If you don't brew beer...why not?

I too brew so didn't answer the question. As for the complexity of macro brewed beers to homebrewed beers they are the same and at times even better at others, I started 4 years ago with a gift card from my wife for a entry level kit. I now have a 1bbl brewing system with full size kegs and (2) 15G whiskey barrels and (1) 8G whiskey barrel and on and on.
So it can become a money grabbing obsession.
There are times when I want to just stick with Cellering and bottle hoarding and sell all the equipment but I haven't done it yet.

 

yep. pretty much this. old stove cant keep that much boiling at a time and no space in a small apartment in the city. but i guess get the pleasure of having plenty of good beer bars within walking distance so there is an upside!

 

I just bottled my first homebrew a few days ago - a porter. It tasted a little weak (kinda like Guinness Lite) coming out of the fermenter; hopefully a few weeks in the bottle after I've added the priming sugar will give it a bit more edge. I probably messed it up by adding too much water after the boil to achieve a certain volume.

 

I never sanitize enough to the point where I'm comfortable. I always feel like it's either overkill or I didn't do it enough. I have malts, hops and yeast just sitting there waiting to be made into delicious beer, but I haven't brewed yet because I'm not confident enough that I can/will sanitize well enough to avoid contamination.

Thoughts?

 

My wife told me if I get even more into this "beer obsession" she would divorce me.

Hoping my kit comes in the mail soon....

 

All of the above, plus no time (I have a toddler), plus I've had so many crappy home brews, I don't want to take the chance of spending all that time and money for something that isn't half as good as something I can buy.

 

Youll be fine. Just give it a go. You can expect your first beer to come out pretty shitty due to rookie mistakes/lack of knowledge. Anything better than complete crap and you are a step ahead!

Unless you are doing something egrigiously wrong, your beer will not get contaminated.

The homebrew section on this site is an incredible resource, both for asking questions and for searching past threads. There are many very knowledgable people here.

 

Ya relax.
Im very anal about sanitizing but I never obsesses enough that it made me not brew.
If you keep obsessing you will never do it, worst case scenario it sucks and you lost 5 gallons of beer, if I screw up I loose 31 gallons and I still brew.
Drink a couple beers first and get to the point where you don't care

 

Good luck and welcome to your next obsession.
Scales are cheap, and make your own wort chiller easy and cheaper and it will save you about and hour or more.
Cheers

 

I had been brewing for around twenty years before I even heard the word sanitize! And never in my brewing life ever used anything more powerful that sodium metabisulphite.But I did use what brewers have relied on for centuries (and successfully because otherwise beer wouldn't have become the universal drink) - good old fashioned hygiene , scrubbing and boiling.Perhaps I was merely lucky because infections passed me by.
So don't get paranoid about it , do the best you can and take care with cleanliness particularly after the boil.

 

I'm too lazy to be bothered to try and attempt home brewing, plus it would drive me crazy having to wait for the whole process to be completed. I'll just keep raiding a couple of friends home brew selections.

 

Too time and space consuming for a small apartment in Boston. Plus I'd need another fridge for the beer which boosts electric prices as well. I'll wait til I have a house.

 

Sure, you are right. At some point, you can run into space issues and I might have presumed that your space was adequate. All I can say is read about extract and all grain brewing at howtobrew.com and maybe look up the brew in the bag approach (probably find it with google using BIAB + homebrew) and see if something seems adaptable to your situation.

As for the partner-issue that you expressed, I can't say she'll love the smell of homebrewing. Lots of people claim they don't, lots do. In any event, the odors in beer making smell different from fermented beer. For most of my homebrewing life, I brewed only when my wife was gone for extended periods. She probably would have given me grief over the odor, but mostly I wanted the brewing time to myself.

 

The thought of drinking good, fresh homemade beer is enticing; but it would be time and money consuming. Simple as that.

 

I don't brew because I live in a smallish condo without much room for equipment.

 

I suppose you're right. Then again, you never met my old college room-mate (who taught me how to brew)

 

Just started brewing this past summer. First brew didn't carbonate, I think because I let my equipment dry completely before bottling. Second brew, a saison, is pretty good and has only gotten better since I bottled it 3 months ago. With all the new experimental hop varieties that are available to the homebrewer but not yet a big enough crop for commercial use, it is a great time to get started brewing your own beer. I will be bottling a single hop Nelson Sauvin IPA this weekend and can't wait to share it with my friends on Super Bowl Sunday. Cheers.

 

I have a very small Galley kitchen in a townhome. The biggest pot I have right now is for 2 gallons. I have done a few 1 gallon batches which is enough for fill about 7 Grolsch swingtop bottles. The biggest effort is remembering to sanitize everything and waiting for fermentation and carbonation. I spend about 10 on ingredients and an initial 20 on a few specialty hardware things that I won't have to buy again. It's very rewarding so far.

 

I have considered home brewing but I fear I will end up with a shit ton of mediocre beer that I will hardly drink. I understand that i would get better at it the more I do it, but that's consuming funds that I would be spending on the vast selection of limited and seasonal releases that I know I will enjoy.