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Author Topic: Are we limiting our creativity?  (Read 4825 times)

Offline denny

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Re: Are we limiting our creativity?
« Reply #15 on: April 14, 2020, 01:35:05 pm »
I also had to learn for myself how to use DME for priming when bottling. Nobody even mentioned it before I started doing it. I figured out how much to use by comparing the fermentabilty of DME to corn sugar and then doing the math. That came out to using 1 and 1/4 cup per 5 gallon batch.

That info is out there in many places.  I wonder why you had to figure it out yourself? I assume you looked,  so I wonder why it's so hard to find it.
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

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The best, sharpest, funniest, weirdest and most knowledgable minds in home brewing contribute on the AHA forum. - Alewyfe

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell

Offline denny

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Re: Are we limiting our creativity?
« Reply #16 on: April 14, 2020, 01:38:13 pm »
Another thing to mention is that there has been quite a bit of "right and wrong" in homebrewing for a lot of years.  Some of this may have been assumed and then passed on like gospel to more and more people.  Recently some people have been looking into some of these things and have determined that many are not true.  The web has made it easier for all of us to communicate but it has also perpetuated a lot of nonsense as well and after some amount of time you begin to know whose information to trust.  There are a lot of smart people out there who research and experiment and share that information with us, thank Jeebus.  There are also a lot of cowboys out there who like to sling information around that may or may not be true.  They may just be trying to 'give back' to the community and not intentionally trying to deceive but it's there either way.  It was just mentioned that sometimes you have to try things out for yourself and I agree 100%.  If it's good, nice work.  If it's bad, either rework it or forget it.  If it comes out REALLY bad, I bet it never happens again!  :D

 I see a lot of brewers now saying not to do a secondary fementation but I disagree with that. If done right it should introduce no ill effects into the beer at all and should clear it quite a bit. And at that point I like to leave the carboy alone for as long as needed until I keg that batch. Did this last year in an apartment with temps approcahing 80 degrees. The carboy was in the closet for about 3 months time until I finally primed a keg with it and threw the keg in my firend's basement for 2 weeks time. We enjoyed it at my birthday poker party where the buy in is my age. So last year that buy in was $59. Seven people almost drained the entire 5 gallons and I think one person wasn't really drinking on it either.

I'll say don't do a secondary, but ultimately its up to you.  I find no value in it 99% of the time, but it's homebrewing...we all get to make our own decisions about our hobby.
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

www.dennybrew.com

The best, sharpest, funniest, weirdest and most knowledgable minds in home brewing contribute on the AHA forum. - Alewyfe

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell

Offline Village Taphouse

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Re: Are we limiting our creativity?
« Reply #17 on: April 14, 2020, 01:39:32 pm »
There are other guidelines that help us from falling off the cliff:  Don't make a beer with 100% roasted barley.  :D  Don't use 75% crystal malt in a beer.  Don't use a pound of 16% Warrior as a bittering addition to a 5-gallon batch of beer.  :D 
Ken from Chicago. 
A day without beer is like... just kidding, I have no idea.

Offline denny

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Re: Are we limiting our creativity?
« Reply #18 on: April 14, 2020, 01:39:53 pm »
In the same line, do homebrewers take beer and brewing too seriously?
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

www.dennybrew.com

The best, sharpest, funniest, weirdest and most knowledgable minds in home brewing contribute on the AHA forum. - Alewyfe

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell

Offline HabeasCorpus

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Re: Are we limiting our creativity?
« Reply #19 on: April 14, 2020, 01:51:35 pm »
There are other guidelines that help us from falling off the cliff:  Don't make a beer with 100% roasted barley.  :D  Don't use 75% crystal malt in a beer.  Don't use a pound of 16% Warrior as a bittering addition to a 5-gallon batch of beer.  :D

So you've tried some of these?  :o  I jest, I jest... ;)  But what about the Keptinis?  Just saying that these things are out of reach and not putting forth an effort to make them work, however ridiculous that sounds, (like how can one make a 75% crystal malt beer actually work?  By baking it in a wood fired oven in bread pans?  Isn't Keptinis 100% crystal/caramel?).  It's that type of stereotype that I'm talking about.  Definitely not accusing you or making any accusation against Village Taphouse but instead just using this as an example.

Offline HabeasCorpus

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Re: Are we limiting our creativity?
« Reply #20 on: April 14, 2020, 01:55:28 pm »
In the same line, do homebrewers take beer and brewing too seriously?

It is taken very seriously by some and that perhaps also limits the creativity.  For example, the more technical you get with your equipment the more the "guidelines" come into play, "I've got a pH meter and by gosh I'm gonna hit my exact pH!".  (Yes, I'm guilty of both ends of the spectrum, too serious and too lazy.)

Big Monk

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Re: Are we limiting our creativity?
« Reply #21 on: April 14, 2020, 01:58:57 pm »
I think sometimes "creativity " gets the better of brewers.

^^^
THIS.

I personally like beer flavored beer. I'm a traditionalist I guess.

Offline denny

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Re: Are we limiting our creativity?
« Reply #22 on: April 14, 2020, 02:01:56 pm »
I think sometimes "creativity " gets the better of brewers.

^^^
THIS.

