Author: Denny Conn
In the relatively short amount of time I’ve been doing this Brülosophy thing, I’ve had some really interesting experiences that have included meeting and developing relationships with a few awesome people, many of whom were inspirations to me long before I started writing about my silly homebrewing adventures. One of these folks is Denny Conn, a dude I was first introduced to over 5 years ago when I stumbled on his Cheap ‘n’ Easy Batch Sparge Brewing article, a how-to that served as the final push for me to jump into all grain brewing. In the following years, I developed a rather strong appreciation for Denny’s brewing philosophy of making the best beer possible while having the most fun possible while doing the least work possible. Imagine my surprise when he and his writing partner, Drew Beechum, asked me if I’d like to review their new (at the time) book, Experimental Homebrewing. Since then, Denny and I have communicated fairly frequently about homebrew experimentation, among other things.
While eating breakfast one morning at NHC 2015, I asked Denny how people responded when he first started sharing his experiment results, particularly if he ever got shit for it. His response was immediate and confirmed my own experience. I proceeded to share with him some of the feedback I’d received since starting the xBmt series, which turned into a borderline philosophical discussion about the extent to which some go to uphold their convictions that conventional methods are the best. Eventually, the idea of came up of Denny penning an article to readers of Brülosophy, an open letter wherein he would layout his thoughts, raw and uncensored, about what it is we’re doing here. With the draft of his and Drew’s upcoming book submitted to the publisher, he found some time to share his perspectives. I suspect this will incite certain feelings in some, please do not hesitate to share yours in the comments section below!
Dear readers,
Marshall and I talked about me writing this a few months ago and I’ve been procrastinating, trying to figure how to start off without insulting anyone. I’ve given up and I claim the privilege of old age, so I just want to say…
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH SOME HOMEBREWERS THAT THEY DON’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THINGS THAT CHALLENGE THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM?????
Marshall has told me a few times about people accusing him of ruining homebrewing by doing experiments that challenge or contradict the “information” that’s been printed in books or circulated by word of mouth for so many years. Really? Ruining homebrewing? Says who? Who made the rules and who’s keeping score? Homebrewing is a fucking hobby and it’s up to you how you want to do it. People like Marshall, Drew Beechum, me, and a lot of others are only concerned with giving homebrewers accurate information based on our own experience in the hope that they will find the information useful and employ it to make their own homebrewing hobby more fun and rewarding. Because that’s what it’s all about– fun. If you’re stressing over homebrewing, you’re doing something wrong.
This is not a new phenomenon. Around 2000, I began experimenting with the technique of batch sparging. There were almost no homebrewers doing it back then and I was continually told that it wouldn’t work, it would lead to low efficiency. One homebrew shop owner even reportedly told a guy asking about it that it would make “dirty beer,” whatever that is! But you know what? Not one of the people who dissed batch sparging had ever actually tried it! Once people did, they saw it was a valid way to homebrew, every bit as efficient as other all grain methods and it produced beer equally as great. I’ve judged a lot of beer and never once have I said, “Damn, this beer tastes like it was fly (or batch) sparged.” According to some surveys, batch sparging is now the most popular way to conduct an all grain homebrew. I even know of a small commercial brewery that batch sparges and achieves efficiency in the mid to upper 90% range. What happened? People actually tried it for themselves and found that the conventional wisdom was wrong.
Another amusing and frustrating example was when I conducted an experiment to determine the effect decoction has on beer. I enlisted homebrewers from around the world to brew two batches of the same beer, one using an infusion mash and the other a decoction mash. There were 5 beers brewed and a total of 42 tasters from around the world. When the findings came out that there was not a preference for decocted beers, people went crazy. The general reaction was disbelief, people felt like if they put so much effort into something, it must make a difference! Then there were the chemistry people– since chemical changes are definitely happening, it must make a difference! There was even a well known BJCP Master judge who claimed that the tasters must have “muddled palates.” Right. Why not just accept the conclusion? Because reality differed from your beliefs?
