If you could do it all over again...

[mygar]

Would you still brew your own beer? Kind of whack question right?

I have read quite a bit... and not have brewed a batch yet. This weekend will be the first.

I have a lot of expensive hobbies... motorcycles, cycling... etc.

So how deep does this rabbit hole go I ask myself? At this point my favored beers are belgian, german style. That's all I know this point lol.

The more I read the ... basically... the more consistent you want to be and with specific beer types... money right?

I know money is not everything but there is time constraints for me as well.

Sometimes I ask myself... maybe just get a kegerator and buy 5 gal kegs from favorite local breweries
.. do they sell 5g kegs? Lol

In the middle of a day off and brew fest... so I digress...

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Many homebrewers find enjoyment in the brewing (similar to life. It's the journey.)

Many homebrewers are happy brewing on the stove top and doing malt extract brewing.

" The more I read the ... basically... the more consistent you want to be and with specific beer types... money right? "

Not unless you plan on entering competitions. If your brew tastes good to you, then it's good.

Best compliment I've had is from the Bud-Miller-Coors (BMC) drinkers when they try my homebrew. Initially they are hesitant. They sip and say, "D*mn this is good! Ever consider selling this?"

 

[pdxal]

[EDIT: Corrected quoted text reference, missing quote resulted in some misunderstandings -Mod]

So how deep does this rabbit hole go I ask myself? At this point my favored beers are belgian, german style. That's all I know this point lol.

The more I read the ... basically... the more consistent you want to be and with specific beer types... money right?

Master brewing cheap before spending a ton of money. Then, you can figure out if you want to go down the rabbit hole.
Very good to great beer can be brewed cheaply with good strategies.
BIAB can turn out great all-grain beers with a stove top for heat source. All grain is cheaper than malt extract, but more work. Great beers can be made with just malt extracts (and specialty grains if needed) hops, yeast, tap water or minimally modified tap water.
You can make several beers with a 3-6 gallon pot on stove top, bucket fermentor or bottling bucket for fermentation and bottling, bottle capper and used sanitized bottles for equipment to try it out and see if you want to pursue the hobby. Finding used equipment for cheap should be easy.

 

[IslandLizard]

Of all hobbies I find Beer Brewing and everything that goes with it completely fascinating. And rewarding!

Once your beer starts to taste as good, better, or more interesting than much of commercial craft, it's hard to go back to store bought for daily consumption.

 

[kartracer2]

Would you still brew your own beer? Kind of whack question right?

I have read quite a bit... and not have brewed a batch yet. This weekend will be the first.

Watch your step, rabbet holes are all over the place !! (LOL)
Like any hobby, it's not so much how much money you spend but more so how you spend your money.

I bought a set of $85 used golf clubs, I could have spent way more for better clubs but they wouldn't make me a better golfer. I over spent my ability (lol) but I have fun with them a couple times a season.

$150.00 buys a starter equipment kit with every thing you "need" (including a extract beer Kit but not bottles or a heat source.) $1000's of dollars worth of brewing supplies probably wont make your first beer taste much if any better, if you get my drift.

Read, ask questions, learn, enjoy,,, watch you step,,,
Just my $0.02 worth.
Joel B.

 

[burntchef]

In my case home brewing is a supporting player to my main hobby, drinking. lol
Eric

 

[_BullDog_]

I started with a 1 gallon kit and 32oz flip top bottles so each batch was only 4 bottles. Then I moved up to 2.5 gallons on the stove top.

didn’t spend any significant money until I was making pretty good beer and moved off the stovetop.

mid I was starting over I’d likely start with 2.5 gallon batches with BIAB, just be careful if you have a glass stove top.... I always worried I would crack mine with the weight but luckily never did.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Yes I would do it again.
I fell off the horse for well over a year when I went through a divorce, my father died... moving. I definitely missed it.
I think it satisfies my creative side, the need to make something which is why I like to cook as well.
I enjoy taking the raw materials and getting a finished product that people like.

 

[mongoose33]

There are many reasons people brew beer. In my case, I got started because the brewery producing my absolute most favorite beer of all time changed the recipe. Changed...the recipe. It was a hit, they got a new brewmaster, and he thought, mistakenly, he could improve it. So I went on a quest to reproduce the original.

