When you ask, "is brewing for me?"

kh54s10 · Apr 14, 2015

JKoravos said:
I started brewing well before the widespread availability of information that we have had in the last 5 or 10 years. I don't think it was uncommon at that time for it take brewers quite a while to get their techniques dialed in. Believe me. I worked at a LHBS in the 90s. I tasted some pretty crappy homebrew!

Starting brewing now vs. 20 yrs ago is an entirely different endeavor. The hobby has come a long, long way.

I still don't think it should be considered a shoe-in to be producing high quality beer out of the gate, especially for someone who is likely overly critical of their beer. There are a lot of little things that make a difference and sometimes people need time to work through those if there are several factors working against them.

There is nothing that can be done by others about that.

You mention 'good water, ingredients, good brewing practices and not too far out of the box', but for a beginning brewer how do you even know what these are? 'Good brewing practices' encompasses a HUGE range of factors and practices. Brushing it off in one statement as if that's easy knowledge to achieve sends the wrong message, IMO.

It is easy knowledge these days. I started my first batch with fermentation temperatures a bit high. I contacted Northern Brewer where I bought the kit. They gave advice that saved that brew. I found this site before starting my second kit. I also read other articles online and watched a bunch of videos. Enough that I could recognize bad advice and procedures online before my second brew. Again I found plenty of information that made my second brew good enough that I would rate it in my top 20, maybe even higher.

I think the wrong message is that it will take you x amount of time before you will be able to brew a good beer.

IMO, if you do more than a few before you get a decent one you are ignoring all the information available, or over-thinking things and making it difficult and unsuccessful.

sablesurfer · Apr 15, 2015

joshesmusica said:
have you ever had a bjcp judge taste your beer? have you ever entered them into a competition that you're not judging?

So far I have actually been a bit disappointed with my competition results. As you can imagine I tend to only enter beers I think would score decently. But then I get stuff back in low 30's with some interesting comments.

I am not certified, but I have quite a few competitions under by belt, mostly haven't taken the time to get through the steps because of chasing other things. I get to judge at some bigger comps and get to judge with some high caliber judges which all just helps me learn and progress.

JKoravos · Apr 15, 2015

Low 30s is pretty good. Were you expecting better or worse? And what are these interesting comments?

chisena · Apr 15, 2015

sablesurfer said:
So, when do you decide maybe you are not a brewer. Maybe I am just a beer snob and beer hunter and brewing isn't my thing?

You are a literally my Doppelgänger! Same brewing history, I love to cook and with an even higher success rate, totally OCD, same off flavors... I don't get it. Probably just beer snobs to the point that we can't satisfy our own exceptional pallets (wink). I read people talking about never dumping a brew. I've dumped many cases. They are either making really good beer or just toughing it through the consumption! I'd say my biggest problem is sweetness and/or watery. Missing body. I make starters unless using dry yeast and admittedly, have struggled getting the FG low enough several times. I'm controlling fermentation temps in a freezer... I'm carefully building water from Distilled cause my tap sucks... I don't know. I do t get it. My best beers have been a white IPA, Citra IPA, Moose Drool clone, and a Vanilla porter.