The second overhaul of the brewery has begun.

Earlier this year we brought in a new mashtun. I actually had it for a

while, but had never gotten around to setting it up. I really had no

need to. My system was perfectly fine. Decent efficiency, perfectly

designed for the breweries other equipment and very predictable in

nearly every stat.

Changing any of this never crossed my mind. Some damn fine beers have

been made with this “old” equipment.

But sometime somewhere I got persuaded (not sure persuaded is what I'm

looking for) to “upgrade”. At first I was pretty steadfast in keeping

my tried and true system. But the lure of shiney things, faster

things, automated things and popular techniques snuck up one me.

Before I knew what was going on I was changing equipment, changing

procedures, changing things that not aught to changed. And really, I

knew better.

I started brewing for speed, for quantity. No longer because it was

fun. Cheating my processes that have always worked just so I could get

in an extra batch, or so I could have more variaties on hand.

On top of that, the new eq has not proved to be reliable. Results all

over the map.

Add all of this together and we get not only a brewer that is edgy,

but beer that no longer is worth his time brewing. And I'm not sure

what make me feel worse. The fact that I put 9stripes name on shitty

beers, or that it took me so long to realise this and come to this

decision.

We are reverting back to our old set up. We are going to brew the way

I know we should brew.

More hands on again. More relying on MY carefully collected stats. My

techniques. Things that work for me and my system.

I am not saying my way is the only way, or the best way. Or that I

will not continue to learn or improve. Far from it. But I will not

shortcut quality just to follow the crowd.

Well all know its easy to make beer, but we forget its far easier to make shit