Something that I’ve been musing about lately is the relationship between brewing beer and doing the dishes.
At least in the circles that I run in, it seems that most men either don’t do, or resent doing, the dishes. I think that’s understandable, to an extant: doing the dishes is squarely in the category of a chore, and as such it’s tedious, unskilled work that never really comes to an end. It has to get done, whether one likes it or not, or else there won’t be any more clean dishes to use; but one may as well put it off in favor of more enjoyable activities until it becomes unavoidable. I seem to have landed somewhat outside of this camp, though, and I actually don’t mind doing the dishes. It’s a way that I can help out more around the house; its monotony gives me an opportunity to think and reflect, or enjoy an audiobook or podcast; and—feeding into my other quirks, perhaps—it helps me keep the kitchen organized and tidy.
Brewing, on the other hand, is a wonderful intersection of art and science—at least in my experience, a joy to participate in. But when you crack open the lid, when you really boil it down, brewing is mostly just… doing the dishes. The fact of the matter is that you dirty a lot of equipment during brew day that must be cleaned up, and cleaned up right away, lest your equipment become infested with mold, and, heaven forbid, eventually contaminate a batch of beer. And, so, a good portion of my brew days are actually spent cleaning things in the sink. And I don’t mind that either.
So, I’m left now pondering whether I like to brew beer in part because I don’t mind doing the dishes, or if I don’t mind doing the dishes because I like to brew beer and have gotten used to the cleaning. Does one feed into the other? Do I, at my core, enjoy the ritual of cleaning something well, and therefore find the process of brewing more enjoyable for the cleaning? Or have I, through brewing regularly, simply accepted the necessity of cleaning, and adopted the dishes as a household chore I can tackle with some level of experience?
It’s probably worth pointing out at this point that our temporary living situation does not include a dishwasher, so both brewing utensils and household dishes are being washed by hand. Perhaps there’s something about this manual contact with my work that makes cleaning less painstaking—perhaps even joyful.