So, where did all of this conventional wisdom come from? Much of it originates from homebrew authors basing their ideas on commercial brewing practices. While some of the things commercial brewers do, and the reasons they do them, apply to us as homebrewers, much more does not. Commercial brewers have very different equipment and goals than we do, and the scale they brew on often dictates their practices. Just because a commercial brewery does something a particular way doesn’t necessarily mean homebrewers would be advised to emulate that. As HOMEbrewers, we should revel in the differences, take advantage of the things that we can do that commercial brewers can’t do. Not slavishly emulate them because some guy who wrote a book told us that’s what we should do. Too often those people are just repeating what they read in some other book without actually testing it on their own. When I began brewing, one of the most popular homebrew books stated emphatically that if you had pets you would always brew infected beer and that if you wanted to be a good brewer you needed to get rid of your pets! The same guy also said not to brew if you had a cold because the beer could get infected! To this day, remnants of that myth persist and I often see questions about it in beer and homebrew discussion forums.
One of Marshall’s latest experiments concerned the need to do a 90 minute boil when using pils malt. His results, which mirrored mine and many others, is that it’s not necessary. Yet when I discuss these results with people, most of them are resistant to trying it. Why? Because they’ve been told by books and the conventional wisdom that you have to do it! With all due respect to the people who wrote these books, many of them my friends, I emphatically say, “horse puckey!” I have never seen any indication that any of these people who advocate for long boils have actually tried a shorter one to see what happens. They are simply repeating what they have always heard or been told by commercial brewers. The fact that homebrew conditions are very different from commercial conditions gives us the freedom to use a different procedure. Why should we limit ourselves the way commercial brewers have to?
Okay, so after all this ranting, what’s the takeaway? It comes down to pretty much one thing: be critical of what you’re told. The best way to do this is to try things for yourself and draw your own conclusions. Don’t automatically believe things you’re told, whether it’s from Marshall, Drew, me, John Palmer, Charlie Papazian, or whoever.
But now many of you might be saying, “I only get to brew occasionally. I don’t want to use my precious brew time experimenting. I want someone to tell me what to do.” Fair enough, that’s understandable. If this is the case, it’s important to look for advice from people who have a track record, people who have actually tried things for themselves, evaluated them objectively, and openly share their results with the brewing community. That’s the way I approached learning about homebrewing and it’s served me well. I collected a lot of information from various sources, then evaluated the validity of those sources. When one of them seemed experienced and knowledgeable, I tried their methods. Then I decided what worked for me and what didn’t, but I was starting from a base of a trusted source. That’s what I advise all of you to do too… and experiments like those Marshall does are some of the best sources you can find. Don’t be afraid to try something that’s not in a book or that’s different from what you’ve heard. Those sources may never have tried what the contrary methods are and have no basis for their recommendations. Always look for personal experience and objective evaluation… always! Don’t proclaim that someone is “ruining the hobby” until you have personal experience with what they say. And always remember the mantra: The best beer possible with the least effort possible while having the most fun possible.
Be a HOMEbrewer!
Denny Conn
It’s probably obvious why I appreciate Denny as much as I do, he speaks candidly and passionately about homebrewing precisely because he loves it so much. In this letter, he addresses a logical fallacy that runs rampant in this hobby, our tendency to appeal to authority when it comes to deciding what best practices are. And it makes sense, homebrewing isn’t the cheapest hobby, particularly when you factor in the time it takes to make a batch, so relying on trusted (vocal?) sources is a pretty good option. I think the point Denny is trying to make, something I wholeheartedly agree with, is that the hobby benefits when information is shared openly and any attempts to stifle the sharing of this information is invariably more detrimental than it is good.
I believe it behooves us all to acknowledge the role played by another logical fallacy, one that perpetually lurks in the shadows of our subconscious, covertly encouraging us to seek and interpret only information that confirms our beliefs while discounting that which contradicts our convictions– confirmation bias. When I accept as principle a particular way of doing something, any opposing perspectives will naturally be interpreted as a threat, which can only be ameliorated via open-minded consideration and humble acceptance that what I think may not necessarily be absolutely right… at least always.
