Do you enjoy brewing more than drinking?

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kombat

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This question occurred to me the other day, and I thought I'd toss it out here for discussion.

Like I'm sure many of you do too, I spend a lot of time thinking about brewing beer. I just got into all-grain brewing last fall, and I have 15 batches under my belt. I have a long list of beers I want to make, and I even have a detailed spreadsheet to track fermenter, carboy, keg, and fridge space for each batch to ensure I have enough space.

The problem I'm having (if you can call it that) is that I'm excited to brew all these different styles of beer, but I'm not going through it fast enough to free up the kegs. I have 5 Corny kegs, and in 2 more weeks, they'll all be full (3 are already full and currently carbonating, 2 more batches are just finishing up clearing and will be kegged in the next 2 weeks).

Don't get me wrong, I love beer. But I also don't want to get hammered every night. I exercise a lot and it's important to me to stay in shape, so I don't want to drink excessively. Consequently, it's going to take me a while to get through that 25 gallons of beer. I'll be doing my best to share it with guests, but even still, the weather is going to start getting better soon, and I know I'm going to be itching to weigh out and mill some grains.

I'm not asking for a solution (that's easy: buy more kegs, give more beer away, drink more beer), I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced this too. As much as I enjoy drinking beer, I also get excited about making it, and feel sad when I know the weekend is going to be perfect brewing weather, but there's no room in my pipeline. Anyone else experience this too?
 
I brew way more than I drink . . . . don't get me wrong, I have 1-3 pints 6 days a week or so. But, I don't keep up with what I brew..... Even the drinking part - I look forward to tasting my beer I guess. Not that I drink to relax or to get drunk or anything like that.... I just love the taste of beer and I am constantly looking forward to tasting my beer to see how it turned out, how it is progressing, etc.

I give a lot of beer away, I look forward to having people over for sampling, I started entering comps. which uses up some of it..... All so I can get back and brew more:)

I have 8 kegs of various fullness right now, 4 batches fermenting, and another 3-4 batches bottled....... And, I am thinking about what I need to get brewed in the next week or two to fill my 4-5 empty kegs and empty bottles - you are not alone:)

I know you were not looking for a "solution" - but, more buckets, more kegs/bottles, more drinkers to share with - you hit the nail on the head.
 
I have the same problem. I would love to brew weekly but I cant possibly go thru the beer that fast. At my rate of consumption I can only really justify brewing monthly. I need more friends to give beer to. Ive even considered buying a keg set up for my buddy just so I can brew beer for his house too.
 
I had the same problem, I love to brew, but only went through 5 gallons every month and half or two. I found some guys and 4-5 of us get together every week or so, fill some growelrs, sit and have some beer and generally hang out. When it comes time to purchase ingredients, they pitch in and help out with the bill, it's a great set up! (and legal, I believe!) The best part is, the beer fund is self-sustaining thanks to their help with ingredients, so SWMBO doesn't care how much I brew, WIN WIN!
 
I drink about 6-8 beers a week. Not always my own. I give away 90% of my brew for parties and such.
 
I also brew MUCH faster than I drink. I think the last keg I kicked took about 6 months to kill but when the weather warms up and bbq season kicks in the beer gets flowing by going to and throwing parties - showing up with a keg tends to make you real popular lol. I love brewing, and love tasting my beer but don't really enjoy getting drunk - thankfully I also love sharing :mug:
 
I love the process of brewing, my problem is I have so much else going on to occupy my free time that I have a hard time brewing as often as I'd like.

I also have a problem with brewing 11 gallon batches most of the time when I could be doing 5.5 gallon batches. I just have a hard time justifying spending 4 hours making 5.5 gallons when I could spend 4 1/2 hours and make 11 gallons! So I have way more beer than I could ever drink myself. Fortunately the wife loves my beer and so do about every friend we have.

I honestly enjoy watching someone else consume and LOVE my beer than I do when I drink it myself!

That said my wife and I drink plenty homebrews. I average about 2 per day (mostly session ales in the 4-5% abv range). She probably averages 1 every other day so between the 2 of us about 75 beers per month...that's about 7 gallons.
 
I enjoy the process of making beer but if I couldn't drink any of it then I'd stop brewing.

So I guess the answer is no.

I know you weren't looking for solutions to your "problem" but what about brewing smaller batches? I don't keg. Will beer carbonate properly in a keg that is half empty?
 
Brewing "too much" is one of the reasons I prefer bottling to kegging. I can drink most of a batch and leave just a few bottles to age for a year. I have 45 gallons of beer currently in bottles and going to brew another 11 gallons tomorrow!
 
