Confessions of a Brewer
I'm addicted to brewing.
There, I said it. Born out of a desperate need to find a tasty drinkable beer I went in search of the whole homebrew thing. I pretty much decided that if I could brew anything half as decent as DB or Lion then I'm well on the way to improving my life. The dilemma I now have is that in my search of homebrewing I found this fantastic array of NZ craft beer I had no idea existed. If I'm honest I thought that Macs and Monteiths were as good as it got in NZ and I found it rather disappointing. Now that I have found the beer I'm after, I've also gone and got myself addicted to brewing too so I guess I'm just going to have to 'chin up' and deal with it (probably with regular visits to the Malthouse and Regionals) Also, now that I'm a beer snob I'm on the look out for any craft brewery/pub I come across. There's a whole new world out there now.
I love being in the kitchen and creating food to eat and share. One of the most satisfying things I've learned to make is bread. It's pure simplicity. Just flour, water and yeast, yet you can do so much with it and pulling the hot steaming loaf out of the oven has a sort of culinary high associated with it. I discovered that high again on Saturday with my first all grain brew! I had done a kit brew a month or so back and while that was great fun it kind of felt like cheating. Similar to buying a par-baked loaf of bread and shoving it in the oven (no disrespect to kit brewers out there, it made a fine beer!) I just felt I needed to take more ownership of the brew. Research it, pick the raw ingredients and then put it all together myself. As much as I love the final product I think I get a better buzz out of the process, at the end of the day it's not someone else making my beer it's me. It's a great addiction!
There, I said it. Born out of a desperate need to find a tasty drinkable beer I went in search of the whole homebrew thing. I pretty much decided that if I could brew anything half as decent as DB or Lion then I'm well on the way to improving my life. The dilemma I now have is that in my search of homebrewing I found this fantastic array of NZ craft beer I had no idea existed. If I'm honest I thought that Macs and Monteiths were as good as it got in NZ and I found it rather disappointing. Now that I have found the beer I'm after, I've also gone and got myself addicted to brewing too so I guess I'm just going to have to 'chin up' and deal with it (probably with regular visits to the Malthouse and Regionals) Also, now that I'm a beer snob I'm on the look out for any craft brewery/pub I come across. There's a whole new world out there now.
I love being in the kitchen and creating food to eat and share. One of the most satisfying things I've learned to make is bread. It's pure simplicity. Just flour, water and yeast, yet you can do so much with it and pulling the hot steaming loaf out of the oven has a sort of culinary high associated with it. I discovered that high again on Saturday with my first all grain brew! I had done a kit brew a month or so back and while that was great fun it kind of felt like cheating. Similar to buying a par-baked loaf of bread and shoving it in the oven (no disrespect to kit brewers out there, it made a fine beer!) I just felt I needed to take more ownership of the brew. Research it, pick the raw ingredients and then put it all together myself. As much as I love the final product I think I get a better buzz out of the process, at the end of the day it's not someone else making my beer it's me. It's a great addiction!
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Comment by Pilgrim on August 10, 2009 at 7:31pm
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Welcome to the addiction. You sound as if you've got the passion alright :-)
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Comment by vdog on August 12, 2009 at 11:45am
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Good on you mate, sounds very much like the reasons I got into brewing, and the reasons I enjoy it so much. The more you learn, the better it gets!
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Comment by Stu McKinlay on August 12, 2009 at 12:19pm
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Such a similar story to half the people on here... welcome to the fold. it's good to have another member of the club. the great thing about the people that i've met through beer is that they almost all have other really interesting passions... music, food, writing, painting, photography, gardening, computers. they're a diverse bunch but we all meet around the common goal of gerat beer. And I've found that if you're addicted to one passion, it is likely you're addicted to others.
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Comment by Matthew on August 12, 2009 at 12:34pm
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Thanks guys! I have to say this forum has been extremely helpful and especially so with us newbies. It's often the little tidbits of information about past experiences (successes and failures) which really help the most.
Stu, I'm looking forward to tasting some Yeastie magic at Beervana, I'm yet to try your tipple.
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Comment by John Christie on August 15, 2009 at 4:30pm
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Who needs fine wine when there is great beer, just had a full day of brewing used my new wort chiller don't know what I did without it. I to thought that Macs and Monteiths were as good as it got in NZ satisfaction of crafting your own beer is extremely rewarding.My partner well she just loves helping me..........not!
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Comment by cerevisia on September 5, 2009 at 12:23pm
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Welcome aboard! Beer is the new wine. ;)
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