Any audiophiles brewing beer?

Got a couple of friends who have been doing all grain in NYC apartments for a year or so -- which strikes me as an unnecessarily high degree of difficulty -- and I've just started into it myself. Have a batch of dark, belgian-style strong ale about to move to a secondary, and heading out to get supplies for #2 this afternoon. Think partial grain is as far as I may be willing to take this in a fourth-floor walkup, but we'll see....

Audiogoner; Toastedlager is the owner of the very fine Bluepoint brewery.

just saw this thread - I used to be a very active homebrewer, starting with kits and moving up to formulating my own recipes. Eventually I got too crazy and was putting too much malt in, and then I got some contamination problems, and my brewing partners lost interest. Haven't done it for several years now.

The best beers I ever brewed myself were a cinnamon brown, and an ESB. As far as my favorite commercial brews, IMO nothing out there beats Fuller's ESB. Simply a perfect beer, the smoothest I have ever had, and excellently hopped. My own ESB was as close as an approximation as I could get.

Yes, goes hand in hand with hifi!
"Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew" is like "Play Records". Been making homebrew since '84.
One of my old time favs is the Charlie Pappazon "Cherries in the Snow". Still make a batch for Xmas every year.
Cheers!

Mezmo: I think grain done right will get a bit more subtlety and elegance in the beer. But as you say, at a cost cost of mess, difficulty, and complexity in the process. Interestingly, some folks I know started brewing worse beer when the moved from extract to grains! I've never been tempted to take the plunge, since I've found that carefully done extract brews can compete pretty well with top commercial craft brews. I once saw several people prefer an extract-brewed Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone to the real thing in side-by-side tasting; an effect I attribute to the freshness of the home brew, but still impressive. I'd stick to the extract, and keep my apartment livable! John