It stands to reason that mere weeks after I first started blogging about our adventures in beer-making, all hell would break loose, and all those exciting feelings that build momentum would be replaced with anxieties that sap it.
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| Lebron knows what I'm saying! |
Let this blog post be a testament, as if we needed another, to the validity of Murphy's Law. Let it also be a warning to all the braggers and showoffs of the world. Once you start actively publicizing yourself, and walking under a particular banner things are bound to go wrong. You hear that, Lebron?
Doug and I have recently been confronted with a myriad of problems ranging from STILL not collecting enough beer at the end of the day, to the approaching end of daylight savings time. Our bottles are moldy, and our brew pot is moldy and our beers won't carbonate and....WAIT! Hold up! It's time to stop and reset.
Our exploits in the land of extract brewing, while preparing us for most of the riggers of all-grain brewing, have given us somewhat of a false sense of confidence. We thought we would switch to all-grain and have more than a running start. We thought we'd transition easily into the new disciplines and make great beer off the bat. We thought wrong.
Things have been shaky and there is this voice in my head saying, "The wheels are coming off. The wheels are coming off. The wheels are coming off."
We're confused. We're struggling with the learning curve. And those voices in my head can't be normal. Oh wait, the voices just told me they are, in fact, normal so forget it.
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| Tremendously Interesting Beer |
Anyway, whether or not I am going crazy is not important. What's important is the lesson we learned. We do not brew beer with our egos or our good intentions. We are not guaranteed quality brews because of our fancy new equipment, and we certainly have a long way to go. We brew good beer with solid brewing practices, high standards for sanitation and the best quality ingredients. As we have adjusted to the new techniques and the more labor intensive regimens we might have forgotten this.
These lessons can be extrapolated out over the beer industry at large. These days, while there are plenty of tremendously interesting and quite delicious lagers and ales to choose from, record growth in the "Craft Beer' market has created a banner under which inferior, and sometimes downright disgusting, beers can hide. These days the simple fact that a brew comes from a small brewery and is branded as being a craft beer is enough of a selling point for that beer to get shelf space in a liquor store. Never mind what it tastes like. It is from a small brewery so it must be good, right? No, no, no...That is so wrong.
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| Crappy Album |
Think back to the early 90s if you will. There was a phenomenon called Alternative music, thusly named because it was different from what was in the mainstream at that point in time. After a year or so a very interesting thing happened. Alternative music was now the mainstream, not the alternative to the mainstream it once had been. This inspired a million sound-alike bands to jump into the fray, walking proudly under the banner of alternative music. Suddenly, alternative music was the same shit I had been trying to get away from. It was meaningless, MOR crap. The scene collapsed under the weight of itself as more and more people cashed in.
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| Crappy Beer |
Being slightly ahead of the curve in music and beer, I have been able to mostly avoid the trappings of alternative becoming mainstream, although I have to admit to owning that crappy Sponge album from back in the day, and I have to admit to buying some really crappy beer.
What happened in the music mainstream back in the 90s is exactly what is happening in the beer industry as we speak. People are buying beers just because they are brewed by independent breweries and avoiding beers brewed by large worldwide breweries on those merits alone. This is dangerous. How many times does a consumer need to buy a crappy craft beer before they avoid craft beer all together? Afterall, eventually it will be difficult to tell what's what.
My point is, drink what you like. Research what's available and make informed choices when you purchase something. Also, don't dog the mainstream. As much as I like to brew and drink interesting concoctions, there will never be a day when I am too proud to throw back a couple Buds or Coronas. In the end, real quality will trump the feeling of being part of a scene. The scene will fade, but real quality will endure.
So how does this all relate back to our brewing troubles? I guess I started to believe my own hype. I've been planning and talking and scheming and bragging and I lost my way. I forgot that all the hype and talk surrounding what we are doing is, first of all, self perpetuating, and secondly, ultimately meaningless if we don't or can't deliver good beer every time out of the gate. At the very lease, it can't be flat or have mold in it. :)
mb
In Primary: Botz Stout #2 - A higher alcohol stout for the cold winter months.
In Secondary: Wheat #8 - Pear infused goodness
Next up: Belgian Red #3 - 11/7/10
In the hole: Toasted Ale #1 - 11/20/10 - Made with home-toasted 2-row barley.
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