Ultimately, I couldn’t care less if people change their processes or not as a result of the xBmt results. Despite being a huge personal fan of trying things for myself prior to accepting anything as truth, my main point is to provide information about homebrewing to give homebrewers (myself included) something to think about. Whether one chooses to fly or batch sparge, boil for 90 or 15 minutes, ferment warm or cool, pitch from a starter or a vial, whatever, it doesn’t impact my way of doing things, a way that’s based hugely off of my own personal experience and remains as flexible as a seasoned gymnast. The purpose of Brülosophy is not, has never been, and will never be to provide brewers with a how-to guide for making beer, plenty of those already exist. Rather, I trust all brewers are smart enough to use the information we share as a jumping-off point for further exploration and to inform their own brewing decisions without turning it into the latest version of conventional wisdom. Cheers!
Email Denny directly: denny@experimentalbrew.com
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49 thoughts on “Be A HOMEbrewer! | An Open Letter From Denny Conn”
Well said. Seems if no one experimented back in the day, we would still be using gruit and there would be one style of beer.
You guys Rock!
I am a beer expert and a beer judge. When I came back to homebrewing after more than 10 years, I simply asked to a friend who is the best Italian brewer making Belgian styles: how long do you boil? 60 minutes. There is no DMS in his beer. That’s enough for me. I am sure he asked to other Belgian and Italian brewers. I NEVER boil more than 60′. Never had DMS. Never, also with pretty long hop standing after boling (another myth, cold crash ASAP). I earned 30′, I cannot see any drawdown with a new procedure, I cannot see any problems. Probably old procedure where good with old raw materials…
A very nice letter. I agree we should never stop experimenting.
Well spoken. However, I think that the role of objective evaluation cannot be over-emphasized. Just trying a new technique for yourself is not always enough. Maybe the new method seemed to work simply because you wanted it to, or since you made some other improvement, or some other reason.
I believe many dubious homebrewing practices – like racking for improved beer clarity – originates from overly confident beliefs in the ability to “find out for yourself”.
I think part of the problem is that there are many, many systems and process changes which can lead to an effect for some and no effect for others, but stereotypic views persist as you say. no brewing when you have a cold? never heard that one! I think the best test of a brewer is…their beer! the proof is in the pudding. if you consistently enjoy someone’s beer, then don’t be afraid to emulate their practices. you can make small changes along the way and see if it seems to be impacting your beers without doing full scale exBeeriments (if you don’t have the time, inclination or whatever.) Thanks for the reality check!
One of the biggest myths I would like to see dispelled is cleaning up your equipment after each brew. I love brewing but hate cleaning. If you can show that we don’t have clean everything each time, I would really appreciate it!! By the way, love the blog and testing.
my system (single vessel to mash, boil, ferment, and bottle) has the fortunate side-effect of not having to clean it (unless spraying it with a hose counts as cleaning). I know that sounds absurd but check out my blog if you’re curious, onepotbrewing.wordpress.com
I’ve simplified my cleaning process lately (should have done it ages ago but anyway). Everything like fermenters, flasks etc. get filled with hot tap water, dump in some sodium percarbonate (100% pure stuff, not nappy soakers) and let it sit there and clean it for me. It works in about 10-15 minutes then drain and a quick hot water rinse and it’s done. 🙂 No more scrubbing shit for me!
Great read. I actually have a few things to say about this so word of warning, this will be a somewhat lengthy comment but hopefully some find it useful as they have your xBmts.
First off, Denny Conn is a friggin’ awesome dude. I place him as somewhat of a rockstar in the homebrewing community and when I’ve chatted him up in Facebook groups, he is one of the most down-to-earth, coolest, helpful dudes you will ever meet.
I have not changed my methods to match every xBmt. But you know what? Some of them have been really helpful and I’ve tweaked methods a bit here and there to sort of make it my own. That should definitely be the take away from your followers I feel — Steal shamelessly the things that work and throw out the rest. In the end, it’s your hobby. Make it what you want it to be.
