Am I just lucky?

I keep reading about those who have brewed a few times and all of them were bad. And others that have frequent dumpers.

I have brewed for a year and a half now and have made only one that I would rate as mediocre and it was an experiment with running off a small batch by adding more water to grains after the first batch was done. It started off as a weak bitter IPA but as the hop flavors have mellowed it is getting better.

Of all the others (34 batches so far) all have been quite good to great.

I started off using Northern Brewer extract kits, then Partial mash kits, then I did an all grain kit before brewing from recipes then I started creating my own recipes.

So, Am I just lucky?

Nope. If you manage your yeast, watch your temps, and keep things sanitary its pretty hard to make bad beer. If you keep to tried and true recipes its almost impossible once you have the basics. When you start making your own recipes you will start making more beers that are only ok and maybe some that really don't suit your tastes at all and you decide to dump them. That is part of the learning process though in finding what works.

Is this passive aggresive bragging?

Apparently you're brewing beer that passes your quality test.

Either your quality test isnt that tough to pass or you are making good beer....or some combination of the two.

Perhaps I have dumped beers better than your greatest brewing achievement..

Xpertskir said:

Is this passive aggresive bragging?

Apparently your brewing beer that passes your quality test.

Either your quality test isnt that tough to pass or you are making good beer....or some combination of the two.

Perhaps I have dumped beers better than your greatest brewing achievement..

Click to expand...

Gees! Be nice.

Its all about personal standards.

I could say the same thing in the past 18 months of brewing i have never dumped a batch nor made a "bad" batch
Has everyone tasted great? No but why throw away 5 gallons of 6% beer.

I was just talking to SMWBO about this yesterday how my all grain batchs now are coming out at commercial quality. Something i would buy in a bar or resturant.
I used to think my first extract batches were amazing...My palate has evolved and now i understand what beer is suposed to taste like.
If you can also say that about your beer then hey, maybe you were born for this hobby and a nanobrewery is in your future.

Yes, it's passive-aggressive bragging.

Yes, he must live in an area that has quality water and no chloramines.

The only batch I ever dumped was a Coopers Australian because after 2+ weeks it was still smelling and tasting just awful. Didn't look like an infection, i think just an expired coopers can maybe.

OP didn't specify on what his friends think of his beer, if it's only his pallette judging how would he know ?......

I agree completely, standards play a big role. I have only brewed two beers that were undrinkable, one my buddy insisted we put way too much roasted malt and it tasted like an ash tray, the other the seal broke on the blow off so it got oxygenated and acetaldehyde was the result. Every thing else I have brewed has been acceptable. However, I am getting pickier with my beers so now I am much more willing to dump one even though it is technically fine, if the flavor isn't what I was looking for I will take notes, modify the recipe, and brew again, and dump the previous and open up the tap for something else.

The batches I made from kits were good. The ones I made with my own recipes have all been much better than that (considered so not just by me ). I only have one brew that I didn't care for, and that's because of the style. I did one partial mash batch, and saw how I could go all grain, so I did just that.

So, I see it as you're doing enough things right to get beer that can at least be considered 'good' or 'great'...

Keep using quality ingredients, treat the yeast right, and don't mess up a recipe and you should be just fine. IMO, the more items you can control, the better your batches will/can be.

It took me 8 years before I had a batch that was completely undrinkable. By that I mean, I have had some less-than-desirable experiments, but I powered through them because they weren't horrible. But don't lose focus of your process and sanitation, because carelessness will lead to that one batch that is THAT bad. That's when you suck up your pride and eat your young (batch of beer).

It's all a matter of preference, unless you are winning competitions on every beer you brew. My real judging on my brews comes from friends and when they aske me weather or not I've brewed another on of this beer or that beer. To me, that means I'm doing something right. At the end of the day though, with the time I put in, it would have to be a pretty bad beer for me to dump it. I guess for me, as long as it tastes like beer, I'd be happy with it and as long as I had either the keg space or fermenter space, it would probably get drank eventually. I definitely don't assume though all of my beers have been great beers just because I'll drink them.

Well, I don't claim to have a very educated taste palate, but when I drink mine, most are as good as anything I can buy. Although, I don't buy the ones that cost $5 a bottle.

My friends have given very good reviews and no one has refused to take more. The only negatives were more to not liking the style of the beer given.

So I will continue to use quality ingredients, watch temperatures and yeast counts. I will also not stray too far from good recipes when creating my own.

And for the mean time, until I think I really know what I am doing I will concede to a bit of luck.

Dredging up one of my old threads.....

Is this passive aggresive bragging? I guess I will admit to it.. But, thanks to the help on this site:

I still have luck on my side. I am up to batch #73 and am still having great success. I will put a lot on my municipality having very good water. I read an area report that puts the quality of water in my town far above most in the local area. I filter tap water through a charcoal filter with no other adjustments.

My friends are getting annoyed at the present because due to the cold weather I have only been doing 3 gallon BIAB batches in the kitchen and have not been sharing lately.

My latest really good one is a Milk Stout, I took a recipe that was online somewhere and made minor changes.


Thanks everyone here on HBT.
Good sanitation, good yeast handling, good fermentation temperature control are all things I learned here and I attribute to my success.

I find myself dumping half batches from time to time because commercially there are some outstanding beers out there and I hate just drinking a beer because its there. I'd rather it blow my mind. So while many of my batches are good and drinkable, they aren't exceptional so they end up getting halfway dumped for the next homebrew to try.