I like the beer I brew; more importantly, I have loved every minute of learning how to brew and brew some really good beer. The journey, as they say, was more important for me than the destination.

Now, if all my brewing equipment, keezer, everything suddenly mysteriously disappeared, would I replace it? I don't know. I have well in excess of $5k in my brewing operation, and that investment has served my obsession and joy with learning all this. But now that I know what I do, the joy of brewing is somewhat less. I've figured it out. What's next?

Some people say they do this to save money; others because they are in a search for the perfect beer; still others because they simply like the joy of learning and the thrill of the outcome.

**********

I'm a serial hobbyist; I get seriously interested in a hobby and plumb its depths. At some point, the learning slows down, to where I'm at the destination, and for me, it's the journey that I love. Usually that destination means I've mastered the craft to some degree, and the hobby loses its allure to some extent.

Golf: shot a round of par golf by the rules. Golf clubmaking: had a business doing it. Reloading ammunition: sub-1-minute accuracy. Rotisserie (fantasy) baseball: wrote game theory, published nationally. Trap shooting: broke 100 straight. Brewing: friends want to buy my beer at commercial prices, a local bar wants to sell it.

I still like brewing, but the learning curve has leveled off. The "joy" in brewing has been satisfied, i.e., I've more or less mastered it. So would I invest $5K+ if my brewing equipment suddenly disappeared? I have my doubts. The thrill of discovery is done.

FWIW: I recently started taking flight lessons on the way toward earning a Private Pilot License. Complicated. Interesting. Helluva learning curve. I'm back in my element. I'm on the journey!

But tomorrow, I think I'll brew.

 

[Brewmasher]

I followed the path of going from extract, partial mash, all grain 5 gallon, all grain 10 gallon, bottling to kegging. It really spun out of control at one point to where it became more of a job than a hobby.

If I could do it again knowing what I know now, I would buy an all in one system like the Grainfather, stick to bottling, and keep it simple. Homebrewing should be fun.

 

[AzOr]

If you’re doing a cost benefit analysis of brewing beer vs buying, you’ll quickly find that it doesn’t make sense, economic or otherwise.
I believe most home brewers are fascinated with the process and love to ferment stuff. We are making magic happen. Well, almost.

I have to admit my love of brewing outweighs my love of constant drinking. So I often give beer or cider away to friends and neighbors. Which is also satisfying.

 

[AJinJacksonville]

AzOr: agree with you about the process fascination/magic. As for cost, brewing saves me versus buying retail or going to a brewery (not including tax, tip); you're not going to feel like you've won the lottery, but you do break even unless you're constantly buying new gadgets, kettles, fermenters, etc...haha. And that is...a slippery slope for sure!

 

[Giggs]

Like a lot of hobbies, it comes down to Pride of Ownership and being able to say, "I made this!". Well worth it!

 

[Moose_MI]

Absolutely...yes, I would do it again. In fact, my only regret is that my first attempt in ‘98 with a Mr Beer kit was an epic fail and I never tried again until Nov 2013. Many times Ive wondered what I would be doing now if that first batch had been any measure of success.

Seriously, as hobby’s go I cant imagine a more rewarding one that offers so many different options to fully explore every aspect of it with as much or as little $$ and space as you care to allocate to it.

All you really need is time...this hobby does require a time investment...everything else is up to you

 

[SFC Rudy]

I grew up drinking Budweiser. I got stationed in Germany in 2001 tried some local beers and realized that I could not find anything near those beers in the states. Brewed my first batch in August 2001 and haven't looked back.

 

[ncbrewer]

It's my life. I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't brew.
(A little dramatic, but not far from accurate)

 

[PberBob]

Seriously, as hobby’s go I cant imagine a more rewarding one that offers so many different options to fully explore every aspect of it with as much or as little $$ and space as you care to allocate to it.

All you really need is time...this hobby does require a time investment...everything else is up to you

I got started in college in the 80‘s on the extreme cheap. I washed out a 5 gal. spackle bucket, slit open a plastic bookstore bag, and chained together rubber bands. Made a mail-order extract kit in two back-to-back boils using a borrowed spaghetti pot.
I was amazed and hooked when it turned out tasty. It never got a chance to fully condition.

