After the Whine (with pictures)

[Gytaryst]

I posted another thread where I was complaining about a recent disastrous brew day that resulted in a crap beer/borderline drain pour, and how I was considering throwing in the towel. I'm a guitarist, (and a Lynyrd Skynyrd fan - hence the user name). I know a lot of people who absolutely love music, but who can't play an instrument or even carry a tune. So I got to thinking, (using that logic), that just because I love beer, it doesn't necessarily follow that I'd be good at making it.

I played in bands my whole adult life - that was my passion. That's what occupied most of my time. I gave that up in 2014. There comes a point where all the hair dye in the world doesn't fool anyone and you go from looking cool on stage to just looking silly and pathetic. So when I felt my band mates had reached that silly pathetic stage - I retired.

I replaced playing in a band with golf for a year - gave that up, and started obsessing over making beer in 2015. There's less physical activity, no special shoes required, and I don't have to dress like a brightly colored idiot . . . unless I want to.

After 2 1/2 years of brewing one "Eh, not bad - maybe next time" batch after another. . . and THEN the disastrous W.O.G. ("Waste of Grain") batch, I was ready to move on to basket weaving or bowling or something.

After the W.O.G. batch I brewed a pale ale. It wasn't ready at the time I posted my complaint. I've since tried it and it is absolutely delicious. It renewed my enthusiasm for brewing, and this past weekend I brewed this IPA. I figured I'd post pics of that. Not sure if this is the correct forum or not but the moderator can always delete it if it's not.

This is the pale ale. The creamy head sticks around forever. (that's a first for me)

My mash tun lid. It only took me about 10 minutes to carve the handle . . . no seriously . . . I didn't spend much time on it at all (SARCASM) Hey, it works.

It's a 13" pizza pan with two layers of reflectix

Cleaning the HLT - the stand is temporary

The MLT is a bottom drain (not the silicone hose coming out the bottom)

I started the mash at 149.8* and ended after 60 minutes at 149.1* I was happy with that.

Everything clicking

Clean up

Chillin

 

[bradleypariah]

Former band member here, too. Got into professional audio in 2002, went to college for it. Dropped the band thing in 2005. For some reason, a considerable portion of the audio engineers I've met brew their own beer. One audio friend now works for New Belgium. He's the one that introduced me to home brewing, some time back around 2006. I've done it on my own since 2010, 2011, not sure. I have sucked at making beer pretty much that entire time. Every single batch I've made, I made a mistake that angered me, but caused me to have a subsequent Eureka! moment, which pushed me to brew again with new knowledge and enthusiasm.
After 70+ Eureka! moments, I have fine tuned my beer so many times, that it's easy to forget how far I've come. I still both love and hate every ale I make, because I want my beer to not just be good, I want it to be the best beer I've ever had. I've recently had another Eureka! moment, and I look forward to screwing up my next batch. I'm drinking a gin-soaked-oak-infused red IPA at the moment, and I couldn't be happier.
Cheers to coming back around!

 

[h22lude]

Glad you finally brewed a beer you are proud of. We have all had those moments of giving up. I recently had one when I couldn't figure out an off flavor. Still don't know exactly what it was but I changed a few things and my blonde ale test batch came out good. I had a stuck mash (which was my fault) and my element dry fired and possibly burnt some wort but it still came out really good.

PS the head on that beer looks great. Good clean glassware

 

[Gytaryst]

Former band member here, too. Got into professional audio in 2002, went to college for it. Dropped the band thing in 2005.

I went the other way. I started messing around with digital audio recording back in the late 90's, (back when it was new and simple). I spent thousands of hours playing around with it, (Cakewalk Sonar). I had a fairly decent little home studio set up. In '04 the band I was in started gigging all the time all over the place so I focused on playing live and put recording on the back burner. I tried to pick up where I left off around 2011 or 2012, but by then the technology was so far advanced it was like I was starting back at square one.

A couple years ago I traded my old Sonar software to the kid who was working on my A/C unit. He was a drummer in a family band and he was making recordings of them on his phone. I told him I had some old software lying around somewhere. I told him it was old and probably not worth much. He said some guy had owed him money gave him an old guitar. It didn't have any strings and a couple of the knobs were missing on the tuning pegs. He said he didn't have any use for it so he could trade that. It turned out to be a 1971 Ibanez Artist with the original Flying Finger pick-ups. I took it to Sam Ash, paid $125 to have new tuning pegs installed, restrung and set up, and sold it a few months later for $2k.

:rockin:

 

[Gytaryst]

Glad you finally brewed a beer you are proud of. We have all had those moments of giving up. I recently had one when I couldn't figure out an off flavor.

Yes sir - after 2.5 years of mediocre beer that pale ale was a pleasant surprise. I'm hoping it wasn't just a fluke. The IPA I brewed was the smoothest brew day I've ever had, and all the numbers were (close).
The W.O.G. I brewed was supposed to be a Belgian Quad with an OG or 1.100 and an estimated abv of 11.4%. It had 21 pounds of grain and 2 pounds of Candi syrup. One of the most expensive brews I tried. The OG came out to 1.056. I bottled it cold and adjusted the corn sugar down accordingly, and it came out under carbed with a sour taste. It's drinkable, (barely). I think the abv ended up at 6.6%. It does seem to be mellowing out (slightly) as it gets a little older, but I still can't figure out where the sour came from - the yeast I suppose.

Oh well, live and learn. I'm happy it's behind me. I got 2 cases of the crap bottled and it'll probably stay around quite awhile. The pale ale, on the other hand, is disappearing fast.

PS the head on that beer looks great. Good clean glassware

Yup. All my beer glassware is in a separate cupboard and my wife knows not to wash it with the regular dishes. I'm a geek when it comes to glassware.