Why You Brew

I'm a beginner to say the least, but I have a high interest and I feel I'm learning quickly.

However, I have one important question: How does the beer that you homebrew compare to the premium commercial beers available?

To be clear, I want to know what you really think, from a 3rd person perspective, how good the beer is. What's "good"? Purely opinion. If you bought your own homebrew in a supermarket, how would you compare it to other premium brews?

I want to know this because I want to know what to exect from my brew once I gain more experience, skill, and intuition. Of course not everybody is the same, but I'd hope that I could eventually make beer that tastes better than premium commercial beers according to MY tastes.

I want to imagine a beer flavor and brew something that's mighty close to it.

That's my goal... I just want to know how practical it is.

This topic comes around every now and then. My first response was that I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my bootlegging grandma. Now, I do it because I want to make David Hasselhoff cry.

I do it to support my habit, and because I brew excellent beer that is as good if not better then most commercial breweries.

I started just to see if I could brew something good- and now my husband complains about commercial beer! I can make what I like- IPAs are my favorite, and some are close to the original, or I like better than the original (like my DG clone, and DFH) and some are nothing like any commercial beer. I've made some things that you'd never find in a store but that we just love.

I've made everything from rhubarb wine (excellent, by the way) to maibock. Nothing was terrible except maybe tomato wine and I'm reserving judgement on that.

I would put my DFH clone up against the original any day, and my husband and I like it better. But, it does have chill haze. Doesn't bother me enough to cold condition it, so I'm drinking it. My Dead Guy clone got great reviews in the beer swap: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=23405

I'm kind of a perfectionist, and I wouldn't do it if my beer and wine were just "ok". I like homebrew better and that's why I do it.

I do it to support my habit

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same here, and its no easy to find good beers here where I live in PA. By chance if you do it on avreage 9.50 a 6 pack!

Taste/flavor - just like my burgers off the grill compared to McDonalds. Course there are plenty of restruants that make great steaks and burgers but mine rock and I can make them any way I want. Medimum rare that is actually medium rare!

Because I can - I like to do things for myself...build my own stuff, change my own oil and cut my own dam grass.

...and lastly making and drinking beer is fun

I brew because I know it takes much more than great homebrew to make a great homebrewer. A world-class homebrewer thrives on innovation, and has an adventurous spirit that is never reluctant to experiment with new ways of brewing -- and stuff. Such a spirit is a big part of the homebrewings culture.

Homebrewing conjures up an image of cool mountain streams, clear blue skies and all that is inspiring about your kitchen, deck or patio. It is a pastime associated with an uncomprimising commitment to quality--a reputation that began before 6:45 yesterday morning and thrives to this day.

This is why I brew.

I started again because I really needed a hobby. The dollar to homebrew ratio isn't that important to me since in the 3 months since I grabbed my old carboy out of storage I've already spent more dough than I would in a year of drinking (ok, make that half a year).
The process is interesting and I learn something new each time I make a batch.
My brews haven't been stellar, yet, but all have been very tasty.

There's no quick answer to this question. Why homebrew?

Well, for one, it's cheaper---even for me, and I work at a fine wine/beer shop and get pretty much any beer out there for 5% over wholesale. I started brewing last July. At first, it was all I could do to not drink all of it quickly. But over the course of 6 months, I brewed 120 gallons of beer. Now I have stacks of cases taller than I am, and can't drink it fast enough. I rarely buy commercial anymore, and while the initial investment in the ingredients and equipment cost me, it's made up for it now.

But even if it cost more, I'd brew anyway. My brews might not always turn out better than commercial breweries (I've only been brewing for 9 months or so), but some do. My chocolate-coffee stout, for example, kicks the nuts off of any commercial coffee stout I've ever tasted. Some of my brews have turned out mediocre, some have turned out hideous/infected. But for the most part, they rock.

But above all else, it's about making stuff myself. I remember the first sip from the first bottle of my first brew. There was something life-altering in that moment---I was an artisan, a craftsman. I made a basil beer, with basil from my own garden, and my extended family all wanted to place orders. This was really something I could get addicted to. And I did. Now I love to brew just for its own sake. I have, probably, 20 cases of homebrew backstock, but I still wake up at 4:45am on a Saturday and stand in the dark, freezing cold on my patio waiting for the strike temp, pounding The Hold Steady for all my neighborhood.

And there's also that little part about sharing it with friends and family...

I brew because I lived in Europe and learned what real beer is supposed to taste like.

To brew the beers I liked best. I am actually saving money and producing a healty product that is enjoyable to drink.

My first two extract bathces were good, missing a little something, but still good, my third brew a porter must have just hit its peak and tastes absolutly delicious, just as good as the fullers porter i had at the bar the other night. It takes time, like everyone will say, to let the beer age and it will be delicious. MY roomate was drinking them last night and said the porter was one of his favorite beers and he would definlty dish out the money to buy it if it were in a store. If you do side by side comparisons to the closest beer to style you wont find much difference. I also spend way more time brewing than i do drinking so its more to me than just the taste.

I do it to keep the flying monkeys away.

I love to brew. I love to brew as almost as much as I love to drink beer.

