Do you buy commercial beer anymore?

Assuming that you have drinkable homebrew around the house, do you buy beer (brewpub or larger) anymore? If so what are you buying?

Oh yeah! I buy it all the time! I keep some Bud Light on hand for my BMC-sworn friends, and I try to grab a six pack or 22 oz bottle of anything I've never tried before, especially if it's by a known brewery (Stone, Rogue, anything Belgian, Samuel Smith, etc, etc). Those commercial beers usually become the inspiration for one of my next brews.

Yeup. I also try and keep some Cascade draught (fizzy pop) in the fridge for my BMC peoples. I also buy Cascade Premium Light for when I am on call.

I also buy GOOD beers, especially if they are in good bottles. It is nice sometimes to drink a beer knowing that somebody else has done the work and you get a nice bottle at the end of it to put your good stuff in

I very rarely buy commercial brew if I have homebrew available because SWMBO won't let me. But if I run out of homebrew between batches I'll go out and buy something thats on sale. Its hard to drink crappy beer though because I think my taste buds are spoiled from all the delicious homebrew I drink.

I buy more than I should. Before I started homebrewing, I would drink pretty much the same thing (Big Rock Traditional) all the time, and not very much of it. Now that I have been exposed to the world of endless brewing possibility, I can't help but sample and resample craft brews, imports, old favourites, etc.

The ironic part of it is that I got into homebrewing to save money on beer! Yeesh, that plan backfired! Sure, the ingredients for a batch of pale ale cost me about $10 now, but 'the hobby' has become expensive, and those imports aren't cheap either.

But you know what -- no complaints from me! I love it all! SWMBO -- now that's a different story!

it is called research I do a lot of that...

i try to pick up a belgian beer i've never tried before every weekend. pickins are getting slim

if someone doesn't like my beer or homebrew, they can drink my roomates pbr, screw 'em. or i'll make white russians

I really like the one bottle shop near my mom's house because you can mix and match the beers you want to buy. Very good from trying different beers without comitting to buying 6, 12, or 24 of stuff you might not like. Sadly that type of store isn't near me... mostly 6ers of AB or Miller products... I can still get good beer from the 2 craft breweries in town though so it isn't all bad.

I buy different beer all the time. Since I started hombrewing last year, I probably have only bought the same six pack more than once on three different beers. As Dibby says, research. I will probably rely less on commercial beer once my production goes up and I start kegging, but before I try to brew a style, I like the commercial version to give me a point of reference.

Yep

+1 for research. What better way to decide what to brew next.
also anytime I am low on bottles for an upcoming or aging brew.

not so much anymore, I find when I do buy a 6 pack of something else, I drink one then switch to my HB. I do buy a few singles of different styles ever once in a while just for future planing.

SWMBO and I can proudly proclaim our beer independence.We haven't bought beer since December!Honest!We've accumulated quite a hoard and continue to brew regularly so we plan on NEVER buying beer again!!!That was the whole reason we started brewing to begin with.Ahhhh......success tastes great...
Cheers

I sure do like the Bell's Two Heart Ale!!! Think I might have to find a clone recipe.

I can say that I buy less now. When you have a craving for something you haven't made there is little choice. I do tend to find myself sitting here drinking and look for/creating a clone recipe.

Ridge Runner said:

I sure do like the Bell's Two Heart Ale!!! Think I might have to find a clone recipe.

Click to expand...

I hear you. Love that beer; am actually doing a series of varietal variations on it (Bitter, Pale Ale, Brown, Porter, Stout). Here's one clone:
http://www.brew365.com/beer_two_hearted.php

There's also one (slightly different) in the BYO 150 clones issue, which is 5 bucks well spent...

When I learned to cook, I didn't stop eating at restaurants.

I sometimes pick up some Uinta, Squatters, Guinness, and Lindemans.

FlyGuy said:

Now that I have been exposed to the world of endless brewing possibility, I can't help but sample and resample craft brews, imports, old favourites, etc.

But you know what -- no complaints from me! I love it all! SWMBO -- now that's a different story!

Click to expand...

Same here, and I try to sneak new equipment now and then. Nothing big, almost got a new ss pot tonight, but that would definately have been noticed.

I frequent world market because i can build my own 6 pack. I just like to try out new ones for research, usually return to my brew though.

olllllo said:

When I learned to cook, I didn't stop eating at restaurants.

Click to expand...

Thats pretty good. :rockin:

I definitely buy less beer but spend almost as much. My closest HBS is a big beer store with an incredible selection. I have been buying all kinds of different beers to sample. Call it research. However where I used to buy a 6-pack a week at the grocery, now I buy 3-4 bottles (of various sizes) once or twice a month.
BTW Belgian beers can be very expensive. I paid over $5 for a 12oz trappist dubble.

Craig

Minimal amounts of BMC for company and I'll pick up some seasonal beers that I like but don't want to brew.

With three 21+ year old daughters back from college for the summer and a SWMBO who likes my beer now, I'm busy keeping our everyday brews on tap (Wit, Belgian Blonde and SNPA).

