Random Things Brewing Has Taught Me

It sometimes occur to me that brewing has taught me skills that are seeping into other areas of my life in very random ways. One thing I just noticed is that when I am putting dishes in the dishwasher that have liquid left in them, I always swirl the liquid and dump it before I put it into the dishwasher. This clearly came from swirling the yeast in starters when harvesting or pitching it. I used to just dump with no swirl, and that is not nearly as efficient as utilizing the swirl.

haha. Brewing has taught me to clean up any mess I make before the wife sees it...or suffer the repercussions!

Not that it's useful at all, but I still find myself rinsing out bottles before I throw them away. I get it rinsed and then on the way to the trash can think, why did I just do that for a bottle I'm about to throw away? I guess it's a good habit to maintain.

So much for this turning into one of those 1,000+ response threads!

Well, besides patience, the first thing that pops into my head is that apparently some pumps are self priming, some aren't (felt so stupid the first time I tried to use mine).

You guys nailed it. I have learned pretty much everything already said. The most important thing is to clean up your mess before the wife sees it. But brewing beer is very clean anyway so not much of a mess.

Jayhem said:

haha. Brewing has taught me to clean up any mess I make before the wife sees it...or suffer the repercussions!

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are you serious?

Starsan works as an excellent anxiolytic on germophobe wives.

I've learned to convert back-and-forth between US and metric measures of weight and temperature like nobody's business!

NewJersey said:

are you serious?

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If you are married and have ever left a mess of any kind in (HER) kitchen you would understand. You will get hounded for it verbally all day...or until you clean it up.

Thus...I have a much more peaceful time brewing if I do so when she is sleeping or out with her girl friends.

I've always been an English/History person. I never had an interest in science until I started brewing. Definitely using that part of my brain quite a bit now & finding I'm really enjoying things like DIY projects & learning about hop chemistry.

1) Sanitizing is the most important part.

2) Bottles are a pain in the ass but are worth it for small batch brewing.

3) You can outspend yourself on brewing equipment that really isn't necessary.

4) Brewers, as a whole, are a good bunch of guys and gals.

5) Mis En Place: Having all of your brewing equipment sanitized, all ingredients gathered and everything ready to go and in it's place makes your brew day much less stressful, and faster.

6) BIAB is a wonderful thing.

7) My Daughter hates the smell of boiling hops. She and the Wife usually make themselves scarce on brew days.

8) Micro breweries produce a lot of mediocre product to appeal to the masses and their brewers are very lucky if they get to brew one or two recipes a year to experiment with.

9) Beer makes you fat.

10) Beer laws regarding distribution and homebrew laws regarding production limits and direct sales are archaic.

11) InBev fears us and would shut us down in a heartbeat if they could.