Why Do You Brew The Things That You Brew?

[Liam_snorkel]

I started brewing 10 years ago because I was underage and wanted to get wasted at shoolies.

 

[vortex]

Money was only a small factor in my brewing, I was already drinking all the craft brew I could get my hands on (and yes it was expensive, hence the money aspect..) but I was really interested in the science side of it from day one and planned to go straight to AG. I thought better of it and bought the typical brewcraft extract kit to start with, knowing i'd be going AG as soon as I could; but wanted to practice the sanitisation etc first on (what I thought would be cheaper) Extract.

Didn't last, now planning brew stand and RIMS after doing some AG in a 70L pot with esky mashtun

As others have said, I get fantastic satisfaction from the brewing of it, but I find it's normally all gone before my mates make it around to try it (Actually I think I need friends that visit more often!)

 

[Yob]

It was (as far as i can recall) mostly about a new hobby for me. I certainly wasnt a 'craft beer' drinker back then (nor was i a mega swill drinker either..er.. Coopers is fair smack in the,middle yeah?)

The concept of cheap beer 'may' have been a factor but i dont think so.. I just wanted to make beer.

now days i turn my nose up at what is considered commercial craft beer coz my own is tailor made to my sorely abused, hop overloaded taste buds.. Not that i dont sample commercial craft beer, i do.. I just find it lacking and lets not discuss my opinions on coopers green which was a staple diet for me once upon a time.

At the end of the day, why we got into it isnt always the reason we stay doing it, i love most factors of this amazingly rewarding hobby.. All except the fking cleaning which is tolerated.

i live, i brew, i clean,

I am brewer hear me burp

 

[Steve@PMF82]

.. I just wanted to make beer.


i live, i brew, i clean,

I am brewer hear me burp

THIS


Also i had no idea how beer was made, i just had an inclining it could be better than most commercial beers i had sampled.
I joined here just after doing my first and last kit from LHBS and my interest in learning how to make beer i love from scratch snow balled very quickly from there.

To me now its a great hobby that i really enjoy all aspects of from grain to brain.

 

[Spork]

After decades of going for quantity over quality (I drank Tooheys red, and thought crownies were a premium beer) I finally tried a BeerMasons pack and it blew my socks off! That, combined with the fact that my BIL brewed K&K beers that were drinkable and I decided if he can I can.
Found this forum, did a couple of (expensive and shit tasting) Brewcraft kits. Had a crack @ NickJD's stovetop BIAB for <$30, and never looked back!
Now I have a mill and buy in bulk I can produce really nice beer for about $1 a litre. Better still - I have beer on tap!

It's a hobby that lets me spend as much, or as little, on bling as I want.
I get good beer at a fraction of the price of buying it by the bottle.
I have beer on tap.
My mates reckon it's the ducks guts.
I get to combine art and science.

 

[WarmBeer]

I am brewer hear me burp

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new catchphrase

 

[Wimmig]

Because being able to call my beers things like Rye Sense of Humour is too much for me to pass up.

 

[white.grant]

I started brewing back in the late 1980s when the beer scene in Australia became dominated by two large personalities, Alan Bond and John Elliot. It wasn't so much that I wanted to brew cheap beer, but I did want to keep my cash away from those two. Had a few friends get into it once I started, then my father and father in law dabbled a bit. We all enjoyed the sense of fun of the hobby, sharing our homebrew and improving our techniques from kits into partial mashes, though ingredients were not easy to find, or of the best quality, but it was fun making stuff. Eventually brewing fell away as a pastime as did drinking, for a variety of reasons, young kids and time being uppermost in my catalogue. But I still kept my gear and hoped that one day I'd break out the can opener again.

Looking back now, while we did a few partial mashes back in the early 90s with all kinds of weird and wonderful ingredients and thought we knew what we were doing - learning was a bigger challenge. The ease of access to information, raw materials and ideas got me back into brewing 5 or so years ago long after Al went to gaol and John lost his way. It's fun and I enjoy it. Even the cleaning

 

[Bada Bing Brewery]

I'm ridiculously rich and yet I brew - I have always wanted to be a statistical anomaly, an outlier if you will ...

I agree with Lecterfan (whatever he said :blink: )
Cheers
BBB

 

[rotten]

I started brewing goop for cheap beer, like a lot of brewers. I was having trouble and found a few forums like this one which helped heaps. I now brew AG, grow hops, buy bulk everything, and drink beer from my very own taps :icon_chickcheers:

Now it's a hobby that I get a lot of enjoyment out of, and share with my mates.

 

[argon]

I started brewing because a few mates bought me a starter kit.

