Brewing karma

I could make a wise-crack about how my boil always ends EXACTLY when I run out of propane, but the last time my bottle kicked, I had just gotten my mash water to the correct temperature. I was able to dough in and get the bottle re-filled and get back home by the time it was ready to mash out and sparge.

 

Beer karma? Perhaps. Or perhaps just an example of the line between shit and shinola being very thin.

 

Yeah, I've run out a couple times in the middle of a brew session. I do now keep a second tank and can swap them with my grill and turkey burner. (I do have to get that second one filled for my next brew session)

 

I use natural gas. If I run out at any time, then I have more important things to worry about than how to save a batch of beer
(ok, maybe not more important. I'm just trying to make a point )

 

I started off with a back-up tank, so while I usually run out of gas sometime during the sixth batch, it's never been an issue. And although I like the idea of "karma," I'm an avid skeptic, math student, and knowledgeable gambler, so I don't necessarily believe in it. Technically such matters are more along the lines of probability, and the human mind tends to make associations where they may not necessarily exist. That doesn't mean you can't increase your chances of good things coming back to you through your actions tho. Being generally friendly and generous will certainly generate more "karma," (if you will) than being a douche all the time, and there will certainly be both correlation and causation if people keep doing nice things for you in return as a result. And keeping an extra tank of propane around will certainly decrease your chances of having a ran-out-of-gas disaster during a homebrew session.

 

Math was one of my majors and I decided, way back then, that, while I understood and wholly adopted the mindset that it was all about probability and blah-blah-blah, I found it a lot more entertaining to go with the, admittedly, irrational notions of karma and its kin. It's just more 'fun' that way. Regarding increasing the chances of 'good things coming back to you through your actions', I'm of the opinion that being a nice guy is its own reward. And you simply become more tolerant of (less frustrated by) others' foibles. Somebody who acts like an a$$hole probably feels like an a$$hole and is just generally not a happy person. That, I believe, is the nature of karma.

 

Happened to me on Saturday, and I'm pretty convinced that the reason was because I *did* have a back-up tank on hand. If I didn't, the beer gods would have let me run out with 20 minutes left in the boil just to teach me a lession.

 

There are certainly many things that rationality, skepticism, and mathematics DON'T make you feel any better about. Learn and accept the true nature of gambling and a person will be even more depressed.

I embrace the tenants of rationality, logic, science, and mathematics, and reject pseudoscience (and other such bullcrap). That doesn't mean I'm always rational tho, in fact, far from it (just read some of my best rants on teh interwebs, lol). That pesky little thing called the limbic system, gets in the way. Oh, and testosterone of course, which does absolutely nothing for us men after a certain point, other than get us into trouble. And I probably got a near lethal dose of that upon birth. Good news tho, it starts to wane a little when you're getting close to the age where you'll probably die soon anyway.

But if there's anything related to supernatural powers that actually exist, the Beer Gods have got to be my first choice for what religion to sign up for. Well, I'd probably be more of a prophet (along the lines of Al Bundy or Homer Simpson, that is).

 

You should look into pastafarianism. Heaven has a stripper factory and a beer volcano.

 

Yeah, but are the strippers all super-psychos? like, you know, in real life? (that's the logical mathematician speaking there)

and can you ride a surfboard* down the beer-lava from the volcano? (that's the testosterone speaking there, obviously)

*(not that I can surf worth a damn, but I have risked my life, err, gone surfing a few times when chasing hott chicks, even tho I hate the beach and hate swimming in salt water, lol)