You've heard it a millions time RDWHAHB!
I (mis?) interpret a lot of posts here as being overly anxious.
Did I do this or that right?
How will variable X affect my beer?
Isn't that part of the fun of homebrewing? (Attempting to establish a repeatable process on your own equipment while making a drinkable beer, all through experimentation.)
Do you feel anxious about brewing? Why? Time/money wasted? If you had no one to ask, would you still brew?
You hit the nail on the head, new brewers are overly anxious. They only know enough to be "dangerous" so ignorance breeds fear until they gain the experience that leads to wisdom.
They often don't understand that nothing pathogenic can exist in beer, so they think that any mistake can be lethal or make you sick.
Also they think their beer is like a new born baby and that it need to be hovered over, and if they even look at it wrong it's going to be ruined, and more than likely anyone who drinks it will therefore die a horrible deat.
They furthermore don't realize just how ugly, and stinky fermentation can be, and don't realize that we're really drinking the waste product of a micro-organism, and like any waste product it can kind of look pretty disgusting, even when it is normal.
They don't realize how hard it really is to do a screw up that would actually ruin our beer. They don't think they can screw up.
We're human, we're always going to screw something up. The thing is, it's not about not screwing up, it's about rolling with the punches when it happens. It's about saying, "Oh well, I still made beer."
They don't realize that our beer is really resilient, that 99.99999% of our screw-ups are NOT going to ruin our beer, no matter what boneheaded things we manage to do. I've said it a million times, we've sunk body parts in our beer, and it's still turned out fine.
I've been brewing for years, and I'm sure I screw something up everytime I do it....BUT, I don't run on here asking for re-assurance or analyzing the "what if/what could happen " and worrying about it. Instead I trust that it's still going to be fine,
because nearly every time, it is.
And if it doesn't,
there's nothing I can do about it now. The deed is done and I won't know for 8 weeks or so anyway. And more than likely even if it doesn't turn out, if I stick it in the closet for 6 months or a year.....there's a 50% possibility it WILL still turn out fine.
I suggest all new brewers read these threads instead of worrying, they'll show you how strong your beer really i, and how all of us make mistakes.
Revvy's advice for the new brewer in terms of worry.
What are some of the mistakes you made...where your beer still turned out great?
And
Never dump your beer!!! Patience IS a virtue!!! Time heals all things, even beer!
We're human, to expect that we won't make mistakes is silly. It still happens, I bet your pro-brewer made a bunch of mistakes while showing you what to do....but he didn't react to them, he just continued on.
That's what an expert does....it's not that he's perfect, he just doesn't let the screwups get to him.
