All I know is that I know nothing (about brewing)

"I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean. " Socrates


This weekend, I realized I'm a lot like Socrates. I'm white, bearded, slightly overweight, prefer to wear sandals and am often accused of corrupting the youth. Then again, all I really know about Socrates is what I gleaned from my drunken viewings of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. It's far more likely that the real Socrates didn't carry around his bag of trusty hops with him, just in case someone needed to brew on a moments notice. Lucky for you, my fellow brew-thusiasts, I never leave home without a satchel full of East Kent Goldings - just in case!

But it's not just about the hops kids, no siree...EVBC-fever is far more than that! Over the past week or so, I flipped through William Moore's "Home Beermaking - The Complete Beginner's Guidebook" in order to further educate myself on the science and art of brewing. I've learned a lot so far - and I decided to roll out some of this knowledge on the pros at Brooklyn Home Brew while we picked up supplies for this Wednesday's "Brewmaggedon 2 - This time, it's personal." How smart I sounded, asking 'bout the difference between IBU and HBU, determining which malted barley was best for our Avenue A-le and even going so far as to correctly describe why liquid yeast is better than dry yeast (cause it costs more, that's how you know things are better, cause they cost more).

All my genius of course was blown to smithereenies when the kindly shop keep reacted quite negatively to our using of an aluminum brew pot during round one...apparently a no-no in the brewing world. B.M. and I marveled at the ease with which our beer could be siphoned going forward were we to use proper sized tubing...apparently we've been making do with a less efficient method of beer-movement. The real humility didn't set in though until I had to ask how to open the bathroom door...apparently P-U-L-L means using force to move an object towards you instead of away. My bad on that one.

What was supposed to be a quick trip for a brew kit turned into a life lesson - remember, no matter how much you think you know, there's always more to be learned. Also, wipe your feet before coming inside, because frankly you're making a mess of the brew shop. I have to disagree with Mr. So-crates slightly on something though...maybe I don't need to know that I know nothing about brewing, but instead just need to keep studying, keep reading, keep brewing and keep drinking (for learning purposes I assure you). I think that's what Socrates was angling for anyways.