In Which I Brew Some Crap Beers

In this series of articles we have been talking about different ways to improve your skills outside of the brew day.

But stick with me here, because there’s some useful stuff too.

I’ve been trying to do some new (to me) and hopefully interesting things and the last couple of batches just haven’t quite worked out.

Its probably a little harsh to call them crap – but its tough when you spend several hours planning and shopping and brewing and then have to wait several more weeks for it to finally be ready.  All the while building up in your mind that this is going to be the best beer yet.

And then it just isn’t.

For me, the problem is that I’ve just been making too many changes at once.  Trying new ingredients, trying to tweak my water and messing with my process all at the same time.

If you’ve been reading this site for awhile, you’ve probably noticed that I’m a follower of “Pope Jamil“.  One of the big things he “preaches” is to not change more than one thing at a time (That’s the first bit of useful stuff).

And he’s right.

I’m horribly impatient.  You might be the same.  I usually try to plan out every single detail so that the beer will turn out perfect on the first try.  After all, isn’t this what we’ve been taught in school and at work?  Failing is bad, so you better get everything right on the first try!

But that doesn’t really work.

Yeah, if you’re starting with a known good recipe and you’re not changing any of your normal process – then you’ll probably do just fine on your first try.

But when you’re trying break new ground for yourself – the secret seems to be to start small and just brew over and over – making only one change at a time, until you get it dialed in (That’s the second useful bit of stuff).

I don’t think anyone is going to complain about getting to brew more often.  I certainly am not.

Still with me?  Good.

Then what do you do if you’re like me and haven’t followed all of this good advice?  Maybe the beer isn’t really that bad?  I know I’m my own worst critic.  You might be too.  Well, you’re not my worst critic – you’re your own, I mean.

If you don’t know exactly what went wrong – give some to your friends.  They’ll probably tell you it’s great, which won’t really be that helpful. 

Then try taking some to the homebrew shop, or a club, or send it to a competition (There’s the third bit of useful stuff, if you’re keeping track). Maybe you’ll find out it’s not so bad after all.

Or maybe you will.

I’m not afraid to dump a batch anymore.  But only if I know exactly what I did wrong.  And what I’m going to do to fix it.  This is also yet another reason that kegging rocks.  There’s only one container to empty.

Then just brew it again – and make it even better this time.

So what all of this really boils down to is that learning to brew is no different than learning to do pretty much anything else.  There’s going to be peaks and valleys and plateaus in between.   Just keep trying new things.  And its ok to mess up. as long as you don’t give up.

Read the Full Series

This article is part of a series on some ways to become a better brewer.  Hopefully this post got you thinking.  You can read the other articles in this series here.