I would love to brew every single day! For me (I am a senior accounting major) I have my weeks pretty full with school and homework. I do not have time or it is not in good conscious to drink every night. I will usually go to the college bar once a week (2.00 premiums and craft pints on Friday's) with my buddies and then drink on the weekends. My problem is that all my friends want to get wasted and I just want to enjoy a few nice brews. A bunch of my buddies love when I brew because I always slip them a 6 pack. Usually I give away about 42 of my beers and keep a 6 pack for myself. I just like to see other people enjoy my beer and give feedback. Plus I am building loyal customers that will scatter all over the state and country for when I open my brewpub :rockin:
 
Honestly, even if I couldn't drink beer at all I'd still enjoy brewing. I actually like drinking scotch much more than beer. That said, I love brewing.
 
I'm all about doing three gallon batches when the pipeline is getting a little congested. It also makes for shorter (if more frequent) bottling days.
 
I enjoy brewing more than drinking and that is why I brew 1 gallon batches. After bottling I've got 4 bombers and a 12 oz of that particular beer. This way, I can have about 8 different types of beer and it only takes up a couple of shelves in the pantry. I don't have to drink very much before my pipeline is freed up to come up with something new. If there is something I make that is really good, I don't worry about having only a few bottles of it, I just make it again!
 
I brew much more than I drink, luckily being 20 means I have lots of friends who will gladly empty my bottles for me. Lots of brewing, lots of learning and soon lots of medals. ;)
 
I like them equally.I drink beer everyday and can`t remember the last
time I got drunk off of beer.I do not drink liquor though.Making my
own beer is more satisfying.

Cheers
 
I quit drinking for 20 years (not because of alcohol problems) and missed brewing way more than drinking. In fact, the only drinking I missed was a nice cellar temp stout occasionally.

The walls of my house are lined with cases of beer because I only have 1-2 beers a day but keep all of my 4 fermenters full all the time.

I absolutely love the process of making beer. Love thinking about it. Love coming up with better ways to do it. Love drinking it too but getting drunk or even high is no fun for me.
 
kombat said:
This question occurred to me the other day, and I thought I'd toss it out here for discussion.

Like I'm sure many of you do too, I spend a lot of time thinking about brewing beer. I just got into all-grain brewing last fall, and I have 15 batches under my belt. I have a long list of beers I want to make, and I even have a detailed spreadsheet to track fermenter, carboy, keg, and fridge space for each batch to ensure I have enough space.

The problem I'm having (if you can call it that) is that I'm excited to brew all these different styles of beer, but I'm not going through it fast enough to free up the kegs. I have 5 Corny kegs, and in 2 more weeks, they'll all be full (3 are already full and currently carbonating, 2 more batches are just finishing up clearing and will be kegged in the next 2 weeks).

Don't get me wrong, I love beer. But I also don't want to get hammered every night. I exercise a lot and it's important to me to stay in shape, so I don't want to drink excessively. Consequently, it's going to take me a while to get through that 25 gallons of beer. I'll be doing my best to share it with guests, but even still, the weather is going to start getting better soon, and I know I'm going to be itching to weigh out and mill some grains.

I'm not asking for a solution (that's easy: buy more kegs, give more beer away, drink more beer), I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced this too. As much as I enjoy drinking beer, I also get excited about making it, and feel sad when I know the weekend is going to be perfect brewing weather, but there's no room in my pipeline. Anyone else experience this too?
Click to expand...

One very simple solution is to send any beer you won't drink my way. I'll drink it. :rockin:
 
Jayhem said:
Brewing "too much" is one of the reasons I prefer bottling to kegging. I can drink most of a batch and leave just a few bottles to age for a year. I have 45 gallons of beer currently in bottles and going to brew another 11 gallons tomorrow!
Click to expand...

The good thing is that they're not mutually exclusive. You can keg, enjoy the beer a while, then bottle beer from the keg, perfectly clear and perfectly carbonated, for longer-term enjoyment.

I often do this with strong beers. I drink them much less frequently that session beers, so the kegs stick around a long time. Usually when I'm down to somewhere around a 12-pack left over in the keg, I'll bottle it to make more room in the kegerator.
 
I spend a lot of time thinking about brewing but I usually only drink a few pints a week. Some weeks I don't drink any. Maybe I'm just subconsciously getting ready for baby #1 in 2 months!
 
I enjoy brewing but not as much as I enjoy a good pint. That being said, I have way more beer on tap or aging than I could hope to drink. Ahh the problems of a home brewer.

When reading some of the more technical forums on HBT I get the impression that for some, brewing is more of an outlet for engineering creativity than it is for the love of brewing. Maybe that's just me.
 
I love brewing and the process of getting a micro-organism like yeast to do my bidding. I drink more than I used to before I started brewing, but I still brew a lot more than I drink. I give away quite a lot of beer to my acquaintances, but not my frenemies.

I also make my own sauerkraut and make more than I eat. I will soon start making my own cheese too. Something about fermented foods is just so interesting and magical.
 
