How seriously do you take homebrewing?

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beersk

beersk

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I think I take homebrewing a little too seriously sometimes. To the point where I'll obsess about something to exhaustion. I don't like that I do this. I've been brewing for a little over 5 years now and I remember a time when I'd brew, enjoy the hell out of it, and love drinking the beer. Then I got further into it with water chemistry and kegging and all of a sudden, I question every single beer I brew. I'm always wondering if it's tasting how it's supposed to taste and if it doesn't, what went wrong and why.
I went through a traumatizing couple of years where I had nasty co2 lines contaminating my beer and now I'm always wondering about co2 contaminating my beer. I've had beers taste good at kegging then change over the course of the first week it carbonates. I know co2 adds a carbonic bite, but it shouldn't change that much. Anyway, the bottom line is, I think WAY too hard about this stuff and it gets me really down. I'm almost to the point of brewing not being fun anymore.

Just wondering if anyone else obsesses like this and how can I just relax, not worry, and have a homebrew?

Cheers & beers!

Jesse
 
Well I am in the honeymoon phase of brewing so every brew day is fun. I have been enjoying creating my own pipeline and the camaraderie I have with my friend on brew day. Maybe just brew something simple and quaffable and stop worrying about all the style stuff for a time or two?
 
A couple ideas:

1) be more social about your brewing, find other homebrewers, hang with them, join a club, or just start giving away lots of beer - focus on the sociability of beer rather than the technical

2). Find some aspect of brewing that's new to you and pursue that - become a BJCP judge, start making meads, whatever.

Good luck!
 
I ask myself..."Who am I brewing this for?"...and the answer is usually...ME! Relax and enjoy the art. Anything can lose it's appeal if taken too seriously.
Enjoy and Cheers!!!
 
What do other people think of your beer? If everyone else loves it then maybe you're over-analyzing it.

What are you doing with your water? Maybe the off flavors have something to do with mineralization. Perhaps just brew a batch with good old fashion tap water and see how it goes. You could also bottle half a batch and keg the other half and see if your keg system really is getting in the way.

I obsess only to the point of making drinkable beer. If I miss my gravity by 0.001 or my mash temp by a degree I just have another beer and figure that no one would ever know and most people would never care.
 
I'd say other people like my beer, but it's hit & miss. There are the people who love every beer I brew, then the people that love one only here and there. Usually the light ones they like. I brew with RO water and use Bru'n water and mostly use gypsum and calcium chloride for mineral additions.
Anyway, I just want to take the beer less seriously. I really love brewing, like I love cooking. I just love the process. But, if a beer doesn't turn out like I expect, it wrecks me. Then I start analyzing whether I'm tasting something off or not. Ugh, it's exhausting. Serious homebrewer doubt.
Anyway, that's a huge brewyear's resolution for me is to relax and enjoy the art, as ernie271 put it. Take it less seriously, not dwelling on it, and just enjoying it. It doesn't have to be mind blowing beer, just enjoyable.

I guess I didn't want this thread to necessarily be about me. I wanted to hear about other people's weakness when it comes to analyzing your own beer, if you have them. I think I've always been one to really obsess about something until I get it right and it's the only thing I think about until I reach my goal or give up. So, in that regard, I've gotten pretty good at a few things in my life. But it hasn't been without struggle and failure. It's never easy.
 
I brew to relax and I drink to relax.

The only thing I get somewhat obsessive over is recipe writing. I create more recipes than I ever get around to brewing, which sucks.

And then there are the ones that never quite taste right in my head and so I can never decide what hops or which yeast to use. Those recipes end up getting tinkered around with for literally years. The Brett IPA was that way.

The only thing I know for sure is I can never do pilsners with my water. To do that, I'll have to buy distilled water.
 
Always remember that brewing is supposed to be a hobby for most people. (Very few ever get to really be a brewmaster). I do obsess over creating recipes but that is about it. If I make a batch that even I don't like, I let it chill out in the bottle then try it in a few months. It usually ends up being okay.

