Anyone else brew for kicks?

[KaptainKarl]

It's clear from the bulk of the posts that many of us are chasing a very specific vision.

I brew not to reach some Platonic ideal of the art, but enjoy the process and the outcome. OG and FG get measured only out of curiousity. I grow hops not because I can dial in exactly the right flavor, but because it's fun. If I couldn't make pleasing beer with our well water as-is, I can't imagine I'd still brew.

I'm not a beer connoisseur. I drink way more beer than I did before I started brewing - I'm almost up to a six pack a week.

Several other crafts get this treatment in our household - the joy of "I made that!" not the idea of "I perfected that!"

Who else takes this pioneer (or less charitably, jack-of-all-trades) approach?

 

[Brownalemikie]

It's clear from the bulk of the posts that many of us are chasing a very specific vision.

I brew not to reach some Platonic ideal of the art, but enjoy the process and the outcome. OG and FG get measured only out of curiousity. I grow hops not because I can dial in exactly the right flavor, but because it's fun. If I couldn't make pleasing beer with our well water as-is, I can't imagine I'd still brew.

I'm not a beer connoisseur. I drink way more beer than I did before I started brewing - I'm almost up to a six pack a week.

Several other crafts get this treatment in our household - the joy of "I made that!" not the idea of "I perfected that!"

Who else takes this pioneer (or less charitably, jack-of-all-trades) approach?

Pretty much the same take I have about home brewing except I don't grow my own hops and my beer consumption has increased to almost a six pack per DAY!

 

[Ashevillain]

Nope; I'm pretty much a painstaking, needlessly over analyzing, constantly researching, wannabe perfectionist with unrealistic expectations:rockin:. I will say though the funnest part of a brew day is when you just kick back during mash/boil for a bit sippin on something you made. If you can't get joy out of the process I can't imagine people would do it. Though when I make a mistake or something unexpected happens, I stress about it, mainly needlessly. I believe the stress and the mistakes will lessen with experience. I make decent beer, but I want to make the best beer so I keep chasing the carrot on the stick. I might enjoy a beer that didn't come out as expected, but I can't overlook what it lacks and that is disappointing to an extent. When I make a beer spot on or something that exceeds expectations, I'm ecstatic. Overall having a great time!

 

[imasickboy]

That's me, too. I'm not chasing perfection of ridiculous styles, certainly not wasting my time with water chemistry, and definitely only care about making beer that I like to drink.

I enjoy the act of brewing, and definitely enjoy consuming the results.

 

[Scout]

I brew for fun. I'm not as serious about it as others are, but I'm sure that sometime this summer I'll try BIAB, set up a fridge for a ferm chamber, and build a collar for my little chest freezer to fit a couple cornys.

 

[JeffLacoy]

I actually enjoy the brewing/fermenting process probably more than I do the drinking part. I'm a hopeless perfectionist, so being new to this, all my failures and mistakes are taken to be taken in stride. All part of the learning process, but fortunately I know I learn far more from failure than I do from any success. Plus I'm a tinkerer, so getting to play with pipes, tubing, chemistry, equations, getting creative, is right up my alley. Love it.

 

[YellowRiver]

Brewing is a hobby. Drinking beer is a hobby. Weekends, holidays, game days, warm summer evenings at times make me go above my two a day limit. It happens. There's days I drink an extra bottle just so I can brew again sooner.

I brew what I like. I give it away, love to share but I am the predominate drinker of my labors. Every other/ third brew is a nice rye ale. My favorite. Brew day is special, I look forward to it, feel wiped out by the end, yet love the satisfaction of the airlock bubbling away the next day.

I am creative with one gallon wine batches. Its fun even if the product is 6-9 months away. Its kinda the same thing but a bit less time consuming.

My dream to set up an electric brewhouse in the basement based not on perfection or repeatability but instead a place to call my refuge. Where lean, continuous improvement, where unnecessary meetings and paperwork not required. Brewdays take up a ton of time, some people get lost in streamlining the process. I just get lost, its a good place to be.

The "I made that" is special. No different than jams, bread, or ribs. Except that its beer. And I love beer.

 

[theowlman16]

I don't know any homebrewers that don't enjoy the process. I don't stress over details. The extent of my water research is a Campden tablet per batch. I haven't checked pH yet, but always hit my gravities and love to drink what I brew. Brewing takes my mind off of the daily drama that I think we all have at times.

 

[PADave]

I'm pretty much in the same boat. I got my process dialed in, and I brew beers that I like to drink. It's a hobby that I enjoy and I produce a product that would cost me 2-4X to purchase.

 

[Murphys_Law]

I brew for fun but dialing in the process and experimenting is part of the fun for me!

 

[csurowiec]

I've been a beer nerd and an avid cook for about 25 years. People constantly told me I should combine the 2 and brew my own. I resisted for a long time because I thought I wouldn't make AWESOME beer so why bother. Turns out it's not about making that amazing beer, it's about the process and truly making it myself with my own recipes. It's more fun than I ever thought it would be and the beer is pretty damn good. I also don't sweat the details. The only things I am really careful about is sanitation and fermentation temperatures. The rest isn't really important unless I'm entering a competition.

