Feel like a dinosaur anymore?

[lumpher]

Anyone else feeling outdated anymore? People start talking about using centrifuges to isolate yeasts, yeast viability, percent oxygen introduction to initiate oxygenation, difference in 250 vs 300 billion yeast cells in cleaning up off-flavors... makes me wonder if the newer brewers do it for fun or as a competition. I DO know many of the newer ones drop out because "it's too hard and takes too much work"... I got into it because it's fun and relaxing, and I can guarantee I've never counted yeast cells...

 

[skunkape]

“ Back in the day, we never worried about alpha acids and diacetyls and pterodactyls. We just tossed some old cornmeal and bread crusts and well water in a rusty tin can over a sterno and stirred it with a willow stick. Toss in a small green pine cone for bitter. Coupla weeks in a milk jug with a balloon on top and you got Malt Jack. “

 

[MaxStout]

I do enjoy the science that surrounds home brewing, but some people overthink the processes.

I don't have a yeast lab, so I'll just have to keep ballparking my yeast pitches. I still make good beer.

 

[lumpher]

“ Back in the day, we never worried about alpha acids and diacetyls and pterodactyls. We just tossed some old cornmeal and bread crusts and well water in a rusty tin can over a sterno and stirred it with a willow stick. Toss in a small green pine cone for bitter. Coupla weeks in a milk jug with a balloon on top and you got Malt Jack. “

No matter how you ask, you still can't borrow my magic stir stick. And I won't tell you how much bog myrtle I use.

 

[Bobby_M]

That's the beauty of any hobby. You're not forced to care about any or all of it. In a way, it's also gotten a little less complex in some aspects like dropping "secondary" fermentations and reducing 3 vessels down to one.

 

[lumpher]

That's the beauty of any hobby. You're not forced to care about any or all of it. In a way, it's also gotten a little less complex in some aspects like dropping "secondary" fermentations and reducing 3 vessels down to one.

I agree with all this. I'll keep doing it for the next few decades and not sweat it, and let the kids do all the "schmience" on it ... I'll just sit here and stir my iron pot over the fire, dump it in my turtle shell to bubble up, and pour it into my hollowed out tree branch I drink out of.

 

[Red over White]

I brewed my first batch in 1993 and I love the information that has come to the hobby level since then. To filter that information into an elegant process, is where the wisdom kicks in. Don't get me wrong, I'm still shouting in my head to get off my lawn, but I'm listening first.

 

[Bobby_M]

I guess another perspective is that in the 18 years I've been brewing, homebrewed beer has become vastly better. When I started, the brewpub where my club met was making terrible beer and most of the brewers in the club made beer slightly above and below that bar of quality. The club I'm in now, 95% of the brewers could be head brewers at that brewpub and made the old swill seem like, er... swill. There's simple and there's complex. Adequate and superb also run on an adjacent axis. Everyone's joy of the hobby will land on a different intersection point, but we're living on the same plane.

 

[lumpher]

Yep, my beer has become vastly better than the Muntons syrup/cane sugar swill many of us thought was Nectar many years ago. I'll just keep mine mediocre as time goes on and enjoy myself, though. At my age, not looking to become Brewdog's head brewer anyway.

 

[skunkape]

Being aware of the chemistry and reasoning behind why things are done the way they are is good knowledge. I can’t say I spend a lot of time thinking about that when involved in the process. The recipes and methods require skill and cleanliness and attention to detail. Makes me feel closer to Chef than Scientist. The better your equipment and process, the better your reward. I’m ok with the magic in the middle.

BTW - Thanks for having a sense of humor, guys. Not everyone would have appreciated my attempt to channel Walter Brennan as Stumpy in “Rio Bravo”.

 

[Airborneguy]

I read and read and read but then when I brew, it’s mostly back to the basics because that is what I enjoy about the hobby: simplicity.

I used to compete regularly, but seeing all that people who tend to do that put into it now… yeah I’m out. Plus shipping beer is expensive as hell now.

 

[McMullan]

I’m a biologist and, until recently, I had a real yeast lab. Mostly sold off now. It was used mainly for commercial yeast production and private research. I could bore you (even scare you) with all kinds of bizarre yeast biology. In fact, if my wife can’t sleep at night, she asks me to talk about yeast. She’ll be snoring away within 5 minutes, leaving me wide awake thinking about yeast. My best advice to any home brewer is just focus on pitching enough healthy (ideally freshly prepared) yeast. If you’re a dry yeast brewer, fine, double or triple your pitching rate. Yeast manufacturers are in the business of maximising profits not healthy pitching rates for home brewers. You definitely don’t need to count yeast cells, which is actually a flawed 1-dimensional concept in home brewing practice anyway. Microbiology is only relevant to brewing science and commercial yeast suppliers. Brewers only need to focus on pitching enough healthy yeast. And that’s best determined loosely, empirically speaking, using “bucket biology” scaled down to cups for home brewers. Unless serially repitching yeast like some traditional breweries (with famed yeast strains), it’s not possible to over pitch, which is another flawed concept in home brewing. Just bung it in there. As much as you can. You’ll get a more balanced yeast ester profile for a start. My top tip. It’s all about “bucket biology”. Don’t overthink it. Calm down and have a home brew.

