Maggie's Farm

Brewing beer is simple, even if you get somewhat (and only somewhat - if you keep a good log) unreliable result. By unreliable, I only mean that if you make 2 batches of the same beer, they may not taste exactly the same.

But that is part of the joy of home brewing. I've made countless batches at this point and only 1 came out in a way I'd say was 'funky'. It was a stout, so it was a bit more difficult and stouts tend to vary dramatically in taste, anyway. I'm partial to Guinness, which I doubt I'd ever mimic. Even so, it worked well with Yuengling in a Black and Tan.

So while it's nice to see someone 'simplifying' the brewing process, I don't see the need. If I spent $500-1000 rather than the $140 I did, I could have a much more complex system which makes twice as much. But I was a beginner and I didn't see the need to overdo it early.



With regard to conservative parents and leftist kids, the problem is undoubtedly the schools. I work VERY hard to make sure I counteract the impact of teachers. Both my boys are reliably libertarian/conservative enough for their age. The older one is at a reliable conservative university in Miami Ohio (not teaching - wise, which is a never-ending issue for the professors). The other we'll keep an eye on....if he goes left, so be it. My sister is a nutty liberal. Smartest person I know, but no common sense at all.

Her shift came in college. No surprise.

I would have a very hard time if my boys made a change. To me, life is about passing on values rather than DNA, as the article suggests. My father and my sister have a very tenuous and barely passable relationship. She is a pill.

Always possible. Divorced family, you could've hit the nail on the head with that one.

If it weren't for her solid college education, I'd have figured her for a commune-living dreamer. But she married into some well known Northeast New Deal family. Nice people. The brother-in-law is 'liberal' but not as much as you'd expect now that he's doing leveraged buyouts and rebuilding companies around the world.

Still, he's remarkably intelligent, 10 languages or some such, and his MBA from Hahvahd. Quiet guy, but you can tell, when he speaks, he feels he can help you 'fix' your life because he MUST know better than you.

Exactly, that's kind've my point.

In addition, though, while consistency with a good brew would be good (I'd love to recreate my first, which was literally phenomenal), part of the fun of homebrewing is not be exactly sure what will come up next. If you keep a good log, you can be sure you'll get pretty close (and I have) on a regular basis.

There isn't any special trick to it, and the reality is even if you keep a good log, generating a consistent wort is difficult each time you use the products you've purchased. That is, I could buy the exact same product as I did first time and let it boil just a few minutes too long, or cool it too fast, or let it ferment a day longer, etc. Each thing yields slightly different results. I'm sure he hasn't solved for some of these things, because some are unsolvable.

Most mass brewed beer is consistent for one reason - it tastes awful, or has no taste. The good stuff, the micro and craft brews, are usually very good but also have ranges of inconsistency. I've had a Yuengling Black and Tan that tasted awful (who knows why? I don't) but most are excellent. And Fat Tire Ale is one of my favorites, but I had some recently and it didn't hold the appeal that it once did with me. Maybe my tastes changed, who knows?