how the other half brews

sunday, i went and visited the Cheap and Easy Brewing Co, to witness and lend minimal aid for the brewing of 10G of belgian pale ale. those crazy mofos start their brewday at 8am and finish 5pm. me, i start my brew day at 11am and finish at 5pm. i'm not entirely sure where i get such time savings, but two obvious differences are 1) i dont boil 10G of anything, and b) i batch sparge -- it takes a helluva long time to fly sparge enough wort for 10G post-boil.

their style is much more laid back than mine, with no scriptsheet, hop bags (okay, normally they use them but this time could not find them), or sanitizer all over the place. in fact, in comparison to theirs, my sanitation regimen is over-the-top, with a giant bucket of it in which i dips my hands any time i touch something post-boil. to me, this seems sensible, but at CaE i saw many things which go against this spirit.

still, they produce most excellent beers, one of which is up against mine in the Trappist category of an upcoming competition. so there's more to brewing than laborious sanitation.

it was educational to brew with others. i think i may have convinced them to batch sparge, and i think i learned a thing or two myself, but i can't remember what, on account of all the good beer i drank while i was there.