Solitary brewer ?

[Oginme]

I do my brewing solo and prefer it that way.

First, I usually get started between 4 AM and 5 AM in the morning. Not a time when others want to climb out of bed; let alone join me.

Second, my brewing day is scheduled carefully around morning chores.

I heat up the water, dough in, take initial pH sample and wrap my kettle to stay warm.
Then I go hay, feed, and milk goats for about 35 to 45 minutes. I am usually back inside about 5 to 15 minutes before the mash is complete.
Once the mash has been drained, sparged on the rare occasions I do a sparge step, and the wort is heating towards a boil, and my boil ingredients weighed out, I sit down with a cup of coffee and something to eat to watch for the boil to start.
Upon initiation of boil, I start the timer an turn to the computer to respond e-mails from one of my jobs, and start researching for one of the pressing projects I am working on, and browse the forums. The timer alerts me to additions during the boil.
There are times when I actually have some spare moments during the 90 minute long boil to read the paper.
Once the boil ends, it is all a flurry of activity prepping everything that I didn't get to the night before, taking samples for measurements, chilling the wort, doing cell counts on the yeast slurry and measuring out the amount needed for the batch just brewed, etc.

There is just no time for chit-chat or even normal conversation with a human being. I like to get everything wrapped up by 10 AM, 11 at the very latest and move on to family activities.

 

[LittleRiver]

... urban homebrew club brewhouse, the only club in this country whose members have built out and maintain a brewhouse for members...

Pictures or it didn't happen.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

@davidabcd : This sentence "My main thought is, there's too much business, albeit fun business, to take care of without adding in being a host. " says it all.

I couldn't figure out how to express it, but "being a host" is exactly the issue I have with friends coming over. If it was a person with whom I brewed who knew brewing and was also focused on the task at hand, that might be kinda cool. But in that situation, I wouldn't be hosting, we'd just be working together.

 

[applescrap]

When I first started brewing in 2002 I brewed solo. I brewed solo for many years and loved the time to focus on the brew day process and create good beer. Jumping forward to the last few years my older sons (I have three), got interested in brewing and it is a real treat to brew with them when they show up from time to time on a scheduled brew day. They will brew with me individually or sometimes they all show up. I really treasure the quality time with them creating something we all can enjoy later, and that we made together. Definitely a male bonding thing and we talk about life and spend quality "Dad Time" together. Two of them are married and I have two beautiful grandchildren. So they will bring the wives and I get to see the grandchildren as well (which is even better than brewing), and my wife will make a dinner for all of us later to all enjoy. Love those brew days. My sons know the process and they actively participate helping the whole day. I also appreciate the help when it comes time to lift my 14 gallon conical into the upright freezer!

One of my son's friends (who we kinda adopted and consider family), also loves quality craft beer and he also loves to brew. When he first saw my system his jaw dropped to the floor, and he asked if he could come by and brew with me when I brew. He will come around on brew days when he can and he brews with me as well. In summary now I usually have either one or all of my sons, or my "adopted son" brew with me, and I am not alone on brew days. So I used to be a solo brewer for years but now seem to have company on brew days. Brewing by myself will never get old (and once in a while I still brew alone), but I do now also enjoy sharing the brewing process and brew days with other people that are close to me. Such a fun hobby!

John

Wow, that's pretty cool. I can't imagine what could be better than that. I brew alone, sure. My wife or somebody might be around but it's usually just me. I've been inviting people to learn to brew and feel like it's our duty to do that. Next time I brew I would like to have two or three people over. And yes I will teach them the traditional way to brew while watching me Brew untraditionally.

 

[applescrap]

My oldest, who just turned 27, brews with me about half the time. Also, I brew at an urban homebrew club brewhouse, the only club in this country whose members have built out and maintain a brewhouse for members. We have four brew bays, so it can be busy, with many others brewing while I'm also brewing.

That's awesome. Another cheers for the dads

 

[Pappers_]

Pictures or it didn't happen.

www.chaosbrewclub.net

http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/brewery

 

[muledogus]

www.chaosbrewclub.net

http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/brewery

That's really cool.

 

[Jayjay1976]

@Pappers I've been wanting to visit Chaos for a long time, about how many HBT members brew there? Would be cool to meet some folks face to face. The address is only a couple of blocks west of my old office on hubbard, that is a cool area.

 

[Amadeo38]

Whoa - I counted over 50 fermentors in that room before I gave up. Very cool. Our club has a ton of money they have to donate each year to remain tax exempt and we’ve had exec meetings discussing the possibility of a clubhouse like that. Now I’m going to advocate harder!

I always invite more novice brewers or those who are interested to learn on my brew day. However, it’s not what I prefer, as I tend to make more mistakes / omit measurements due to distraction (especially when it’s someone with whom I get along well and we chat a lot). It also makes for a longer brew day because I end up chatting when I’m usually focusing on cleaning as I go.

 

[TonyKZ1]

Just wondering, how many are solitary brewers and how many like to brew with friends or as a group.
I personally prefer to be a solitary brewer. It's my "me time". My wonderful wife understands and usually plans a girls day for brew day. Brew day for me is a stress reliever where I can forget about everything for a while.
How do you brew?

I usually brew alone. It's been more than a year ago, but my son would occasionally help me but he enlisted in the Marines last year so it's just me as my wife is usually at the Art Gallery that she works at on Saturdays.
Also I like your icon VTX1300. I was a ET1 when I was in the Navy, tried to add a picture of the rank insignia but it didn't work for some reason.

 

[Pappers_]

@Pappers I've been wanting to visit Chaos for a long time, about how many HBT members brew there? Would be cool to meet some folks face to face. The address is only a couple of blocks west of my old office on hubbard, that is a cool area.

Somehow I had missed that you are in the Chicago-area. I know there are 9 million people in the metro area, but the homebrew community isn't that large - do we know each other, irl? I'm Jim Vondracek.

Membership numbers ebb and flow, but the last time I looked it was about 70 full brewing members, with fewer numbers of trial, apprentice and friend members.

CHAOS is hosting a homebrew club party on August 18th - BrewBBQ. Lots of clubs are taking part, it would be a great time to visit. Unfortunately, I'll be out of town that weekend. If that doesn't work for you, I'd be happy to meet you at the club sometime. There is a monthly open house and a monthly Tuesday Brewsday group brew.

 

[Pappers_]

Whoa - I counted over 50 fermentors in that room before I gave up. Very cool. Our club has a ton of money they have to donate each year to remain tax exempt and we’ve had exec meetings discussing the possibility of a clubhouse like that. Now I’m going to advocate harder!

That photo only shows half of the walk in fermentation room - there are shelves on the other side, also. I'd say there are almost always 100+/- fermenters in there. As you can see, that room is cooled with a digitally controlled AC unit set at 65F.

We also have two restaurant style fridges set at 50F for lager fermenting (capacity of about a dozen fermenters) and a large three door unit set at 32F for lagering, cold crashing and cold aging (capacity of about 20 fermenters, more kegs).

I served as the club treasurer for a while, which is a significant task - CHAOS' budget is over $50K/year. Occasionally I would get calls from folks asking about how financial model, how it worked. I think what we do works in an urban area, where people live on top of each other and space is at a premium. Otherwise, people will generally choose to brew at their home because of the flexibility.

 

[Kee]

Almost always alone. And now that I've scaled down from 5 or 6 gallon batches in the garage to 3 or 4 gallon batches inside, it would seem odd to have help. It'd be like having someone over to help me fry eggs.