I got back into it last year now that the kids are older. Now I enjoy watching all the magic of grain porridge turning into sweet wort, re-animating harvested yeasts, and fermenting into complex flavored ales just as good as I can buy.

 

[burntchef]

If I had to do it all again, I would have bolted a 1 room air conditioner to my ferm chamber with a drip pan and called it done.
Eric

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I guess what I would have done differently would be to have skipped the expense and time wasted on AG and go straight to BIAB.
That or bought a grainfather, but then it didn't really exist then....and BIAB was around but few did it.

 

[Bad Bubba]

There are many reasons people brew beer. In my case, I got started because the brewery producing my absolute most favorite beer of all time changed the recipe. Changed...the recipe. It was a hit, they got a new brewmaster, and he thought, mistakenly, he could improve it. So I went on a quest to reproduce the original.

I like the beer I brew; more importantly, I have loved every minute of learning how to brew and brew some really good beer. The journey, as they say, was more important for me than the destination.

Now, if all my brewing equipment, keezer, everything suddenly mysteriously disappeared, would I replace it? I don't know. I have well in excess of $5k in my brewing operation, and that investment has served my obsession and joy with learning all this. But now that I know what I do, the joy of brewing is somewhat less. I've figured it out. What's next?

Some people say they do this to save money; others because they are in a search for the perfect beer; still others because they simply like the joy of learning and the thrill of the outcome.

**********

I'm a serial hobbyist; I get seriously interested in a hobby and plumb its depths. At some point, the learning slows down, to where I'm at the destination, and for me, it's the journey that I love. Usually that destination means I've mastered the craft to some degree, and the hobby loses its allure to some extent.

Golf: shot a round of par golf by the rules. Golf clubmaking: had a business doing it. Reloading ammunition: sub-1-minute accuracy. Rotisserie (fantasy) baseball: wrote game theory, published nationally. Trap shooting: broke 100 straight. Brewing: friends want to buy my beer at commercial prices, a local bar wants to sell it.

I still like brewing, but the learning curve has leveled off. The "joy" in brewing has been satisfied, i.e., I've more or less mastered it. So would I invest $5K+ if my brewing equipment suddenly disappeared? I have my doubts. The thrill of discovery is done.

FWIW: I recently started taking flight lessons on the way toward earning a Private Pilot License. Complicated. Interesting. Helluva learning curve. I'm back in my element. I'm on the journey!

But tomorrow, I think I'll brew.

intriguing journey you have, I have to ask did you succeed in replicating that recipe and if so would you share it. As a pilot, I can tell you flying is great but I would never call it a hobby. You need to develop a skill level to a high degree because mistakes have a high cost. I digress.

To the original poster, people get into the hobby for a variety of reasons. As far as a rabbit hole- that is up to you. There are guys in my home brew club who having been brewing for years with a minimum setup and make good beer. I like shines things so I have a little more invested. I absolutely love the blend of science and craft in the hobby.

 

[bracconiere]

do they sell 5g kegs? Lol

when money wasn't tight for me, i'd have the brewpub fill up a corny for ~$50......


and no i don't have the slightest regret about making my own! it's ambrosia, and i'm self sufficient. i've never found another drug i can say that about....it's great!


(and in my case, it's only cost me an upfront cost of about $400-$600 back in ~2002...still use the same equip to this day)

 

[JAReeves]

I also started with a Mr. Beer in '98, a wedding gift, I think. It was ok, but then I couldn't get more kits from them, so I gave up. 20 years later, when my uncle, who makes wine, gave me a ton of fermentation equipment he didn't want to take to his new house, I decided to get back into it. I did a couple of extract batches, oxidized the hell out of them and then moved rapidly through to all-grain BIAB and kegging. After dropping my grain strainer into the wort on the stove twice and spraying the ceiling, I moved to the patio and a propane burner; which has since been relocated to the garage, where I have a water filter hooked up off the washing machine hoses. Every batch gets some new technique or experiment, so that I only change one thing at time and can track whether it's better or worse.

