Love What You Do: Stop worrying and enjoy the brew
One of the hardest lessons a hardcore homebrewer has to learn is that homebrewing should be an enjoyable pastime. There are so many things to learn and stress over that sometimes the prime directive gets lost. We’re making beer; in our kitchens, garages, sheds — we’re not launching a rocket into space on a mission to expand human consciousness (or save us from an alien species we’ve inadvertently maddened).
Brewing is a hobby that is filled with knowledge, lore, gear, ingredients, and nearly endless ways to bring about a very tasty outcome. Before and after you get lost in the weeds, remember that in the murky fog of pre-history, before things like scientific measures and microbiology were understood our ancestors were successfully making large quantities of beer.
If they could do it, then barring a failure to follow first principles (sanitize!), you can do it now. That’s not to say there’s no point in sweating any of the details or the technical knowhow. Being able to use an electric all-in-one system with temperature control makes life easier after all.
What we mean to say is — while learning all the technical stuff, we also have to figure out how to keep the brew day fun and simple while still making the best beer we can make. It’s a balance between those goals and we all get to decide which way the scales tip.
When Denny started brewing many years ago he was infatuated with the science and nerdery behind homebrewing . . . how things worked and how to manipulate parameters in order to get his desired results. He spent hours reading and many more hours experimenting with lessons gleaned from books and forums. He learned how to put grist bills together, which hops went with which grains and other hops, how water chemistry played into things, how to properly package beer . . . since we’re all homebrewers here, you know the drill.
After 20-plus years and hundreds of batches, he suddenly realized that he was intuitively integrating various bits of knowledge into a complete brewing philosophy. But there was another aspect to it all, he also realized that he knew what mattered to him and what didn’t. He was tossing out the stuff that he had decided didn’t make a difference or that he wasn’t interested in. All the nitpicky stuff he’d done all those years had been interesting at first, but now he knew what he was interested in and what he didn’t care about. He started to lose his infatuation with beer and just did what he wanted to do and how he liked to do it.
You get to choose what matters; you get to choose how you approach your hobby.
Drew wasn’t much different — insatiably reading, brewing, and writing. But he’s always been a bit more of a seat-of-the-pants brewer. Quick — which one of us is the former rock and roll roadie and which the classically trained engineer?
If a new brewer, you’ll probably want to try everything. New beer styles are a siren call. New ingredients fascinate you. You want to try every technique you hear about . . . and that’s great. That’s how we learn about brewing. But eventually we all decide what we’re looking for in our version of homebrewing. We may be over the things we list here, but that doesn’t mean you have to be. You get to choose what matters; you get to choose how you approach your hobby. So, with that in mind, here’s what Denny and Drew are over.
Strange ingredients — been there, done that
Denny: Do you really want to put doughnuts on your mash? What is it that you think you’ll get? Too many times, when we ask homebrewers that question, the answer is “why not?” To me that is not the correct response. There should be a purpose to these types of strange additions.
Drew: You’d expect for the guy known for weird beer and strange ideas, I’d be all gnashy teeth on this one, but I’m not. What I’m over is the thoughtless use of “strange ingredients.” Explain to me why you need three different flavor extracts and a bag of pretzels and I’m down. But too many people just throw weird stuff at the mash, kettle, or fermenter praying that it works.
Complex mash schedules — start high, let it drop; start low, stay low . . . go a little higher, etc.
Denny: Some malts require or benefit from a complex mash, but most malts will perform pretty much the same without it. Look at your malt specs and base your mash schedule on that. For example, a traditional protein rest with most modern malts will result in a beer with the body approaching a glass of water.
Drew: With today’s highly modified malts, it feels like an exercise in futility to manipulate wort character via mash regimens. Modern malts carry enough enzymatic power that they convert quickly and cleanly. Having said that — the rules do change when dealing with heritage malts or adjunct-heavy beers (think spelt, wheat, emmer, but not corn/rice/sugar). And hey, sometimes a step mash (particularly when you’re automated) can provide an easy time to drink a beer.
Constant pH fussing
Denny: There is no doubt that pH can have an effect on beer. But we’ve found that close enough is good enough. Our basic rule is to shoot lower for light, crisp beers and higher for darker, maltier ones. Get your water analyzed, get a water program you can trust (we both use Bru’nwater), do what the software tells you and you’re good. No need to agonize over a fraction of a point.
Drew: Having said that — we are seeing an increase in brewers trying to increase the acidity of their IPAs to counteract the pH rise due to massive dry hopping. Still don’t know if it makes a difference for me, but a few of my favorite IPAs use the technique. (But that’s a whole different kettle of water.)
