What's the Best *and* Worst part of homebrewing?

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snowveil

snowveil

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I'll start.

The last 3 Pints of IPA out of a keg.

The pour is muddy, the chunks are floating, but the flavor and aroma is FANTASTIC...but you know you've only got a few beers left. All of those concentrated oils!

Anyone else?
 
Best:
Opening up the first bottle of a new batch, finding out you made Beer, real actual tasty beer that beats most commercials.

Worst:
Having to wait at least 4-6 weeks between brewday and first taste...patience is not my forte.
 
Kegged beer when it only takes a week to go from tap to kick. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
 
Cleaning is the worst for me.

Best is trying recipes you've created and the wait to it to see if it will be amazing or awful.
 
Best: enjoying brew day with family and friends.

Worst: CLEANING. Did I mention how I hate cleaning??
 
The best part is drinking the beer & finding you did a pretty darn good job of brewing it. The worst part is not just how long it takes to brew it, but cleaning everything & hauling it all back & forth.
 
The best: pulling a pint of great beer.

The worst: Knowing your pipline is about empty and not having time to brew. Of course cleaning is in the top few. I think another worst is trying to find a reasonable price on bulk grain. I haven't really gone the bulk grain way due to either shipping prices or the price the LHBS wants for a sack... I want to have grain available so when some time opens up I don't have to be pissed I haven't ordered something to brew or spend the time running to the LHBS.
 
Best - hot scotchies on brewday, plus lots of good beer

Worst - lugging full fermenters/pots/etc around, and not having enough time in my life for as many brewdays as I need
 
Best: Brew day (the part that comes after setup and before cleanup) and the finished product coming out well.
Worst: People thinking all I do is drink 24/7 and I'd say setting up. Setting up everyday will change very soon though.
 
Best-enjoying the fruits of your labor

Worst--cleaning and sanitation.
 
I can't come up with a single "Best" part of homebrewing. That's the reason I do it - there are so many ways in which it's rewarding. To list a few:


  • Designing a new recipe in BeerSmith, playing with the variables, seeing how various ingredients affect the beer.
  • Weighing out the grains and hops the night before a brew day. It's so "zen" to put in the earbuds with some tunes, and just get my hands into the ingredients, smell the fresh grain and hops, the excitement of getting everything ready.
  • The smell of the mash, knowing I hit my temperatures perfectly.
  • Pitching the yeast and anticipating the beer to come.
  • Having someone try my beer and be sincerely impressed.
  • Winning medals/prizes/recognition in homebrew competitions.
  • Sharing knowledge with, and learning from, other enthusiastic home brewers, particularly when I happen to run into one at a beer festival.
  • Cracking open a bottle of bottle carbed beer, hearing that "Pssht!", and knowing it worked.
  • That first taste of a new batch.

The worst part is easy, and the same as everyone else: Cleaning.
 
The worst part is having all the equipment I need to brew 10 gallons of any beer I choose at any time just sitting around waiting to be used.

The best part is knowing that I don't HAVE to use it.
 
Best - Firing up the strike water for a day of brewing.

Worst - Cleaning and hauling all the equipment back after a day of brewing.
 
I don't mind cleaning much, it sort of is part of the "magic" for me. It makes the effort real.

As for bulk grain, that's about the one thing this country has going for it, as long as it is vikingmalt grain, we actually seem to be a tad cheaper than US-net suppliers. of course, foreign specialty grain or marris otter....
 
Best - Beer, lots of beer. So much beer that I give about half of it away.

Worst - Beer leaches. I have been promised return on investment here, but it has yet to materialize. At least give me my bottles back.
 
i haven't started drinking yet today, so i'm not sure if i'm allowed to comment... but
i enjoy most aspects of brewing. really enjoy researching and coming up with recipes. love the excitement that comes with trying the new recipe for the first time. like talking about beer and education people about homebrewing. there's just so many best parts of it.
the worst part is for me when one of the better ones runs out. i don't brew enough or have the equipment yet to keep one keg full of a solid, well-liked recipe yet. but one day!
 
Best- Brewday, I love everything about it. Especially the smell while mashing. I wish I could smell that everyday.

Worst- The space everything takes. My house isn't small, but I don't have room for a fermentation chamber, definitely no room for a kegerator. My wife already dislikes my taking 2 shelves in the pantry for beers that are bottle conditioning.
 
Best for me is the design phase. Whether it's a new rig, recipe or technique. Fun and hours of research.

Cleaning is bad, but I got one worse: disappointment. Whether it's an actual bad batch, or even just a mediocre experiment... it's such a kick to the nuts. Makes you just want to go buy some sixers instead.
 
The best thing is drinking the fruits of your labor and sharing it with friends. The worst is cleanup. My enthusiasm on brew day drops to negative numbers when the wort is in the fermenter and it is time to wash and dry everything.

