Your biggest epiphany in craft beer

Yup. And hell, we've traded before, haven't we.

Hell, whatever you do, don't add up your overall costs when trading. I've posted trades for a single beer, and after expanding the trade, throwing in a couple extras and then packing and shipping the box, I've spent over $100. Never really less than $50. That's an expensive beer.

Dope

 

Belgians!!!!!

 

Yes we have. And I don't regret any of my past trades; it's all been part of the experience.
The only difference is that now I know I'm surrounded by great beer without having to ship it across the country.

 

After having far too many overly sweet IPAs/DIPAs and realizing that if they weren't fresh, they were a real waste of time and money.

 

That Blue Moon is a good beer, and at $11/12pack yall can hate all you want.

 

Now if I could just convince my wife that they are not "Mud"! She's a heathen when it comes to beer.

 

Boy, have things changed!!! When I was in college the only beer I could afford was $4.99 a case!!

 

My epiphany was actually how many styles of beer there are. Several years ago my brother got me a three month subscription to a " Microbrew Beer of the Month Club" which I liked so much I continued it for almost 3 years. It really opened my horizons about beer, and I've been hooked ever since.
And to think, I used to think Heineken and Corona were "Good"!

 

Mine also, plus realizing that I can make styles I can't even buy.

 

This will sound funny, but I went years (back in the 90's) not knowing what that taste was that I liked so much in certain beers. When I finally figured out it was hops.... that was the beginning...

 

Duvel. 9 years ago, this beer was the spark that lit the flame. I hadn't tried any good beers other than Rogue Dead Guy, which I liked but didn't love. I tried a 4 pack of Duvel and was hooked immediately. Spent the next year and half or so almost exclusively in Belgian styles and branched out from there.

 

That there are a lot of great people that enjoy craft beer, but, at the same time, a lot of entitled people that believe they deserve a certain amount of limited releases.

 

Epiphany #1: I prefer lower abv beers.

Early on I was always tempted by the high abv. stuff and I neglected the sessionable brews. Now that I have a better appreciation for the difficulty of making a well crafted session beer and, quite frankly, now that I recognize they taste damn good, I buy them almost exclusively.

The 11% stout or barelywine is now a rare inhabitant of my fridge.

Epiphany #2: I prefer lagers to ales.

I believe many people that enter the craft seen do so with a distinct aversion to lagers, believing that BMC AAL's are what a lager always is like. This is most definitely not the case in my opinion.

Epiphany #3: Common shelf beers are often just as good as the hyped stuff.

While I haven't had many of the rare beers, let alone super rare beers, those I have had, have rarely blown away similar beers that are commonly available.

 

Backwoods Bastard

 

More like what's my greatest epiphany on single malt scotch: that beer is cheaper and there's more to pick from. AND of course that I spend waaay too much money on beer

 

I really enjoy Coney Island Lager, what are some other easy to get, good lagers?

 

I'm under no illusion about my homebrews, though other people seem to enjoy them. I have some brews that I am extremely happy with - a pale ale, a stout and a sour aged with bugs on black currents. I much as I liked those beers, I still am tweaking them to see if I can get them better.
I (un-self-consciously) make better beers with that rig, similar to yours, than some I've had commercially, but nothing will crack the top thousand beers list, much less 100.
I think I would enjoy having a nano-brewery, but I doubt that a full-time gig is anywhere in the realm of possibility.

Like others have said, eipiphany #2 is session beers. I enjoy the next double-imperial-bourbon-quintuple-hopped monstrosity as much as the next guy, but for something to sit down with after work in front of the TV, something less complex is appreciated as much, if not more, than the big guns. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of those in my cellar, but they are increasingly meant for special occasions.

 

No particular order, just the order they came to mind.


1. J.W. Lees Harvest Ale, aged 11 years. 'Nuff said.
2. fresh King Henry (bottled variant) and the realization that all the talk about needing to use fresh bourbon barrels because that's what tastes good/is what people want is bullshit. The majority of craft fans like oak flavors in barrel-aged beer, not whiskey, and you get more of those with second-use wood.
3. Aging some Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Stout and Goose Island Bourbon County Stout and immediately realizing "barrel-aged beers don't cellar well" is bullshit.
4. Allagash Tripel Reserve
5. My first, second, third, and fourth bottle of Fantome (because they were all different)

 

I once tried this beer called 3 Floyd's dreadnaught. Then the next day I went back and bought 3 more bombers. I've never looked back since that moment. Still to date that beer is one of my favorites.

 

Well I guess mine would be that beer actually IS good. But because I got in to craft through stouts, porters, quads, etc.. I kind of ignored IPAs for a long time. Like most people I had had the normal ones like SNPA and I wasn't impressed.

So I would say my biggest epiphany is that hops are AMAZING!!! and delicious! I realized this when my only craft friend at the time shared with me some of his IPA, with a non assuming cover of what appeared a german style scene, brick like house with snowy mountains in the back and the words PURE HOPPINESS at the bottom. I believe I had the same epiphany after first trying sucks as well. It really just drove it home.