scrappy_dingo
Active Member
FYI - This is just a venting/seeing the light/being humbled post.
I have been brewing for a little more than a year now. I began with extract and I started all grain brewing (via brew in a bag) after about 5 months. I was pretty cock sure of myself when I made an awesome AG English Bitter last summer. Then Fall/winter happened and I made a pretty poor IPA, a questionable belgian tripel and an almost undrinkable Saison de Noel (all of them all grain).
I was humbled pretty quickly. I started to realize that I was throwing in way too many variables without giving myself a chance to master the basics. So I decided to go back to basics and brew an extract kit. I brewed a Red RyePA, which isn't really a basic recipe, but it sounded good at the time. It turned out amazing!
So I've decided to table AG brewing for a bit, until I can get a better handle on some of the other aspects of brewing. I'll start out by brewing more traditional styles that are easier to compare to commercial examples. I will also focus on changing only a few variables at a time with a primary focus on fermentation temp and time and yeast pitching rate. And probably most importantly I (for the first time ever) will try to brew the same recipe more than once and achieve the same results.
To help facilitate all of this I will enter my beer into competitions to get feedback on my work. I have also joined a local home-brew club to try and immerse myself into the local culture a little more.
So take from this post what you want. I was about to give up, but I thought if I can go about this whole home-brew thing with more of a systematic approach, as opposed to just winging it, I will give myself the best chance to succeed. The whole point of this hobby is to have fun, meet new people, and learn a new skill. If I focus on those objectives I can't do anything wrong.
Cheers,
Mark
I have been brewing for a little more than a year now. I began with extract and I started all grain brewing (via brew in a bag) after about 5 months. I was pretty cock sure of myself when I made an awesome AG English Bitter last summer. Then Fall/winter happened and I made a pretty poor IPA, a questionable belgian tripel and an almost undrinkable Saison de Noel (all of them all grain).
I was humbled pretty quickly. I started to realize that I was throwing in way too many variables without giving myself a chance to master the basics. So I decided to go back to basics and brew an extract kit. I brewed a Red RyePA, which isn't really a basic recipe, but it sounded good at the time. It turned out amazing!
So I've decided to table AG brewing for a bit, until I can get a better handle on some of the other aspects of brewing. I'll start out by brewing more traditional styles that are easier to compare to commercial examples. I will also focus on changing only a few variables at a time with a primary focus on fermentation temp and time and yeast pitching rate. And probably most importantly I (for the first time ever) will try to brew the same recipe more than once and achieve the same results.
To help facilitate all of this I will enter my beer into competitions to get feedback on my work. I have also joined a local home-brew club to try and immerse myself into the local culture a little more.
So take from this post what you want. I was about to give up, but I thought if I can go about this whole home-brew thing with more of a systematic approach, as opposed to just winging it, I will give myself the best chance to succeed. The whole point of this hobby is to have fun, meet new people, and learn a new skill. If I focus on those objectives I can't do anything wrong.
Cheers,
Mark