There are many brews I like, but do not want 5 gallons around. Even styles I do make, I'll drink commercial versions. I'd estimate a third of my total consumption is from brewpubs/microbreweries. I like Mark's products at Golden Valley enough that I'll buy a 10-tap sampler once a month or so.

And there's always research.

Yuri_Rage said:

...of anything I've never tried before, especially if it's by a known brewery... Those commercial beers usually become the inspiration for one of my next brews.

Click to expand...

I Couldn't have said it any better meself.

I buy commercial beer for the bottles. (since that excludes twist offs, that weeds out pretty much all the BMC stuff) The beer inside the bottles is just a little added bonus.

I haven't gotten enough brewed to keep up with my consumption so I still buy commercial beers though now I almost always buy with the consideration that I will use the bottles so I tend to avoid twist offs. Oddly enough, there are very few twist offs that I would buy anyway. We have a local store called "World of Beer" that allows mix and match and they offer over 800 bottled beers from around the world (duh). I will likely always buy some beer but I am trying to become independent - especially since Sam and Stella and the like are now over $8.00 a sixer in my area. DOH!!!

I buy a six pack of craft beer about every 2 weeks. This week is Full Moon rye pale ale its pretty good!

We buy beer from a mix and match place too... for research and for the bottles.

haven't bought commercial beer in years

I work a few hours a week in a fine wine/beer shop, so I can't resist temptation 100% of the time. There are things that I just can't really replicate, or don't want 5 gallons of said replication, or don't feel like trying to replicate it (true replication without a BYO recipe takes several tries). So, given my sick backstock of homebrew (I think I'm back up to 25 cases now after bottling those 4 batches over the past month), I can't justify buying sixers just to drink...my beer fridge is always stocked full of homebrew...but I do buy singles or large-formats of particular beers I like. The last commercial brews I bought for home were:

Rochefort 10 (drank it the night before brewing its clone)
Brooklyn Local 1
Hanssen's Meade the Geuze

I used to spend alot of money on commercial craft brew, but that has been reduced drastically since I started brewing and accumulated the backstock that I currently have.

My kegerator only supports 2 kegs at the current time. I can get bored of those two after a couple weeks, so I pick up something different. Last night, I bought some Goose Island IPA because I've been drinking Hefe for a while and I brewed a big malty beer, meaning I sampled big malty wort a lot on Saturday. As a result, I needed something hoppy.

If buying with a mind to re-use bottles watch out for Full Sail.... I was blind-sided with a 6er of twist tops from them.

I'll get a 6'er if I find something I've never tried before. Like I just found Grolsch Amber Ale, pretty good stuff actually.

I buy Miller Lite for the plastic bottles and Bud if I'm having a party for the people that like that kinda stuff. Every now and then I buy Grolsch for the bottles and hope like hell someone else will drink it. Sam Adams: Double Bock, Winter Lager, Octoberfest and Black Lager. Sweetwater's IPA, Blue, Sweet Georgia Brown and Happy Endings on occasion.

I find the more I brew the less I like commercial beer and it's not the taste they taste the same. It's the deleterious effects of commercial brew that I don't seem to get with homebrew.

I like to try different beer styles and see if I want to brew them. I've found that I appreciate a beer more than I did before brewing my own rather than just going for the hoppiest brews.

One thing I've found is that lagunitas brewery has some harshness in all their beers i've tried. Kind of upsets me and I don't think I'll be bringing much of that home in the future. One I really liked and have since before I was 21 is genesee cream ale. Of course the old standbys green flash west coast ipa, anything by stone...etc.

Sure. If I'm brewing a new style of beer, I'll try to find several classic examples of the style at the store or bar. And when my wife and I go to the West Coast, we'll pick up hard to get stuff (in Philly anyway) like Full Sail or Black Butte.

I drink too much beer and don't brew enough to subsist entirely on homebrew. I tend to buy hoppier beers for drinking, to try different hops, and just for sheer love of variety. I also buy limited edition beers to store, like Allagash Hugh Malone etc.

Homebrewing has definitely changed the way I think about whatever beer I'm tasting, and certainly how I talk about it.

Yup. I like to try new things. Also whenever I embark on producing a well defined style I usually get several commercial offerings to help me focus in on what aspects I want in my version. Supply of HB in my house is way above demand, so I have really toned back on brewing for now, but regardless there are some things (like an IPA) that I haven't made yet so I bought a case of Brooklyn EIPA.

I never have bmc in the house if a friend wants that they bring it themself. I do quite often try out different craft/micro brews just to get a feel of the different tastes and styles out there.

I still buy commercial beer, just not as much as I used to. I find myself buying more 22oz's and single bottles than 12pks or cases so I can get a bigger variety I have a few favorites that I like to keep around and I love trying new stuff. I'll usually pick up whatever new IPAs my local liquor store gets

Definitely still buy commercial brews. But homebrewing has definitely expanded my horizons for trying new beers. I rarely buy the same brew that frequently anymore.

Big thing now is brewpubs. If I like a style they have on tap, I'll get a growler to go home. And not that kinda growler...My wife wouldn't approve!