My last point is an anecdote that I think mirrors yours and Denny’s philosophy. I built my electric brew kettle from scratch. No, it’s not fancy. It’s definitely a McGuyver rig. It’s two 1500w Ultra Low Density hot water heating elements in boxes I built from parts at Lowes. I have found that the two elements achieve a nice boil without me having to worry about dialing the current back. Also, being that they are standard 120v elements, it makes it easily portable. I brought my rig to a Big Brew Day this past year at a LHBS. Electric hookups were easy to find because I went the 120v route.
Anyway, while I’m there and my boil is going on, the president of our homebrew club was like “Cool rig. Though I’d like to see a stronger boil”. Let me be clear. It boils and boils steadily but I don’t have huge bubbles breaking the surface or leaping out of the friggin’ pot. I think this touches on bucking conventional wisdom which you and Denny like to do. So I said to him, “You’ve tasted several of my beers since I’ve been a member of the club. Have you ever tasted DMS in any of them?” “Well, no” was his reply. I told him every beer I made for the club was made on this rig.
This was further confirmed for me when I chatted up a local head brewer at a commercial brewery. He told me, “Don’t stress it. A boil is a boil”. I know…GASP…what? Conventional wisdom. It might even by a fun xBmt for you in the future.
Anyway, thanks for the info you continue to provide. I gobble up these articles and xBmt results up like candy!
We have many more boil xBmts on the list!
Cool! I think it would be interesting to run 1 experiment testing boil vigor and then another combining boil vigor and a lower boil time.
My hunch is that with the quality malts we have available to us today, a quality beer can most likely be made with lower vigor and lower time. I’m sure there must be a threshold there somewhere but I’m sure you will find it!
“I have never seen any indication that any of these people who advocate for long boils have actually tried a shorter one to see what happens. They are simply repeating what they have always heard or been told by commercial brewers.”
Or they have a vested interest in propane sales.
It’s just a big conspiracy started by the fucking gas companies!
I love it. This kind of thinking and experimenting is exactly what this hobby needs. It helps straighten out the learning curve for people who want to get into this hobby. Some of the most challenging and rewarding things in my short 1 yr of homebrewing for me has been trying different things or different equipment that make the brew day quicker and more efficient on a small budget. Yeah the brew tastes awesome, but me and my brother got into the hobby last November and went all grain and kegging from the get go. Throwing ideas back and forth and discussing articles from this blog has been really fun and a great bonding experience. Keep up the great work. I know it’s a lot of work. Thank you !
What’s really being emphasized in this post applies to much, MUCH more than just homebrewing. There’s a deeper message here that applies to a philosophy I hold close in my own life. You’ve even picked out two of my favorite logical fallacies. Excellent! When I look around, I see a lot of people who fail to challenge conventional knowledge, who fail to question what they’re told (or what they’ve read) and who don’t even know what confirmation bias is. If it’s in print or on TV, it must be true. And the internet, in all it’s greatness, has made this even more difficult and confusing. This perplexing aspect of human nature isn’t going to go away no matter how much logic, fact or real world experimental data one gathers and presents to those types of people. The way I see it, this phenomena permeates all aspects of the world we live in, from politics and religion to – HOMEBREWING! Amazing, isn’t it? What you’re doing here, Marshall and Denny, is entirely awesome. For SOME of us. For others, sadly, it’s sort of, well, threatening. Your bravery lies in putting it out there, publicly, to share because you’re opening yourself up to the criticism that will inevitably come. It’s like having a politics discussion at a party. Don’t stop what you’re doing. It’s extremely valuable. Respectfully listen to the criticism but challenge it when necessary. Continue to challenge both conventional knowledge and even your own knowledge. Always leave room to change your own mind (confirmation bias). Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence. Cheers to you guys!
Cheers, dude.
I see homebrewing as a life-long learning experience. It’s one of my most favorite things about it. That and drinking the results! Keep up the good work! Always looking forward to the next blog post.
That’s Dennis Nagy, sorry!
Like to by a vowel?
Many homebrewer’s enjoy equipment construction as much or more than brewing beer. This cannot be underestimated.
Totally! In fact, I like to think homebrewing is an umbrella/mother hobby under which there are multiple sub-hobbies including equipment building. I often tell me that my real hobby is homebrew experimentation, as I’m far more interested in that than recipe development and other aspects.
