I agree, although I haven't started brewing yet (my brother does). Doing it by yourself, I think, is hard, cause it's difficult to make a "reasonable" amount of beer for one person.

That said, it is def. appropriate for HN. Beer brewing is on my short-list of "telling hobbies" that is most certainly hacker-tastic. It just seems to be the kind of thing that good devs are drawn to, I could only make an educated guess as to why. I told my brother he needs to put it on his resume, somewhere at the bottom, because if I saw it on a resume, I'd give mental bonus points.