When this will end?

Hi guys/girls:

I started been interested in craft beers a few years ago and this year I started brewing, (all grain all the way from batch nº1).
Since I started brewing I have tried to bring more and more control to my process and I´m actually seeing a lot of improvment in my results (thanks HBT).
First was all grain just playing with my equipment and mill but not controlling fermentations temps and using dry yeast, when the summer started I make my ferm chamber (an old fridge actually), started using liquid yeast, making starters and pitching the correct amount of yeast.
Then I started washing yeast and harvesting yeast from comercial brews, now I´m about to start my yeast bank and kegging, on christimas I´ll have my RO system and I have started reading a lot about water chemestry.
I brew every week sometimes twice a week, and every time that I look there is something else I can do to improve my beer and everyday.
My question is: Will it be someday when I learn enough to loose interested in brewing? Doesn´t seem probable to me at the moment but my "learning curve" it´s not far away from it´s peak.
I know there is a ton of info and things to learn and that I will never know it all but I also know that I have limitations. What you more expeirienced brewers think?

I think there's always something to new to learn in brewing. Speaking in general terms, what you say about the learning curve and peaking out in a learning curve can happen in any activity/hobby. In other activities it seems like it's just when you think you know everything about it that suddenly you break through and learn something else or think of it a different way and you realize you have actually just brushed the surface. The riskiest part in the learning curve then in my opinion is when you think you have learned it all. Yes that can make your interest in the activity decrease if you're that kind of person, but it also makes it hard to continue learning when you think you've already learned it all because your mind closes to alternative techniques and information that might conflict with what you already believe to be true.

You are rigth I think the most important thing it´s try to be humble all the time specially when you enjoy something so much that you can´t be objective about it. For instance I´ve found a lot of brewers that sure to God that their brews are great and they just feel like ok brews to me... that made me thing that even if I feel that I have brew something great there is big chance that it´s my heart speaking and not my brain, just like having kids and thinking highly of them even knowing that they are just average.

I haven't reached a point of boredom yet, or learned enough to lose interest. Just when I feel sort of comfortable with a process, something new challenges me. I've been getting into water chemistry, and I could always try yeast ranching. I'm a beginner in many areas, like triple decoction mashing, yeast ranching, and water chemistry, and there are many more areas that I haven't even begun to scratch the surface yet.

Not only do I continue to learn new things after 10 or so years of homebrewing, but sometimes things you think you know get challenged, brewing myths debunked, and new ideas born. It's an always evolving hobby on both the artistic and scientific frontiers. All I really know is there's still always a lot left to learn!

Thanks for the replies guys/girls I really love beer and brewing more than anything else I had love in my entire life and just the idea of getting tired of this some day breaks my heart.
I´ve even learn english to be able to read some books (there is very little info in spanish) I´ve started brewing this year but I´ve been reading for a loooonggg time(and saving money to get my equipment).
Your answers have brougth peace to my heart

Homebrewing keeps changing, so there are always new yeasts, new specialty grains and new "hot" styles to try.

Maybe you can translate some of the more popular books. Might be some coin in it.

david_42 said:

Maybe you can translate some of the more popular books. Might be some coin in it.

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Yeah, so far I´m translating parts of books for friends, but my english is not good enough for "formal" translations. I yet have to take my first english class. Self teach all the way.

I can see some people getting bored with it after a while. People who don't care to push their personal limits, or people who just move on to the next thing.

But Homebrewing is like art. If you love it, then you do it just to see what you can create. There are finite possibilities, but they are so vast as to be practically limitless. Tastes evolve and new equipment, ingredients and techniques pop up now and again to help keep things fresh.

I wish I could brew more often, but I am the only one in my house drinking beer and I don't have the time right now to brew as often as I wish. So I spend my limited free time in building an upgraded system unless I am in need to more beer and someday I will change my process to fit my equipment and make brewing easier and hopefully more consistent, which makes creating better beer easier.

I can see this hobby lasting for many years to come, but at some point I'll more or less just be brewing and focusing more of my time on other hobbies, rather than spending it in equipment upgrades and learning.

FYI, I just now noticed that you are not an natural English speaker. Your English is very good. Probably better than some Americans on this forum!

Homercidal said:

FYI, I just now noticed that you are not an natural English speaker. Your English is very good. Probably better than some Americans on this forum!

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Thanks for the compliment! I really try hard!

