InTheBasement
Well-Known Member
I have now been brewing for almost 3 years, and this hobby has sucked a lot of cash out of my pocket. I think that at this point I am probably paying 6 bucks a beer when I consider all that I have put into it. I can't get that money back, but regardless, I have started to take a look at what I do to brew a batch of beer and I have realized that much of what I do is probably not of benefit.
When I started out I was uneducated. I did not know about aeration. I just dropped the yeast in the wort, and magically I made beer. Now I use this paddle hooked up to my drill and I blast the wort with air. Do I think my beer is better for the extra air? Nope. I have spent money on glass carboys that cracked. I went to simple plastic buckets that are way less expensive and seem to make beer just as good as the glass carboy.
I look on the websites and see all this gear that I can buy. Will it make my beer any better? I am starting to think the answer is, no. I think that the process of brewing beer is a very simple one that requires very little gear, and inexpensive gear at that. I think the "need" for all the expensive stuff is driven not by the people brewing, but rather by the marketing machine for the gear companies.
After looking at all my gear, I have come to the realization that I can likely make a fine beer with the very basics of what I have. Crush grain with the mill. Slap it into a cooler with hot water. Let it sit there for an hour then drain it into a pot. Boil i for an hour on a cheap, first generation Darkstar burner. After the boil plunge the whole pot of wort into a 40 gallon trash can filled with water and blocks of ice. No fancy chiller required. Throw the cooled wort into a plastic fermenter, add some yeast (dry or liquid, right from the vial) and then 3 weeks later I am done. Yes, liquid yeast right from the vial. no starter needed. I have done that and seemed to notice no difference from when I made starters. Perhaps I am wrong, but it seems that the marketing departments make our hobby decisions for us more often than science does.
Making beer is kind of like starting a forest fire. Give it some simple conditions and the rest will just happen. A dry spell in California requires nothing more than a cigarette butt carelessly tossed from a passing car, and suddenly the whole state is burning.
I think I am going to go on a quest to see just how minimalistic my brewing process can become.
When I started out I was uneducated. I did not know about aeration. I just dropped the yeast in the wort, and magically I made beer. Now I use this paddle hooked up to my drill and I blast the wort with air. Do I think my beer is better for the extra air? Nope. I have spent money on glass carboys that cracked. I went to simple plastic buckets that are way less expensive and seem to make beer just as good as the glass carboy.
I look on the websites and see all this gear that I can buy. Will it make my beer any better? I am starting to think the answer is, no. I think that the process of brewing beer is a very simple one that requires very little gear, and inexpensive gear at that. I think the "need" for all the expensive stuff is driven not by the people brewing, but rather by the marketing machine for the gear companies.
After looking at all my gear, I have come to the realization that I can likely make a fine beer with the very basics of what I have. Crush grain with the mill. Slap it into a cooler with hot water. Let it sit there for an hour then drain it into a pot. Boil i for an hour on a cheap, first generation Darkstar burner. After the boil plunge the whole pot of wort into a 40 gallon trash can filled with water and blocks of ice. No fancy chiller required. Throw the cooled wort into a plastic fermenter, add some yeast (dry or liquid, right from the vial) and then 3 weeks later I am done. Yes, liquid yeast right from the vial. no starter needed. I have done that and seemed to notice no difference from when I made starters. Perhaps I am wrong, but it seems that the marketing departments make our hobby decisions for us more often than science does.
Making beer is kind of like starting a forest fire. Give it some simple conditions and the rest will just happen. A dry spell in California requires nothing more than a cigarette butt carelessly tossed from a passing car, and suddenly the whole state is burning.
I think I am going to go on a quest to see just how minimalistic my brewing process can become.