With my aspergers tendency to know everything about a given subject it blossomed from there.
It's as if they knew I would take it to this degree and supply them with good beer thereafter. Outsmarted by dimwits I've been.

 

[CONNOR BREWARE]

Maybe because when I was three foot tall I was helping my dad do his k&k. Maybe the same tendency that had me enrolled at adult night school at age of 14 learning furniture making and computer building basics, same reason I insisted my gran and mum teach me to cook at 16. Just feels good to Make stuff yourself.

However since learning all grain I fell into the trap of craft beer. If I'm not brewing it beer cost me a fortune. Better to brew my own craft beer and have on tap. Same awesome feeling of accomplishment. And my god it's damn tasty.

 

[DarkFaerytale]

I needed a reason to grow a beard.

this.

 

[petesbrew]

A few mates had done homebrewing and it sounded like a fantastic idea. I mean how good is it that you can make beer at home?

I've always had adventurous tastebuds, trying different beers when I saw them on tap, and seeing so many different kits to try it became a goal to try them all. Plus little mailouts from Coopers with their recipes gave me my first real taste of hops in a beer, via a goldings teabag in a Canadian Blonde kit. Yum!

Meeting up with fellow brewers on the net was a major step, especially tasting my first all grain beer, and tasting one of Doc's (of Doctors Orders Brewing) hop bombs. Making new mates and learning something new everyday about brewing has easily turned this hobby into an obsession.

One of the great things you get out of this is being able to brew different styles that are not commonly available instore, or are well out of your budget. Dusseldorf Altbiers are up amongst my favourites, but I've never tasted a commercial one. Belgians which can easily cost in the $100+ mark for a case, can be brewed for a fraction of the cost.

There's always a new beer to try, and an old favourite to remake. And it's fun sharing your latest creation with your mates.

 

[Dave70]

In this thesis I am suggesting that home brewing is a form of non-materialistic consumption that offers alternative forms of pleasure that are both ecologically and ethically sustainable.

I don't get the ethically sustainable bit. The entire brewing process involves everything from burning fossil fuels to CO2 emissions. From the time the farmer plants the barley to the first hiss of a bottle being opened.
Though I've yet to feel the slightest twang of guilt or moral conundrum in that respect.

Making beer is just an extension of my nature. I'm a practical man who's good with his hands. If I can make it, grow it, cook it, mend it or brew it myself, I'll have a go.

If there was a shop down the road that sold quality international beer at international prices, I probably wouldn't be arsed making it. But there isn't.


Though Marx may have struggled to label this home brewers rig as 'non-materialistic', I think most of us braid and esky or BIAB guys or would qualify.
Qualify as cheap bastards anyway. Cheap jealous bastards..

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

<snip> I think most of us braid and esky or BIAB guys or would qualify.

This.

My brew rig, as "evolved" as it is, is still my 2 cheap big w pots, an esky I already owned and 2 food grade plastic pails (with an attached tap) from Bunnings.

I'm so cheap, I haven't even bought the big pot, nor the burner to use it on.

A combination of real cheapskatiness and a desire to do something useful and creative and masculine, given I live in a house with a wife and 3 daughters.

 

[petesbrew]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new catchphrase

Next AHB tshirt idea.
Sorted.

 

[brad81]

To make good beer without destroying my budget.

The process is soothing.

I needed another hobby besides gaming.

I love playing with all the gear. Albeit BIAB at the moment, I like to do things myself and make sure it is done properly.

I know what I am ingesting

 

[bum]

A combination of real cheapskatiness

This is just as materialistic as wanting a Sabco just because it looks flash (I'm not saying that is why anyone would buy a Sabco, of course). Refusing to spend money is not the same thing as not having it at all. Refusing to let go of money is just as materialistic as spending money on the flashest stuff for no other reason than it is flash.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

This is just as materialistic as wanting a Sabco just because it looks flash (I'm not saying that is why anyone would buy a Sabco, of course). Refusing to spend money is not the same thing as not having it at all. Refusing to let go of money is just as materialistic as spending money on the flashest stuff for no other reason than it is flash.

Nope, it's just that my money is mainly spent on more noble things, like putting clothes on my kids' backs, paying the rent and putting food in the pantry and fuel in the car. Why spend more on a once-a-month hobby than I need to? :huh:

Being a cheapskate on my stuff allows me to give more to those in my life, more important than me. If brewing got in the way of that (or beer in general), I'd give it up.

One cannot take a comment out of context, which it is, and accuse an individual, whom they don't know, of something that is the antithesis of their very nature.

After all, how do you know whether I'm refusing to spend more vs not having any at all?