Edit: I'm going off on one now. The only reason it would be 'over pitching' for serial repitching brewers is that the brewery's yeast would age quickly if they added much more than absolutely necessary. For all other scenarios, it really doesn't matter enough to complicate pitching rate. Again, bung it in there!

 

[MaxStout]

Sometimes I like to build a complex home brew, with lots of ingredients and process steps.

But more often I go for an Occam's Razor approach--keep it simple. Maybe a SMASH or 2-ingredient beer, pitch a packet of dry yeast and let it rock.

 

[mac_1103]

Makes me feel closer to Chef than Scientist.

Cooking is Science.

 

[DBhomebrew]

And it is also an Art.

 

[hottpeper13]

I make my best beers using the Art of the Science! What you don't know you can't manipulate.

 

[DBhomebrew]

I make my best beers using the Art of the Science! What you don't know you can't manipulate.

Now you're talking Craft!

 

[mac_1103]

Arts and Crafts! Now I just have to figure out how to work construction paper, rounded off scissors and Elmer's glue into my brew days.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I used to compete regularly, but seeing all that people who tend to do that put into it now… yeah I’m out. Plus shipping beer is expensive as hell now.

In the late 2010s, some of the competitions in my region used offer "drop off" locations. It looks like that idea is starting to return (even as local home brew stores continue to close).

Regarding the level of effort around competitions: there is the "Master Homebrewer Program" (link to MHP web site) which I know very little about (other than skimming the Zymurgy Jan 2024 article).

 

[lumpher]

I make my best beers using the Art of the Science! What you don't know you can't manipulate.

I don't know what I'm doing, and I manipulate all the time... beer, recipes, dogs, people... and best thing is after 15 years of brewing is my beer is still passable. Been a few years since I've won any awards, but not because I haven't gotten better, but others have gone on to turn homebrewing into Gandalf-level sorcery. I'll stick with garden-level magic...

 

[mac_1103]

I manipulate all the time... beer, recipes, dogs, people...

More likely the dogs are manipulating you.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Arts and Crafts! Now I just have to figure out how to work construction paper, rounded off scissors and Elmer's glue into my brew days.

Arts & crafts as much as your "science" is represented by my kids' first chemistry set.

Read your classics, friend.

 

[hottpeper13]

My cat has a person.

 

[Yesfan]

Makes me feel closer to Chef than Scientist.

Cooking is Science.

And it is also an Art.

Gordon Ramsey, Michio Kaku, and Bob Ross walk into a bar..........

 

[lumpher]

More likely the dogs are manipulating you.

I work, pay the bills, do the upkeep, buy the food and snacks... they lay around, eat, play, get treats, get attention... you might just be onto something there. anyway, they just came in and are looking at me like they want a treat. Now, where did I put their bacon?

 

[passedpawn]

Gordon Ramsey, Michio Kaku, and Bob Ross walk into a bar..........

Bob Ross would not walk into a bar. Maybe one of those places that makes smoothies out of grass.

 

[mac_1103]

And Gordon Ramsey wouldn't walk into one of those grass smoothie places in a million years...

So Bob Ross, who died in 1994, and Michio Kaku walk into Gordon Ramsey's smoothie place and Kaku says, "See Gordon, I told you time travel was just an engineering problem."

 

[DBhomebrew]

Kaku. A prolific science communicator. Yep, there's nothing of the arts to that. Nosiree.

Wait. Isn't there an institute dedicated to the better communication of science? Named after its founder? Some major biologist or astrophysicist? Oh, yeah. Alan Alda.

#TeamSteAm

 

[lumpher]

So Bob Ross, who died in 1994, and Michio Kaku walk into Gordon Ramsey's smoothie place and Kaku says, "See Gordon, I told you time travel was just an engineering problem."

I figured Bob Ross would end up there with that freaky hair. After all, Gordon runs (ran?) Hell's Kitchen. Grass Smoothies... yep, they'd be served there.

 

[sibelman]

closer to Chef than Scientist.

I did well in basic college chemistry and took lots of science classes. I've learned quite a bit here at HBT and a few books, but I don't read brewing science texts. (I did read most of Yeast by Chris White.)

I tend to lose interest in brewing science material that doesn't influence what I'm willing to incorporate in my process.

For example, I'm ready to make starters for higher gravity beers and just pitch a package for others. Not gonna get worried about exactly how many hundreds of billion cells are specifically appropriate to a 1.075 vs. 1.085 wort.

So, I guess I'm more of a cook than a chef, and really not a scientist.