I personally like beer flavored beer. I'm a traditionalist I guess.

You and me both, buddy!
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

www.dennybrew.com

The best, sharpest, funniest, weirdest and most knowledgable minds in home brewing contribute on the AHA forum. - Alewyfe

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell

Big Monk

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Re: Are we limiting our creativity?
« Reply #23 on: April 14, 2020, 02:02:36 pm »
In the same line, do homebrewers take beer and brewing too seriously?

Probably. It depends I guess on the part that you find most interesting and fun.

Like all things beer, the seriousness in which you approach things is as subjective as the flavors of the beer itself.

Offline HabeasCorpus

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Re: Are we limiting our creativity?
« Reply #24 on: April 14, 2020, 02:02:59 pm »
I think sometimes "creativity " gets the better of brewers.

^^^
THIS.

I personally like beer flavored beer. I'm a traditionalist I guess.

Personal tastes, stereotypes and inhibitions are also limiting.  "Beer flavored beer" is an often used phrase that would mean something different to people all over the world.

Offline denny

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Re: Are we limiting our creativity?
« Reply #25 on: April 14, 2020, 02:03:10 pm »
In the same line, do homebrewers take beer and brewing too seriously?

It is taken very seriously by some and that perhaps also limits the creativity.  For example, the more technical you get with your equipment the more the "guidelines" come into play, "I've got a pH meter and by gosh I'm gonna hit my exact pH!".  (Yes, I'm guilty of both ends of the spectrum, too serious and too lazy.)

I'm thinking more of the "do it my way or it's wrong" mentality.  Or that beer is important enough to argue over.
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

www.dennybrew.com

The best, sharpest, funniest, weirdest and most knowledgable minds in home brewing contribute on the AHA forum. - Alewyfe

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell

Offline coonmanxdog

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Re: Are we limiting our creativity?
« Reply #26 on: April 14, 2020, 02:04:22 pm »
Another thing to mention is that there has been quite a bit of "right and wrong" in homebrewing for a lot of years.  Some of this may have been assumed and then passed on like gospel to more and more people.  Recently some people have been looking into some of these things and have determined that many are not true.  The web has made it easier for all of us to communicate but it has also perpetuated a lot of nonsense as well and after some amount of time you begin to know whose information to trust.  There are a lot of smart people out there who research and experiment and share that information with us, thank Jeebus.  There are also a lot of cowboys out there who like to sling information around that may or may not be true.  They may just be trying to 'give back' to the community and not intentionally trying to deceive but it's there either way.  It was just mentioned that sometimes you have to try things out for yourself and I agree 100%.  If it's good, nice work.  If it's bad, either rework it or forget it.  If it comes out REALLY bad, I bet it never happens again!  :D

 I see a lot of brewers now saying not to do a secondary fementation but I disagree with that. If done right it should introduce no ill effects into the beer at all and should clear it quite a bit. And at that point I like to leave the carboy alone for as long as needed until I keg that batch. Did this last year in an apartment with temps approcahing 80 degrees. The carboy was in the closet for about 3 months time until I finally primed a keg with it and threw the keg in my firend's basement for 2 weeks time. We enjoyed it at my birthday poker party where the buy in is my age. So last year that buy in was $59. Seven people almost drained the entire 5 gallons and I think one person wasn't really drinking on it either.

I'll say don't do a secondary, but ultimately its up to you.  I find no value in it 99% of the time, but it's homebrewing...we all get to make our own decisions about our hobby.

I find quite a bit of value in doing a secondary. For one it allows the beer to settle and clear and then I know that I basically have exactly 5 gallons of beer for my keg. I don't want a bunch of sediment in the keg. And I can store the beer in secondary for a long time until I transfer into the keg. If done correctly I do see a big advantage to transferring to secondary. But it needs to be done as soon as primary has crashed.

Offline HabeasCorpus

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Re: Are we limiting our creativity?
« Reply #27 on: April 14, 2020, 02:04:55 pm »
I'm thinking more of the "do it my way or it's wrong" mentality.  Or that beer is important enough to argue over.

Plenty of that to go around.

Offline coonmanxdog

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Re: Are we limiting our creativity?
« Reply #28 on: April 14, 2020, 02:05:34 pm »
I also had to learn for myself how to use DME for priming when bottling. Nobody even mentioned it before I started doing it. I figured out how much to use by comparing the fermentabilty of DME to corn sugar and then doing the math. That came out to using 1 and 1/4 cup per 5 gallon batch.

That info is out there in many places.  I wonder why you had to figure it out yourself? I assume you looked,  so I wonder why it's so hard to find it.

All I ever saw or heard was to use corn sugar. That advice is everywhere. So I had to figure it out on my own and I did. This of course happened many years ago.

Big Monk

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Re: Are we limiting our creativity?
« Reply #29 on: April 14, 2020, 02:10:01 pm »
I think sometimes "creativity " gets the better of brewers.

^^^
THIS.

I personally like beer flavored beer. I'm a traditionalist I guess.

Personal tastes, stereotypes and inhibitions are also limiting.  "Beer flavored beer" is an often used phrase that would mean something different to people all over the world.

I think it's more universally applicable, in a global sense, than you imagine.