Beer and cigars - two things that the more you learn, the more you realize how little you really know. Both are fun hobbies that hold tons of secrets and will keep your interest for decades

For what it's worth, I take solace in having overcome the many challenges I faced in my quest to make good homemade beer. Finally, I am in a place where I am confident in my processes, have "mastered" the fundamentals of what is needed to make the best product I can from available resources and get back to a place where I can just enjoy beer.

Obliviousbrew said:

My question is: Will it be someday when I learn enough to loose interested in brewing?

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IF you are legitimately into the hobby, I think it's more likely that you will hit a wall when life prevents you from brewing. I was brewing two to three times a month from October 2009 through March of this year, but work got a bit out of hand and forced me to stop brewing. With any luck, I'll be doing a double extract batch brew this weekend to reestablish my pipeline and then get back into the rhythm.

IffyG said:

IF you are legitimately into the hobby, I think it's more likely that you will hit a wall when life prevents you from brewing. I was brewing two to three times a month from October 2009 through March of this year, but work got a bit out of hand and forced me to stop brewing. With any luck, I'll be doing a double extract batch brew this weekend to reestablish my pipeline and then get back into the rhythm.

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I feel you I had tons of work this summer and there was amost three weeks in August where I was not able to brew and it felt terrible. And yes I´m way into this hobby/obsession I´ve been chasing making my own beer for years.
This came to me mind cause I´ve seen people selling their equipment for different reasons and it made me think what will happend to me in the next years... Probably it was very important for them and then they stop brewing... If it happened to them why not to me too?
Yeah I´m brewing all I can after that little period of me not brewing and three of my friends spending two weeks holidays at home mi pipeline took some damage, but it´s again reviving I already have two pales ales bottled (18 gallons) for almost two weeks now, and IPA that I´m bottling on Monday, a Tripel that is in secondary for 10 days now and a Christmas winter warmer (I know I´ve brew it too late) that´s just finish primary... And again I´m brewing on Tuesday not sure what but I think I´ll use the cake from the Christmas to make a Quad.

Obliviousbrew said:

This came to me mind cause I´ve seen people selling their equipment for different reasons and it made me think what will happend to me in the next years... Probably it was very important for them and then they stop brewing... If it happened to them why not to me too?

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I am, somewhat, close to this. Sort of.

I began brewing almost 6 years ago. Built a few of my own keggle based systems and decided one day to throw down on a pilot system. Never once have I had any intention of going pro. Never once have I had the desire to work at a brewery aside from needing a jobby job for extra income.

I bough knowing full well that I'd not be brewing weekly, or even monthly. By that time I had learned my limits, likes, and habits. In fact, the last batch of beer I brewed was in November 2011. Why? No time and I have a full pipeline to slowly drink through.

Still, I invested thousands into a pilot system because I knew that I'd be making beer the rest of my life and i wanted to have something taht could be handed down to any one of my children if they desire it.

All very nice answers! God I love this forum! You guys have no idea here in Spain even that the craft beer and hombrewing movement it´s starting to gain more and more adepts it can certainly get very lonely, I´m the only one in my city that brews (far as I know) and been able to talk to some guys/girls here with a lot more experience than me it´s a great gift thank you all

I can't imagine ever tiring of it. Besides the fact that there is always something to learn or try, even if I did know everything and could make perfect beer everytime, I LOVE brewing. The act of it. Not the learning, the doing. I feel about brew day the same way I do about going to see a great music show. Or playing my guitar. I mean I love learning but mostly its the doing that has me hooked. Plus I like to drink something I make. Kind of how I get more satisfaction out of eating vegetables I raised, meat I raised or killed hunting, eggs from my chickens, etc. It pleases me more to drink beer I made. the only reason I drink oter beer is that a. I am away from home, and b. to try to understand beers better to know what I want to brew. I never foresee brewing getting old with me.

It's my summer hobby, but my winter free time occupation.

I'll brew a few times in the summer, but in fall and winter I go all out. Most times I'll do enough brewing in the winter to last most of the summer. To me every thing in brewing is easier in the winter, except holding mash temps, but that's easy enough to overcome. My basement stays right at 60 to 62 deg, so it's like a giant ferm chamber, and about right for almost any style.

Do a garden and grow hops in the summer, brew and age in the winter.....The circle of life:rockin:

I think that with a hobby like this, there are so many different methods and correct ways to do things and improve, u'll never quite lose the interest lol

as long as you love drinking a good beer, you'll never lose interest

just don't get bogged down with thinking you always need to be "progressing" and lose sight of the fact that you just want to end up drinking something delicious