It's a fun journey if it satisfies your creativity (it does mine). I wouldn't change a thing, I have learned so much from all of the mistakes. And at the end of it all, there is beer that I made, that I can tear apart and do better next time.

 

[mongoose33]

intriguing journey you have, I have to ask did you succeed in replicating that recipe and if so would you share it.

I did, at least according to a friend whose palate is the most sensitive I've ever run across. I felt I was very close. It had a particular finish that was just fabulous, IMO. I've made one other beer that had that finish, an Amber, that was nearly mythical--a beer that had the wine drinkers put down their stemmed glassware and switch to the Amber. Alas, I've been unable to reproduce exactly that effect. Close....no cigar. Both are very good beers if you like the maltier type of brew.

Spelunker's Special: 11# Maris Otter, 1.5# Crystal 40L, 1 oz Northern Brewer at 60 minutes, 2 oz Goldings at 5 minutes. Mash at 151. S-05 yeast. Ferment at 64 degrees.

As a pilot, I can tell you flying is great but I would never call it a hobby. You need to develop a skill level to a high degree because mistakes have a high cost. I digress.

Hobbies for me have always involved learning something complicated with a defined outcome that denotes some level of excellence. In flying, for me, that will mean initially a PPL. Certainly that doesn't denote mastery, but you have to have a goal, at least initially.

Remember, for me it's the journey, not so much the destination (sounds sort of like a philosophy of flying, doesn't it? ).

And yes about the skill. That's one thing that's different with flying than, say, brewing. The feel of flying--nothing like that in brewing. I really like such sports or hobbies that combine a physical element with a mental element. Rotisserie/fantasy baseball was fun, and I was very, very good at it, but no physical skill, just a lot of statistical analysis uncovering truths never before known about the game, which I put to good use.

But golf...trap shooting...reloading for accuracy....and flying....it's the mental AND physical.

I just did my second solo time today, 10 T&Gs as well as a little flying around, I'm trying to nail down that feel for landings, the visual cues, lifting the eyes, etc. I have 25 hours in, so I'm far closer to the beginning than to wherever the end will take me.

And you are absolutely right--mistakes in flying can have incredibly high cost. It's a little scary for me, still, and that's part of its allure. Heck, anybody can learn something that doesn't threaten their life; learn something where an error at 5000 feet means you're not walking away, and you get a real understanding what "focus" means....and why checklists exist.

Learning something I'm scared of--that's what I'm trying to do.

 

[Transamguy77]

Funny my oldest is old enough to drink now and has expressed an interest in home brewing and really I told him what I did and he’d only be skipping extract. He’s ok with 10 gallon batches and kegging (he has a few friends that will partake) He will probably go BIAB and see if he wants to go 3 vessel, so the reality is I wouldn’t do anything different.

 

[mirthfuldragon]

Honestly, brewing has been one of my cheaper hobbies. I think I am about a grand in in gear when all is said and done, and I haven't bought any new equipment in probably eight months - there's no need. I've actually sold off a fair bit of extra gear. Five kegs, three fermentors, keggle, burner, chiller, pump, various hoses and tubing, a minifridge, and a 4 tap keezer . . . there's really no more mountains to climb, but there is plenty of beer to drink. I think my batch cost is down to around $20, and my last American lager was all of $12. I'm still going through hops from Black Friday two years ago, and brew about once very four or five weeks. YMMV, of course.

 

[myelo]

Yes, I would do it again. Because I still enjoy it. The day I stop enjoying brewing will be the day I stop brewing.

Sometimes I ask myself... maybe just get a kegerator and buy 5 gal kegs from favorite local breweries

Speaking only for myself, if my only goal was to have good beer ... I would just buy good beer. Because these days there are so many great commercial choices. I homebrew because I like the process. Getting good beer is just a nice bonus.

 

[bleme]

I would do it again, even if I did take a year off because I was just too busy. You can set yourself up to brew pretty well for about $600, and that includes a kegerator. The cheapest 5G keg of craft beer at Bevmo is $80. I can make that beer easily for $18. If you only brew once a month, you've recouped your costs in under a year.

Of course, I've seen guys with $5,000 in their system too...

