“The Guy” (or “Gal”)

Homebrew Clubs
1

The guy.  (Or gal.)

Every homebrew club has a go-to guy (gal) who is most knowledgeable in any given homebrewing-related topic.  Some are the experts in sour or wild or Brett fermentations.  Some know everything about hops.  Some love lager styles, or Belgians, or (dare I say it) nothing but hazy IPAs.  Some geek out on trying different yeasts, or running a ton of pseudo-scientific experiments.  And then of course there are the equipment geeks who love stainless steel, pumps, and gadgets.  Still others are the small batch brewers, the BIAB’ers, the decoction enthusiasts.  You name it, there’s a “guy” for everything.

So, I ask you:

If you had to narrow it all down to one or two things that you are “the guy” of, what would they be?  And what most-awesome knowledge might you be willing to share, as a brief introductory conversation?  I mean, what is some knowledge that you in particular might have more of, or care more about, which relatively few other people seem to know enough about or pay enough attention to?

If someone else who knows you well were to introduce you to more homebrewers, like if/when you were to visit a new homebrew club, what would they say you are “the go-to guy” of?  What would they say about you?

Even if you are not in any club or super active in other forums, I would encourage you to join the conversation from a perspective of being part of a community (like this one, AHA)!

Which “guy” (or “gal”) are YOU??

(My own response will come later.)

2

I’m probably just ‘the wine guy’ since I know way more about wine than beer.

I doubt there’s any area of beer making in which I’d be the go-to guy.  Closest thing would be ‘the split-batch guy’ since I’m obsessed with that.

3

My local club would tell you that I’m the dork who only brews 2-gallon batches on the stove, and that this is a waste of time for so much effort for so little product.  And that’s sort of correct… except that I don’t drink much and always have an average 10 cases of beer, cider, and mead sitting in the cellar ready to drink, because I don’t drink it fast enough.  I like to say I have a drinking problem: I don’t drink enough!!  Not unusual for me to go a week or two without drinking.  But then I’ll get on a kick and drink 3 or 4 in one day.  Might not sound like a lot to you but it’s plenty to me.  So… I brew small batches, so I can play more, and not accumulate even more than I already have.

Some people know, I’m super low tech.  The fanciest gadgets I own are a grain mill, a Tilt, a couple of uKegs, refractometer… and that’s about it.  I do not own a propane tank, a chiller, a stir plate, an Erlenmeyer.  Definitely no robots.  Nope.  Keep it simple.  Use a long alcohol thermometer in the cooler mash tun, or mash in a bag, all done on the kitchen stove.  My family doesn’t mind the smells in the house, and I love it.

Personally I would say that I love learning about different yeasts in particular – I know a lot of cool stuff about yeast, and especially dry yeasts.  Many people know this about me, but maybe not as many know just HOW nerdy I am about it.  :wink:

I love to experiment, always splitting every batch into multiple 1-gallon fermenters to try different yeasts, hops, fermentation temperatures, you name it.  And then when an experiment fails, I don’t feel bad about dumping just 1 or 2 gallons, no biggie.

Not everyone knows, but more than anything else, I love traditional German lagers.  I try, and sometimes fail, to brew good lagers.  I have rather strong opinions about different yeast strains for both lagers and ales.  I also have experimented a lot using regular pastorianus yeasts at about 65 F, many strains, many times.  I can honestly say, I don’t get esters from these and usually they turn out really quite tasty.  And I don’t ferment under pressure.

Overall, I am a malthead (as opposed to a hophead), and I think most IPAs smell like cat pee so I tend to avoid them, but I do enjoy good examples of any style including IPA and all.  So…

Yeah.  It’s complicated.  I have opinions.  Strong opinions.  Based on my experiences and preferences and everything in between.  If you’re not sure what to do and want strong opinions with some fairly good basis… talk to Dave.

That’s about all I figured I need to write over the course of 15 minutes (yeah I’m usually on a desktop, and I type 90 words/minute, but anyway.

Cheers all.

4

Unfortunately, I’m not the “guy” of anything homebrew related.  At least not in a room of more than three brewers.  :stuck_out_tongue:

But I’m also not inclined to summarily believe anyone who comes across as the self-proclaimed authority either.

My knowledge of homebrewing is just enough to make beer on my stove in a relaxing manner.

I don’t know how to harvest, re-use, wash, starter, SNS, stir-plate or oxygenate. 
I don’t own a O2 stone, wand, blow-tie or butterfly.
I don’t spund, pressure ferment, lodo, no-chill, cold crash, or cap the mash.
I never decoct, rest, step, mash-out, recirculate, voulauf or lauter.
I’ve never used gelatin, poly-clar, isinglass, biofine, SMB, BTB, PVPP or K-meta.
RO and filtering…nope.
I don’t own a connical, big-mouth, brew-zilla, spike, digi-boil, anvil, blichmann, foundry, grainfather or otherwise.
I can’t refract or tilt or plaato or passivate.
I never use a flask (unless I’m going camping  :wink: )
I have never immersed or counterflowed or glycoled.
I can’t understand why I would 3-vessel when I can 1 vessel.
No hop-spiders, false bottoms, bazookas, pumps, inkbirds, ball valves, pulleys, carts, Herms or rims in my closet.
I don’t vacuum seal, gamma-lid or sous-vide.
I don’t brew-jacket or keezer or beer-gun or tap-cooler, beer engine, nukatap…
And I don’t know what a “malt pipe” is but it sounds like it could be interesting.  :slight_smile:

And on and on…

5

i do understand and appreciate the thread topic, but i think this is more accurate at least for me.

i do DIY, cost-effective, relatively time-efficient beers brewed for my own consumption. im increasingly noticing my taste buds and/or preferences seem to be different than others in that i feel like im continually honing in on what excites me in beer i want to drink but increasingly doesn’t interest others.

i make malty, but ideally as dry as possible dependent on the beer dark beers well because thats what gives me the most satisfaction.

6

That’s pretty funny, Megary!

I’m the guy who used to be famous for making smoked beers. (As a matter of fact look for an upcoming article by Drew and Denny that mentions me in BYO magazine).
My other claim to fame is a GABF gold in the ProAm with Cigar City for my pepper beer.
But mostly I am the old guy who has been brewing, entering competitions and judging for longer than almost everybody else locally.
I helped with the set-up and rules for Best Florida Beer Competition way back when so I get a lot of “respect” from the pro brewing side as well as homebrewers.
I’m also the guy who splits ten gallon batches of almost every beer with different yeasts and brings them to club meetings.
I like to have a Pilsner and a Rye Pale Ale on tap at all times.

7

I’m not The Guy of anything either … at least not yet.

I guess you could say I aspire to be The Two-Acre Beer Guy since my dream is to do my own version of Growing Beer or the 50-m Beer Project.

But first we have to settle somewhere and actually own two acres… ???