Yesterday I left my old life behind

Gahr

Gahr

Ambassador of Blues & Brews
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After I started brewing professionally, I gave up homebrewing. After having been into homebrewing big time for over 20 years, I had built up a very nice PID-controlled system which gave me great flexibility and control over the process. For the last three years the gear has been sitting unused at the brewery, and I decided it was time to let it go.

I had already sold a few bits and pieces, but I've held off selling the major components of my setup. However, yesterday I posted some of the main pieces of the brewery for sale on the Norwegian Homebrewers' Association: All but one item sold within hours, leaving me wit the sweet total of 10,000 NOK (close to 1200 USD) extra in my bank account. Life is great at times. And I still have quite a few more things I'm going to sell!

Now, what to spend it on? I have a plan for some of it, which will be used for guitar gear (you'll see soon enough), but the rest is for the kids and family. It will pay for new soccer boots and a new ball for my youngest, new trainers for my oldest, and at lest one plane ticket for traveling. Selling stuff is sweet!

It is a very strange feeling, though. I have been a homebrewer since 1991, and for years it has been my main interest and hobby. I used to be a member of the board of the Norwegian Homebrewers' Association (called "Norbrygg"), I've published a book on beer and brewing (together with another writer and a photographer), I have taught a lot of people to brew both in person and through internet fora, and I actually earn money for selling homebrew kits through a chain of homebrew stores. Brewing is the only subject of which I feel I have a real grasp, and it is the first thing I have ever done where I have felt that I can compete with anyone and be as good as anyone else. It is all in all a huge part of my identity.

Next weekend I'm attending the 20th anniversary of the Homebrewers' Association. I'm going to speak during the dinner, and will meet a lot of friends from the homebrewing community. Although it will not in anyway be a farewell for me, it feels weird. I am no longer doing what has given me more pleasure than anything in my life. Sure, I'm lucky since I get to brew for a living instead, and picking up the guitar again (I never stopped playing, but I didn't play a lot for about 10 years) is one of the best things I've ever done. Still, it marks the end of an era for me personally. Weird.
 
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Gahr, I can hear your passion for brewing. The juggling of life and all we do, it's what keeps us going. It will always be part of you, and perhaps like guitar, it will make its way back to you.

Until then, enjoy the memories, share your stories, enjoy your next challenge, spend some money, be with family and friends....and drink lots of beer!!
 
That's a major change, and you must have thought very deeply about it. Do you feel it is permanent, or will you leave the door slightly open?
 
DonP said:
That's a major change, and you must have thought very deeply about it. Do you feel it is permanent, or will you leave the door slightly open?
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As long as I brew professionally (which means in the foreseeable future), I won't do any homebrewing. Instead I'll be brewing about 10,000 liters of beer a week at work... In that sense it's permanent, but it's not like I can't take it up again. It just means I'll have to get some new equipment. If I start again, I'll get some simpler stuff than what I used to have, and I'll brew a lot less, but the possibility will always be there. But it still feels very final in a way, since I'm getting rid of stuff that I've brewed a lot on, even won awards on. But like with a good guitar, it's better that someone else can use it and have fun with it than me just keeping it on a shelf in our storage room at the brewery.
 
It stinks to get hobbys go that we like doing, good luck on ur next chapter, and buy more gear
 
I have reinvented myself a few times. I started my adult life as a mechanic and had electronics as a hobby. Then I switched to working in electronics to make a paycheck, got divorced, moved and went back to twisting wrenches for a living. Then came the world of computers to fill my hobby time. After I got the grasp of the digital world, I again switched my employment, now to the computer world. I do most of my own mechanical work still to save some bucks, not because I like to. I still tinker with electronics on guitars and amps as this is my hobby now. I'm still trying to figure out what I wanna be when I grow up, the computer programming world is changing faster than I can/want to keep up. I'm to broke to retire anywhere in the near future so I still have to make a living. Social Security is not enough to pay all my bills and I'm not sure what I'll be doing except I know that I'll have to keep working until it's time to take a dirt nap. I am fortunate that I have always been able to make a living doing something that I like. They say (who is they anyway?) that if you enjoy what you do for a living, you'll never have to work a day in your life. Well I sure as hell enjoy my guitar, but there is no way anyone will pay me to play it. Actually someone might pay me to not play it :hmmm:
 
Having read all this, I don't know what to say except that it seems you're on a path
you've chosen carefully and after thinking it through.

So it sounds like a good thing, congratulations!
It also sounds slightly bittersweet... so you have my sympathy.

My only question is: Do you feel you can produce better beer with the professional equipment
you now control, or with the amateur equipment you are selling?
 
I think you need to send me 10,000 or so gallons of each for proper testing and disposal ;)

Sounds like the day I sold my scuba gear.......but --- as I only go maybe once a year or so now--- renting was a much better option for that sport.
Sounds like your passion for brewing is still alive just in a different vein :)
 
Col Mustard said:
Having read all this, I don't know what to say except that it seems you're on a path
you've chosen carefully and after thinking it through.

