[morticaixavier]

I'm fairly confident that I could brew a recipe from scratch without a computer. I'm fairly confident that I could do a lot of things I do with computers without them but it is convenient to have that quick and effortless calculation at your fingertips.

[Jimmy K]

My real answer would be that I'm sure I could LEARN to brew without a computer. However, if you asked me to do it tomorrow I'd be lost.

[brick pig]

I always brew 6 gallon batches, so it's just a matter of looking at past batches to determine how many pounds of grain it takes to hit a particular OG.

As I said before, I tend to mostly brew a lot of the same recipes over and over again. I will further confess that I can't recall the last time I took a hydrometer reading of any kind. Back in the day I was all about taking copious notes on every brew, from start to finish. Over time I realized I really don't know why I was bothering with it. I know sort of what the ABV is on pretty much all my go-to recipes, but I don't really even care about that. If I were going to enter a contest or something, I'd measure and figure. But all I'm really going to do is drink it, so....

I also think I've brewed enough to look at a particular hop bill and know whether it's going to result in a beer with high, medium or low bitterness, hop flavor, and/or aroma.

Honestly, this is about as technical as I get these days.

[chumley]

Several years ago I decided to try brewing not only without a computer, but without any measuring devices.  No thermometer, hydrometer, scale, measuring bucket.  Nothing.  Just to see what it would turn out like.

Brewed a simple APA with Cascade hops.  The cheating part would be, I suppose, 20 years of familiarity with my system.  I know when water is around 165°F for mash in from the gassy look it starts to get.

The final results is that it came out great, no different from any other APA.

[denny]

Several years ago I decided to try brewing not only without a computer, but without any measuring devices.  No thermometer, hydrometer, scale, measuring bucket.  Nothing.  Just to see what it would turn out like.

Brewed a simple APA with Cascade hops.  The cheating part would be, I suppose, 20 years of familiarity with my system.  I know when water is around 165°F for mash in from the gassy look it starts to get.

The final results is that it came out great, no different from any other APA.

That's great!  Some guys in our club tried that about 14 years ago.  I stood by with measuring devices.  They were way off on everything and they did not make good beer.  Obviously, though, it can be done.

[klickitat jim]

Several years ago I decided to try brewing not only without a computer, but without any measuring devices.  No thermometer, hydrometer, scale, measuring bucket.  Nothing.  Just to see what it would turn out like.

Brewed a simple APA with Cascade hops.  The cheating part would be, I suppose, 20 years of familiarity with my system.  I know when water is around 165°F for mash in from the gassy look it starts to get.

The final results is that it came out great, no different from any other APA.

That's great!  Some guys in our club tried that about 14 years ago.  I stood by with measuring devices.  They were way off on everything and they did not make good beer.  Obviously, though, it can be done.

No measuring at all would be tough. If you were allowed to use something to measure parts, even if you didn't know the volume of that part, it would greatly increase success. 2 parts malt, 3 parts water (no sparge) then 2 parts boiling to 1 part ground temp, should get you a working strike temp. For me that would be 158 in the summer, 156 in the winter. Maybe decoction boil a half of one part after about 30 minutes just to be sure. With no thermometer I would just chill till the output side felt like the input side and call it good. With no hydrometer or calendar I'd just let er go for about one moon cycle. Getting the carbonation right could be tough, but I think a couple palm fulls of sugar would get you some bubbles. Depends on how big that original part was.

[chumley]

Well, before anyone thinks I am a genius, remember my caveat.  Brewing in my system, I know when I have water within a half gallon, just from looking at a bucket.  When malt is weighed out, I can guess how much it weighs within a pound or so.  Same goes for hops (within a half ounce).  The hard one was the mash temperature eyeball, but I think as long as I was somewhere between 140 and 165, I would be golden.

And the fact that I mash too long, and boil too long, like the brewers in the days of old, also helps.

[pinnah]

The hard one was the mash temperature eyeball

Heh. 

Well that poll is silly.  Sorry about that.

Interesting to hear everyone's thoughts; I hope to be an old brewer some day that can brew from practice with my experienced squinting eyeball.

Well the brew started this all off - me trying to convert Dennys Noti Brown recipie in the wiki to my own system - came out fantastic.

I decided to relax, and just brew to the gist of the Noti - I used some homegrown Columbus for the Galena, then threw in some unknown homegrown that remind me of Chinook for a late steep, used Dennys yeast...man, it has really aged into a very nice American Brown.  I call it Not Noti. 

I am OK with that.