Why do people Quit brewing?

[Manholebrewhause]

So, in other words I quit because everybody else started! (+1 if you get the Sex in the City reference)

 

[the_bird]

Wait, you're quitting homebrewing because too many other people are doing it? You realize how much that makes you seem like a tool, right?

Homebrewing is OVER, man!

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlGqN3AKOsA[/ame]

 

[BlkWater_brewer]

I started back in 1980, but life got in the way, kids and also a workaholic. So I took a 18 year hiatus. I was looking around and then my oldest purchased a home and I was left with a vacant floor. I put 2 and 2 together and thus my "man Floor and brewery" was born. (not zoned for non family apartments anyway) So you never truly quit. But brewing does take time and space, and that I have plenty of now. Only wish I had restarted sooner. Living off the beaten path helps.

 

[the_bird]

Also, referencing "Sex and the City" isn't helping.

 

[MaxStout]

He's going to need to change his username to something like Manholehouse.

 

[bobeer]

I noticed that the reason I quit recently has not even been mentioned! I reside in Richmond Virginia where recently it was said there are 30 new homebrewers every week in this area. Mostly people trying to keep the hipster moement alive, or college students/grads still spending daddy's money. Because of this surge, we now have 3 homebrew shops, all of which are below par. Either the owner won't sell to you unless he likes you (or you offer to pay more than the sticker price), or the owner is more focused on opening his own brewery than dealing with you. At all of them you have to wait in line just to get inside and find out the supplies you need are long gone. There are various brew clubs with memberships at capacity. Mostly people looking for free beer. Every time I tried to bring a batch in for input, 99% of responses I got were "Its good. Can I drink some more?"
Maybe I will try it again one day after the "homebrew fad" dies down, or when people leave this forsaken city. But for now I'm going to enjoy throwing my equipment and surplus beer in the bonfire this weekend...

Why don't you brew because you like to? Not for the brew clubs, or the fad, or anything else. If the homebrew shops suck in rva then order off of morebeer.com. You get free shipping if you spend over $60; which is about 2-3 batches of beer.
Part of the fun for me is sharing my beer. Now that doesn't mean I give beer to everyone who asks me for it. Then I'd have none left for me but sharing with the folks I want to share it with is fun and rewarding.
I've been brewing for a few years and I'm not part of a club or anything. I've been a couple times to meetings but I felt like I wasn't really part of it. I know everyone is different but I like brewing because I enjoy the activity and the challenge. Yea, homebrewing has blown up over the past few years but that's not a bad thing really. There's been some really good shops open up and there's more competitions to enter your beer into. I'd keep your stuff because it sounds like you'll get into it again at some point. Don't let the stupid people ruin it for you! There's idiots in every village, everywhere.

IDK, I don't see myself quitting any time soon. I think the only reason I'd quit is because I physically couldn't drink anymore. Even then though, I'd probably still brew and just take a taste here and there.

 

[fuelish]

I quit because there is so much good beer available within a few miles of my house, not worth the effort to brew......but, of COURSE, this does not mean I've stopped fermenting at home, just concentrating on meads anymore(maybe an occasional beer, I do have the basics for an American wheat of some kind at some time, but...) My Mrs loves my meads....she cares a lot less for good hoppy beer, so...it's a win...and heck, the microbrewery/brewpub in my city is close enough I can ride my bicycle there

 

[Hello]

I enjoyed that a thread was revived 2 years later so that someone could share their story that they quit because it was too hipster to brew, basically. I am slightly suspicious of the claim that a LHBS exists to this day where their business model is to only sell to those they like and if they don't like someone then they sell only if the customer pays above the marked price. I can't imagine that store being open long at all and considering there are business licenses, there are complaints that can be filed at the state level.

Either way, I brew because I love it, not because it was a unique hobby that not many people did. I jumped into brewing when I suppose the "hipster movement" happened. I had no idea home brewing was that big of a deal in the first place. I guess my timing was just coincidence...and Groupon had a deal.

 

[Darwin18]

I haven't quit but I've cut back severely. I have three taps on my keezer on home and find it difficult to keep them all full. I currently have a half keg of Pale Ale that's been sitting on tap since New Years and is starting to lose it's taste. I've been focusing on losing weight this past year and have been very successful (down 50 lbs to date), but that means I find it difficult to justify fitting homebrew into my calories for the day. I find myself drinking Miller Lite when I do have a beer instead....It tastes terrible but 96 calories is hard to beat.