My suggestion would be to just relax. Go back to some of the first beers you made and reminisce as to why you got into brewing in the first place. If none of your friends like your beer then screw them. I am sure there are plenty of people here on HbT that would love your beer. 99.9% of Americans prefer piss water to good beer.
 
ernie271 said:
I ask myself..."Who am I brewing this for?"...and the answer is usually...ME! Relax and enjoy the art. Anything can lose it's appeal if taken too seriously.
Enjoy and Cheers!!!
Click to expand...

I do this "who am I brewing this beer for" exercise as well, except I mostly brew with someone in mind. My girlfriend, friends, family etc. If someone asks if I can make them a particular style or clone, I go for it and giving it to them to try, or brewing it with them hanging out brings me a sense of happiness and accomplishment... Especially if they like it (which isn't always the case lol)

I am a terribly analytical person though, and do have to try not to over dissect my beers. I try to leave it to others to do that for me :mug:
 
I take it pretty seriously as well because I have a long term plan of opening a commercial brewery. So I really try to think/act like a "professional" when I brew or doing other brewing related tasks.
 
I take it seriously. But, it is also a hobby. I just find it all very relaxing - reading, researching, getting brewday in order, etc. I like learning about new aspects of brewing - water, yeast, etc. I like trying to brew beers to style.

Ultimately, I would not say I "obsess" - but I do everything I can to make my beer as good as it can be. I brew a lot (50 batches a year probably). If one does not turn out, it bums me out a bit - but no big deal. I am fine with dumping a batch here and there as long as I am learning along the way. Plus, then I have an empty keg to fill:)

I love making various styles - some I make because I know BMC drinkers will love them. Some I brew for my craft-brew-drinking friends. Some I brew to enter in contests. Some I brew purely because I love them personally. Some I brew to experiment..... it varies.

But, I guess even though I take it seriously - it is all part of a process where I feel like I am learning and getting better. Everyone has a different take on brewing. Personally, I don't understand how some people can brew and NOT do all they can to make their beer better. I would find that stressful. I like to think that I "pay attention to details"....... I am sure there are those that would probably call that "obsessing."

The key to any hobby though is that it is fun for the individual doing it.
 
ATM, I take the process (cleaning, sanitizing, organizing things I'll need, so on) very seriously. I'd hate to put so much time and effort into what I do just to make crappy beer.

I also take it serious when brewing friends of mine have questions or concerns.

I do not take it to the point of snobbery or bragging. I hate beer snobs.

I just take pride in what I do and the end product has mostly been satisfaction enough for me.

So short answer, yes I take the important parts serious.

However, knowing me, I'll prob dump a lot of money on this hobby in the next year or so, try to be the best I can be, then tire of it and move on only to come back a few years later to repeat the process. Sad, but true.
 
I take all of my hobbies pretty seriously, but I'm not single minded about any particularly thing.

I just figure that anything worth doing- whether sports, brewing, sewing, mechanical work, etc, is worth doing well. I love making great beer and soap and sharing it with friends.
 
I take brewing pretty seriously. However, the weather here in south central Texas kind of keeps me from being too obsessive. I don't have refrigerated fermentation so I stop brewing beer in the summer--besides, my garage with two burners going and the door open can still get to 90F inside in April, so July through September would be ungodly hot trying to brew. Those months I do wine, mead or nothing. It gives me a break and come fall I am chomping at the bit to get another brew going.

I give away a large part of what I brew since my wife and I drink moderately, so that keeps the neighbors and friends happy. I often show up on a Saturday at the LHBS with a growler of my latest brew to talk to the clerks and other customers while swapping stories and advice.

All that being said, I read any good brewing book I can find and of course spend a lot of time on HBT. I also have my brewing software on my laptop so most evenings, when relaxing, I find myself tweaking a recipe or planning future brews.
 
Phunhog said:
I take it pretty seriously as well because I have a long term plan of opening a commercial brewery. So I really try to think/act like a "professional" when I brew or doing other brewing related tasks.
Click to expand...
pretty much. my focus has been understanding how ingredients work together so I've been flooding the recipe/ingredients section researching questions for people and seeing what others here have to say.
 
I am drawn naturally to things that are arts..
I am a 28 year martial artist. I went to school for culinary arts.
I have also been a professional bassist for 13 years.