Kveik yeast strains
Denny: Sure, it’s fast. Sure, you can use it at high temperatures. But those aren’t advantages if you don’t like the flavors you get from it or if it’s a struggle to keep warm. Keep using it if it works for you and it’s got great potential for those that live in a hot or tropical environment. But for us it’s one more thing we can eliminate and not have to worry about.
Drew: I think kveik has the potential to be interesting. I also think it’s been a great vehicle for reminding people that farmhouse beers exist and can be made anywhere. (I also think it’s another thing that gets abused.)
Cold-side Oxidation
Denny: Every few years, it seems there’s a new thing that homebrewers are told they have to worry about. The latest enemy is oxidation. We all know that you want to limit oxygen contact as much as you can, but we’ve seen some homebrewers going to what we think are ridiculous lengths. One of the latest that Denny laughs at are the expensive devices to allow you to dry hop without allowing oxygen to enter the fermenter.
Yes, gases mix and the idea of a CO2 “blanket” protecting your beer has some flaws in it. But gases don’t mix instantly. It takes a bit for the interface between them to fade away and allow them to mix. Denny has timed his dry hop addition and found that he can open the fermenter, add dry hops, and close it back up in less than three seconds. There will be little to no gas mixing in those few seconds. Time it for yourself using an empty fermenter. If your times are similar, there’s one less thing for you to worry about.
Drew: Don’t forget — homebrew has one advantage over commercial beer (where the obsession with oxidation is absolutely justified) — we keep our beer cold the whole time. That forgives a number of sins! But when it comes to cold-side oxidations my thought is: Don’t be sloppy and generally you’ll be fine.
Pressure fermentation
Denny: I looked into pressure fermentation after hearing Chris White do a seminar on it at the Australian National Homebrew Conference a couple years ago. While it may offer benefits to commercial brewers, I just didn’t see that it had anything to offer me. The results he presented were inconclusive, and he indicated that you had to match yeast strain, fermentation temperature, and pressure carefully to get good results. Given that, I decided to skip it.
Drew: Pressure fermentation is a tricky beast and seems to be inconsistent even at the smaller professional level. I really don’t have a need to try and produce a lager faster and warmer, so it’s not for me. (Capturing CO2, also known as spunding, for carbonation on the other hand is a fun technique, but again not strictly necessary.)
There’s Only One Right Way
Denny: There are many roads to the same destination. Find the one that takes you where you want to go and then enjoy the trip. Decide where you want to go, look at the “map” of ideas, then go for it. The right way is the way that works for you.
Drew: If you haven’t figured it out — the only right way to brew is to brew in a way that makes you happy with how you’ve spent your day and what you get out the other side in the beer glass. And that applies to everyone. You may not approve of everything someone does as a brewer, but that doesn’t mean you are the supreme moral authority of the brewing universe (neither are we or anyone else). Give them the space to make their own decisions and recognize yours as just one opinion in many.
Commercial Brewer Worship
Denny: As we’ve said several times, just because a commercial brewery does something doesn’t mean that’s the right way for you to do things. Most homebrewers and commercial brewers operate on very different scales.
Drew: You can learn a lot by listening to the professionals out there, but remember, we’re operating at a different scale with different needs and desires. A classic example of how things can change — fermentation temperatures. Brewers will tell you, “Oh, we ferment with Wyeast 1056 at 72 °F (22 °C) for our beers.” When a homebrewer tries it, the results end up different because of ester suppression in larger volumes of beer. My rule of thumb is to take larger brewers’ temperatures and drop them by 3–5 °F/1.5–2.5 °C for my sized system.
Putting it all together
We’re not telling you to ignore science. In fact, it’s exactly the opposite. We encourage you to learn the science behind homebrewing . . . but even more important is to learn how that science relates to how you brew. Internalize the concepts, and don’t sweat the details.
As an example: Yeast starters. We have found that healthy, active yeast is more important than shear quantity. We both quit using yeast calculators and stir plates years back and there was no reduction in the quality of our beer. That one step coincided with an increase in our enjoyment of the hobby because we didn’t have to worry about getting yeast started days ahead of time.
But don’t forget to pay attention to the changes that are happening. Don’t become too closed off from listening to others’ input. We’ve both changed up our dry hopping schemes and even hop selection schemes after looking at the latest research coming out of the hop regions. Playing around was fun and yielded really great results!
The details are important but don’t get hung up by them. Enjoyment is the main reason any of us brew. Enjoyment of the beer, enjoyment of the process, enjoyment of the learning process. Learn what matters to you and base your brewing on it. Because if you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong! What were we saying about supreme moral authorities? Ha . . . sláinte!
