I've been trying to mentally work out a blog post that would provide an explanation of why I started brewing beer. I thought it might be something truly poetic, some culmination of my life's experiences that are rolled like a perfect simile into my love of beer, and that at the right time in my life emit emotions and yearnings that are only truly and accurately expressed when I brew. But, nope. It was something more like, "I like to drink beer; I can make beer; I like to make beer and drink it!" No, it was exactly that... that was the reason I started brewing beer.
So I got to thinking... uh oh, he's thinking again... how this new logic fit into what I'm doing in my brewery. I came to realize that I was always thinking about the next beer or what the next step was for me in brewing. I was not enjoying the making of the beer right in front of me, and honestly, I wasn't enjoying drinking it either (gasp). And you know, it definitely showed on the last couple of beers.
My first batch was so much fun... the mystery, the anticipation, the wondering if it would be something near drinkable... and the joy when that beer tasted like beer (insert angels singing here). That was why I started brewing... but it turned into some dark obsession with trying to make the perfect beer, agonizing over every detail and basically driving the fun out of it. My California Steam and one of the Amber ales I made came out crappy because I was too caught up in worrying about the next batch, and not enough about how I needed to brew THIS beer.
With that, things will be changing at Little Red Chevette Brewing... I'm going to be brewing more of the beer I like to drink, and share it with people I like, and living the new LRCB mantra with each new batch of beer. The brewing hobby is more than just making beer, it's everything around making each batch... the cleaning, the sanitizing the planning, note taking, brewing, racking. It's all part of what I've grown to love about this hobby.
