[BrewBama]

But they’ll spend well over $1,000.00 in shiny new mash tuns, kettles, fermenters, glycol chillers, kegerators, etc… which probably won’t improve their beer the way information can.

[lupulus]

And if you want to know what the good pros do, get the recently translated Narziss book or June's book.

From a homebrewer perspective, is there anything new or interesting in Narziss for someone who already has a copy of Kunze (5th edition)?  What is June's book?  I'm not familiar with that one.

Most homebrewers aren't going to spend $1000 in books to maybe learn something from dead nerds.

Correct.

This comment and your response seem to be looking for a fight.

Dead nerd?! Really?!

Have a great day, everyone!

"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." - Sherlock Holmes (A. Conan Doyle)

[reverseapachemaster]

Glad to see that after nearly a decade, any conversation can still turn into that conversation with so little effort.

[fredthecat]

i think my original post had an odd tone, and was definitely influenced by having had a few beers as well as my honest inexperience in the social aspect of homebrewing. i think the club's been around for a while, and i also forgot there was one extremely interesting beer which some of you may be aware about if you read brewing blogs and it was impressive, but was overshadowed by all the others i had after.

yes, definitely it will be about either just rolling with it and enjoying it as a social thing and/or seeing what can be done in a constructive and really, indirect way to explain some specific best practices based on what i tasted.

online im anonymous and pretty free in critiquing but IRL i am the opposite generally. and i in fact was expecting and even hoping for more criticism of my beers.

i think one big thing when doing homebrew on a regular schedule is to try to only change one variable at a time when you are """improving""" your brews.

A lot of homebrewers are not brewing world class beer and not necessarily looking for feedback about their beers at homebrew club meetings. Some clubs are just folks who enjoy homebrewing and sharing their beers with likeminded people. That club may not be a good fit for you or the overall club meetings are not as useful to you as finding a group within the club that want to collaborate on improving their beers.

I used to be part of a club for a while that was exactly like this and I dropped off because I never found that group there. Most of the beers were not good but kind words were always exchanged. For all you know, other members had criticism for your beers and didn't want to throw unsolicited criticism in your face anymore than you did to their faces.

i definitely only said good things or lol, on that night a bit of nothing-at-all as well. its a fairly large group and i think there is a segement that is more serious or focused on different styles than others.

its intriguing to me how many people are just really really into hazy/NEIPAs even as a homebrewer.

Though i think that kind of point in itself indicates that people just have different tastes and expectations of beer.

This comment and your response seem to be looking for a fight.

Dead nerd?! Really?!

Have a great day, everyone!

Yeah, not a fan of that word. tbh, i am a self (and socially, especially in my past) identified nerd. and despite the relative coolness nowadays "oh im such a nerd!", imho we ARE the people who have the obsessive nature as well as unfortunately often the sometimes grating personalities (  ) that are required to create a relatively odd hobby and fully flesh it out from simply thinking about it to a real, likely billion dollar industry supporting it. im talking about the creation of home-brewing in the modern sense of it. im a nerd for sure.

But they’ll spend well over $1,000.00 in shiny new mash tuns, kettles, fermenters, glycol chillers, kegerators, etc… which probably won’t improve their beer the way information can.

lool. that was the thing with the one beer - the guy was showing off his complicated pressure ferm equipment lol and it was such an objectively ugly beer. (if that guy ever happens to read this - he is a LEGIT very nice guy and i think he made a good beer in a previous meetup.)

[hopfenundmalz]

A homebrew club will have people from beginners to accomplished brewers. We all made our first beer. Some get better on thier own, some don't, some benefit from the help they get in the club. I made my first beer, joined a good club and benefited from advice from others.

Now I give advice. It is gratifying when people come up to me and say I helped them make better beer.

I'm a lifelong learner. A little nerdy. Not dead yet. If Narziss is $100 I might have to spend a little for that, just because.

My equipment is mostly 20+ years old. I make the beer on the equipment I have using the techniques I learned over the years. There are 2 guys I know, and many of you have heard of, that make award winning beer on very basic systems. They know what they're doing. One guy said, "What works for me, works for me".