Where else can I combine engineering, science, biology, chemistry, invention and alcoholism?
This is why I brew.
It’s incredible, really.
I started brewing in 2000 and obviously have a few batches under my belt. I don’t claim to be an expert, or a master brewer, or qualified to even judge beer. But I do make great beer according to my tastes. Perhaps it’s really bad beer and I just don’t know it, but based on others’ feedback over the years, I don’t think so. I learned after the first year or two that brewing is MUCH more forgiving than most people will lead you to believe. Just look at the conditions under which it has been produced for millennia. It’s only been within the last two centuries that we’ve come to understand microbial activity and the effects of sanitation on the production process. While much early beer must have been complete swill, I’d be willing to bet there was just as much that was pretty darn good, and people made it under the most rudimentary conditions. Yet today, when you challenge conventional wisdom, you are viewed as a heretic and met with shock, disbelief, and anger. I say you are performing a valuable service to the homebrew community. I might even attempt a batch sparge soon! At the very least, you’ve managed to have more FUN than most people, and there is something to be said for that. Keep on keeping on!
Denny and Marshall, please keep up the awesome work and keep experimenting. Great article with perfect advice, especially for those just starting out.
Find what works for you, and do it. Then do it again. As long as you like your beer, keep doing it. When you find something you would like to improve in your beer, do research and make a small change. Evaluate the change and brew again.
The thing that drives me crazy is when someone asks why my beer is better than theirs. I ask about their process and then share mine. I point out the differences that I think may help improve their beer. Usually, they dismiss my advice – “temperature control can’t be that important”, “I don’t want to make a yeast starter”, “i want to add a handful of every grain at the home brew shop”, “i have to clean AND sanitize my equipment” etc.
If you like your beer as is, then congrats, enjoy this wonderful hobby. If you want to improve your beer, then research, make small adjustments, experiment, learn, grow – enjoy this wonderful hobby. If you want a brew a few times a year, get wasted, and make crappy beer, then do it and enjoy this wonderful hobby.
Cheers and let’s hope for many more XBMTS and experimental home brews!
Thanks for this article and all the past Brewing experiments. Don’t stop now!!
Change is hard for people to make. I see it all the time in industry and with people. When I started brewing 30 years ago there was no instructions on how to make beer aside from the shop owner instructing me or talking to my parents who were born in the early 1900’s who had made beer, yes in the bath tub. Yes.. I made a couple of batches of beer, one good and one not good.. After the bad one I lost interest for 7 years. Once I got back into it I found the amount of instructions available had increased to a point where I could make a consistent, good tasting beer. I’ve seen the home brew industry change with many new tools for us to all look at and attempt to replicate and try out. I see most home brewers as innovator’s and yes, some of them are reluctant to change processes but for the most part are, like me, silently in the back ground… learning and following your lead.
One recommendation.. Find a home brewer that is by profession and Epidemiologist. They have the clinical background and procedures for medical / clinical testing. Not that your testing results have not improved over time.
Believe me, we have absolutely no intentions of stopping anytime soon!
I like the term “momily” as used back on the HBD. I think it is defined pretty well as, “a momily is a saying which “Mom” or someone else told you but experience shows to be false or insignificant. Something handed down from Mom to Mom so long it’s accepted as fact without experimental or experiential support.” (From HBD #3318). I think it’s a variant of the “appeal to authority” described above.
Many momilies still persist in this hobby, despite (or is “due to”?) the heavy representation of science-minded folks in the hobby.
Homebrewing is chock-full of momilies!
Having a scientific mind and always asking the question “why” keeps this hobby exciting for me. I love your outlook Denny. I tend to question everything and this forum gives me even more data to add into my own findings. Right now I still question things like the advantages of FWHopping and small stuff like the belief that airlock back pressure can make 3724 stall out but not 3711 (sorry Drew, I’m not drinking the koolaid just yet) because it just doesn’t click in my head yet! But I have changed my beliefs in the past and that’s what make it so fun! Science! Hypothesize and exBeerment right?