 

[mongoose33]

I would do it again, even if I did take a year off because I was just too busy. You can set yourself up to brew pretty well for about $600, and that includes a kegerator. The cheapest 5G keg of craft beer at Bevmo is $80. I can make that beer easily for $18. If you only brew once a month, you've recouped your costs in under a year.

Of course, I've seen guys with $5,000 in their system too...

Well, that's just great, picking on the idiots like that. You have to realize, they just can't help themselves....

 

[bleme]

Well, that's just great, picking on the idiots like that. You have to realize, they just can't help themselves....

Of course when they invite me over to brew with them, I am all in. Those systems are a joy to brew on (and drink from). I've just got 2 cars and a roof that need fixed first...

 

[NewJersey]

Everybody approaches this hobby differently. Some guys wanna blow everyone else outta the water with all SS 3 vessel indoor builds that cost 30k and others are still making their own copper ICs and saving starsan. Some people enjoy the DIY aspect some enjoy total automation.
A lot of us get bored with the hobby only to come back with the same old fervor.
I personally have gone through SO many setups each time thinking I was "upgrading". I went from 5 gallons to 10 and now back to 5 as 10 was way too much for me to go through and I like the variety. I seldom brew the exact same beer twice. Others brew the same beer over and over to achieve perfect consistency in their system and process.
I feel like there's room for everyone here.
I've kegged from day one and I recommend that. I actually do buy commercial kegs a few times a year and have those on tap along with my brews- you can do both!
Enjoy

 

[Sammy86]

I would totally do it again...for me it started in college, late at night after campus security did their final rounds in the dorms. Buckets and pre-hopped extract and some dextrose or sugar.

I recently hit the 1K mark in equipment after purchasing an all in one system...everything else was basically second-hand and greatly discounted price.

I enjoy the brewing still, especially now that I don't have lug gallons of hot water from the stove to the mash tun, drain in a spare bucket, batch sparge and then back to the stove for the boil.

I also take solace that I'm going to teach my children an actual skill...my old man wasn't very handy, so through brewing I've learned ALOT of DIY things that I now can use around the house and teach my children...especially the skill of fermentation.

 

[pigroaster]

There are many reasons people brew beer. In my case, I got started because the brewery producing my absolute most favorite beer of all time changed the recipe. Changed...the recipe. It was a hit, they got a new brewmaster, and he thought, mistakenly, he could improve it. So I went on a quest to reproduce the original.

I like the beer I brew; more importantly, I have loved every minute of learning how to brew and brew some really good beer. The journey, as they say, was more important for me than the destination.

Now, if all my brewing equipment, keezer, everything suddenly mysteriously disappeared, would I replace it? I don't know. I have well in excess of $5k in my brewing operation, and that investment has served my obsession and joy with learning all this. But now that I know what I do, the joy of brewing is somewhat less. I've figured it out. What's next?

Some people say they do this to save money; others because they are in a search for the perfect beer; still others because they simply like the joy of learning and the thrill of the outcome.

**********

I'm a serial hobbyist; I get seriously interested in a hobby and plumb its depths. At some point, the learning slows down, to where I'm at the destination, and for me, it's the journey that I love. Usually that destination means I've mastered the craft to some degree, and the hobby loses its allure to some extent.

Golf: shot a round of par golf by the rules. Golf clubmaking: had a business doing it. Reloading ammunition: sub-1-minute accuracy. Rotisserie (fantasy) baseball: wrote game theory, published nationally. Trap shooting: broke 100 straight. Brewing: friends want to buy my beer at commercial prices, a local bar wants to sell it.

I still like brewing, but the learning curve has leveled off. The "joy" in brewing has been satisfied, i.e., I've more or less mastered it. So would I invest $5K+ if my brewing equipment suddenly disappeared? I have my doubts. The thrill of discovery is done.

FWIW: I recently started taking flight lessons on the way toward earning a Private Pilot License. Complicated. Interesting. Helluva learning curve. I'm back in my element. I'm on the journey!

But tomorrow, I think I'll brew.

Recipe quest. Any chance of you posting or sending me your recipe ? Thanks

 

[mullet6577]

Recipe quest. Any chance of you posting or sending me your recipe ? Thanks

In this thread already

Post #23