That being said, I regularly give beer away or focus on styles that take time to mature like lagers. I have a Munich Helles that's lagering and I'm excited about my next brew: a raspberry wheat lager that should be similar to Purple Haze. I haven't lost the love of brewing but heart disease is prevalent in my family so getting to a healthy weight is my priority for the time being.

 

[mucci2k]

For me it was bad equipment and not enough research.

I was given a Mr Beer kit and followed the directions when I was 21, it said you could add table sugar to bump up the abv so I did and ended up getting a beer that tasted cidery, I dumped it and kept drinking BMC. (At that age it was all about getting hammered)

That same year I was given the normal starter kit, two buckets, capper ect, that was found at a garage sale but due to the original bad experience I used the bottling bucket for harry buffalo at parties.

After finding the buckets in my basement 6 years later I thought what the hell lets try again and I bought a red ale kit and haven't slowed down yet. I just wish I would have tried again sooner.

 

[brewbama]

I quit about 20 yrs ago when deployed overseas. Got back into it after retiring from the Army.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Just when I thought I was out, they PULL ME BACK IN!

No one ever quits. Sure you see the craigslist clearance posts, but those are the same people that come back 5 years later and rebuy all their stuff tenfold.


I'll never quit. I might slow down from one batch per month to one every couple months or worse dare I say. But quit? No, no reason to.

 

[NickTheGreat]

I don't see myself ever quitting. But I could see batches getting spaced further a part, for a while, at least. Especially when kids start entering the picture!!!

 

[Owly055]

Alcoholism and weight gain are two good reasons to quit brewing. One has to ask themselves if they are dependent, when you find yourself drinking a couple of beers every evening, and then cracking a breakfast beer without giving it a second thought. You can develop a dependence on home brew just like you can on factory brew, and it can upset the equilibrium of your life just as much. It can effect your relationships and your job.

How many of us haven't asked ourselves if we could walk away from alcohol?.....How many should ask that question?.....How many of us could? Personally I drink coffee, beer, and water............nothing else exists that I care to drink...... I do enjoy some whiskey, but I sip that and not very much. Take beer out of your life and what do you replace it with?

Personally I would love to have a satisfying non-alcoholic or extremely low alcohol beer... I love that hoppy bite nothing but beer has.

The expanding waistline is a problem not to be discounted......... a reason to give up drinking and brewing beer..........


H.W.

 

[j1n]

I think if you balance it out you can still drink and not gain weight or if trying to lose weight you can just cut back.

Im trying to lean out a bit for summer but im not fat. im trying to get to prob 10% bodyfat and im currently around 14-15%. I just limit my drinking to weekends. eat healthy and workout during the week. If i want a beer during the week ill skip some carbs i would normally have with a meal.

Its all about moderation. weight gain should not make you give it up.

 

[fanch75]

Once my 2nd child was born, available "me time" was at a premium. When I have "me time," there are other things I'd rather be doing. Whether that be something productive or simply sitting in front of a game on tv, not thinking or worrying about anything.

That said, A few weeks ago I finally bottled an IPA that I brewed in Nov 2012:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=6849133#post6849133

 

[bbohanon]

I agree with quitting if its a dependency issue or weight gain issue.
Its not worth putting your life at risk.
If you cannot go a day with a beer (and not because you choose not to, but you just honestly get the DTs if you dont have an infusion of beer daily), it may be time to hang it up.
Heart Disease and significant weight gain is also a health risk.
Beer is good in moderation. I actually enjoy making the beer and the associated process more than the drinking part to be honest.
Its why I will never give it up.
I also do not go to any homebrew club meetings or do any of the crapola you see with those guys who are "craft beer drinkers only". If I give you a free beer (mine or store bought), I dont want a scoring sheet on it. It was either good or it was not. Tasting notes and a profile breakdown will only bore me.
:rockin:

 

[Vandulus]

Time (aka kids) is certainly a factor, but for me a sting of bad batches and mishaps caused me to quit for 6 years. Now that the kids are older, I spent a great deal of time re-educating myself and learning better techniques before brewing again. So far every batch has come out good at worst and I'm brewing much more frequently.

 

[ArcLight]

Reasons to quit brewing -

1 ) Brewing takes time. If you have small children or other hobbies/work you might not have the time.

2) You might move and not have the space. (But you could still do stove top brewing.)

3) You don't have anyone to share your beer with / your club folds.

4) You get old and it's harder to manage. Maybe a 60 year old woman or 65-70 year old man has trouble carrying a 5 gallon bucket down the stairs.

5) Maybe after years of brewing, the person never managed to make beers they love, and are content to drink some of the excellent craft brews available.

6) You practice a religion that bans alcohol.

 

[Psylocide]

I quit all the time... then I start on my next batch.