 

[Dfitz]

Brewing is one of several craft hobbies I enjoy

 

[kh54s10]

I brew because it is fun. But I also try to make the beer the best that it can be. That does not mean that I go crazy over all the latest techniques. I do look into the different techniques, equipment etc. I decide what I can add, do that will make the beer better without making the process so tedious that it is no longer enjoyable.

You are drinking a LOT more than before and you are ONLY up to a 6-pack a week!!!! LIGHT WEIGHT.

 

[k1ngl1ves]

I swore the title said "brew for kids". I was hoping for some amusing replies. Then I realized I'm an idiot.

 

[Sadu]

My other hobbies are electronics and 3d printing. There is massive crossover between these between diy stirplates, temp controllers and kettles. Making my first electric batch tonight -not because there was anything wrong with my gas system, but because building the kettle was fun. I do dwell on the details, and feel this directly leads to better beer. I need to cut back the drinking to help lose a few pounds, so in my mind I need to make really high quality brews as I won't be having as much.

 

[Sammy86]

I brew for fun...no desire to go pro...even though my sister eventually wants to open a brew pub and have me brew her beer...

I honestly enjoy the fruits of my labor, share as much as possible and try to get as many people as I can into the hobby!

Sure going after the unicorn is fun...and I definitely want to go all electric one day...but it is a hobby and it brings me happiness and that my fellow brewers should be what it's all about

 

[Domminigan]

I am far more about the joy of it than I am about any specific vision. Today I showed a friend how to do a cheap and dirty minimal boil extract because he thought it would be fun... And it was. It's not going to be great beer, but it will be good enough and brewing it was fun enough that he's wanting to come back the next few weekends to learn how to do more intensive brews with better beers.
Truly, if I ever get to the point where I am upset because a beer is a little different than what I intended; I'll probably sell all my equipment, exclusively buy beer and let someone else worry about missing the FG by a day.

I may be interested in building a fermentation chamber; but that's because it sounds like fun.

 

[CoreyD]

I brew because I like beer, I like to cook, and I like to experiment with cooking. Brewing seemed the obvious choice. I enjoy the process of building a recipe. I started with all grain, and had brewed 10 batches before I did an extract( and that's only because it came with my new conical fermenter). The first batch I did was a kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop, and I have never done another kit since( I don't count the extract). I don't see me becoming a pro, but it would be fun to be an apprentice in a brewpub to learn the ins and outs of the big operations. OSU has a fermenting course, but it requires chemistry. My brain doesn't work well enough for that part of being a pro, so home brewing is about as far as I go.

 

[rcreamer0713]

Love brewing beer. I enjoy the experiments. Even the mistakes and how they affect my final product. I would like to go pro but only because i know id enjoy going to work everyday. I dont drink alot of beer. A keg will last me over a month no doubt. Now i have 2 just so i can brew more! Either wsy this is a hobby. Once had a bomebrew shop owner explain how i could save money by going allgrain. I explained im not there for moneym im there for fun

 

[bobeer]

I think we all share the same ideals in that we have a certain personality type that digs diy'ing. I've spoken to a lot of folks about the brew processes and a lot of people are interested about the idea but then quickly become disengaged once they hear how a brew day goes and how long they have to wait before they get to drink the beer.
With that said i don't worry too much about creating my beer these days. I did back when i first started because i didnt know a lot about it. Now that i have 5 years of brewing on my resume i'm a lot more relaxed about everything because i know what the deal is. Getting to share my beer with others brings me great joy and so does creating it. Making a beer out of the grain and hops i have on hand is fun too.

 

[tiredofbuyingbeer]

This may sound corny, but I brew to be free. By which I mean this: I moved to a state with pretty stringent laws regulating alcohol, even beer. This situation creates a complicated beer economy that is sometimes inordinately expensive and sometimes inconvenient. I took up homebrewing to have an alternative to that system. This is not to say that I never buy commercial beers. I just want a high quality alternative to doing so.

This is also not to say that I don't enjoy the kind of beer I brew, or the options that open up in making it. It's just that even if brewing were pretty boring, I'd probably still have given it a try.

In a way, I brew for reasons similar to why I cook. I'm not sure that I cook because restaurant food is too expensive, or because I like the things I can do in a kitchen or what have you. I mean, cost savings and having more options are nice things. But I just want to be able to throw something together on my own, with my own productive labor, if I'm dissatisfied with my other food alternatives or I just want to try something different. I took up cooking because it was hard to be a vegetarian in the small Southern town I grew up in, and I didn't want to have to depend on having someone else cook for me. But even if I didn't have a dietary restriction, knowing how to cook is part of what it is to be an independent adult. Maybe brewing your own beer is part of what it is to be an independent drinker.

 

[catdaddy66]

Love brewing and the final product. I am eager to improve as much as I can without obsessing over the really small details, as long as the beer is good. I do try to solve what problems I encounter but it isn't compulsive in a rigid sense.

I realize that everyone can't be a master at all things so I am very comfortable being really good. Life (& beer) should not be taken too seriously.