Spoiled by Homebrew?

That sums it up quite well. You've been paying attention. My problems have been on the organization and execution end of things. I managed to make a few that I think were really quite good, many more that disappoint me less than a random commercial beer, and a couple brett and sour beers that leave me scratching my head, and then there are the last two batches -- I decided to give them urinary by-passes.

Many of my favorite beers are low in ingredient complexity, like my 2015 Kolsch and Saison DuPont (and homebrew homages to it), and I mostly brew traditional styles, so yes, the conservative label is accurate. When I buy commercial beers, the ones I return to again and again are IPA, and I think my homebrew efforts in that department are the most glaring examples of my conservative approach leaving me disappointed. Hopefully the 12 oz of hops going into the 5 gallons of IPA I just brewed will not disappoint as much.

 

Interesting. I've definitely been disappointed with some commercial beers that were highly touted (looking at you, Alpine Duet) but TtAM wasn't one of them. I thought it was delicious.

 

Yep, recipes change and life goes on. I have rated few beers most below what they've is. 1 or2 breweries stil fit the bill but I prefer home brew.

 

Yes, I am spoiled by homebrew (IPAs) and feel the same way when buying commercial beer most of the time. There are exceptions, though, including Founder's Mosaic Promise, SN's Six Rights IPA, your favorite Patasgala IPA from Stone and Waldo's from Lagunitas.

 

If people are doing that, then that is a real shame and should be an embarrassment for those brewers. I change my recipes and processes quite a bit. I always post on my blog, facebook page, etc. and tell everyone that will listen what the change is going to be. The change is always because I think I can improve the beer, not because I think I can skimp over the beer. I've had maybe 3 beers that I thought scaled up the way I wanted to and required no changes and several of my beers receive small changes that are to increase quality (switching our Oktoberfest from Magnum for bittering to extract which gave a cleaner bitterness, dropping the IBU's on my pale ale, switching from 2-row to Weyermann Pale Ale Malt for our main base malt, etc.)

 

Same thing happened to me with BBQ...the spoiled and the pain in the ass. Now I brew beer.

 

It can be very demanding. The rewards are good, but you really earn it.

 

No, but I've been to Oklahoma... Never mind.

It is a day trip to a decent bottle shop for me unless I want Pyramid or the shelf beers I mentioned. If I ever trip over 1.5 Mil. I could brew for the whole town!

 

Homebrewing and handloading ammo are the same for anyone who isn't rich. You don't save any money, but you get to do what you want more often.

 

Agree @Brew_Betty, just had Todd for the first time this weekend in a tasting and there was definitely a caramel/melanoidon component…was wondering if they added a bit of honey malt & c60 myself. Actually liked their X-tra Citra the best (also had the Over-hyped).

Personally have a pretty high level of pro-brewing going on around me. Got a growler of Mary from Hill Farmstead (a German-style Pils) that just knocked my socks off. Almost all of the Von Trapp lagers I have had are pretty phenomenal, then there's the Alchemist, Lawson's, Trillium, TreeHouse & Foley Brothers to name a few IPAs that I'll try to emulate, which I have been getting close to getting there, but still basically a notch below. Love the challenge though of trying to get my beers to that level.

So for me, nope, not spoiled…just happy when I can put my beers in a line-up with almost any of those and have it be considered as a contender.

 

I hit this point a few years ago and have just been producing most of my own beer since. I have 2 different kegerators with 4 kegs in 1 (for clean beer) and 3 in the other (for Brett/funky and sour beers) and tend to keep at least 5 different beers on tap at all times. I buy around 6-10 bottles/cans a month, mainly stuff I've never had, to get inspiration for brewing...and I'm almost always disappointed. I'll also pick up a few singles of beers everybody has been hyping and am generally disappointed with those as well. Most commercial beers that are available in my area of SC are past their prime consumption date because of not-so-good distribution...so I tend to just drink SC beer or from local breweries I hit regularly in Greenville SC or Asheville NC, if its not homebrew. I've been a big fan of Wicked Weed brews since it opened and tend to brew similar styles of IPAs, funky beers and sour brews that keeps me happier than if I had to pay full price for all of that beer at Wicked Weed itself!

No matter what, there is nothing like being able to brew EXACTLY what you want in a beer, EVERY SINGLE TIME...so I don't think I'll ever stop brewing like I do now, just for that fact alone!

 

I agree that you tend to do what you want more often, but I tend to save a good bit by homebrewing though...a 5 gallon batch of an IPA tends to run me around $20-$25 depending on how much hops I use. So that ends up being around $0.50/beer or cheaper, much cheaper than buying a $10 sixpack!

 

We recently had a "Suds on the Square" event in the next town over that involved paying $35 to try out beer from around 20'ish local breweries. I would say I tried some pretty awesome beer though I was ready to be disappointed, (maybe I entered with low expectations...). Spoiled? Maybe a bit, but I would say I am a bit more persnickety with respect to what I will drink now.

 

I haven't been brewing for too many years, but the last year, I have been brewing with a friend, that has gotten me to the point of being "spoiled" maybe. We generally stick to IPA hop bombs and heavy stouts. I've really enjoyed almost all of them. We generally don't try to emulate a particular beer, but take what we like from each and see what comes out. In the end, the beers we produce would easily hold up to or above many of the IPA the new breweries in MN produce. Or course, as noted, we are making beer for ourselves and not the masses.

I tend to lean toward your

comment.

So many new breweries are opening in the Twin Cities, MN that I can't keep up with trying them. It's not hard to follow the trend... uh, decent beer, 3-4s generally, but there are plenty of 2 beers as well. Having said that, I feel most of the beers we brew are at least 3.5s or above. Of course, that is our opinion. Plus, at a cost of $1 a pint, I'll take my 4-star beer all day.

I'm brewing Saturday and don't have a specific IPA recipe if anyone has any suggestions. We tend to use a ot of Citra and Mosaic, so I'm trying to prove you can get the same juicy hop-bomb out of other hops. Might order some Nuggetzilla/ Denali.

 

I hear ya, but I can't complain. I still like trying new commercial beers that hit the shelves, but I've realized that tasty ones have been harder to come by, now that I've been brewing better beer. Sierra Nevada's Torpedo is still one of my all-time favs, and I doubt I'll ever be able to replicate a beer like that. But on the other side of the spectrum there's a lot of small breweries that have been putting out shit, and I always think "man, I could do so much better!"

The convenience of brewing whatever you want at home, for a much more reasonable price, and having a lot of it to drink at your disposal completely outweighs spending $18 a 4-pack for 'meh' beer.

Plus, drinking super fresh IPA off the keg at home will spoil anyone

 

Homebrew has not ruined commercial beer for me at all. Even if I think some of my beers are better than most others of similar style I've had, I enjoy and learn from other beer (good or bad). This only helps the quality of my stuff with each and every batch when I can note what I like or not like in commercial examples.

FWIW, I was sent a 4pk of Todd the Axeman from a guy in the area... Honestly, it's a damn good beer. It's not near the best I ever had, but its a hell of a lot better than many others. I think 4.25/5 is where I have it rated overall. I thought the hop profile was really nice and bright, perhaps a batch variation on the ones you had. Solid beer, though.