Too much of a good thing.

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Orfy

For the love of beer!
HBT Supporter
Joined
Sep 27, 2005
Messages
11,732
Reaction score
123
Location
Cheshire, England
I think I'm spoiling myself.

I'm finding that more and more of the commercial brews I'm drinking are not meeting my approval. Don't get me wrong I gave up mass produced swill a long long time ago. I gave up drinking in pubs that do not appreciate he art for cellarmanship a long time ago. The stuff I drink is usually from mid size to small breweries and all cask conditioned "real ale" but I'm finding that I can only class maybe 20% to be up to a standard and taste profile that makes me say, "That is a nice pint" Now it's not to say that I'm narrowing my acceptable taste profiles. I'm finding that 75%+ of bottle condition "craft beers" are more than acceptable.

I was in the "local" last night there was an irish red on. I was looking forward to it, ordered a pint and didn't enjoy it. Nothing wrong with it but just lacking on taste and body, nothing happening hop wise either. On to a half a stout that was full of body but the bitter coffee flavour was not enjoyable and spoilt a well brewed beer. New an IPA that was very thin and again the hops didn't come through. Back home and finished my last OSH off. 1 good one and the last one that was a little yeasty but still enjoyable.

What to do......
Drink in pubs less, settle for commercials in bottles and brew more.
I think I just settle for drinking half pints in pubs that way I'll only be half disappointed with the beer.
Well I could do with cutting back on the beer a little. I want to loose a stone over the next month or so.
 
I know the feeling. I actually get a little on the nervous side when trying new things, like I don't want to be let down....again. Not only as you mention with flavor profiles/etc, but there is the other dreaded sensitivity in the palate to defects. The more I drink of what I have made and learn what is there in the flavor and why, the more I can pick out things in commercial examples that just sink my experience. I am not saying this is neccesarily a bad thing, but being ignorant kept me happier (or at least I thought) haha. Another thing that comes to mind is the fact that so many people that are involved in the process from production to distribution to sales to service are not into it the way we are. "Whaddya mean store it in a cool dark place??? Look Jack, I gotta run a business and only have the greenhouse to put my beer!" or "You don't need to flush the lines, they won't notice" or "Yeah I know it is a bad batch, but I can't take the loss...put er on tap m8!".

This whole process happened to me with food long ago. The amount of places that actually impress me are pretty much zero. Now, that is not saying I can't go and have a good time and eat a good meal, etc. But it is nothing that I say to myself "Now that is fantastic! I wonder how they make it." It's horrible in a way. I think what it really boils down to is people like you and I, and many others on this board are in pursuit of excellence, and we see all these mediocre attempts that flood the range, missing the mark much of the time but still somehow managing to make a business out of it.
 
I'm really spoiled. Mark at Golden Valley is a brewing genius and not too much further away is Pelican Brewpub, home of the best Dark Ale on the planet: Doryman's Dark. It's billed as a Brown, but I think it is closer to a porter.

One never has to drink bad beer around here.
 
I just had a weird experience, I was just finishing off a glass of IPA while reading this and had to think for a second what brand it was, it'd be interesting to attempt a clone. It hit me a moment later that it was my own homebrew :drunk:

Maybe I should get back to work...
 
Welcome to the club Orfy. I like to call it the BSC: Beer Snob Club.

It would seem that lately i have become a charter member as well, if not the secretary of treasurer of the club. Not the pres. yet, but working on it.
 
I'm far, far away from being anything other than a newbie to brewing, but I got the biggest compliment from my husband. About a week ago I was finally able to convince him to try the APA that was my first batch. It took him forever to finish the APA and I kept asking him to tell me the truth about what he thought of it. He kept saying it tasted pretty good, but that slowly emptying glass seemed to indicate otherwise.

A few days later, we were splitting a bottle of Grolsch, which has been one of our favorite beers (not to mention that great swing-top bottle). Hubby took one sip, looked at the glass thoughtfully, then said "You know, I think your beer is better."

Music to my ears... the first praise of my brewing efforts from someone other than myself :) And now he wants to buy a copy of a homebrew recipe book I checked out of the library because he wants to try a bunch of them!
 
Back
Top