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I love drinking beer. I love big hoppy IPA's, dark roasty stouts, smooth English ales, light pilseners, interesting foreigners like belgian trappist ales, doppelbocks, and saisons and even boring local low-carb beers and mega-swill (but not Fosters, or light beer
). A mate and I travelled thru France, England, Belgium and Luxembourg, and every afternoon, stopped for a beer. Every day we would reaffirm, "Once again, I'm not disappointed by beer."
I am no expert, but since I have started brewing for myself, I have got a better understanding of, and appreciation for beer, and what it is that makes it what it is. What impact is made by changing the mash temp, using different malts, timing the hop additions, changing yeast strains, differing fermentation temps.... I love that I can taste these things in beers that I buy, and that I can sometimes replicate (or approximate) them. Sometimes we even go past the benchmark. One of the legends hereabouts is the good Doc. He came up with, and then tweaked and tuned a recipe for a clone of James Squires Golden Ale, a beer which I liked very much. I have had a couple of attempts at his recipe, and it is amazing. My latest attempt is similar to the original, but has a heavier mouthfeel, is maltier, and has a bigger Amarillo finish. I like it more than I like the original. How cool is that? And it is extra special because I made it. In pure monetary terms it is a bit cheaper than packaged commercial beer, but when you work out what your time is worth, it comes into perspective. At least the money isn't going to Coles-Myer or Woolies.
For me, brewing beer is similar to tying my own trout flies. Yes I can buy them already made up for a couple of backs a pop, but the end result has so much more meaning attached if I made it myself.