No Longer a Guinness Virgin...

Christonacrutch!... it was just a tongue-in-cheek plug for homebrewing. I wasn't saying you HAVE TO home brew. You can buy six-packs till your balls fall off, for all I care. Quit making it out to be more than it was. Sheeeesh....

nb

I used to brew because I couldn't find certain types of beer that I liked, but anymore I agree, you can find about anything anymore.

--Dan E

True.

I will admit I have a skewed view of homebrewing, as my mentor is a homebrewer who is obsessive about making VERY good beer and, in fact, once had a commercial brewery. Nothing like learning from a pro. :)

You seem to have a thing for viewing the argument in the extremes. That's twice you've missed the, "...with few exceptions...", in my orginal post. Nobody is perfect everytime. Not even commercial breweries.

nb

Since your time is so valuble, maybe you could combine the two.

nb

You forget something. My time! Put a cost on that, and the cost equation falls apart. Even if you bill yourself out at minimum wage, you're not saving anything.

Now, if you enjoy spending your time doing that, great. The fact that I didn't enjoy the time quite enough is a big reason why I stopped homebrewing. (Enjoyed the brewing itself, hated the post-brew "maintenance" like racking and bottling and all that.)

Bah. Rarely have I had homebrewed beer that *better* than good commercially available beer. And I've been around some very talented homebrewers. I've had some that's better than some commercial beers, and I've had some that's been as good as, but to make a broad, sweeping generalization, I have more than enough excellent beer within reach of me to make that point moot. People who live where the selection isn't as good as I'm lucky to have will doubtless have different perspectives.

-Steve

The slippery slope is such a lovely argument, because it's impossible to refute. *Everything* has a horrible extreme, including teddy bears and daisies.

It's still a specious argument. Using that logic, we would have no laws regarding anything because, you know, if you take them far enough we're going to be shooting people in the streets for chewing gum.

-Steve

Well, in the case of drunk driving legislation, the slippery slope IS impossible to refute. It is very real and painfully evident. Twenty years ago, driving under the influence was a citation and a cab ride home. Now it's a night, perhaps weekend, in jail and a $3K-5K hijacking. What's next. A fine for thinking about drinking? And all this on the presumption you MIGHT have an accident.

nb

Yeah, the time expended can be significant, and there is some equipment overhead. But who really considers those factors enough to put them into every calculation they make? For instance, if I asked you your salary in US dollars per hour, would you give me your 40-hour per week equivalent? Or would you (for example) add in the fact you work 60 hours per week, and spend 2 hours per day commuting, and use your US$35000 vehicle with its $1200 per year insurance and $1000 per year maintenance, not to mention parking fees and the occasional speeding ticket.

You hated *racking*?!

Lew, why do you hate homebrewers so? :-)

Mild, koelsch, alt, decent lambic, a barleywine made with German malt and Czech Saaz, or it's blond little sister that's perfect for nestling up with on warm summer nights? I can find a lot of stuff comercially (and do! Just ask my local purveyors, who know me by name), but as I enjoy the hobby of brewing [*], I can pretty much brew what I want.

[*] I'm a beer writer hobbyist, too, but if I mentioned that Lew would track me down and kill me.

"maintenance"

I hated anything that had to do with siphons.

Because they don't Support The Craft Brewing Movement enough.

Only if everything you write is better than the stuff Michael Jackson writes. Then you must die.

Since I only know three or four adjectives to describe the taste and aroma of beer, I think I'm safe.

?????

How can someone who brews their own beer not support craft brewing? It's my understanding American craft brewing evolved from home brewing.

nb

It's a semi-private joke. Unclench.

I don't know if Joel will ever be able to top "Billie Jean" or "Thriller."

Or did you mean a different MJ?

Like Joel said. He was yanking my chain, I yanked his. I suppose we could have gone to e-mail, but hell, there's so few people on here anymore, what's the point? As for American craft brewing evolving from home brewing...how about it was ONE of the ancestors. Fritz Maytag weren't no homebrewer. Neither was Bert Grant, Paul Shipman, or Carol Stoudt.

No, the child mole--excuse me, the ACCUSED child molester, that's the one. Joel couldn't write "Billie Jean" to save his ass.

His plastic surgery's holding up real well, though.