Just curious. How many batches before you're not a beginner?

[LandoLincoln]

I'm working on my 9th batch. I have made great strides. Just curious when did you folks consider yourself an intermediate? Cheers.

White belt: Gets a homebrew kit for Christmas and uses it. Checks fermentor 50 times a batch and worries if the beer is infected or not.
Yellow belt: Understands and abides by RDWHAHB, BDMA and DFTF. Understands the difference between clean/sanitized/sterile. Has a solid understanding of how clean various equipment needs to be. Understands how important proper fermentation temperature is.
Green belt: Begins to delve into the world of water chemistry and good recipe formulation. Has a solid understanding of the entire process of all-grain brewing and can adjust for SG during the brew day.
Blue belt: Has built his or her own all-grain brew rig and can brew any style on it with solid results. Efficiency numbers are rock solid so there is no longer any need to adjust for SG during the brew day. Has successfully done step mashes and decoction mashes with good results. Can formulate good beer recipes with little outside references.
Red belt: Has become a BJCP Certified judge, can pick out off-flavors with ease and can formulate recipes without consulting any reference materials.
Black belt: Has malted the barley that they have grown, dried the hops that they have grown, harvested wild yeast and have separated good strains from bad strains, have brewed beer using a fire pit, fermented and lagered beer with a lagering cave and the beer comes out exquisite. Can drink any beer and can formulate a clone recipe with a few improvements to the original to suit their tastes.

 

[desabat]

Could I substitute Glorious Lord for Fabulous Lord? I think that Fabulous Lord has much more gravity when you introduce yourself as Fabulous Lord Arkot Ramathorn.

At that level you can call yourself whatever you want!

 

[podz]

all of them

 

[McKnuckle]

When you quit reading the beginners brewing forum?

Actually, it's when you're able to answer people's questions IN the Beginners forum, and escape contradiction/correction/disdain from the established brewing cognoscenti!

 

[schematix]

The day you begin to practice temperature controls in your fermentation.

 

[oogaboogachiefwalkingdeer]

I don't know where I am in the ranks nor do I care. I do know this. I have had at least 8 different brands of 2 dollar beers from the package store this past week. Not one of them is close to being as good as the one's we make here at home. I used to think some of those 2 dollar ones were the best ever. Maybe it is just because we have very good water here.

 

[doug293cz]

I felt I graduated from the novice ranks after I had done the following:

1. Conducted and reported a relatively well controlled, quantitative comparative brewing experiment.
2. Conducted a brewing demonstration at an AHA "Learn to Homebrew Day" event.
3. Felt confident answering other brewers questions related to several different aspects of brewing.
4. Could consistently make good beer based on recipes.

Still have a long ways to go before I would consider myself a master brewer. Lots of styles yet to attempt, and lots of palate refinement to achieve.

Brew on

 

[Qhrumphf]

When you cease with the ugly baby syndrome and admit that even though you brew good beer, you're nowhere near as good as some of the pros (maybe better than some too though).

And when you know enough about brewing to stop calling BMC bad beer.

 

[DennisinIowa]

Let me know when that happens! I still read the beginner's forum!

When you get quoted by the Glorious Lordette Yooper.
Yea,
D

 

[DNKDUKE]

I guess I'm still a beginner...........

What do RDWHAHB, BDMA and DFTF mean? Iv'e been trying for months to decipher these.

 

[DNKDUKE]

Black belt: Has malted the barley that they have grown, dried the hops that they have grown, harvested wild yeast and have separated good strains from bad strains, have brewed beer using a fire pit, fermented and lagered beer with a lagering cave and the beer comes out exquisite. Can drink any beer and can formulate a clone recipe with a few improvements to the original to suit their tastes.

...in a loin cloth and a beaver hat that they sewed together from a beaver that they killed themselves by jumping out of a hiding spot with nothing but a sharp stick.

 

[oogaboogachiefwalkingdeer]

...in a loin cloth and a beaver hat that they sewed together from a beaver that they killed themselves by jumping out of a hiding spot with nothing but a sharp stick.

I can do that. I might tie a sharp rock to the stick if that would meet the said requirements.

 

[LandoLincoln]

I guess I'm still a beginner...........

What do RDWHAHB, BDMA and DFTF mean? Iv'e been trying for months to decipher these.

You must meditate on these. And read more HBT.

 

[DNKDUKE]

You must meditate on these. And read more HBT.

I will do all you command of me, Oh my Master...

 

[Qhrumphf]

I guess I'm still a beginner...........

