Life Lessons from Homebrewing
Story by:
Marty Jones
Homebrewing teaches you good, practical stuff. How to follow a recipe, the life cycle of yeast, some good geography and history. (Tell the truth: Did you know a thing about Belgium or either Pliny before becoming a beer connoisseur?)
Sometimes the lessons are even more practical, and unexpected. While preparing to flush out the catheter bag of an ailing loved one, it hit me. I’m sure glad I’ve homebrewed.
Had I never bought The Complete Joy of Homebrewing and made hefeweizen at home, I’d be at a loss for how to get two cups of sanitizing solution down a tiny plastic tube and into a collapsed plastic pouch.
Yes, making beer at home instills gallons of life lessons that make delicious, homemade beer – as grand as that is – perhaps the least of zymurgy’s many pluses.
What better way to learn the bennies of patience than having to wait two weeks for a beer to ferment, and two more weeks for it to carbonate? That long?! For the startup homebrewer and the instant-gratification set, such a wait rivals NASA engineers sending satellites to deep space and Guns N’ Roses fans waiting for the next CD to drop. Make it yourself and the message becomes clear: Good things come to those who wait and properly employ an airlock.
All management types should be required to brew beer. Want to learn how to keep your workers happy and productive? Tend to yeast in a fermenter. It’s a quick way to discover that trust, the proper work conditions and the right amount of sugar are vital for a staff to deliver work in tasteful, timely fashion.
Joining a home brew club is a superb way to develop tact and Jiminy Cricket’s “accentuate the positive” skills. “What do you think of my home brew?” is a question as delicate to answer as “What political party are you?” To answer it without sending someone’s cap flying requires seasoned skills in constructive criticism and diplomacy.
On the flip side, perseverance and rejection-handling skills take flight when one is asking that question. When the thumbs down is aimed at your self-made, bottled pride and joy – “I know stout. I worked with stout. Your brown ale is no stout.” – an ability to brush off criticism and move on is severely tested.
Politicians forced into government-mandated homebrew clubs could solve any government problem with ease and earn some across-the-aisle pats on the back.
Making beer can allow people to fulfill themselves in roles once thought out of reach. “Beer is the only thing,” my brother Chris says, “that I can bring to life, protect through gestation and nurture to tasteful adulthood.” He can’t make kids on his own, but brewing means he can overcome his “womb envy.”
Can woodworking and golf do that?
Of course, today many homebrewers-turned-commercial-brewers know the other pluses that brewing teaches. These men and women know that sometimes the best thing to do is craft your own recipes, defy traditions, and be brave enough to challenge the macro-status-quo. Such trailblazing delivers delicious results for at-home and on-the-job brewers alike.
Me, I’m thinking of the brewed lessons I’ve learned about cleanliness and sanitation – right now an infected beer is the least of my worries – and optimism. What to do? Apply siphon skills and drain bag. Flush again with sanitizer and rinse. Clean fittings and reconnect. Squeeze hand, kiss goodnight. Tuck in, turn out light. “Relax, don’t worry.”
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