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**Steelers77** · 01-22-2010, 12:02 AM

I've been brewing for about 10 years now, and I think I make some decent beer but the question is how good is it?
Everytime a drink something for one of my favorite breweries I get knocked back to reality. Yeah, I make good beer but there is something about this (insert beer) that make it special. Do you all feel the same way?

**IrregularPulse** · 01-22-2010, 12:05 AM

I definitely had a "HomeBrew taste" at first. But it seemed to go away with kegging. Combine wiht starting to use gelatin giving my beers commercial clarity as well and given a good recipe, I honestly make beer as good as a craft brewery. Being able to reproduce that same exact taste over and over is what I think truly sets them apart.

boo boo · 01-22-2010, 12:06 AM

I make great beer, but then again, so do a lot of people that homebrew and which I have had the chance to taste their beer.
To me each beer is a bit different.
Those I started drinking back when still taste good, but my tastes have evolved.

carp · 01-22-2010, 12:08 AM

I have to admit that I get a bit of that. I really enjoy my beer, maybe even prefer it, but when I have one of my favorites (Racer 5, Dales Pale, Hop Rod, even Celebration) I do have that reaction. However I have not yet (only 7 months, 15 batches) been motivated to do a clone of any of these, so I guess my envy is not too strong.

I can say that I DO NOT have that reaction to my beer in comparison to my old standard, SNPA, of which I have drank (drunk?) over a 100 kegs. My beer kicks SNPAs ass, at least according to me and my old lady. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/images/smilies/rockin.gif

**Steelers77** · 01-22-2010, 12:13 AM

I'd have to say I'm as good as alot of the brewpubs I've been to, and some smaller craft breweries. But when it comes to say: Sierra Nevada, Ommegang, Dogfish Head, Anderson Valley, New Glarus, ect. Now way, not even in the same ballpark.

Grinder12000 · 01-22-2010, 11:12 AM

Most of my friends say I can compete with a commercial brewery and I mini mash AND bottle my beer. Kegging is nice but you lose a lot of flavor kegging. There is just noway you can get that fantastic taste of cask ale from a keg.

ALTHOUGH as Steeler said - some places I can not go up against - Steeler - check out Ale asylum beers if you have a chance in janseville - I consider them the #1 in Wisconsin.

**Steelers77** · 01-22-2010, 02:12 PM

Grinder, with all due respect, I do not think they are number one in Wisconsin. I drank there just about every Friday for a year and a half and they make some wonderful beers. But on some of the Belgians I think they strike out. Just my opinion. I personally believe New Glarus is the states best, with Oso, Sprecher, Ale Asylum, and Muddy Waters being close.
But hey to each his own.

**GilaMinumBeer** · 01-22-2010, 02:20 PM

I am usually the other way around. Sure, I have made some beers that where underwhelming but, out of the thousands of commercialized beers I have tried I have yet to taste anything that made me have an epiphany.

**Steelers77** · 01-22-2010, 02:32 PM

Can't tell you how many times I 've had an epiphany when drinking a beer. Last time was @ Dogfish Head in Rehobeth Beach. I got the first pull off of the brand new 75 min they had on cask. Neeedless to say, my best friend and I drank ourselves sill on that stuff. Maybe one of the best beers I've ever tatsed. Was like the firast time I drank the entire Ommegang lineup in Ithaca, Or the first time I had a Sammy Smith Oatmeal Stout, or my first Berliner Weiss mit shuss.

kanielb1 · 01-22-2010, 02:37 PM

The more commercial beer I drink...the more it makes only want to drink my homebrew.