Brewing is my time. No kids....no work....no wife...... Just me, some grains and hops, and 4-5 hours to myself.

Plus having a small party with a keg or two has become a joy also. Just sitting back and enjoying the compliments while sipping a killer brew is where its at for me.

because no matter what I can!

I was spending a good chunk of change on commercial beer. I thought, hm, if I make beer it'd be cheaper, and hey, I like to cook. I talked to some of the guys in the local homebrew club at a beer festival last year, and that pushed me further into thinking it would be doable.

Six months later, I think I've spent more money on making beer that I would have in more than a few years of buying beer just due to all the gadgets I've accumulated and the building of a kegerator. But hey, I don't care. It's fun to do, and besides that it gives me something to do other than sit on my ass. Plus I get to drink beer that is produced no other place in the world, and is usually better than the commercial stuff I like

My beer tastes better than yours. I don't care if I've only brewed 3 batches. Mine is better. You could have the nectar of the gods, and in my happy little head, I love my own beer. That's why I brew.

Oh yeah, cheaper, and better than any domestic, and someday I'd like to turn this into a living.

It's a fun hobby & I would match my best efforts against the pros. Living in the Pacific North West, it lets me enjoy beers that don't have TOO F%$^ MUCH CASCADES in them.

Yeah, I love pretty much every aspect of homebrewing. It's not that the quality is better (though it is), or even that I get that many compliments (though I get plenty). It's fun as hell, and I love seeing my own creation turn from some vaguely nasty soup into magical delicious beer!

david_42 said:

It's a fun hobby & I would match my best efforts against the pros. Living in the Pacific North West, it lets me enjoy beers that don't have TOO F%$^ MUCH CASCADES in them.

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LOL! Great Reason!

I brew because my mother-in-law knew I loved beer and she bought me a great book (Check out my Book Review of Making Beer by William Mares) and it created a monster. It was a great hobby before I moved to Germany for 5 years. I then went from Beer Heaven to Beer Hell when I moved from Germany to Utah. Home Brewing became a fact of life there.

Moving to All Grain was a life changing experience as the beers I make (like other folks here) are as good if not better than what can be purchased in the store (and I'm not talking BMC here).

Nothing beats the self satisfaction of pulling the tap on a self created brew and bringing the glass to your lips. Ahhhhhh.

Brewing gives me time to myself, it lets me express myself because I think of it as an artform, and it gets my wife so I get lucky more often



Dan

Willsellout said:

, and it gets my wife so I get lucky more often



Dan

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Holy ****, I forgot about that one :rockin:

Standing watch over a keggle with 14 gallons of boiling sweet wort that YOU extracted from grain is a really damn good feeling.

Actually, I find it addicting!

I think, and though I can't speak for Shimms I think she'll agree, for us it's finding a mutual hobby we can share.

When I first met Shimms, she was drinking Killians. I suggested she try Leinie's Red. From then on, we've been all about the beer snobbery. Last December her birthday rolled around and I needed a good birthday idea. For some reason, the idea of brewing our own beer together hit me, and I started doing some research. I found a LHBS around here, and surprised her on the Saturday before her birthday by taking her there, buying a beginning brew kit and the ingredients for our first brew.

To say she loved it would be an understatment.

From then we did three extract brews with grains, and made the jump to all-grain. It's a hobby that we can do together. And for us that's important. In our previous relationships we spent a lot of time alienated from our significant others, so being able to share something like this is something we both wanted.

And then, there's the beer. Better beer than we can get at the store. Is it cheaper? Sure, in the long run, but there's been a pretty good outlay of money to get us to where we are now. But, if you look at it in terms of ingredients, it's roughly $30 for two cases of beer. GOOD beer. We're talking about the stuff you spent $8 a six pack on at the store.

We still purchase microbrews... because we appreciate good beers, and are trying to expose ourselves to all types and styles.

It's a great hobby, and it's not just for us. We're able to share the beers we make with family and friends.

You write quite well on my behalf You are exactly right.

I love brewing, and brewing with my HWMBO is a great bonus.

I wanted to a DIY hobby and I love beer so I thought brewing my own would satisfy both. I've continued brewing because I absolutely fell in love with the hobby (I mean, beer, gadgets...beer) and because I would rather drink homebrew than anything I can get commercially. There are some decent micros out there (Rogue comes to mind), but I find my beers have more character to them and are more interesting.

It's what I was put on this earth to do!

It's fascinating - the whole process is simply fascinating.

I like to cook - so why not "cook" my own beer?

I like to make stuff (understatement of the year) - why not make stuff that's useful in brewing beer?

I like beer. I like good beer. I live in a small town full of die-hard BMC drinkers. I can't get good beer. I make it.

I would find it hard to say why I brew, except that from the first time I considered the possibility I could not let it go. It is the perfect mix of science, chemistry, engineering, wizardry, art and creativity. The minute you are bored with one aspect, say style guidelines, another interest appears, say critical evaluation. Culture yeast, grow hops, build systems and all towards the end of a unique and personalized beverage in your hand. It can be a private or a competative activity. I just think it is the perfect activity.

I also will put the products we can produce up against any other beers in the world.

I brew because I am.

