[denny]

Make the best beer possible with the least effort possible while having the most fun possible.

[ravenwater]

Make the best beer possible with the least effort possible while having the most fun possible.

A sound philosophy, Denny!
At one point I got a better and bigger brew kettle and my wife bought me a more powerful burner a few years back but otherwise I'm using the same setup I've had for 10 years and am happy with it - orange cooler for mashing, a basic grain mill, and an immersion coil for cooling. I look at my friends who have fancier stuff including basically a small version of a bro brewery in their garage, and have no desire to emulate them. I enjoy the process I have, including the non-automated, hands-on, low-tech aspect. I've learned a crap-ton about brewing over the years and continue enjoying the learning process - that's where the challenges and some of the joy come in for me - incorporating new information, techniques, ingredients into the basic process I have down. Figuring out a ways to shave some time off a brew day has helped keep it enjoyable and not feeling like drudgery. Brew day is my time to hang in the garage, often by myself, listen to music, smoke a cigar, and chill. Simple works for me.

[Bel Air Brewing]

In my personal experience, the simple methods produce some of the best beers. Such as a single malt, single hop recipe. As stated in another thread, the Vienna Lager we made recently is a good example.

My brew system is low tech - high effect. All stainless steel, with conical ferment temperature controlled vessels.

Sampling the beers we brew is much more enjoyable than the process. My brew team is now two people...my wife and myself! She is a huge help.

The old saying, "Less is more" really is true.

While some enjoy getting into the weeds with overly complex recipes and techniques, I stick with what we are doing now. Simple. Effective. Tastes great, less filling!

[Descardeci]

I definitely got in a bit too deep several years ago. When my life got hectic, I couldn't keep up with all the brewing projects I had going and had planned. I got burned out and ended up taking a couple of years off because of it. I got back into regular brewing last year with a focus on keeping my process as streamlined as possible. It makes it a lot easier to fit time for brewing in my (still hectic) life.

That said, while simplicity may be an important goal in my brewing, what works for me might not work for everyone else. Years ago I was brewing 7 extract batches back-to-back-to-back in one brewday and enjoying every second of it. Simplicity works for me now, but there's room in this hobby for simple,  complex, and everything in between.

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I'm in where you were with batch back to back...; I'm doing every 1.5-2 months 20 gallon of beer of 5 recipes, they're close in temp range so I can control with easy, but my process is simple, a lot of work in 7 days, 4-5 of doing the batches and 1-2 of bottling, I want to have some beer for my weekends and where I live I can't get most of my style of beer I like, the english one, some obscure german style, some west coast and east coast IPA, not NEIPA but the old east coast, and call me cranky but I don't like the new styles of sour beer that is in trend nor the NEIPA, execpt the one I made. So I keep my process for myself, simple that I can do alone, but most of time I invest in brewing is reading about style, hops and yeast, mash process, carbonation process, I love a good bottle, and creating recipe, and I'm in a place that is really enjoable brewing and drinking my beers