Am I missing something..??

[B-rad]

So i went to visit the folks last night in my hometown... Desided to check out the LHBS to see what they had... Now i realize that i am a nOObe.. (5th extract kit is fermenting).. but I made some small talk and just asked how the beer kits were selling.. (most people around here are into wine..) he said.. "as good as it can be I guess.... its a shame about making beer.... 50% of the time it doesnt turn out..... at least when people make wine they know it will turn out..."... I told him that Im completely new at the hobby and have yet to have a bad batch,,, he told me that I will for sure and half of the ones I do will not turn out... now am I just lucky so far or is he an idiot... I mean I dont see how hard extract can be..., just stay clean.. sanitise and follow the 1-2-3... how could I mess up??

 

[John Beere]

Yeah, I don't know - if you have your sanitation routines down, I don't see why that would be the case. The only problems I ever had was with controlling fermentation temps, but I've since taken care of that (check my sig). You live up north, so its probably not hard to find a cool place to ferment your beer...

 

[Ooompa Loompa]

Unless I'm missing something I'd say he was an idiot. I don't think I'd still be in this hobby if half of my batches were bad.

 

[ChshreCat]

That could explain why he doesn't sell much beer stuff if he's telling all his prospective customers that half their money and work will be wasted.

 

[B-rad]

I just thought maybe I was the best damn brewer that ever lived in Canada... 100% success rate!!!!!!!! and all these other suckers dont even get half their beer to drink......

 

[Fingers]

No, the man is clearly an idiot. If the success rate were that low, nobody would make any money selling those things and it would simply die out.

That's not saying you aren't the best damn brewer that ever lived in Canada. You could very well be. Time to step up your game and go all grain.

 

[Borisbbadd]

Maybe 50 % of them are trying to make coors light, and can't handle real good brews..........

 

[B-rad]

Yeah I really wanna step up to AG for sure... hard around here though.. not much selection... I talked to one shop and they said that they can order me in AG recepes with the ingredients.. is this how you all do it or do you just buy different ingredients and make your own? (not trying to change the topic but just curious.. )

 

[ChshreCat]

Maybe 50 % of them are trying to make coors light, and can't handle real good brews..........

"eeeewww... this tastes like malt and hops... must be a bad batch..."

*flush*

 

[mysteryberto]

50% is awful. I've only done 7 batches of beer and yet they've all turned out great. I'm sure if you brew enough you'll eventually end up with a bad batch but it's no where near 50%

 

[DeathBrewer]

he's probably not teaching proper sanitation methods and his customers are getting infected batches.

 

[Revvy]

The guys an idiot...Sounds like he's more interested in selling $100 wine ingredient kits as opposed to 30 dollar beer ingredient kits.

But going AG won't gaurentee you make good beer either.. GOOD BREWING PROCESS means good beer.

Read this. http://blogs.homebrewtalk.com/Revvy/Why_cant_we_all_get_along/

 

[EvilTOJ]

The man is clearly a halfwit. He's probably not teaching good sanitation techniques, since wine making isn't as finicky about sanitation as beermaking is. Crush up campden into the wine must, and that's it. Then pitch yeast the next day.

 

[Fingers]

Yeah I really wanna step up to AG for sure... hard around here though.. not much selection... I talked to one shop and they said that they can order me in AG recepes with the ingredients.. is this how you all do it or do you just buy different ingredients and make your own? (not trying to change the topic but just curious.. )

My HBS has bins of grain on hand. I email him my list and he grinds the grain for me and has it ready when I arrive. Others aren't as fortunate as I am so they have to order everything online. Austin Homebrew Supply has flat rate shipping to the contiguous US but that doesn't apply to Canada. He will ship USPS if you ask him to.

 

[Ecnerwal]

Crappy sanitation, to be sure.

In 15 years I've had one sub-par (not undrinkable) batch - the one that I left in a carboy for several years when things got too busy in my life. It was a bit stale, but still better than drinking a lot of commercial beers.

 

[Homercidal]

I've made about 10 extract batches, and some were better than others, but all were enjoyable to me, except 2 batches. One was obviously spoiled in the fermenter, and my latest batch is very tart, and I'm still not sure I'm going to throw it out yet. I also fermented that last batch at temps WAY too high, because I wasn't thinking and was just trying to get a quick batch in ASAP. Otherwise it might have been ok.

If you follow good sanitizing techniques you should really never make a "bad" batch. Just make sure you don't get scratches in your bucket or fermenter or lines. That way if you do end up with a bad batch, it won't happen the next time and so on.

 

[tom777]

That could explain why he doesn't sell much beer stuff if he's telling all his prospective customers that half their money and work will be wasted.

wow -- yeah, not a good way to get the prospective buyers to buy something....

I've had 1 bad batch out of 20+

 

[cubbies]

Maybe 50 % of them are trying to make coors light, and can't handle real good brews..........

That probably is it and in reality, if this was the type of beer you were trying to make, especially as a noob, 50% success rate would probably be good.

However, as far as "turning out" I have to be in the high 90's%. I had a couple early on that fermented hot that were not too good. And another couple that I over/under primed. But for the most part, my beers have always been what I expected and have never had an infection. 50% would be terrible.

 

[Ecnerwal]

my latest batch is very tart, and I'm still not sure I'm going to throw it out yet.

Bottle it and ignore it for a couple of years.

 

[Homercidal]

Yeah, it's in a keg and I am still trying to figure out how to save it, but I really just want to know for sure what caused it ( not that I plan on fermenting at that high temp again if I can help it..)

Mostly just wondered if it was an infection I need to take care of. Actually, this woudl be a good time to get it carbed, then build that bottle filler and move to bottles for storage... I need to free up that keg...

 

[Special Hops]

he is an idiot.

 

[neuron555]

Clearly misinformed. I have some friends that make wine, and while some of their stuff is good, I haven't had much that I would pay for. In contrast, most homebrews I have had are as good or better than the average store bought.

 

[BigKahuna]

I'm with Revvy. This guy wants to sell wine kits, and prolly hasn't brewed 5 bottles of beer in his life....plus maybe he's just that goddamn dumb. We've been talking about it on the other thread about how dumb some brewers are.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

I will not call him an idiot, but he is clueless when it comes to brewing beer. Or he found his sweet profit spot then he is pretty smart but an a-?ole.
Personally I can buy better wines cheaper than I can make them, it's easy to make table wine but when you can it dirt cheap why bother. Make good / great wine is an art that takes a lot of time. I can make really good to great beer cheaper and in a reasonable time. My only exception is Mead and ciders. Can't find good ones to buy here so I got to make them.
May you all remain a 100% in making good beer.