Is it ok to brew beer if I don't have a beard ??

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Whattawort said:
I'm sure Mr. Wheton is on here somewhere. He's a proud homebrewer, but kinda stingy on his recipes. Must not be that good. (I'm calling you out Will)
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He's posted a couple on his blog site ...
 
Whattawort said:
SWMBO actually forbids me to shave mine. A goatee is fine for a month or two during the summer, but I better have the full on beard by September. No beard, no homebrewing. If you can't grow a beard, go make wine.
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Not cool, man... Not cool.

Even though I'm roughly 3% native American, I cannot grow facial hair that is presentable. Just a crazy dark stasche with terribly sporadic sprouts around my cheeks. Not appropriate on any occasion. So, I have become comfortable with looking like a child for the remainder of my days. I will inspire all of the adults with my brewing knowledge, just to show I'm a member of the club.


MUWAHAHAHA
 
I believe that my thick red Viking beer invokes the brewing spirits of yore to protect my wort from contamination and bless the yeast with superior vitality.
 
JordanThomas said:
Not cool, man... Not cool.

Even though I'm roughly 3% native American, I cannot grow facial hair that is presentable. Just a crazy dark stasche with terribly sporadic sprouts around my cheeks. Not appropriate on any occasion. So, I have become comfortable with looking like a child for the remainder of my days. I will inspire all of the adults with my brewing knowledge, just to show I'm a member of the club.


MUWAHAHAHA
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You're overcompensating little man. (just razzin' ya) Seriously, the more you brew, the more beard you will have. In 20yrs you'll look like Grizzly Adams and that's just cool.
 
I can grow a awesome beard but my employer won't let me. I still get a lot of supporters of my beer though. They must look past my beardless face.
 
beards can also protect you from honey badgers, that don't give a **** if it's your nose.

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CDGoin said:
What that he brews award winning beer or that he has a baby face or both :)
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Both, I guess. It's physically (and by that, I'm referring to the actual laws of physics) impossible to brew award-winning beer without facial hair.
 
sweetcell said:
the first time i hit the homebrew shop to buy all my initial supplies i told SWMBO: "based on what i've just witnessed, looks like i'm going to have to grow a beard". that almost put an end to my hobby before i had even started.

i do need to shave for work but i tend to shave as little as possible. by the time brew-day (aka saturday or sunday) rolls around i have a decent scruff going (work from home on fridays). i think it's been sufficient to fool the yeast into thinking i have a beard - or that i am on my way to growing one. while hard-working, yeast can be gullible at times.
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Similarly, before my first LHBS excursion, I told the wifey "I'm guessing a minimum of 50% of the guys working here will have beards. 90% facial hair of some sort rate." Obviously I guessed way right (80% bearded. Like foot long bearded).

This is when she realized what she got herself into. Granted I only do 2 month stints (she loves the scruff not the brillo), I'm NEVER without some beardy guard.
 
emjay said:
Both, I guess. It's physically (and by that, I'm referring to the actual laws of physics) impossible to brew award-winning beer without facial hair.
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I am of a particular genetic persuasion that makes beard cultivation more difficult and less attractive. So therefore I have a beard in my heart.
 
I grew my beard looooong before I started homebrewing. I'm a Deadhead so the hippy in me had to have facial hair. I've had my beard now for 16 years with the exception of one summer about 12 years ago I shaved it for a wedding.

SWMBO (she doesn't really, as I'm allowed to brew inside during the winter) actually likes my beard and the fuller the better! I think I'll keep her. ;) Anyhow, we've been married 12 years and I've been bearded the entire marriage. My kids have never seen me without a beard either and they're 9 and 7. My wife's father had a beard her entire life and he actually shaved when she was 18. She came home from school and had to ask her mom who the man was in their living room! :cross: I'm planning on effing with my girls the same way!

