Has homebrewing had an effect on your BA ratings?

Yes.
(& I haven't brewed myself since losing my stuff in a flood a few years ago.)

It's also caused me to question how certain commercial breweries ( that I won't name here) can keep going, with beer that's no better, and often worse, than home-brewed stuff that I've had.

 

Yes. And doing a few off flavor sit ins I can now pick out problems easily and what could have been done differently to fix them. It's actually ruined many beers for me that I had previously enjoyed haha.

 

I'm with you, OP. I haven't had too many issues when brewing, but between my mistakes and especially reading about other's mistakes in this forum, I know what the off-flavors taste like and how serious they are to be able to mark a lower score when I find one in a beer. Happily, I don't find those mistakes very often in commercial beers.

 

I'm only one completed batch into my homebrew journey and it was not perfect by any stretch. Yet I wonder the same, how do these breweries make money If I can brew decent beer at home theirs should be amazing.

 

The truth is that if you're serious about it, you can make better beers than many pros. A major reason is that you don't have to cut cost corners. For example, a grain or hop bill that costs 50% more than another is nothing when brewing 5 gallons, but it could kill a pro brewery financially.

Reasons mediocre breweries can make money...
- Location/captive audience
- Unsophisticated customers
- Most people are not home brewers

When it comes right down to it, pro brewers range from lousy to great, just like home brewers.

 

My kids are ugly , but my homebrew is sublime

 

Homebrewers generally become more educated about beer. It helps you better identify flaws and hone in on things you like. Most homebrewers refine their tastes, I suspect. If you review beers, that information creeps into your review.

 

I can only remember one beer, which used to be (late 1980's) the top brew available around where I live, which had quality problems that I noticed.

Otherwise, what I notice is commercial brews having to be profitable products. Grain bills, hops bills, and conditioning time all cost $$$. So when I have a purchased brew that can stand up to what I can make at home (IMHO), I admire the fact that the brewery is finding a way to get that quality level out there in a way that can make the brewery financially viable.

 

It has me a much harsher rater. I tend to rate things fairly low compared to others. I am consistently low though, so there's that. I can critique better than I could before I homebrewed. I also have the attitude that if I can make amazing beer (not all are amazing, but I like to think I haven't made a bad beer in a while) at home and put the time and effort in to learning the process and tweaking, then someone getting paid to do it surely can.

 

I have the opposite experience you did. Before I started homebrewing, I thought all commercial beers were well-made and great-tasting. Once I started homebrewing, I started being less impressed by commercial beers, and actually being downright disappointed by most local breweries I visited.

This is going to sound ridiculous, but maybe 6? My first two batches were extract. I thought they were good at the time, but today I wouldn't even want to drink them. First all grain batch (BIAB) was my third, and it had fermentation temp issues. Fourth was my first attempt at building my own recipe - ended up with a boring SMaSH. Fifth was an IPA recipe I created, and it was great, but ended up overcarbing in the bottles. My 6th batch was someone else's award winning English brown recipe, and I was very impressed with my rendition. Every batch since then has been equal to or better than most commercial examples IMHO.

I'm not bragging by any means. I'm just pointing out that some of the smaller operations putting out sub-par beer have no excuse.

 

For me, probably my 4-5th... I started right with all grain and quickly got into temp control and water adjustment and such, so the quality was there from the start aside from the learning curve of ingredients and recipe formulation.

 

I started Homebrewing a long time ago. I don't rate online, but I do judge Homebrew completions. As my palate and judging skills advance, I find that many commercial beers are not the best. There are the breweries that cut cost, but you have to remember there are ones that have economies of scale that minimizes costs. There are breweries that don't adjust the water, and it shows in some of their beers. Rushed fermentation and maturation shows. Style inaccuracy shows (don't hop your Kölsch like an IPA). And so on.

So I have gotten more critical of commercial beers - and my own.

 

Jeff, I sometimes notice this from time to time in some local breweries. I get frustrated with this aspect. I can't help but think: if they only gave this beer a few more days of tank time.

The plus of homebrewing is that we do not have production schedules that compel us to serve a beer too soon.

Cheers!

 

I definitely notice that I am becoming more critical of my own brews.

But I still enjoy the heck out of them. Like my grandma usd to say, "everybody's crow's the blackest".

 

No, but I find myself less interested in new beers or beers I "must" have because in most cases I can brew a similar beer I'll like about the same or better. For instance, I never seek out "juicy" iPas because the ones i've brewed have been damn good.