Ponderings..

It's been said before.. I have been ignoring this blog. I keep my life busy between, family, work, hobbies, travel and sleep. The kettles have not been ignored, they have been very busy with brews for both myself and Bridges. There is a que of recipes that I need to post up and will try to get them all here this weekend.

I really enjoy hearing about other people's experiences, especially when they are passionate. Be it a unknown restaurant's atmosphere, a unique travel destination or a walk through of a particularly tasty beer. I especially love hearing about people's brewing escapades. Sit me next to a fellow brewer and we will go on for hours. We recently transitioned from being renters to owners, I was happy to find out that another owner was also an experienced homebrewer. Over many drinking sessions we discovered what processes we had in common and what we could take and make our own. We finally decided to brew together.


We decided to do a beer in the mode of Three Floyd's "Blackheart". This was the first time I brewed with someone where I wasn't the more experienced brewer. It was tough to let go of many processes that I automatically "just do", and also communicate when/why. Frankly, it was a difficult for me to share my ball. We missed our mash temp and has a misread on pre boil gravity, resulting in frustration. There was a lot less planning involved with this than I normally do. The beer turned out fine.. Lesson learned? I wasted a good experience fretting over little things and not sharing enough of the responsibility. Sometimes you need to let it go and just have fun making beer with a friend.

When building networks we often unintentionally wall ourselves in. Many of the homebrewers I know are people I have met over social networks. A lot of them are around my level of experience, few of them are novice or beginner. I can send out a tweet or post to g+ and get an answer in seconds. I can't recall how often I really give back to the community that shares my passion. I am not in any homebrew club where I can be mentored or act as a mentor to others. A recent opportunity working in a local home brew shop has allowed me to interact with individuals new to the hobby. It was refreshing to see their eagerness for brewing. They have yet to build the walls of style parameters and hard process rules. Style and Process are important and have it's place, but when was the last time you just got real loose and free-styled a beer?