Is brewing an art or a science?

Except that its not quite that binary. Concept development requires some science base and production of product still requires some art.

 

Everyone is wrong.

Brewing beer is nor an art or a science.....its KICK-ASS!!

 

The process of brewing beer is science. How you go about doing that is art. As impressive as it is to consistently make Bud it's really nothing more than science. Following a cat around and cleaning up it's scat and incorporating that shit (pun intended) into an amazing beer is art.

 

All innovation is a marriage of art and science and the best innovation is a perfect combination of both.

Once the innovation is made duplication of it is a matter of repetition. If you can do the same thing over and over repeatedly is the key there. Science is much more important to repetition than art is. Sure there is still a bit of art involved, but not as much as the first time.

 

I wonder how Richard Norgrove would feel if that logic was used to label "macro" beers as craft.

 

Needless to say I can’t speak for Richard but IMO as relates to the AAL beers brewed by BMC breweries there is little to no art.

Since the equation I provided in my post above was “Science + Art = Craft” I personally would argue that without art there is no craft. Again, just my personal opinion.

Cheers!

 

The term I'd use for Richard Norgrove's problem solving skills is "know-how."

 

In some ways its like the difference between a cook and a chef. A cook can do some incredible things and may at times exceed what a chef does but a chef makes sure that every table gets the same quality dish every hour, every day. Home brewers tend towards the cook end of the spectrum and craft brewers are closer to the middle. AB, Miller Coors and those guys are doing science and engineering and their goal is to ensure that every plant produces exactly the same beer every time and if it doesn't some poor slob will be standing on a freeway ramp with a sign saying "will work for food." It takes an incredible amount of skill to do what the macros are doing, especially when they are working with products that do not have a lot of flavor to hide errors. It is a lot easier for a home brewer or a craft brewer to come up with an incredible Russian Imperial Stout than it is to do what AB et. al. are doing. From my perspective, I am very happy to live with more art and craft with all their eccentricities than to rely on science and engineering devoid of art.

 

Both.

 

I brew, and to me it's alot like canning, because you cook, you sanitize, and you store it for awhile, before you use it.

 

Both.

 

The term "art" and being an "artist" gets thrown around waaaaay too much nowadays that it's beyond annoying.

That being said, it's a little of both.

 

A little bit of both. The science gets us to where we need to go. The art pushes us beyond.

 

Science

 

Art that is aided by science

 

I was thinking more in line of bakers vs. chefs. Cooking is both art and science but more creativity can be utilized in cooking whereas in baking you mess up the measurements and the whole thing is screwed up. Initially beer was a screwed up baking experience or so say the historians who studied and found the first reference to beer in ancient Egypt. You can be creative within parameters in brewing beer. I mean you can do all kinds of things to make a beer, and it will be beer, and that is the artful creative side, and sometimes those turn out amazing, sometimes they don't if that recipe doesn't work I would imagine it gets tossed. That is where science comes in. Once the formula and calculations are determined from that glorious batch of beer then you can reproduce it over and over with more consistency. Although even then those need tweaking based upon the ingredients and other things being utilized to make that beer. This is more common in craft brewing than with the big breweries who make the same beer in huge quantities and they always taste the same (that is science) their are differences in batches of craft brewing because there is more appreciation for the artful creative side and sometimes the batches might be similar but not exactly the same from year to year. For instance you might hear someone say in a forum on here that KBS was amazing 2 years ago but not as good last year. This year might be better or worse based upon opinion. But if you are drinking a Budweiser it tastes the same every single time you drink one, if it doesn't then there is something majorly wrong. I am not defending or saying I even like Bud, but that is the best example of science at work in beer making that I can think of.

 

Its a lot of things but mainly its a business

 

Put simply, both.

 

Science.