Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew
There used to be an old Native American
adage that went something like, “A project is not complete without a
flaw.” The idea was that when weaving a
blanket there generally would be at least one mistake. This mistake is what let you know that it was
a unique, handmade item. In this sense
the flaw made the item complete. This
may or may not be true, but today I certainly made one hell of a unique
homebrew.
I tend to brew beers more for occasions than for my own enjoyment these days. There is something a bit too easy about the way 20 liters of beer on keg goes down throughout the week. Christmas, Easter, a get together of any fashion is an excuse to get a brew on. This means that most of the brews that I do have to be crowd pleasers. Thankfully, most of the people we have around tend to have a progressive taste in beer, which means I can be fairly liberal in what I brew. A citrusy IPA never disappoints, so a Citra and Mosaic IPA was on the cards for a new years get together.
I rarely brew the same recipe twice, which
is significant because the two brews could not have gone more differently.
 |
| Can't go wrong with a bit of Citra and Mosaic. |
I tend to brew beers more for occasions than for my own enjoyment these days. There is something a bit too easy about the way 20 liters of beer on keg goes down throughout the week. Christmas, Easter, a get together of any fashion is an excuse to get a brew on. This means that most of the brews that I do have to be crowd pleasers. Thankfully, most of the people we have around tend to have a progressive taste in beer, which means I can be fairly liberal in what I brew. A citrusy IPA never disappoints, so a Citra and Mosaic IPA was on the cards for a new years get together.
Now, even professionally I will admit that
when brewing I tend to make at least one (usually) small error. This often amounts to small deviations in
gravity or volume, but can occasionally amount to large deviations – and
perhaps the odd broken hydrometer. I’m
up to about three or four hydrometers these days. Two were homebrew and one or two were of the
narrow-range calibrated sort, which can amount to a pretty expensive mistake
pretty quickly. I often chalk this up to
its being a truly unique, handmade product.
Some brews, however, turn into a slog.
 |
| Slogging. Recirculating the mash. |
The first batch of NYE Citra/Mosaic Pale
was one of the rare ones that went off without a hitch: on gravity, on volume,
nothing broken, nothing wrong. The full
20 liters was pretty well seen off in one evening as well. The only issue was the kegerator build that
it was supposed to be served through, but that’s a different story. It was so well appreciated and went so
quickly, in fact, that I didn’t really get to appreciate it. So I thought I would give it another go in
early March.
Martin Steward for the Pursuit of Abbeyness
writes about his “Memento Mori” abbey ale that went through a tortuous route ending
at a beer that he rather enjoyed despite, or perhaps, because of, the tortuous
route. Rousing, re-fermenting, and
re-working resulted in a beer that could virtually never be recreated in its
exact detail. He agonizes, though
briefly, over how his decisions impacted on the final flavor before deciding
that it’s ok either way.
This reminded me of the first lesson I
learned about homebrewing when trawling internet forums for helpful advice
(well, the second really – the first was that you can’t sanitize shit
(otherwise known as dirt)):
“RDWHAHB“
--The collective consciousness of the online homebrew forum community
It stands for, “Relax, Don’t Worry, Have a
Homebrew,” and perfectly encapsulates my brewing mentality. I wasn’t always this way, however, and when
starting out I ruined any hope of attracting my wife to the hobby by
micro-managing any task she was kind enough to help with. “Those bottles have got to be sterile, not
just clean!”
After hundreds (okay, maybe one hundred if
I round up) of homebrews I have found that often it’s the process that I find
the most joy in, and sometimes I end up with a nice beer at the end of it. It’s the delayed gratification that makes it
so intriguing, as I won’t know the net result of my hundreds of micro-decisions
until at least a week later.
Those micro-decisions make the beer, and
without the errors it may as well just be Carling.
Rach Smith wrote an intriguing little piece
about the simplicity of just enjoying a pint at the pub for her blog Look at Brew.
“Sit.
Breathe.
See.
Listen.
Sip.
Reflect.
Simplify.”
- Rach Smith
I see her pint at the pub and raise a pint
brewed myself at home. Knowing each
decision that went in to the brewing process and being able to sit back, enjoy
the finished product, and deconstruct those choices at my leisure is the
epitome of simplicity (though to some that may sound the most incredible way of
complicating a simple pint!).
There are always bumps along the way, but
relishing the process and how to get around those bumps is simplicity. Enjoying a pint you have made is both
humbling and gratifying, but enjoying a pint you’ve pulled back from the brink
is truly magic.
So, to all
the errors, I say relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew.
The recipe is:
Malt
|
Weight
|
Maris Otter Pale Ale
|
3
|
Wheat Malt
|
0.5
|
Cara Gold
|
0.1
|
Light Munich
|
0.2
|
Hops
|
Weight
|
Time
|
Citra
|
5
|
60
|
Mosaic
|
5
|
60
|
Citra
|
10
|
15
|
Mosaic
|
10
|
15
|
Citra
|
30
|
0
|
Mosaic
|
30
|
0
|
Stats
|
|
OG
|
1.042
|
FG
|
1.011
|
ABV
|
4.14%
|
IBU
|
34.4
|
SRM
|
14.7
|
Efficiency
|
75
|
Yeast
|
|
Gervin Ale Yeast ( Wilko!)
|
|
Attenuation
|
75.00
|