Does Drinking And Brewing Mix?

Homebrewers say the best time to enjoy your homebrew is while brewing another batch. True, but by the end of the process your thinking, as well as your vision, can get kinda cloudy. Such was the case for me this Saturday night. My first batch, now 6 weeks in the bottle, was tasting pretty good as I brewed up my Heinie clone and after several mugs of brew things started getting a little fuzzy. I spent Sunday going over in my mind the Heinie process and I'm pretty sure I more or less got it all right. I definitely forgot to get the OG though. Oh well, so it goes.

Dennis

They do mix, but in strict moderation. If you are buzzed during brewing, you have drank too much. Unless, your goal of brewing is just to have fun and make something drinkable, then who cares rip it and get plowed.

For me, I want to be as sure as possible that my process is perfect and the day goes smoothly.

Drinking in moderation and brewing is fine.

Getting druck and brewing makes it more possible to miss steps and screw things up. Add to that anywhere between 2 and 7 gallons of boiling wort and you have the stuff that Darwin Awards are made of.

I limit myself to one pint per batch brewing and then coffee the rest of the time. After the fermentor is tucked in and the yeast have been fed do I finish celebrating the brewday.

Prost!

I drink till buzzed. . . but at that point, your potential for error goes drastically up. I have had 2nd degree burns, cuts, dropped crap in the kettle, spilled wort, caught things on fire, forgot ingredients, fallen off my deck, filled my brew room up with water, broken equipment, tasted boiling hops (ouch, and yuck), tasted boiling wort, sang along to the Pogues (and thought I was much better than Shane McGowan), and worn Lederhosen.

So, I'll let you be the judge.

mmb said:

Drinking in moderation and brewing is fine.

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Have a beer while you're brewing...it really helps the experience be "Complete" Save getting drunk for after the yeast is pitched and the air lock safely set!

I consume as little or as much as that moment in my life dictates. I've made worse mistakes brewing because I sometimes do it first thing in the morning and I'm simply not awake enough yet.

My usual rule is "no beer until the chiller is working".
I occasionally break it, but I don't like to get a buzz on while I'm working with hot or breakable stuff. Hauling 70 lb of wort, carboy, and milk crate into the basement while buzzed or druck would be a definite recipe for disaster.

I always have a few while I'm brewing but I won't get plowed. I've done it before and I end up missing hop additions, forgetting irish moss, forget to take a OG sample, etc.

My normal process calls for a single beer during the mash and one for the boil. Once I'm in the carboy all bets are off though.

Of course, it also depends on if SWMBO is home. . .

I brew in the morning.
i do not ever drink in the morning....

i would not be able to have "one" beer in the time it takes to brew if i decided to start brewing at say 3:00.... so i would be pretty drunk by the time everything was cleaned up. a beer only lasts what, 5-7 minutes? about a cigarette length.

I usually have a few homebrews while brewing, but I avoid getting drunk. Fire, boiling liquids, chemicals, glass, and impairment don't really mix.

If you've had enough to affect your vision, you've had WAY too much.

During yesterdays brew I sampled from the Scottish Wee 80 as I racked to secondary before putting new beer on the yeast cake. Had enough to measure the FG and a nice hose length of clear beer. Got well buzzed once and don't want to do that ever again. After everythings done, cleaned and stored away, Watch Out!

I don't drink while brewing. I just never had the desire to and I always want to be "on" so I can make the best beer possible. Of course, I brew early to mid morning through mid to late afternoon and half the time I'm doing decoctions with 11 gallon batches, so it just never crossed my mind. I enjoy brewing as much as I enjoy enjoying the fruits of my labor. For me, both at once would be flying to close to the sun. Kind of like George Costanza on Seinfeld when he started eating during sex because they were the two things he loved to do... then he tried to bring TV into the picture and it all went horribly wrong!:cross:

Biermann said:

Of course, it also depends on if SWMBO is home. . .

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That's my determining factor. I have been known to have few too many while brewing when the SWMBO is not around. My brewing techniques were not as well executed as when sober, but hey, I have fun no matter what. Do what makes you happy.