I will add that I am OCD about cleaning. Nothing gets put up dirty.
 
Best: Tasting that first bottle of a new batch and it being good.

Worst: Hauling all my equipment out of the basement, into the garage, knowing that 4 hours later I'll have to clean it all and put it away. And the extra insult of not being able to enjoy the fruits of all that labor for another month or more. Patience is not one of my virtues.
 
The Best: 8AM-printing out the Beer Smith recipe, running the grain through the mill, and hearing the pumps running HL through the HEX. Great way to start the weekend!

The worst: having a case of the stupids; I.e. Filling the conical and forgot to close the bottom valve, turning my back on the kettle right about the time it boils over and all the hops wind up on the floor, etc., etc., etc. Oh yeah, cleaning.
 
saazall said:
The Best: 8AM-printing out the Beer Smith recipe, running the grain through the mill, and hearing the pumps running HL through the HEX. Great way to start the weekend!

The worst: having a case of the stupids; I.e. Filling the conical and forgot to close the bottom valve, turning my back on the kettle right about the time it boils over and all the hops wind up on the floor, etc., etc., etc. Oh yeah, cleaning.
Click to expand...

Yes, milling grain is magical, a promise of great things to come. Milling grain makes an aroma, similar to baking bread. I smell the malt and think of the beer. I'll nibble a few of the specialty grains and imagine how that taste relates to the beer I'm attempting to make. It's one of the things that the extract brewers don't get to enjoy.

One of my favorite things. And brown paper packages tied up with strings.
 
Best: Hearing the "psst" of success when your beer is fully carbed. Tasting that beer and thinking you'd rather drink that than store-bought, not because it is cheaper, but because it's better (even if it's only because you created it).

Worst: Cleaning and bottling. Actually, just bottling.
 
Best: Going weeks at a time and not drinking a single commercial beer because yours is just better.
Best #2: Hanging out and brewing with other people who appreciate good beer.

Worst: Bottling.

Cleaning is no fun, but is part of every endeavor in life. So, yeah, bottling is the worst.
 
Well, I won't be a complete d*ck,

Best: someone asking you to provide your homebrewed beer to their special event.

Worst: Bottling. Terrible! I still do it even though I have a Kegerator. I enjoy giving folks bottles of beer (and I understand there is a “beer gun”). but, come on, Bottle Conditioned!
 
Best: I won't lie, it's that smug sense of accomplishment when I sit down to a meal with a beer I brewed and say "That's not bad".

Worst: The cases of empty bottles I have to keep around between batches, I don't want to get into kegging, but I hate having closets full of bottles.
 
Worst: Waiting. Every beer is filled with new expectations.

Best: When the wait is over. No matter how the beer turns out, that first taste from a new batch is what I brew for.
 
It's all good, even the bottling and cleaning - they are necessary evils. That said, throughout the entire process:

I am at my most blissful when I light off the strike water at o-dark-thirty, with no one around, a bite in the air, with a bucket of milled grain at hand and no noise but the hiss of the propane burner.

I am at my greatest misery when my friends, in spite of being told NUMEROUS times to rinse out their bottles, return them with dried on yeast and mold on the bottoms, and I am washing them out.
 
Black Island Brewer said:
I am at my greatest misery when my friends, in spite of being told NUMEROUS times to rinse out their bottles, return them with dried on yeast and mold on the bottoms, and I am washing them out.
Click to expand...

yes x 100. hate this so badly. i'm constantly trying new beers though, so i just toss them. i even was brewing whole batches, doing all the work of brewing, bottling, etc., for my FIL. he's always helping us, and beer is so expensive here, so i only made him pay for the cost of the beer. the only thing i earned was another batch under my belt. usually each batch ended up around 2 cases worth. usually get back 1 1/2 cases of bottles and all of them were disgusting. i stopped brewing for him now...
my soon to be ex-brew partner, who knows how much work it takes me to get the gunk out of the bottles, constantly shows up to bottling day with nasty bottles. it's a small part of the reason he's about to be an ex-brew partner.
 
Black Island Brewer said:
It's all good, even the bottling and cleaning - they are necessary evils. That said, throughout the entire process:

I am at my most blissful when I light off the strike water at o-dark-thirty, with no one around, a bite in the air, with a bucket of milled grain at hand and no noise but the hiss of the propane burner.

I am at my greatest misery when my friends, in spite of being told NUMEROUS times to rinse out their bottles, return them with dried on yeast and mold on the bottoms, and I am washing them out.
Click to expand...

This! it is not difficult. I mean, Most folks rinse out their glass when they are done drinking whatever it is they are drinking. Why not bottles that everyone knows has stuff at the bottom? :confused:
 
Best: having family, friends, acquaintances and even strangers rave about your beer and ask when you are starting your own brewery.

Worst: knowing the cost, complexity, pay cut and risk of opening your own brewery
 

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