Its going to be the same with brewing. Brewing is an art also.

In something that is an art, you can never be at the end of your knowledge at the limit of what can be learned or done. There is always someone who knows more than you and someone who knows more than him, and someone under you who knows less than you. Its part of the human experience to help others get to where you are. People help you learn and grow and you help others.

In brewing there is always a way to up your game. I started on Mr. beer and now do all grain and keg. I just got a malt crusher. I am learning about water chemistry and my beers are steadily improving. I love it. I keep learning more and have a few other friends who got into the hobby just because my passion rubbed off on them a bit. I make pretty good beer and I have fun. I have made some batches that I wasnt proud of and some that were killer. I agree with the above statement about doing mead and getting certified as a judge. I made a mead in Jan of 13 and have been aging it and am going to taste it again soon. I formed my own beer club called swig masters. Just keep learning and climbing and dont be too hard on yourself.
 
I take it seriously to the point where I would like to learn as much as I can so things turn out well but it is also a fun hobby. It's a hobby where I don't have to rely on anyone to help (though I wouldn't mind a brew buddy) and I can do it when I want. It's actually the perfect hobby for me. I make stuff I like to consume, I give it away to people who appreciate it but know that it doesn't require them to be friends, and I am proud of it. I did think brewing would be more social for me but I was mistaken. Even still, I like it and I take it just seriously enough to be safe and try to be accurate with my process.

I don't think I obsess about it though. I am excited, I talk about it a lot, but I don't think it's close to what the OP does. OP, maybe do some simple SMaSH recipes or something easy to you to bring the fun back into brewing.
 
I take it pretty seriously, but got a lesson in not getting too.hyped up recently. I brewed a stout, was going to be a chocolate stout, but boy howdy did I miss my numbers. I put it in the fermenter anyways and put the cocoa nibs in it, but wasn't too hopeful. I almost just dumped the.batch. I tried the gravity sample AMD.to my surprise it came out pretty good. Real low abv, lot of chocolate and coffee flavors, I ended up calling it oops, a very dark.mild haha.
 
My nose is SHOT. So for me it is about making drinkable beer. I know there really is a science to it, but I just treat it as an art. I have had off flavors, and I get upset, for about 15 minutes, than I have another BEER! Most of the people who have drank my beer like it, and SWMBO likes it. Nothing else really matters.
 
Thanks for all the replies, everyone. I'm definitely working on not being so hard on myself when I brew something less than stellar. I know they can't all be that way and I suppose that's fine. I just want them to be good and enjoyable. I really love brewing, I think it's the best hobby I've discovered in my lifetime and it's rather rewarding to brew a great beer. It's those pesky duds that get me down. Oh well, you'll have that I guess. I'm getting more comfortable with dumping beer all the time. Like Braufessor said, as long as I'm learning something along the way...

Cheers & beers!
 
One of the toughest things for me is the time to even find out if you have a winner or a dud.
If I make a meal I know after a few hours if I got a winner, with beer its about 3-6 weeks before I really know and the fact that beer generally ages out even better is more of a challenge.

I normally make my own recipes for better or worse and its sometimes a long wait to see what I actually get in the end.
 
I do this a lot too. I'm going to go through the BJCP certification program to help me learn what I am tasting. Right now I can taste flavors, but can't identify them very well. I think if I knew what the flavor was, and where that flavor usually came from, it would help me relax quite a bit as I would be able to zero in on problems. That is my hope anyways....
 
Plus.... if you are in Iowa City, and your beer let's you down, John's Grocery is a few minutes away to make sure you are not in short supply:)

john's.jpg
 
Oh man, Dirty John's is the sh*t! I really wish they'd build a bar attached to the store with nothing but craft beers on tap. Similar to a place in Omaha called Beertopia with 3 bars attached: Max & Joe's (Belgian bar), Crescent Moon (American craft bar), and Huber Haus (German bar). Great place. There's no room around John's though, unfortunately. So much beer there...
 
I don't know that I obsess, per se, but I certainly sympathize with feeling disappointed by beers that don't turn out well. I almost gave up brewing after my first year or so.