Thanks for all you do Denny and Marshall
my goals with homebrewing are simple. have fun, make beer. I’ve made a lot of beer where I did not enjoy the process, and for a while considered getting out of the hobby because of the troubles I had. These days, I’ve used tips, tricks, and techniques to make my brew day easier, shorter, and much more enjoyable, and can’t wait for the next batch to come around. I’ve picked up a lot of these things from this site. Even little things, little details I never thought about before, I’ve learned here and put into my practice. Thanks for these experiments!
New here but reading as much as I can. Love the approach to brewing. Surprised to hear people actually get bothered by testing the conventional wisdom.
I’ve done 60 minute boils for ales and 90 for lagers, without thinking. Just brewed my first lager in a while, an Oktoberfest and on autopilot I just boiled in 60 minutes without thinking. So coincidentally I currently conducting just such an experiment, we’ll see how it comes out.
In any case, keep it real, keep it mellow, keep it fun you’re doing great things.
Thanks a lot Marshall and Denny! Now I am going to have to read yet another book on homebrewing after reading the letter from Denny!
All joking aside, I just have to say that I have read A LOT of material since we began brewing. It can all be very overwhelming at times. I enjoy Brulosophy because it doesn’t just state a procedure or method, you guys test it out. Your experiments have opened my brew thinking and I am ever looking for ways to reduce brew time and speed to glass. Keep up the great work and let the haters hate.
You won’t regret reading that book, trust me, it’s fantastic!
Confirmation bias impedes progress in almost all realms. It’s incredible that one can go through life not ever once checking their biases. I 100% agree with the reasons this article was written and I am now a bigger advocate of this site and Denny. Experimental home brewing, along with this site has made me a better brewer by invoking experimentation and light heartedness when it comes to this great hobby.
Cheers!
Kevin
Denny, if you are reading these please stop using the term infected for beer! Only organisms can be infected. Beer gets contaminated. I know you know this. let’s break the habit together! Cheers! -Schwanz
Denny probably forgot how to read, so I’ll respond with my thoughts. I tend to prefer the word contamination as well, but “infected” is arguably common parlance in the hobby, so it doesn’t bother me too much. Plus, if I’m not mistaken, he used that word in a quote he received from some schmuck who suggested brewing with a cold would “infect” the batch.
I brewed “to style” using conventional methods for many years and got pretty good at it (at least I have a drawer full of medals and ribbons that give me that impression) but I got bored doing things that way. Now I go out of my way to challenge conventional wisdom and brew all sorts of strange ingredients or strange combinations of stuff. I’m brewing fun, generally awesome beers and having a great time doing it. It does take all the brewing skill and knowledge I’ve picked up over the years to pull these off, but I really enjoy the challenge. Denny was the one responsible for getting me started on this road some 13 years ago.
Great discussion. I wonder how much of the conventional wisdom is implicitly acquired during the transition from kit and kilo type beers to all grain. I recall my first kit brews years ago; rampant uncontrolled ferments in the peak of summer and poor sanitation, not to mention the kilo of sugar. Those beers were thin, estery and rich in diacetyl. In going all-grain my beers improved significantly, but my processes had changed also. It became hard to isolate the causal variables so the natural assumption was that I needed to keep doing what I was now doing to keep making good beer; any deviation from ‘ideal’ practice would lead to intense worry that I had ruined a batch. Fortunately a lack of time and space led to several ‘natural experiments’, the results of which made me question the dogma I clung to. I now enjoy small batch brewing, single vessel BIAB, with brew day wrapped up in 2.5hrs and consistent, tasty results. Really enjoying all these exbeeriments, keep up the good work.
I think its also not to overstate the level of science presented here. The primary question is “is this variable important to the general homebrewer and homebrew drinkers?” and most likely, most things are not. Hell, many probrewers mess with the hopping schedule and nobody notices.
Now if you started to pull apart the beers in thorugh HPLC/MS etc then you may find a measurable difference. If you put it through a trained sensory panel, you may be able to find a measurable difference.
But these differences are obviously too small for the sensitivity of the brulosphy test method.
If you don’t trust the data that the team here is producing, do your own experiments. What works for you, on your system. Do the experiment, do a triangle test using the same stats that these guys use. Enter both beers into a BJCP competition. The worst thing that will happen is you will have more beer to drink.
