calumscott
Regular.
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2011
- Messages
- 311
- Reaction score
- 32
...and at the risk of whacking the wasp-bike (byke?) I think sometimes fora such as this suffer a little bit as they and the associated hobby mature and become more accessible to the mainstream.
I found and joined a great SCUBA newsgroup, uk.rec.scuba, many moons ago as a "not even certified but done a few and really keen" newbie diver and was able to lurk for a bit, learn, join in after a bit, and progress. They bemoaned the fall off of divers at the top end, forgetting where they started, how they progressed in diving and and the part in that progression that UKRS played. They wondered why numbers on the trips were falling, they wondered why there were fewer trips being run.
In truth, they progressed their skills to the point of exclusion of the new members. There were precious few divers joining and being coached and included and brought up through to that top level and so it all kind of peetered out. A great shame, I met some great people and made a few friends and had some awesome adventures.
It would be truly horrible for that to happen here. I mixed my first Young's Bitter kit six and a half months ago and since then have brewed 55 gallons of beer, nearly if not all of which has been better than anything I could buy for an equivalent price. Some (notably the treacle stout, admirals reserve and better brew pils) are just quite simply better than most equivalents you can buy in the shops. Would I have had that level of success without you lot? No.
Why did I start brewing? Money. I can't drink supermarket swill, it is rank. I like proper beer and I like a good supply of it. I'm trying to keep SWMBO off work to look after the offspring so pennies are being counted. But I'm not going to compromise or, heavens forbid, stop drinking.
Now that I know that I can, even including the cost of the equipment bought so far, produce awesome beer, out of a couple of cans, for less than a quid a pint that is economically awesome.
What you lot have done is to make me realise how easy it is to not just follow the instructions, to go off piste, to brew other stuff (thanks GA for all the great TC advice, I'm getting VERY impatient mind...), to mod the kits to get something different etc etc.
What you have also done is demystify AG. The "how to" sections, the good grace with which the newbie AG questions are answered, the explanations and discussions of the science and the practise behind the answers, the cost saving tips and tricks, and myriad other useful snipets have lowered the bar massively for me and, as soon as I have the space to do it I'll be buying some pots, a gas burner and some grain.
Maybe one day I'll be able to give my experience of more than a just a bit pf process analysis on mixing up kits in tiny spaces... Maybe one day I'll be able to inspire like the old hands here do... Maybe one day I'll be responsible for pulling a couple of interested noobs through from the first taste of their first kit, through kits mods, first AG from a recipe, first own recipe and so on...
But that's just it, everyone has their reason to start, mine was "cheap beer that is palletable". You'll always get those who try it and get bored, you'll always get those who are after just making some kind of hooch on the cheap, but the important thing is to always remember that they, and the people who end up with the nano-breweries producing cracking beer will, on the whole, both start from humble beginnings. With six months' experience and successes my motivation now is "awesome beer that's also quite cheap and the buzz of making it myself".
THBF has been so inclusive while I've been here, one of the friendliest places I hang around on the 'net. Maybe some feel that the balance of AG to BIAB to Extract to Kit to cheap hooch brewers is out of kilter a bit but if that's the case then the only way to change it and preserve this awesome resource is to stay totally inclusive, to educate, inspire and push (gently, just a little bit) those with less experience up the ladder rung by rung with the good grace and patience you constantly show.
It wouldn't be right for THBF to go the way of UKRS, where the "elite" kind of drop off the top leaving no glue to keep the thing together, no one to inspire the noobs coming through to take up the reins.
So there. :
I found and joined a great SCUBA newsgroup, uk.rec.scuba, many moons ago as a "not even certified but done a few and really keen" newbie diver and was able to lurk for a bit, learn, join in after a bit, and progress. They bemoaned the fall off of divers at the top end, forgetting where they started, how they progressed in diving and and the part in that progression that UKRS played. They wondered why numbers on the trips were falling, they wondered why there were fewer trips being run.
In truth, they progressed their skills to the point of exclusion of the new members. There were precious few divers joining and being coached and included and brought up through to that top level and so it all kind of peetered out. A great shame, I met some great people and made a few friends and had some awesome adventures.
It would be truly horrible for that to happen here. I mixed my first Young's Bitter kit six and a half months ago and since then have brewed 55 gallons of beer, nearly if not all of which has been better than anything I could buy for an equivalent price. Some (notably the treacle stout, admirals reserve and better brew pils) are just quite simply better than most equivalents you can buy in the shops. Would I have had that level of success without you lot? No.
Why did I start brewing? Money. I can't drink supermarket swill, it is rank. I like proper beer and I like a good supply of it. I'm trying to keep SWMBO off work to look after the offspring so pennies are being counted. But I'm not going to compromise or, heavens forbid, stop drinking.
Now that I know that I can, even including the cost of the equipment bought so far, produce awesome beer, out of a couple of cans, for less than a quid a pint that is economically awesome.
What you lot have done is to make me realise how easy it is to not just follow the instructions, to go off piste, to brew other stuff (thanks GA for all the great TC advice, I'm getting VERY impatient mind...), to mod the kits to get something different etc etc.
What you have also done is demystify AG. The "how to" sections, the good grace with which the newbie AG questions are answered, the explanations and discussions of the science and the practise behind the answers, the cost saving tips and tricks, and myriad other useful snipets have lowered the bar massively for me and, as soon as I have the space to do it I'll be buying some pots, a gas burner and some grain.
Maybe one day I'll be able to give my experience of more than a just a bit pf process analysis on mixing up kits in tiny spaces... Maybe one day I'll be able to inspire like the old hands here do... Maybe one day I'll be responsible for pulling a couple of interested noobs through from the first taste of their first kit, through kits mods, first AG from a recipe, first own recipe and so on...
But that's just it, everyone has their reason to start, mine was "cheap beer that is palletable". You'll always get those who try it and get bored, you'll always get those who are after just making some kind of hooch on the cheap, but the important thing is to always remember that they, and the people who end up with the nano-breweries producing cracking beer will, on the whole, both start from humble beginnings. With six months' experience and successes my motivation now is "awesome beer that's also quite cheap and the buzz of making it myself".
THBF has been so inclusive while I've been here, one of the friendliest places I hang around on the 'net. Maybe some feel that the balance of AG to BIAB to Extract to Kit to cheap hooch brewers is out of kilter a bit but if that's the case then the only way to change it and preserve this awesome resource is to stay totally inclusive, to educate, inspire and push (gently, just a little bit) those with less experience up the ladder rung by rung with the good grace and patience you constantly show.
It wouldn't be right for THBF to go the way of UKRS, where the "elite" kind of drop off the top leaving no glue to keep the thing together, no one to inspire the noobs coming through to take up the reins.
So there. :
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