Also, if you have a had a few too many, try and avoid carrying a full carboy

Biermann said:

I drink till buzzed. . . but at that point, your potential for error goes drastically up. I have had 2nd degree burns, cuts, dropped crap in the kettle, spilled wort, caught things on fire, forgot ingredients, fallen off my deck, filled my brew room up with water, broken equipment, tasted boiling hops (ouch, and yuck), tasted boiling wort, sang along to the Pogues (and thought I was much better than Shane McGowan), and worn Lederhosen.

So, I'll let you be the judge.

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I laughed my a$$ off at this, talk about some funny **** right there.

No drinking until the yeast is pitched.

I schedule my brews so I can work a nap in during the mash. I like the extra alertness when it comes time for the boil, etc.

My brew day lasts between 4-5 hours, from heating strike water to cleaning out the brew kettle. I'll typically have 2-3 beers during the whole process, with enough space between beers that I don't get a buzz going. I'd rather not screw up 4 hours of effort and $20-30 of ingredients by getting buzzed. Not to mention being intoxicated doesn't mix well with 212F wort, glass carboys, and open flame! :cross:

By myself? One or two. With some friends and help? Quite a few.

Always...I got to have a few.

I agree with strict moderation when brewing. There are allot of dangers involved in the brewing process. I have a rule that I don't crack one open until the boil is near it's end. The mash tun, hot liquor tank and everything else not in use has to be cleaned and put up.

I got drunk while brewing and bottling once.....only once. Everything that could have gone wrong did and i had spilled beer, missed ingredients (including priming sugar in my bottling bucket) the works.

Now i have a couple and only towards the end of the brew and definitely afterwards.

i like to balance my drinking with crank. that really keeps me moving.

DeathBrewer said:

i like to balance my drinking with crank. that really keeps me moving.

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I find meth use is more conducive to an efficient brewing experience.


Is meth and crank the same thing?

yes, and for all you new guys...i was joking :cross:

(but seriously...your equipment would be REALLY clean!)

I usually like to drink a home brew while brewing. Although I've noticed brewing sober is much more productive..... I hate when i get buzzed and then decide to tweak the recipe on the spot. Like, "dude I should add some of this honey!"

I think there was a poll on this, I know I voted yes, YES, YEESSS.

[/quote]tasted boiling wort, sang along to the Pogues[/quote]

LOL! Now that IS Drunk!

I always drink while brewing and normally I get a nice buzz if I’m by myself, but if the boys come over its usually brewing with a constant game of cornhole during the process and lots of beer being consumed.

Ballistic said:

tasted boiling wort, sang along to the Pogues

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LOL! Now that IS Drunk!

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Yes. .. yes it was. .. LOL

Of Course. . .with my new system, and the automation associated with it, it is much easier to drink.

I try not to drink untill i'm boiling. The last time a sampled to much I didn't want to do all the clean up.

I got a little to drnuk once and couldnt read my brewing notes. The beer came out good but dang if I can find out what I did to it. :cross:


SD

I'm definitely going to cut back to one during the mash. The boil is dangerous, I ended up with a second degree burn a few weeks back from my wort chiller. I doubt I would have avoided it if I hadn't been druck (real cause is the hose was too short -- I have since fixed that) but it definitely was a bit of a wake-up call!

I told this story before....but I think I can mention it again.

There was one batch, a Blue Moon clone, where I got sh1tfaced before I even started the boil. SWMBO came out into the garage feeling a little frisky. First hop addition, fornication, second hop addition, and so on.
I don't even remember pitching the yeast or anything. Well, I woke up and all of my gear was sitting on the kitchen counter cleaned and dried. My primary was bubbling away in a bucket of cold water with a towel wrapped around it and a floating thermometer in the water. My notes were in perfect order. My burner and brew gear was all put away all nice and tidy.

I was pretty damn drunk, so I was worried about how stringent I was on sanitation post boil (post massive beer consumption).
The beer turned out fine. We named it Bangin' Blue Moon!:rockin:



Now I keep it limited to a couple beers. Once I pitch the yeast and clean up........Game On!