So, I guess homebrewing was a perfect fit for me and my beard although it took me long enough to figure it out as I've only started this hobby/obsession almost a year ago. :mug:
 
sweetcell said:
definitely not the former, so must be the latter. i'm no field biologist, but you do appear to have some sort of i-don't-care-if-it's-your-nose type animal attached to your face. that indicates honey badgerness to me!

cute honey badger, by the way.
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I'm an Aquaculture & Fisheries biologist, so mammals are kind of out of my scope as well. He did enter the world with dark hair covering the upper part of his body including forehead, eyelids, and nose and all down his back and arms. Still clinging to the dark patches on top of his ears....so maybe in a few years, he'll be my bearded brewer's assistant.

When I compare him to this scientific study of wild honey badgers, it strongly correlates with the behavior of mine:

 
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I'm sorry; I neglected the OP.

I think it's considered okay to do an extract batch from a kit occasionally, but if you get really serious about brewing, you can't be bothered with a useless, time consuming, and emasculating task like shaving.

Years ago, I used to sometimes brew without a beard, but my beer wasn't so good and I eventually lapsed altogether. It took several years of continuous and full beard on my face to get me back into brewing and then my beer suddenly got a lot better. To be honest, I did come back to brewing as an all grain brewer, pitching adequate amounts of yeast, and using a temperature controlled fermentation chamber. So, some might speculate that those things positively affected my beer, but I'm sure it was just the beard.
 
Orthobrewsky said:
Years ago, I used to sometimes brew without a beard, but my beer wasn't so good and I eventually lapsed altogether. It took several years of continuous and full beard on my face to get me back into brewing and then my beer suddenly got a lot better. To be honest, I did come back to brewing as an all grain brewer, pitching adequate amounts of yeast, and using a temperature controlled fermentation chamber. So, some might speculate that those things positively affected my beer, but I'm sure it was just the beard.
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another way of looking at it is that the beard made you go all-grain, pitch properly, and do temp control.
 
I don't have a beard. I do brew though and it turns out well. I have quite a few pets with fur. The fur holds yeast much like a beard. My animals are very much part of the brew day, always hanging around during brewing, lapping up any spills and tripping me up on occasion.

I'd say, if you don't have facial hair, a dog will do.
 
Not allowed to have a beard at work, just a stach (not even handlebars). Upper lip has not been shaved in over 10 years. 20 to go until retirement and the full grizzly beard.
 
I couldn't grow a beard if my life depended on it. Can get a decent bit of scruff around my chin and upper lip. That's about it. The sides don't fill in so well. Should I get some sort of hair transplant?
 
Dan said:
I couldn't grow a beard if my life depended on it. Can get a decent bit of scruff around my chin and upper lip. That's about it. The sides don't fill in so well. Should I get some sort of hair transplant?
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Depends. Do you want to be able to make great beer?
 
To answer the OP, cause I'm not going to read all the posts before. Hell NO!! I have a beard, now with grey hairs sprouting all over the place and a bald head. I compensate for my lack of ability to grow hair on top by growing it in the facial region. But I have a PhD, and work in education, so no one can tell me to shave or not!! I keep growing it longer and longer in the hope that someone will think I am a vagabond or biker when I come to teach. Then I can laugh at then and say "no I'm your professor and this is how I roll!" Deal with it!
 
I actually have a fake beard I wear on brew days. Also for hydro tests and starters, although not for mechanical stuff like kegging. I got the idea when I was in an occult store in London and found hair clippings from when Alastair Crowley shaved his head and a potpourri of beard trimmings from some of the brewers around Burton-on-Trent.

I think it was my brew-beard that allowed me to win gold at GABF with my first ever brew, an all-extract mild. Tried brewing without it once--ghastly! *shudders*. Never again.

Plus, it gets my wife all turned on!
 
I've never brewed without a beard. With the frequency of my shaving, the likelihood of a clean-shaven day coinciding with a brew day are quite slim. I grew my first full beard at sixteen (goatee at fifteen, hirsute genes) and I've hardly seen my jawline since, so I can't speak authoritatively on what brewing is like without a beard. I sure wouldn't want to try it. Those who brew well without must have a strong inner-beard. ;)
 

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