Expectations One Step Ahead....

[waggastew]

I have been thinking over the last few months that brewing my idea of a perfect beer is unattainable. It seems that every time I make an improvement to my brewing or beers my palate seems to get 'pickier'. I am currently brewing my 20th beer (I realise not a big number on here but I have made many improvements) and my beers are WAAAAAY better than when I started. But I still manage to find things that I want to improve.

What makes me even more pessimistic is that I am finding myself doing the same with most of the commercial beers I drink as well. Old friends (e.g. Heineken/Becks/Most of the JS range) now taste like they are full of faults.

It seems I am becoming a beer snob/wanker/elitist faster than you can say "Orval"

Is brewing the golf of home hobbies?

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I have been thinking over the last few months that brewing my idea of a perfect beer is unattainable. It seems that every time I make an improvement to my brewing or beers my palate seems to get 'pickier'. I am currently brewing my 20th beer (I realise not a big number on here but I have made many improvements) and my beers are WAAAAAY better than when I started. But I still manage to find things that I want to improve.

What makes me even more pessimistic is that I am finding myself doing the same with most of the commercial beers I drink as well. Old friends (e.g. Heineken/Becks/Most of the JS range) now taste like they are full of faults.

It seems I am becoming a beer snob/wanker/elitist faster than you can say "Orval"

Is brewing the golf of home hobbies?

Sounds pretty normal to me.

What's worse is that you start alienating friends and family with "beer nerd" talk, and you can no longer have a pint with anyone without dissecting the beer. Their beer of choice is never usually good enough, and you end up critiquing craft brews and benchmarking them against your brews instead of the other way around.

Goomba

 

[Strutter]

Sounds pretty normal to me.

What's worse is that you start alienating friends and family with "beer nerd" talk, and you can no longer have a pint with anyone without dissecting the beer. Their beer of choice is never usually good enough, and you end up critiquing craft brews and benchmarking them against your brews instead of the other way around.

Goomba

+1 "beer nerd"

 

[Blackapple]

Is brewing the golf of home hobbies?

Until you make one all your friends like, then its the womens beach volleyball of home hobbies

 

[BigDaddy]

I think that it is a good thing that u arent always 100% satisfied with the results - i reckon that is what keeps you coming back to make some changes, tweak this or that. I'm sure you still enjoy drinking what you brew and u can sit back and say...'this is mine, I made it and when I run out, I can make more whenever I want.'

There is something special about making things yourself. The world is dominated by 'consumers' who really have no clue about where things come from other than the supermarket, IKEA or BWS. I'll take home made any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

It's a great hobby that I'm sure most people on here could talk about until the cows come home - If that is a Beer Nerd, then I'm happy to be called one of those (provided I can wear an Orval badge). Besides, its great to talk with like minded nerds about the details of this alchemy. :beer:

Geez, its a little to early for me to be this philosophical!

 

[petesbrew]

I have been thinking over the last few months that brewing my idea of a perfect beer is unattainable. It seems that every time I make an improvement to my brewing or beers my palate seems to get 'pickier'. I am currently brewing my 20th beer (I realise not a big number on here but I have made many improvements) and my beers are WAAAAAY better than when I started. But I still manage to find things that I want to improve.

What makes me even more pessimistic is that I am finding myself doing the same with most of the commercial beers I drink as well. Old friends (e.g. Heineken/Becks/Most of the JS range) now taste like they are full of faults.

It seems I am becoming a beer snob/wanker/elitist faster than you can say "Orval"

Is brewing the golf of home hobbies?

Ken oath. But I still breath a sigh of relief when I see Tooheys old on tap at the local.

I'm in the process of forcing myself to drink the last of my Knk's (2 dodgy batches) while my AG's get a few more weeks of age to them.
Call it a form of self punishment. but most of them are ending down the drain.

 

[yum beer]

Brewing is like surfing,

surfers are always chasing the perfect wave, if they surfed it they wouldnt know, but continue to look for it,


brewers are looking for the perfect beer, and even if you did brew it, you would be looking for a way to improve it...a little more malt, a tad less carb, a f&$king bigger keg...

I have never made the same beer twice and always find myself thinking about the next 'great' beer Im gonna brew.



Whos got time for golf...hell, 4 or 5 beers and I cant remember where the golf course is. and I cant fit one in the brewery.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Yup. I made (and it disappeared, not just my fault, though) my best AAA - decided "that's going to be my house beer" - but of course, despite it being near a perfect, accolade-getting beer, I have this itch to change it.

So I whack in a little rye, galaxy, extra hoppage, extra dry hopping. I'm an idiot, I know - I had it right - but I've got to change something.

My wife said to me one day at Dan's - "you don't 'just feel like beer', you feel like a particular beer, with a particular profile, blah blah blah" - my brewing is a bit like that. I can brew the perfect beer, but still not feel like it, so I'll try to brew something else.

Look at the signatures of some people - how varied the types of beers they currently have bottled and on tap.

Goomba

 

[Effect]

I have been thinking over the last few months that brewing my idea of a perfect beer is unattainable. It seems that every time I make an improvement to my brewing or beers my palate seems to get 'pickier'. I am currently brewing my 20th beer (I realise not a big number on here but I have made many improvements) and my beers are WAAAAAY better than when I started. But I still manage to find things that I want to improve.

What makes me even more pessimistic is that I am finding myself doing the same with most of the commercial beers I drink as well. Old friends (e.g. Heineken/Becks/Most of the JS range) now taste like they are full of faults.

It seems I am becoming a beer snob/wanker/elitist faster than you can say "Orval"

Is brewing the golf of home hobbies?

Tell me about it.

