I can't cook for shit so can I still make good beer?

[dirtbikejunkie]

no matter how close I follow receipes/instructions my cooking is never right. not horrible, just not what it's suppose to be.

e.g., my wife and I have both made this killer belgian waffle receipe. it's pretty simple, but has shit like "beat egg whites until white caps form"... WTF does that mean? so I proceed to beat the egg whites with a fork for about a minute and call it good. my wife mocks me stating I was suppose to beat them some other way and that's why my waffles look like shit compared to hers.

as a result, I am stunned by the fact that not following proper egg white beating procedure produces shitty looking waffles and wonder if I can ever expect to make good beer from all grain when you have to hit all these tempature points and blah, blah, blah

my wife has taken over all cooking in the house and already starting to roll her eyes at my beer making. maybe I can make palatable beer like justin's, but given a few years I'd like to make something I can be proud of.

I am banking on the fact that beer making has more check points than say cooking and I am pretty good at learning from my mistakes when I know where I've fucked up.

so given all that, should I...

1. go on faith that I'll make shitty beer but it will get better?
2. make shitty beer in hopes that said wife will take over beer making duties and make better beer than me.?
3. give up now and buy good beer?

[Bugeater]

Go ahead and make your beer. It sounds like you are psyching yourself out. A lot of folks make brewing sound a whole lot more complicated than it is. Remember that malt and yeast want to become beer. You just need to remember to not get in the way of that happening.

Start by reading this: http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/

Denny Conn is the Yoda of homebrewing. Pay attention to what he says. He got me to start all grain about 8 years ago using almost the exact primitive system shown on that link. I still use the same setup and have won dozens of medals with beer made that way.

The second piece of required reading is http://www.howtobrew.com/
This is the free online version of the best beginning brewing book ever written. John Palmer really knows his shit.

The next step is to just do it. There are all sorts of things you can do to tweak your beer to make it a little better, but few of them are critical to making decent drinkable beer. Start with the basic process. Once you get that down, you can start doing one thing different each time. If you change too many things at once, you won't know what was responsible if the batch doesn't turn out good. Like anything, the more you practice the better you get.

Good luck going all grain! Let us know how it goes.

Wayne

[BDawg]

Welcome-

(In addition to all the good info Bug just gave you....)
There are plenty of us out here willing to help, including some on this forum from Bothell and Lynnwood (I'm in North Bend).
Check out http://www.wahomebrewers.org and sign up. We have all kinds of links on there and lots of stuff to help you learn, including a "find a mentor" link.

HTH-
Steve
WAHA

[triple-oh-six]

Go for it, and may the beer gods smile upon you.

Good luck my friend!

[Kbar]

Jump in - the water is great. It is an insane hobby, but a chef one needs not be to enjoy this adventure!

[peas_and_corn]

Get a new wife.

[dags]

get into it, there is a certain number of shitty brews that need to be made prior to getting good beer.

If you get how to brew by palmer and follow the instructions and recipes in there you shouldnt go to far wrong. Cooking is more taste as you go, brewing is more follow the procedure, keep it clean and be patient.

also remember at the worst you can tip it out and start again.

Brew on!!!

[mordantly]

i just kinda scanned here, so i don't mean to offend. the egg whites needed to be fluffed until when the whisk when removed leaves just-firm whites. think lemon meringue before it's baked.... mmmm pie!!

as to beer, come on in.. the weather's fine!! and don't worry about it. do like me.. baby steps. iv made about 40 gallons all grain thus far, all by recipes available from online homebrew supplies. still ironing the kinks out of my equipment (darn mash tun every time = stuck sparge) before i go off and get ballsy and do single malt-single hops to figure out how to formulate my own brews. perhaps try some extract with grains first. you haven't elaborated on what you HAVE brewed thus far........... ever take a self-study before?? same thing, baby steps and you CAN'T fail.

want to trade away this wife of yours?? if she cooks AND brews, i'll take her!