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HOMEBREW Digest #5315
HOMEBREW Digest #5315 Tue 01 April 2008
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org
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Contents:
Brewing Logic and Experimentation ("Alexandre Enkerli")
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Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2008 02:18:46 -0500
From: "Alexandre Enkerli" <enkerli at gmail.com>
Subject: Brewing Logic and Experimentation
Steve Alexander's comments on how fallacies are transmitted, along
with the logical toolkit he provided seem particularly a propos today.
A day I like to call "Believe Everything You Read" Day. What a day
like today reminds us of is the value of critical thinking, regardless
of the apparent credibility of the source.
Much of this applies to brewing science as is understood by us,
uninitiated laybrewers. It's not that we don't have any knowledge.
It's just that we come to rely on a kind of distributed knowledge as
if it were the whole truth. This reliance on widely held notions is
sometimes responsible for interminable debates over a large number of
different brewing techniques and other details. Maybe we should spend
some time, now, revisiting some of those widely held notions with
experimentation in mind. In the culinary world, there are people like
Herve This who are doing experiments to verify folk beliefs about
cooking.
http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14170-3/kitchen-mysteries/reviews
The same could be done in the world of brewing. Given adequate funding.
Actually, the reverse approach might work well. At our scale, given
the relative imprecision of our equipment and variability of our
techniques, we may need to remain realistic. Instead of assuming that
we can really get to the bottom of those issues, maybe we could simply
attempt to accumulate as many data points as possible. By aggregating
large numbers of data points, we might get a more precise picture of
different dimensions of brewing. If 233 out of 296 brewers using the
same yeast strain report similar results under diverse conditions, we
learn more about that yeast strain than what the packaging may tell
us. And there are so many of us brewing so many batches that it
wouldn't be difficult to get massive amounts of data. Relatively
unreliable data but still valuable.
James Spencer's "Basic Brewing Radio" podcast seems quite compatible
with this type of approach. Sometimes, semi-formal experiments are
undertaken to check on some brewing issues (IBU calculations, HSA,
flavor contributions of diverse sugar). At other times, anecdotal
evidence is given about things which "have worked so far."
Disclaimers, caveats, "Your Mileage May Vary," and other "grains of
salt" all apply. In my mind, this type of imprecision is quite
appropriate to homebrewing as a hobby. Sure, it's a neat feeling to be
able to contribute to brewing knowledge. But we're still doing this
for fun.
I guess what I'd like to see is a type of compendium of all those data
points about brewing. Including data coming from semi-controlled
experiments as well as those more informal notions we've all gained
through experience. An enterprising group or publication could even
pay brewers a nominal amount for data about their batches. Brewclub
meetings could happen around informal and more formal experiments. And
brewing knowledge could be gained. Slowly but surely.
Yeah, I know, it all sounds grandiose. But this isn't a day for small
ideas. Granted, most of you will probably receive this on April 2nd.
It's never too late for some wishful thinking, right?
Cheers!
Ale-X in Austin, TX
http://enkerli.wordpress.com/
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End of HOMEBREW Digest #5315, 04/01/08
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