Free (As In Speech) Beer, V2.0 266
AgentPaper writes "Three years ago we discussed an open source brewing project in which a Danish brewer made his beer recipes available for public consumption and alteration. The concept has taken off, first with the 'Free Beer Project' in Denmark and now with Flying Dog's 'Collaborator' Doppelbock in the US, which was created via input from home brewers across the world. One version of the Collaborator is commercially brewed and available for purchase (and is darned tasty), but you can download the same recipe and labels, brew it yourself, and submit your mods back to the project."
Re:Beer isn't software (Score:5, Insightful)
The conditions under which the brewing occurs are part of the "program", and the same program certainly should always produce the same results. If you don't have control of some of your initial variables, then you will get varying results, whether you're talking software or beer.
Re:Not free for everyone (Score:4, Insightful)
Nothing to see here (Score:5, Insightful)
In my experience:
1. Most brewers (home and professional) have always been willing if not eager to share their recipes with other brewers.
2. Those brewers who do zealously guard their secret recipes usually don't make very good beer, and you wouldn't want their recipes anyway.
Re:Not free for everyone (Score:2, Insightful)
Beer Recipies & Water (Score:1, Insightful)
On trips around many such establishments, you can easily glean what ration of hops : malt : etc goes in a particular beer.
So why can't you make beer with the same taste?
Water.
IMHO, this has a big effect of the actual taste of a beer. This is why regional breweries in the UK ( and other plaves) produce ales with such distinctive tastes.
Even the brewers of that apology for beer in the USA (Bud) treat the water so that wherever it is brewed it tastes the same. Then they go and ruin it by adding rice. It is not beer. I digress.
The differences in the water for beers is as important as it is for proper (Malt) Whiskies.
The peaty soft water of an Islay Malt makes a very different drink than a Highland Brand.
Re:Missed half the point! (Score:5, Insightful)
I can even remember as a kid, wanting to go to McDonalds and my mom saying "I'll make you a nice hamburger here at home" and I'd be really upset because I preferred a skinny, greasy Golden Arches meat cookie to the fat, lovely fresh burger my mom would make. Needless to say, there's not much I wouldn't give for another burger (or anything else) made by my mom.
I can tell you, after the years I've spent married, that's changed. When I have that deep gnawing need for sustenance, I go look for an unlabeled jar in the basement first. There are few things edible or drinkable that I'm not certain could be done better at home, with love, than in a factory by workers in white overalls and hairnets.
Have you ever had home made root beer or fig preserves? Just thinking about all these things has me drooling on myself as I sit here at 7am.
Re:Missed half the point! (Score:4, Insightful)
On the other hand, it's damn hard to find a better beer than what you make at home. Perhaps other homebrewers have had the experience of drinking almost solely their own beer for a year or two, then going somewhere and having a beer you used to think was the bee's knees only to find it a flavorless, depressing swill. Or going somewhere and drinking a beer that you used to find good-but-overwhelming (Dogfish Head 90 minute?) and finding it a whole lot more easy to drink.
Re:Missed half the point! (Score:2, Insightful)
BETA TEST (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Missed half the point! (Score:5, Insightful)
Realistically, from my experience to get the same quality and consistency of true premium ales/lagers there are allot of things required. Excluding lagers, the cost of yeast starter prep work, mash tuns, water purifying/ph correction/mineral corrections... Even with ales you must keep the at the optimum fermentation range of 65F during the entire primary ferment. This takes equipment, time, and cost which all most be figured in. Also, keep in mind that the cost of time is a big one. Also, it must spend several weeks in the secondary being monitored for clarity, and depending on the type of grain might need additional clarification related items/procedures. Once again... Time and Expense... Third, the time and expense to bottle as I general do not like artificial CO2 because for most premiums it alters the unique living beer taste... I could go on, because I hope you are seeing my point... Making beer is easy... Making true high end beers (which is where the true savings is) is not...
In short... I do this because I do believe it makes a difference and I appreciate the added quality of taste, but I really do not pretend by saying that I save money by doing it. I am constantly reminded with the amount of equipment, and the space it takes up, that saving much money is unlikely...
Time is money! (Score:5, Insightful)
When drinking beer, do you factor in the time it takes to drink it, as well as the cost of the beer itself? How about going out to dinner? Do you tack on an additional $100/hr for your time?
How do you pay yourself? It seems like it would get a bit circular. "Hey, Self, here's the $100 I owe you for the last hour. Don't spend it all in one place, you know you have payroll coming up in an hour!"
Re:Missed half the point! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Time is money! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Missed half the point! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Beer isn't software (Score:3, Insightful)
It depends on what your goal is. If you want to enter a competition that scores based on adherence to style, then yes, brewing to style will improve your beer. If your goal is just to make good beer, then style doesn't really matter.
Re:Time is money! (Score:1, Insightful)
If you're just going to sit around the house at night you might as well brew beer. If brewing takes away from time you would spend working then it might make more sense to pay for it.
The probably is everyone things ALL their time is valuable when so often only a few hours a day of it actually is.
Not disagreeing with anything you said mind you, just continuing your line of thought.
Re:Time is money! (Score:3, Insightful)