It doesn't get any better my friend. I at times don't like any beer at all, even good commercial beer from mikkeller and the sorts. I find that it is good to have a SMaSH beer on tap or something very plain and simple. This helps me re-calibrate my taste buds. An Aussie pale ale, galaxy and BB ale smash etc etc are for me good beers to have like a sorbet between meals. When drinking out I am lucky that in SA we have coopers every where, west end is actually alright now and tooheys old is on tap or coopers stout is in bottles...that is, if they don't have vale ale or some other local micro on tap. I don't try other main stream beers anymore unless with other brewing friends, as I know that I will be disappointed. However, in saying that, when going to friend's or family's places for events etc and they offer me a beer, I will take whatever they have and be nice about it. There is no point in being a snob or rude about beer at someone else's place. (this is how I know that west end tastes alright nowadays). The premium beers of old, for me taste very watery and underflavoured, where as before I started brewing, they were very nice. Strange isn't it. But goes with everything.

I'm just glad that I have beer on tap at home...and that my friends all have beer on tap at their house too My gf tells me that I am rude sometimes as I don't ask if I may have a beer at someones place sometimes. I just take one from the fridge. It is just that I am used to drinking at peoples house that have so much beer that they are happy that I am drinking it more so that the kegs will run out sooner so they can brew more. I have forgotten the cost of beer and how 'sacred' beer in someones fridge can be. I have had 4 or 5 non brewing friends stand around my keg fridge waiting for me to pour them a beer...which confused me as to why they hadn't already poured themselves one...but then I remembered, that they buy beer from liquor stores and I don't.

Cheers
Phil

 

[mje1980]

Hard not to be a bit fussy when you're used to beers full of flavour, and when you go anywhere they serve beers, its 99% the same old crap. I have no problem drinking crappy beers when im out for farewells, or a rare night out, but i always dread the first few. Im just getting it down as quick as i can!

Im a bit the same, no matter how bloody good a beer is, i'll slightly change it next time. I am getting better though, and i actually have 2 or 3 recipes i have brewed exactly the same ( and will continue to do so ). Sometimes you run out of this malt, or that malt and you have to sub it for something anyway, so it cant be helped, and you never know, the sub might turn out better than the original?!

 

[Synthetase]

I remember when the same thing hit me over a bottle of Squire's Amber. I looked at the label and thought 'well, I'll never drink this again'. It was fun while it lasted, but now I can make a keg of better ale for around half the price of a slab. No contest really. Although the itch to change that recipe turned out for the worse.

 

[warra48]

It's an irreversable process. Learn to love it!

Meet the woman of your dreams, and you never look back, well, I haven't after 36 years of marriage this month.
Would I buy another car like I did 40 years ago? No way. No air conditioning, no power steering, no cruise control, AM radio only; no CD player, vinyl seats, crappy skinny high profile tyres, only 4 speed manual, no reversing light, etc etc. I've moved on, and it's impossible to go back.
Would I choose to live in a house my parents bought in the early 1960's? No way.
Want to go back to snowy B&W television, or do you enjoy the high definition wide screen colour digital multi channels we now enjoy?
Even relatively recent equipment like VHS just doesn't cut it against against a DVD.

I agree with your tastes mature and become more sophisticated. Nothing wrong with that, except it gets more expensive.
I could never go back to drinking the standard major brewers' products. Same with crappy wines, could never go back to drinking Chateau Carboard (goon bags).

Enjoy the progression in your tastes, it's a never ending journey, but it's a good one. How boring and dreadful would life be if you drank a can of Fosters and someone told you "that's as good as it gets."

As for golf, it's deliberately designed to be as frustrating as possible, with the silliest of rules, but it's what stops it being boring. I've never yet hit the perfect golf shot, other than maybe my one and only "hole in one".

At least, as a homebrewer, you get choices about what to brew, and you can keep tinkering with your recipes. Recipe design is part of the fun. Unattainablity is probably right, but who says we have to achieve that? So long as we keep moving forward, it's all good.

 

[Synthetase]

Same with crappy wines, could never go back to drinking Chateau Carboard (goon bags).

Heh, the old man spent the '90s recession drinking "vin de cardboard".

 

[ratchie]

It's an irreversable process. Learn to love it!

Meet the woman of your dreams, and you never look back, well, I haven't after 36 years of marriage this month.
Would I buy another car like I did 40 years ago? No way. No air conditioning, no power steering, no cruise control, AM radio only; no CD player, vinyl seats, crappy skinny high profile tyres, only 4 speed manual, no reversing light, etc etc. I've moved on, and it's impossible to go back.
Would I choose to live in a house my parents bought in the early 1960's? No way.
Want to go back to snowy B&W television, or do you enjoy the high definition wide screen colour digital multi channels we now enjoy?
Even relatively recent equipment like VHS just doesn't cut it against against a DVD.

I agree with your tastes mature and become more sophisticated. Nothing wrong with that, except it gets more expensive.
I could never go back to drinking the standard major brewers' products. Same with crappy wines, could never go back to drinking Chateau Carboard (goon bags).

Enjoy the progression in your tastes, it's a never ending journey, but it's a good one. How boring and dreadful would life be if you drank a can of Fosters and someone told you "that's as good as it gets."

As for golf, it's deliberately designed to be as frustrating as possible, with the silliest of rules, but it's what stops it being boring. I've never yet hit the perfect golf shot, other than maybe my one and only "hole in one".

At least, as a homebrewer, you get choices about what to brew, and you can keep tinkering with your recipes. Recipe design is part of the fun. Unattainablity is probably right, but who says we have to achieve that? So long as we keep moving forward, it's all good.

very well said warra great post.