be honest. What frustrates me even more is that I don't really have a clear idea what I could do to improve this brew in a future iteration, how I could move it in the direction of my ideal Münchner Hell.
So, how do you deal with setbacks in homebrewing? Do you just immediately jump into the next attempt at whatever you have in mind? Do you sometimes take a break off brewing? Do you manage to turn your disappointment into initiative to change something about your brewing process? Do you have your "signature brew" that you've made numerous times and that you can reproduce without fail?
The latest option sounds quite appealing to me right now, except I have never really brewed the same thing twice. I'm still very much in "exploratory mode" (you'd think I'd be done by now, after more than 50 batches ...). I could rebrew one of my past successful recipes, but there is a significant risk involved: what if it won't live up to my memory of the brew? It's quite possible that I remember a couple of them as being better than they actually were...
Anyway, I'd love to hear about your coping strategies
Cheers,
Daniel