Then I got introduced to The Brewing Network--now THAT's an obsession for me. It's really all I listen to, and that got me into reading Yeast, Hops, and other beer books. Applying what I learn has really changed my beers for the better so I don't have to feel that disappointment any more.

Now the only thing I obsesses over is the tasting of tiny aspects of my beers--a hint of off-flavors sometimes, but generally nuances of flavor and how they relate to my recipe & process, or else how the beers change over time. Not to say all my beers are great, but now I generally understand why they come out lass than ideal and can figure out how to adjust them.
 
For me, it's just a hobby. I've been brewing for 10 years. I change my process every once in awhile to make improvements, but in general, I would say that I just enjoy the time, and the product of my hobby.... a cold glass of beer.

Of course, I'm not a professional brewer, or anything close to what I percieve a brew-master to be. I suppose if there was an income associated with the product, I might be a bit more obsessive.

It's a way to relax. My job is stressful enough, I don't want my hobby to add stress to my life in any way, shape, or form.

But that's just me...
 
I'm very methodical about how I brew and clean/sanitize, but i'm getting more comfortable with the process. I accept failures and modifications/alterations in results as learning lessons, and don't overanalyze them.

What I do unfortunately do too much is treat my beer as though it's overly precious. I do 1 gallon brews and this means that with each beer drank, I don't have much left, so I'm worried too often about running out of homebrew.

I've started running 2 gallon batches lately and I have the means of fermenting larger batches, but not heating them and cooling them (my kettle is 3 gallons max, and no wort chiller).
 
I'm serious when it comes to the recipe and sanitization. I shy away from the water chemistry because, although I love science, sometimes it's better to not know. Either way, there is no better hobby/passion.
 
Homebrewing takes guite a lot of time and effort so it's easy to get too serious and even obsesive about it. I often find myself being too critical about my own beers. For instance, I got annoyed recently when some bitter I made wouldn't drop perfectly clear. I took some to a party and everybody thought it was great.

It's good to be self critical but sometimes I beat myself up over something that doesn't matter and nobody else cares about. Later, when I've put things into perspective, I wonder why I worried about it.
 
I pretty much follow specific minimum guidelines but I am comfortable enough with my craft that I make good beer. I name the style after I choose the ingredients. I do use brewtoad to check my IBU's and IBU balance as I have seriously overhopped (bittering) some beers in the past.

I tend to just buy 3 grains, two yeasts and one hop in bulk until I run out of it. I create various beers with these items plus a # of specialty grain here or an ounce of aroma hop there. I just made a Scottish 70/, an APA and a Porter using this method. None of them are to style. All of them are VERY tasty. Two of them I will brew again and not change a thing!
 
I have a pretty lackadaisical approach, I'm just trying to brew something that I like.

I can appreciate folks who are constantly trying to sharpen their skills but that's not my thing.

One question I'd ask is how often do you drink commercial brews? I found after drinking my brews I became a lot more critical of commercial brews that I'd liked up to that point.
 
I take it very seriously, but I do most of my hobbies/activities. I get mad when I don't have the highest batting average on my softball team, I am upset with myself when I take a bad crash skiing, I always wanted to be in the best guild when I played World of Warcraft, and I want my beer to be just as good as my favorite commercial beers.

I agree with the earlier poster that the social aspect is important. It is good to have friends around who remind me that my sacrifice fly still brings in a run, to tell me that if I'm not crashing I'm not trying, to make sure I head out into the real world every once in a while, and who are more than happy to throw one of my homebrews back with me, even when it didn't come out perfect.
 
The only thing I take seriously is strict and proper sanitizating of everything going to come in contact with the brew...the rest is kind of "ahhh, wth, lemme try THIS...." Have never made anything i consider undrinkable yet, and a good many have turned out outstanding (imho)...as long as everything's sanitized, the sky's the limit!!!
 
fuelish said:
"ahhh, wth, lemme try THIS...." the sky's the limit!!!
Click to expand...

That's my style. :D

However, I do sometimes just rinse stuff off. I got real lax about it for a stretch, until I got an unintentional and unwanted infection. But I'm still not shaving my entire body and starsaning the air.
 

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