How Good is your Homebrew?

"Drinking your own homebrew is like smelling your own farts."

Though I am interested in finding out how my Jockey Box compares to others.
Cheers.

 

This is a tough question. I feel like I excell at certain styles, but I also know some of my process is lazy and cheap. I've defintely picked up a few things doing this for so long (started in 1999), but I'm constantly learning and still making lots of mistakes. I went with average, especially since the state of homebrew has come so far in recent years, but honestly I don't really know where I stand. I'm occasionally blown away by someone else's brew, but I've also tasted lots of bad beers over the years that brewers were too proud or too excited to be self critical of. Maybe I'm too critical of my own brews as well.

 

I've had really good homebrew and really bad homebrew. I'd like to think mine is better than others, but I really cannot say that. I think I'm also quite a bit more critical of my own homebrew than others generally; as in, I look faults in my own but I look for positive qualities in others. Short answer: I cannot objectively say for sure.

 

Tough to say, there are some dudes that I make it a point to avoid drinking their beers, some that I can only wish to be as good as, but a lot of "meh" in between.

 

I've gotta be honest here because I have not had much opportunity to taste other homebrew. Being my own worst critic, I feel that I've only been happy with two of my efforts: a Raging Bitch clone and a Hefewiezen. Although my "Bitch Slapt" fell short of the mark as a clone, it was still tasty and went over well with all who tried it. My Hefe has been my biggest success. And these two were the last two beers I have brewed. It's an experiential thing in that each subsequent brew has been better than the last.

To answer the question, I'm not sure because I don't have much of a yardstick to go against, but my homebrew is improving, and THAT keeps me interested and excited!

 

That - I think my friends and relatives like my homebrew more than I do. That or they're just lying to me despite my pleas for honesty.

I think mine are better than some of my friends' who dabble in it (perhaps that's why they like mine?), but just on-par, maybe slightly below what's put out by some of the serious home-brew club stuff I've had. Certainly only 20% of my batches at most are something I'd buy again if it was a commercial beer.

 

I'm astouded that (even at such an early stage of the poll) that everybody hasn't voted for "above average."

I voted average for myself, because:

• I've tasted other people's homebrews that were friggin' fantastc, so mine can't possibly be above average at all times
  
• not all of my beers made my top six list

Since I do experiment frequently, not all my beers have been stellar. But if you try something weird and it's at least drinkable, you're good! Experimentation is what brings about the next new sensation in beer, not following someone else's recipe.

 

I agree with this also. Part of the 'problem' is that for my own homebrew I have perfect knowledge of the plan behind the recipe and process, and the real beer always misses the target somehow.

 

Yeah I'm my own worst critic too. But - there's a measure that gives me great feedback - whether my (previously macro-only) friends like my beer. Honesty is key when it comes to critques - I make sure and tell them to NOT spare my feelings when critiquing my beers (I blow enough smoke up my own ass as it is, so I don't need other people to do it too).

But when my beers are popular with my friends, I know I'm doing fine, even if I'm still critical in my own mind of what I've made.

 

I see homebrew as art. Ranking and judging art on the basis of quality is really tough to do, if not impossible. That is one reason I object to homebrew competitions.

 

My problem is this: face to face, people are just hard pressed to not sugar coat feedback. Even if you tell them to be honest, no hard feelings, I don't mind critique, blah blah. So, I find myself in a position where I'm not sure if they are being honest or I'm just too hard on myself.

There are a few folks I know that I trust their feedback and they are really trying to be critical. But these folks are not the norm, and they are going out of their way to be critical, to provide me feedback for improvement.

I have gone to the lengths of issuing anonymous polls before, and this IS good feedback. But I haven't done so with other homebrew, only my own.

Finally - there's competition - probably the best way to get good, honest, quantitative, and comparable feedback - but we've discussed the faults with this process as well (namely, potential subjectivity of judges as well as fitting very good yet uncategorizable beer into predefined categories).

Just by measuring the data, you alter the results. That's pretty much where I'm at on this question.

 

The biggest problem I see with most homebrewers is they spend a lot of money on equipment for mashing, boiling, etc. and then skimp on fermentation. Proper pitching rates, aeration, and temp control is the key to great beer. You can make great beer with a cooler mash tun, turkey fryer burner, plastic bucket fermenters, and home made immersion chillers, but fermentation control parameters should not be ignored.

 

For the better part of the nearly 4 years I have been brewing, I have focused on 2-3 styles exclusively. Only recently do I feel like I have gotten a consistently very good product, and only 1-2 batches do I think were truly outstanding (in that they really stood out not only from the homebrew crowd, but from many commercially available -- and even my personal favorite -- examples of the style).

Like others here, however, I am my own biggest critic.

The feedback I have received that means most to me came not from beer geeks (they have praised my efforts from the beginning), other homebrewers, or even judges (which often comprise the other two groups), but from sources such as my wife's bunco group and others who are not into "craft" beer at all. To be greeted by these folks while walking my kid to school in the morning and asked when I'm going to brew my Koelsch again because they have been craving it is for me high praise indeed.

 

not me I have two freezers with controllers. because I'm cool and I play guitar.

 

In my own experience/opinion, my brews took an exponential leap in quality once I invested a little bit of time, money, and effort into fermentation control. Beginning to use yeast nutrient, buying a stirplate and concentrating on cell counts, and building a fermentation chamber made all the difference in the world.

 

To echo what's been said above, my beers got better as I focused on post-boil procedures. For YEARS, I drank and gave away a lot of shitty beer.

 

Yep, love it when a non-craft drinker gets jealous when I give some homebrew to someone else, or when my mom says "Now THAT tastes like beer."

 

The (non-beer geek) female demographic is a huge market waiting to be tapped. If I were a professional brewer, I'd be more than happy to have such women form a large part of my clientele. (I think the Koelsch Stangen glasses and the slight hint of Chardonnay white-wine character from the Koelsch yeast plays a role in their enjoyment, too.)

 

Bro, your Squier will only take you so far