Peterson’s First Law of Home Brewing
q = (b*r)/100
The quality of your brew (out of 100) is equal to the number of batches (to a maximum of 100) you have brewed multiplied by how highly you rate it (out of 100) and divided by 100.
(Or, in plain English: “The beer you make yourself doesn’t taste nearly as good as you think it does, especially when you first start out”)
Tags: peterson's first law
nice
I personally think you need to widen your rating group – more testing, more data 
I know beer-tasters around the place… 
Ha! Well then let’s run the calculation and see whether you might want to change your mind about that:
Batches I’ve brewed: 18
The beer I rate the highest: 70/100
Which means that the actual quality is 13/100
A slight modification:
… where “p” is the number of consecutive pints you’ve tasted If you taste 100 pints, you end up with a singularity and a new universe emerges.
I’m about to start putting this rule to the test,
Having decided
a) My tastes in beer are too rich for my wallet and
b) Brewing seems like a fun thing to do
I’ve gpt the ingredients and equipment together for my first batch of English style IPA (Emmerson’s IPA being about my favourite drop). Anything you really wish you knew before you brewed your first batch?
Nice one! Emerson’s IPA is a great drop.
Are you planning a brew from kit, extract or all grain?
Brewing is (IMO) more a science than an art and so I’m sure that you’ll have the right starting attitude. John Palmer’s How to Brew is a great starting place.
Beware though! If you think you’ll be saving money in the long term, home brewing is an endless pit you can throw money into. These days I’m brewing 20L for between $20-40 a batch but I’ve invested literally thousands in equipment. No regrets. Just not as cheap as you’d think.
Of course, if you get just the essentials you can have the necessary brewing equipment for ~$200 and it’ll only cost you about the same ($20-40) per batch. But it’s difficult to leave it at that
I actually read Palmer’s book to start with, then bits and pieces all about the place. Decided to start with an extract + some steeped grains. Don’t really see the point of the ‘just add water’ kits but can’t afford the set up and don’t have the skills for all grain just yet.
But I can see how it could become an all-engrossing sort of a hobby and the price isn’t really the main driver. I’ll report back (if the first batch is drinkable, I might keep quite otherwise
Good luck!
(Another great place for getting advice is the thriving NZ RealBeer forum. Lots of experienced brewers keen to help out.)
My advice is, above all else, don’t skimp on the yeast! The other ingredients are important and effect the taste of the beer, but a cheap dry yeast can make an otherwise good beer all but undrinkable.
Oh yea… sanitize, sanitize sanitize! Keep the fermenter and bottles as clean as possible.
The rest (relatively speaking) is easy. Good luck!
“Brewing is (IMO) more a science than an art”
Damian, you have no soul!
Thanks for the additional advice AaA, but I have to tell you I didn’t read it before I pitched my s-04 dry yeast (and liquid yeast appears to be expensive down here anyway). Just checked in with it (finally got to brewing it on Sunday) and it’s chomped through most of the sugar and starting to settle, I guess we’ll see how it tastes…
Well, if don’t report back you’ll presume I failed miserably…
It’s been 3 weeks in the bottles so cracked one today. It’s not really an IPA, since I failed compensate the hops to deal with the smallish boil volume and think I overdid the crystal. So it’s more like a big version of a best bitter or similar. But it’s still pretty bloody good! I suspect your formula is about right, and I’m mainly happy to have made something drinkable
Second batch is cold conditioning now (hope to bottle it this week) and already planning how I’ll redo the first one with what I’ve learned since then so I think it’s far to say I’m hooked!
Well done! My brewing’s been a bit hit and miss lately with a few issues with improperly prepared liquid yeasts. But, still, it’s always a pleasure to go down to the man-fridge in the man-cave and pull out a tasty bottle of beer you’ve made yourself.