Brewing is like Gardening (or Parenting)

As I reflect on Year 2015... it occurred to me that brewing is a lot like gardening (or parenting). Last Spring, my wife and I built a raised garden in our backyard. We got a little plant happy at a local nursery. We tried growing tomatoes, squash, zuchinni, lemongrass, and various herbs. Our garden got off to a nice healthy start, but we ended up with very little vegetation. Of course, we are mostly to blame. It was our first time, the box was overcrowded, some plants got more direct light than others, squirrels robbed us, etc, etc, etc. After a while, we just gave up as Summer ended and Fall assumed. But we learned something and we'll try again in Spring 2016.

The parenting part is relevant there too. When my wife and I were first married, a young Yorkshire Terrier was our first child. It was her dog, but later she became my dog. Regardless of whose dog it was, we had a routine to learn in dealing with Samantha's eat, drink, sleep, and potty cycle, and occasionally the visits to the vet and the hairdresser (my wife's thing, not mine). Some would say that having a pet is a safe way to learn how to raise children, whatever that means.

My wife and I got pregnant in the first year, and brought a baby girl into the world the second year of our marriage. Three years later, we brought a second baby girl into the world. As you can imagine, there's lots of girl-y hormones at my house. As a parent, we learned very quickly that there is no instruction manual for how to raise any child, particularly since every child is unique. It was ok dealing with the ups and downs for one child, but when the second child came, anything could go and any given point in time. Some things you could control, and some things you can't. Much like gardening. You just do the best you can given the things you can control and hope for the best with the rest.

If you've gotten this far, then you've probably come to the conclusion that brewing can be a lot like gardening and parenting. There will be things you can control and things you can't control. Let's focus on but a few of these things:

What you can control:

- Proper cleaning

- Santizating the right things at the right time while being very conscious of danger temperatures

- Temperature of wort before and during fermentation (usually with a fermentation chamber and

temperator regulator)

What you mostly can control:

- Storage temperatures for packaged beer

- Intended style of beer you're making

- Ingredient freshness

- Availability and type of yeast, hops, and other related ingredients (grains, extracts, etc.)

- Grain crush

- Water chemistry (if you choose)

- Efficiency of sugars extracted and utilized

- Yeast health and pitch rate

- Carbonation levels

What you may or may not have control of:

- Contamination (many, many potential causes)

- Off-flavors (many, many potential causes, and some are caused by contamination)

- Tired, overused, and mutated yeast

Homebrewed (and even commercial beer), like gardening and parenting, is about about many of the right conditions and a little magic and luck. Consistency is key for making great beer often, but don't fret when a beer goes bad. A good brewer will try to figure out what went wrong and try to avoid making the same mistake again (this is where taking good notes for EVERY brew is helpful). While some bad beer is a drain pour, some beers are actually salvagable, or with a little creativity can be turned into another great beer. And don't forget that what one drinker thinks is garbage, may be another drinker's treasure.

A case in point...

A homebrew friend of mine and I tried to make a Deep Ellum DreamCrusher double India Pale Ale clone (IPA) last summer. It fermented out really well, but upon sampling it, it was sour. Double IPAs are not cheap beers to make, and we were so disappointed. I racked my brain for anything where we went wrong. We reduced it either to a contaminated yeast starter (which would have been my fault) or it was due to a massive bead of sweat that ended up in the cooling wort during the danger temperature range. Honestly, we still don't have any idea which it was, or a combination of both. At least one person thought it was doomed and was only going to get worse and become vinegar. I couldn't bring myself to pour it down the drain, so I delayed my sorrow and actually forgot about the kegged beer for over a month! When I went back to taste it again, it did not change in it's sourness at all. So I thought... rather than treat this like a double IPA, how about treat it as a sour. Since I like Boulevard's Hibiscus Gose so much (a salt ale), why not put some liquid raspberry extract into my new sour and try it again! It turned out to be an amazing Raspberry Sour! I served it at the 2015 Little Rocktoberfest and out of four beers we had on tap at my table, the Raspberry Sour was first to go! Moral of the story... you figure it out.

A second case in point that helped me to appreciate...

When it still aired, I watched Brew Masters, which was a great show about Sam Calagione and his Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, DE. In one episode, they slaved over trying to solve a stalled fermentation of their popular 120-Minute IPA. This is a VERY expensive beer to make, and after extensive yeast testing and repitching new yeast, they ended up dumping the whole batch. If I remember correctly, that was a projected loss of $500,000! If you've ever had anything by Dogfish Head, you'd know it is a world class brewery that helped usher in hoppy and experimental beers. These guys are meticulous!

Back to gardening and parenting... just when we thought the season was over and no more vegetables were gonna grow, left completely alone four more tomatoes grew (and the damn squirrels took them again). And as for parenting... our girls can be sneaky, rowdy, and downright unpredictable, but they are amazingly smart and loving girls. Gotta forgive a little, and certainly forgive yourself. Except for a few bad moments, but you can always make new, memorable ones, including another beer.

Happy Fermenting, and Happy New Year!

Sam