So it sounds like a good thing, congratulations!
It also sounds slightly bittersweet... so you have my sympathy.

My only question is: Do you feel you can produce better beer with the professional equipment
you now control, or with the amateur equipment you are selling?
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The quality is the same. As long as the equipment is made in such a way that it can be properly sanitized, the deciding factor is the brewer and how he or she runs the process. In brewing the recipes are secondary to process. If you don't clean and sanitize things properly or you don't treat the yeast right during fermentation, the beer will not be right, no matter how great the recipe is. Scaling up does not directly affect quality. Some processes must be conducted differently simply because of the sheer volume, like how you cool the wort after boiling, but that has nothing to do with quality. It anything, the quality is better. For instance, at the brewery the beer is pegged and bottled using equipment that exposes it to a lot less air than in the home brewery. Oxygen is the enemy of beer, and especially hoppy beer, and with less oxygen exposure we get a more stable product that tastes and smells fresher and has a longer shelf life.

The only thing that is decidedly better in a home brewery is that you can brew exactly what you want when you want. At a commercial brewery you have to cater for the customers and brew what you need to supply them. But We still brew lots of different styles and get to use our creativity. I now also brew a lot more often (usually four days a week), and thus I get to fine tune the products a lot better then as a home brewer, when I used to brew a couple of times a month.
 
I would also venture the income is more stable now than as a hobbyist home brewer? ;) PROFIT BABY!
 
Gahr, you can probably settle this debate for me.

There are a few of us in the band room, that don't like beer that was cold, then warmed, then cold again. Im talking about cans that were left in the room for a week or longer, then thrown on ice again.

The other guitar player doesn't care, and thinks the rest of us are crazy. Too me, it seems they get skunked, that is to say funky tasting.

So, are we crazy, are we not tasting what we think we're tasting? Can you explain what happens to old beer, if something does happen to it?

We will live by your ruling.

Thank you, oh beer master
 
Bocc69 said:
Gahr, you can probably settle this debate for me.

There are a few of us in the band room, that don't like beer that was cold, then warmed, then cold again. Im talking about cans that were left in the room for a week or longer, then thrown on ice again.

The other guitar player doesn't care, and thinks the rest of us are crazy. Too me, it seems they get skunked, that is to say funky tasting.

So, are we crazy, are we not tasting what we think we're tasting? Can you explain what happens to old beer, if something does happen to it?

We will live by your ruling.

Thank you, oh beer master
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In some places they drink their beer warm. England for one... however I heard that the reason they drink warm beer in England is because their refrigerators are made by Lucas :pound-hand:
 
WavMixer said:
In some places they drink their beer warm. England for one... however I heard that the reason they drink warm beer in England is because their refrigerators are made by Lucas :pound-hand:
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Not warm - room temperature. The rationale is that it tastes good. The only reason you chill drinks is to stop them tasting of anything.

Actually I don't drink beer, but that is what I'm told.
 
Room temperature here in Los Angeles was 80 degrees Fahrenheit last week. Today it is a cool 75.
 
Bocc69 said:
Gahr, you can probably settle this debate for me.

There are a few of us in the band room, that don't like beer that was cold, then warmed, then cold again. Im talking about cans that were left in the room for a week or longer, then thrown on ice again.

The other guitar player doesn't care, and thinks the rest of us are crazy. Too me, it seems they get skunked, that is to say funky tasting.

So, are we crazy, are we not tasting what we think we're tasting? Can you explain what happens to old beer, if something does happen to it?

We will live by your ruling.

Thank you, oh beer master
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You are not crazy. When stored warm, beer oxidizes more quickly. The hoppier the beer, the more easy it is to notice. Hops tend to take on a cardboard, wet paper aroma and flavor when oxidized. Skunky aromas occur when when beer is subjected to sunlight. Pop compounds are transformed by the light, and you actually end up with a compound that you can find in the skunk's spray.
 
DonP said:
Not warm - room temperature. The rationale is that it tastes good. The only reason you chill drinks is to stop them tasting of anything.

Actually I don't drink beer, but that is what I'm told.
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There is definitely a point here, although it is a bit more complex than beer just being chilled to make it taste less. Different temperatures change the balance of flavors and aromas in beer (or any drink). Finding the optimal temperature for any given beer is important.The carbonation in beer can make it feel thinner and more spritzy on the palate. Traditional cask ale from Britain is low in carbonation because of the way it is served. It is generally kept in cellars (thus it is served at cellar temperature, typically 10-14 °C), and it is allowed to vent off excess carbonation to reach equilibrium at the temperature of the cellar. The soft carbonation (2-3 grams per liter, as opposed to the typical 4.5-5.5 grams per liter for industrial lager beer) gives it a very smooth palate that fits the traditional British beer styles. If the beer were kept at a lower temperature, the CO2 equilibrium would be different (i.e. the beer would be more carbonated), and this would change the balance of flavors and aromas quite a lot.
 
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Thanks for the science - I never knew any of that. I'm going to read up more. But the physiological effect of cold on the tongue is to depress the sense of taste.
 
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