drunken philosophy

so just finished brewing up a batch and while i was waiting to pitch the yeast i stumbled upon a profound view of brewing. i came upon the viewpoint that we really can only control temperature and time when it comes right down to it. Yes I can already hear the argument that we 'control' yeast strain, grain bill, and all that good stuff, but in all reality aren't those beyond our control? Not all barley/malt extract, yeast strains, or hops are created equally in nature. so therefore the only 'true constants' that we have at our disposal are time and temperature. maybe this is true and these thoughts come from being hyper-vigilant over temps tonight, or maybe i'm just suds'd up... either way...

Nearly everything can be measured and controlled to some extent. But not even time and temperature are truly under your control... We merely try to direct changes and use influence to push the needle one way or the other. Can you instantaneously change the temperature of your mash? How long do you boil for? Is it 60 minutes or 60 minutes and 5 seconds?

voodoobrew..

I think your taking it a level deeper than you need to...

The way I look at it is we control "so many vairables" ingredits, time, temparture, water, ph, altitude (I live near Denver) process..all of these things have an effect on the finished product.

To your point though..I get it.....to a degree within the controlled variables I mentioned there are fluctuations we cant accomodate for ( grwoing conditions of your two row for example...how was the malting process...were there any mistakes made there etc..)...

I guess it comes down to are you a glass is half full or glass is half empty kinda guy!

Thats my two cents! Cheers!!

My first post was targeted to the philosophical aspect of the thread, from a practical perspective, you can control everything... that's what malt reports, hop analysis, water tests, hydrometers/refractometers/densitometers, pH meters, good sanitization and pure cultures all do for us. BTW - water volumes are also pretty important.

@lakewood
Most certainly we can measure and manipulate most things. I was just thinking of things that are somewhat completely under our control, as in I am able to change how long to boil/age/rack/drink. I guess it comes down to us controlling the process and quantity of the variables, but having little control over the quality of said variables.

@bgruis
I'm usually a 'there is a half glass' kinda guy, neither hopelessly optimistic nor gloomfully pessimistic.

That being said, my pint glass was definitely completely (and very recently) empty last night.

Really, what kind of control do you have over anything? You can't control even your own heartbeat. Everything in the universe is out of our control.

You can try to exert your will over the yeast, but they march to their own drummer. All we can do is make the conditions favorable and hope for the best.

Now, if you go smoke a joint or drink a couple of beers, that first sentence is a real deep thought. Otherwise, not so much!

Yooper, you pretty much nailed it in your third paragraph. All those Suds'n'buds forced me to make such a deep, deep post last night...

“Beer is but the stream I go fishing in. I drink at it, but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. It's thin current slides away, but eternity remains.”