Just…. Slow clap…. Slow fucking clap!
When I first homebrewed the “conventional” wisdom in a bunch of books (which I still have for laughs) had you putting in a large portion of sugar and one had hops as optional…
I agree with the other poster that this philosophy is very extendable. I work professionally in film and video and contribute to a number of lists that mostly cater to micro budget filmmakers. They have some of the same issues. THey are either trying to do things the way Hollywood does (often a mistake on a low budget) or are picking up really bad habits from self taught “gurus” of no budget filmmaking. The reality with all of this is know where you want to end up and work backward. And realize that what works when you have to produce 50,000 barrels of beer that taste as close to identical as possible has very little to do with what it takes to produce five gallon batches that don’t need to be identical. Just as what makes sense on a $300,000,000 budget has almost nothing to do with what makes sense on a $10,000 budget.
For me I have changed a few things based on these experiments but mostly what I have gained is flexibility. I know for most of my beers I can boil 30 min or 90 min and the biggest difference will be volume. I do double batches so being able to let one go longer because the first is cooling slower than I planed is important sometimes. I’m aiming at 30 min boils now and that is a savings in gas and time (more so on a double brew). Other things like FWH I still do even though the experiment largely discounted the supposed benefits. The benefit to me is simplicity (thus more fun!) and it’s nice to know that while not producing any big benefits it’s also not doing any harm.
I’m sure most/ all of these traditional wisdoms made sense to someone at some point at some scale but it’s really nice to have someone checking them out who is a lot closer to my size and needs.
I share my thoughts with most of the comments on this post. This is the future of home brewing. Thanks Marshall, Denny, and the whole community, for keeping it real.
Cheers
Aaron from Sequim
I subscribed to the homebrew digest years ago when I first started in the hobby and it was great for challenging conventional wisdom. I took a 10 year hiatus from the hobby but kept reading, and was sorry to see it fade as newer internet technologies made it obsolete.
Now I’m back to brewing, and have found that owners and employees of LBHS stores are some of the worst offenders of perpetuating myths and bad processes, in both verbal advice and printed directions that are more than a decade old.
It’s refreshing to see you guys improving the hobby. Please, keep up the great work.
Best,
Mike
Good letter – took me years to give up on conventional sparging, step mashes, worrying about hot-side aeration and being biased against dry yeasts. I guess I lost my way as a homebrewer and became entrenched in expert opinion, rather than experiment and decide on my own.
I too have enjoyed reading through the blog over the last 8 or 9 months or so. I of course see a lot of forum posts about how you shouldn’t do this or that and blah blah blah. I think challenging these convictions is a good thing. Unfortunately I don’t have the means to ferment two batches under temperature control at the same time, or else I would have a go at some more experimentation than I have done. I haven’t really changed any of my brewing process, but there are other reasons behind that – mainly the fun aspect (having beers during the mash or boil etc.).
One process I have changed as a result of this blog is my lager fermentation. I was a bit apprehensive at first, but I thought bugger it, I’ll give it a go and see what happens. I have employed the quick method on the last few batches now and these have been every bit as good as ones I’ve done in the past using the drawn out method, so that one is something I’m definitely sticking with! The last couple have been my best ever, in fact. I also did one where I dumped all the trub into the fermenter but the level rose too high (I have a tap style one). The beer was perfectly fine, however. So as a result I’m not so pedantic about keeping it out anymore.
Keep it up!
Cheers
Well stated Denny and Marshall!
I think the reluctance to do things differently comes from peoples’ tendency to trust as “Gospel truth” the things they first learned. “This is the way I was taught to brew so it must be right.”
They attack as heretics those who challenge their beliefs (just like in religion — go figure).
Marshall, your website should be “Heretic Brewing” but I guess that’s already taken :).
Reminds me of taking art classes in college. Can you believe that we were taught “formulas” for creating art??? I was in a full state of fuck you. Imagine if Picasso took that class. I fully acknowledge that the basic understanding must be understood. Convert starches, spice it up, or not…etc. But after that, your on your own. This beverage is to be enjoyed not caged.