Ryan Boddy - Brewing: the Synthesis of Creativity and Analysis

Ryan Boddy

Brewing: the Synthesis of Creativity and Analysis

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As a homebrewer, a concept I've come to understand and value greatly is the need to achieve a synthesis between creativity and analysis. In brewing, or any activity that involves being creative AND technology aware, a balance must be struck between these two seemingly different values. The most innovative and marketable beers aren't the ones made by the people with the most equipment, the most expensive materials, and an unwavering adherence to tradition. Accordingly, these same beers also aren't made by people with the most imaginative, whimsical ideas of what a beer could be, but a poor understanding of the established science and process involved in brewing. The best beers are made by people who can balance the kind of creative thinking that allows them to innovate with the kind of analytic, and scientific process that allows them to also understand why that innovation worked, and to repeat the process. This same kind of synthesis works in the worlds of cooking, art, music, and — most germane to Ignite — entrepreneurship. Break the hard and fast rules all you want, but knowing why those rules exist in the first place will help you get the kinds of ingenius results you're looking for in everything you do.

About Ryan Boddy:

I'm Ryan Boddy, I'm a creative technology professional based in the Mt. Vernon neighborhood in Baltimore, but I'm also a brewer. I've been making beer for six years. I am a co-founder of Baltibrew — a Baltimore City focused homebrew collective — and founder of the beer blog soyeahdood.com.

So what do you think?