What do RDWHAHB, BDMA and DFTF mean? Iv'e been trying for months to decipher these.

Don't worry, I'm far from a beginner, and i had to look BDMA up. I knew the first immediately and DFTF took me a minute.

 

[duboman]

Regardless of your experience level you will always find something new to try and revert back to being a nOOb all over again

 

[DirtyPirate]

Don't worry about beginner or expert enjoy the brewing process. With all grain I feel it is a primal experience that has been practiced for 1000's of years long before star San and water chemistry. Brew on

 

[1975brewer]

Once you started your first batch you move from beginner to student. If your being a good student you should always have something to quench your thirst while you study. There's a lot here to learn so grab a home brew & learn.

 

[FirstAidBrewing]

I'm not a black belt by any stretch but I will say that going to all-grain "takes off the training wheels" in that it forces you to start to think about all the "nuts and bolts" that we talk about to make a successful beer:
-crush
-water profile
-mash pH
-diastatic power of the grain bill
-proper sparge

Once you start thinking about each of those for your next brew, I think that graduates you from beginner. Not that you need all-grain for that, but that's what did it for me.

 

[grevengrevs]

As others have said, everyone will have a different answer. Me? I still feel that I am a beginner because I am still in the learning phases of brewing. I still have a lot to learn and look forward to learning it. I think once I feel confident enough to teach someone to brew and not worry whether or not it will turn out good, then I may consider myself a step above beginner.
Either way, beginner or not, you still have beer!

 

[Aonghus]

I personally think it happens when you understand why you are undertaking a particular step and the ramifications of variations of that step and what to do if you F* that step up. The F* up happens more frequently if you like to drink your homebrew whilst brewing. Say your initial mash temp is too high and so you are going to miss out on your beta amylase breaking down some sugars. Then doing something about it to save your initial idea. It can be free form like that. Or it could be, as others have suggested, repeatability. In the end, who cares about arbitrary designations? You brew for yourself and to see the enjoyment of your buddies getting loaded on your homebrew (at least I do). Cheers

Aonghus

 

[schematix]

I was just browsing around the beginner forum and it hit me: You're not a beginner anymore when you stop using carapils and wheat in every recipe "for head retention"....

 

[chxgh]

Unfortunately it took me far too long to get fermentation temp control. That's when I was no longer a beginner. Almost 2 years

 

[GHBWNY]

One

 

[Ivypunx]

When you like a few of your recipes more than any other beer and when you no longer worry about anything in the brewing process because you know you can fix it or deal with it either way

 

[ol-hazza]

Once I got my first AG brew done and dusted I went straight to expert. Have been kicked down a couple of notches since then though.
With so many components to so many styles, many of which of negligible importance (when it comes to making "DRINKABLE" beer), I think its really quite easy to get from beginner to intermediate but takes a lot of work to get above that.

PS you can advance past beginner without knowing how to type in ALL CAPS on here

 

[paperairplane]

When you think of what you want to make, you design the recipe and it comes out like you planned just about every time.

 

[Zepth]

It's difficult to set up a guideline or parameter basis for where one's brewing level is. Do I have AG setup? Yes. Have I looked into water chemistry? Not really. Current knowledge level is that I toss in a pinch of +ph if I use a ton of dark malts. Next on the hit list. Maintaining ferment temperatures? Not yet, parts in the mail. Been brewing by season.

How would this compare to someone who does steeping grains with extract addition and their own home grown hops into the perfectly balanced Munich water? Who is to judge that?

I'm going with the "repeatability of batches" as being my sign. I've had some success with coming darn close, but earlier yeast harvesting without starters and seasonal brewing hampered my efforts. I have however gotten an indistinguishable repeat brew, admittedly it wasn't my own recipe. Thanks for the California Common Yooper!

That said I also failed at repeating a different batch. Twice. 3 attempts, 1 awesome, 1 good for cooking with, 1 that was acceptable but disappointing compared to the first. I actually got to thinking about that, it was just as I was ramping to 10g batches and my process was a little mixed up in the middle. Attempt 4 has a slight recipe alteration and fermenting now. So I would still declare myself to be at the beginner stage, teetering on the edge of whatever we declare the next level to be.

 

[jethro55]

When you would rather have your homebrews than any of the ones on the shelf at the craft beer store.

 

[LandoLincoln]

When you think of what you want to make, you design the recipe and it comes out like you planned just about every time.

That would be "master brewer" not "non-beginning brewer."