I brew beer because once I started to enjoy craft brewed domestic beers, I wanted to know why I enjoyed them. It feels good to drink a beer and understand why it tastes the way it does.

As for the money, as in the old is it cheaper question, lets look an example shall we? So say you are a golfer, as I am, kinda. You pay hundreds of dollars for clubs, and then go out and pay your greens fees and rent your cart for another whatever $50-100. You have to pay for your own beer while you're out there (more $) and at the end of the day, all you have to show for your efforts is a piece of paper and a bad tan. At least when you homebrew, you have something delicious to share with friends and family, that you actually created. And honestly, what person doesn't have a creation complex? That's why I homebrew.

I just started very recently, but I've found there to be a few reasons why I really enjoy it:

-I like beer. Of all the adult beverages it has always been clearly my favorite. In college, I especially liked the stuff put out by a local microbrew-so the fact that it's possible to create similar brew in my own kitchen/basement made it very attractive.

-I'm a nerd. I always liked doing lab experiments, but didn't like the apparent lack of practical application. Brewing is like doing a lab procedure to a very practical end. It involves biology, chemistry, and physics...yet it is also an art in that there are endless possible variations.

-History. It's amazing to me that people have brewed beer for so long throughout history, so I feel like I'm carrying on a craft that is thousands of years old. More immediately, this area (Cincinnati) once had more breweries than Munich (pre-prohibition)-so I feel that sense of local tradition as well.

-SWMBO approves. I think she likes that it's an active hobby that I can do in the house. I'm pretty messy, and I'm not the handiest in general...but I'm pretty meticulous with brewing-so it contradicts some of my 'default settings', and it's better than sitting in front of the tube.

Im a science geek.
I like to cook
I love good beer.
Seems that brewing puts all of these together nicely.

I like the process and the mad scientists feel. I also really really really like the ability to make any type of beer I want.

I like good beer and so when I read a little about making beer and found out that it wasn't really all that hard I was compelled to try it. Plus SWMBO never really wanted me to buy a bunch of beer at the store, especially the expensive (read "good") stuff... so I figured if I could convince her to let me start this hobby then I could have a nice stock of good beer on hand for when I felt like having one.

Also it's really cool to be able to make any style you want and tweak the ingredients. As others say it's like playing a lab scientist creating something, only you get to drink it, and it's BEER!

Looking at 15 gallon of beer to be drunk in 3 vessels is the best sight in the world. That and it costs me $60 bucks to make it all is good too. Can't even get Lite here for that. I hated ber until I had good stuff which was actually was my own.

Ryanh1801 said:

Im a science geek.
I like to cook
I love good beer.
Seems that brewing puts all of these together nicely.

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Holy Cow! How do you follow all of these great (and very inspirational) stories? Ryan sums up why I got started. Brewing also evokes the spirit of a simpler time, when people were self-sufficient and made everything themselves. I really like the idea of taking a few, fresh ingredients and creating a very complex beverage. I've only been at it about 6 months, and most of my beers have been mediocre, but I'm a perfectionist and I'm beginning to see improvements. By this time next year I am certain that I will be brewing beers that are the equal of the best German brewmeisters. I've already shared a beer with my German in-laws and gotten decent reviews. My goal is to create a beer that they will rave about.

Counting equipment it's definetly NOT cheaper. Maybe when I'm 60 and can amoritize the cost over my whole brewing career.

1) Craft- This is definetly the #1 reason. I like cooking but this is BEER. Everytime I think about sciencing (not really a word but WTF) it all up I remeber that monks were doing it thousands of years ago. Besides if there's a nuclear war in post apocolyptic USA I'll have a marketable skill.

2) I like building gadgets. Now I can build beer gadgets. I like experiments. Now I have beer experiments. etc. etc.

3) I like GOOD beer. And good beer I make. Even stripping away the "I made it, it's the best" I STILL make good beer

4) Wife supports it. She's not really into beer, but it keeps me home and she also likes the "craft" aspect.

And I GET BEER WHEN I'M DONE!!!!!

My hobbies are reef aquariums, photography, and brewing...

I guess I like anything that mixes art with science.

Maybe that's why I design software and networks for a living too. =)

-D

I started brewing because I needed a hobby, something that *I* could do, semi-selfishly, for myself.

I got into the hobby and started seeking out more information because the process itself is very interesting. You can stay with very basic recipes, brew extract, and make great beer, or there's an almost unlimited amount of learning and experimentation that you can get into. It's a great balance between an art and a science.

My obsession with brewing? I blame all of you mo'fo's. I've made some great friendships with guys across the globe, which just reinforces how much fun this hobby really is.

I brew because it is fun--a hobby. I could buy decent-good beer at about the same price as I have spent brewing, but there is something about making your own excellent beer. It just adds to the already enjoyable sport of drinking beer.

I brew because I wanted beers a little different than those that are easy to get. Plus they cost less than the $9-$15/6 I usually pay for micros from the grocery.
My first two batches from kits were good. Not as good as my favorite brews but better than the cheaper brands, in my opinion.
I hoping my brews improve because I am enjoying the process, especially trying out recipes that are a little off the main stream.
Craig