 

[Paradigm]

100% personal reasons, nothing else to say. Either they get bored, can't afford it or life gets in the way. Not really much to discuss.

Unless this is an awkwardly titled "Why would you quit brewing" thread. If that's the case: I would never!

 

[Talgrath]

Only reason I could see quitting is a lack of either money, space or time and time would seem to be the bigger one for me. Between hitting the gym to stay in shape, the significant other, a social life and brewing beer I sometimes find myself constantly "busy", there have been weekends that I have the time, but I just don't have the will to get it done because I want to sit on the couch for a few hours and watch tv or play some video games on my computer. That said, I usually brew at least once per month, except during the month and a half or so when it's actually hot in Washington.

 

[VT-NAV]

I took two long sabbaticals from brewing.

The first was after I'd been brewing for 3 years. The reason was simple: life got in the way. I was working between 70 and 80 hours a week from Monday through Saturday. Brewing was the last thing I felt like doing on Sunday, my one full day off of work.

The second was burnout brought on by a string of 4 bad batches right in a row. Morebeer was having a sale on bulk hops, so I bought a whole bunch of a new variety I'd never tried before (Falconer's Flight). I brewed 4 beers in rapid succession using the hops. The first time I opened the vacuum-sealed bag, I thought it smelled "off." The odor was somewhere between freshly-cut stinky cheese and sweaty gym sock. I figured the overt smell must give way to powerful citrus flavors when the acids were isomerized in the boil (otherwise the hops wouldn't have so many good reviews). Though I didn't know it at the time, hops go rancid. Four brew days, four yeast starters, 220 bottles cleaned and sanitized, and countless additional tasks completed all for 220 beers that tasted like sweat wrung out of a bicycle seat cover. I was very cordial with the customer service person I spoke with at morebeer, but was treated like a scammer when I asked for a $50 gift certificate to help defray the cost of the other ingredients ruined by the rancid hops they sold me. I was pretty pissed and took a year off from brewing. I tried one of the beers just the other day; it still tasted like ass and had also developed an overwhelming peach flavor which I suspect was from a combination of US-05 and a year of cold storage.

 

[myelo]

Reasons I'll quit brewing.

1. I die

 

[johnmac22]

I never quit brewing but I stopped for random periods of time simply due to the fact that I had to bottle it. Now that I keg, i haven't stopped!

I would agree that most stop because of family or time.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

I stopped brewing beer for about 4 years because I divorced, sold my house and most of my gear, and didn't have the time or money to get going again (of course,this was before I found BIAB, so I might have brewed the whole time). I made mead & cysers in the interim, and when I started back to brewing, I just did the things I know I enjoyed. So now I have a 3-vessel direct fired 2-tier manual system with a pump, and a BIAB system. What I never took up again was kegging. I had a four kegs with taps, but it was more hassle than I liked, so now I have 1 keg for force carbing ciders and hard lemonade (and the occasional keg for parties/events) but bottle nearly 100%.
P.S. Hella awesome zombie thread.

 

[Brew_G]

Time (aka kids) is certainly a factor, but for me a sting of bad batches and mishaps caused me to quit for 6 years. Now that the kids are older, I spent a great deal of time re-educating myself and learning better techniques before brewing again. So far every batch has come out good at worst and I'm brewing much more frequently.

Being about seven months into my "brewing career," I can absolutely see those being reasons why I might stop making beer.

I started brewing after having a daughter, which certainly puts a damper on the time I can spend brewing, especially since the wife watches our daughter five days a week and would like me to take up some of the slack on the weekends. I've also had two batches in a row that were infected in the bottle (because of a hunk of crap in the bottling wand that I didn't know was there), so until I drink another beer that I'd be proud of serving someone else, I'll have that nagging suspicion that I'm just not very good at making beer. If that were to continue, I could see myself taking a long break from it.

 

[hunter_le five]

Reasons I'll quit brewing.

1. I die

Quitter.

 

[Rhumbline]

Thls is a well-timed topic, since I'm getting back to brewing after several months off. I stopped for a combination of reasons, short attention span, etc.

I had been happily brewing extract kits from Austin Homebrew and when they went through their re-organization it just messed everything up for a few months and I lost interest. I'd liked the convenience of just ordering the kit.

I continued doing wine and built up a huge stockpile. I also got into sodas and it was ginger beer that got me to break out the fermenters again. One batch is bubbling away right now.

I guess I'll do some beers if I can source the ingredients locally, but that's difficult.

 

[robertus]

I don't quit per se, though I do tend to go a long time between batches. The main culprits are money and time.