Aside of going out with friends to the bar, I enjoy brewing and drinking hand in hand. Brewing is one of my hobbies off duty to just relax while having the excuse to knock back some home brews.
 
I am the same way. Once im done with one brew im already thinking about the next. If I need keg space I invite friends over and they are good about finishing up any of my kegs for me.
 
Love to brew. I have to watch the caloric intake though. My wife likes the stouts. I have adult kids who like beer. I give it away to friends and family.
 
Also, don’t forget to consider the batches that don’t turn out the way you want them to. It’s easy to plan a barleywine or huge Belgian beer, because you know that you don’t have to drink it all right now. You can always set it somewhere to age and drink it when you want. Then the beer doesn’t hit the right gravity targets, or doesn’t taste exactly the way you thought it would…now it’s just a giant aging reminder of what you did wrong… :ban:
 
kombat said:
This question occurred to me the other day, and I thought I'd toss it out here for discussion.

Like I'm sure many of you do too, I spend a lot of time thinking about brewing beer. I just got into all-grain brewing last fall, and I have 15 batches under my belt. I have a long list of beers I want to make, and I even have a detailed spreadsheet to track fermenter, carboy, keg, and fridge space for each batch to ensure I have enough space.

The problem I'm having (if you can call it that) is that I'm excited to brew all these different styles of beer, but I'm not going through it fast enough to free up the kegs. I have 5 Corny kegs, and in 2 more weeks, they'll all be full (3 are already full and currently carbonating, 2 more batches are just finishing up clearing and will be kegged in the next 2 weeks).

Don't get me wrong, I love beer. But I also don't want to get hammered every night. I exercise a lot and it's important to me to stay in shape, so I don't want to drink excessively. Consequently, it's going to take me a while to get through that 25 gallons of beer. I'll be doing my best to share it with guests, but even still, the weather is going to start getting better soon, and I know I'm going to be itching to weigh out and mill some grains.

I'm not asking for a solution (that's easy: buy more kegs, give more beer away, drink more beer), I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced this too. As much as I enjoy drinking beer, I also get excited about making it, and feel sad when I know the weekend is going to be perfect brewing weather, but there's no room in my pipeline. Anyone else experience this too?
Click to expand...

Most definitely. I actually throw a beer tasting party a couple of times a year in order to clear out some space so I can brew more. I live with my wife and she doesn't drink. I brew on average about 75 gallons per year. I don't drink anywhere close to 75 gallons per year.
 
Majafoo said:
I brew much more than I drink, luckily being 20 means I have lots of friends who will gladly empty my bottles for me. Lots of brewing, lots of learning and soon lots of medals. ;)
Click to expand...

I was about to comment on openly posting that you're 20. Then I saw you're in Canada. No need to warn you! :D
 
Part of the brewing process is tasting and drinking the beer, and the satisfaction that gives me. With that being said I'd say I enjoy the brewing process as much, if not more than the drinking. I really like giving it away and seeing other people enjoy my beer too!
 
I love the brewing process more than the drinking process and its tough to keep up so i give a lot away, but i cant justify brewing smaller than 5 gal for some strange reason?
 
EO74 said:
I love the brewing process more than the drinking process and its tough to keep up so i give a lot away, but i cant justify brewing smaller than 5 gal for some strange reason?
Click to expand...

Ha! Me neither. Every now and then I'll go a little less than 5gal if it's something more "experimental" or something I'm not sure I'll like as much, but even that's hard and it's never less than around 3.5gal
 
My brewing just about keeps pace with consumption, I like 2.5 or 3 gallon batches as I get to brew more often and I usually have a decent variety to choose from.
 
I'm about even. I enjoy both just as much. But have 5-6 neighbors who regularly drink together. That helps to clear up the kegs and keep the pipeline flowing. Without their help there is no way I could keeps beers on all 4 taps of my kegerator.
 
mytommygundont said:
When reading some of the more technical forums on HBT I get the impression that for some, brewing is more of an outlet for engineering creativity than it is for the love of brewing. Maybe that's just me.
Click to expand...

Well said! I found this thread after thinking I might be going crazy. I am actually starting to not like drinking. Perhaps its from working the night shift and never being able to make my schedule match with my fellow home brewers / friends. AKA, Im always drinking alone.

(Slightly :off:)Not to get too droney here, but I stopped drinking 3 months ago because SWMBO stopped drinking (Trying for our first). I was supporting her and clarifying my own body at the same time. I have just been brewing 5 gallon batches and giving them to my friends (kegs). I started letting up a little bit, maybe 1-2 a week, I feel groggy and generally crappy soon after. Maybe its a tolerance thing.

Point being, I have evolved to where I love to brew more than ever, but find myself spitting my Hydrometer tasters out during racking and kegging (like I'm wine tasting or something)LOL. Am I crazy?:confused:
 

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