How satisfied are you??

So I am new to brewing and have only hacked a few of the beer kits but I have not produced a single one yet that I am proud to serve to friends! They are drinkable but not exciting to drink.
I need to step up to extract or even AG but am wondering if I'll have similar results.

How often when you brew are you fully satisfied with the final product and feel proud to offer bottles to buddies?

Right from the start. I never used the mr. beer kits, but started off with decent kits (unhopped extract, specialty grains, hop additions, etc.). Did two kits (minor modifications) before my own recipe then went to one partial mash before going all grain. Once going all grain, I only made one 'clone brew' with the rest being my own recipes. All really good brews with most being great. I did brew a blonde ale that I wasn't too happy with, but it was true to style. Just found I prefer brunettes and redheads over blondes. :rockin:

I enjoy it even more now that I'm kegging my brew.

I can tell you that it took me quite a while before I was making beer that I would serve to friends. I probably brewed for close to a year before I was making beer I was comfortable sharing.

I seldom brew beers that are disasters. I occassionally will have something turn out in a way I didn't expect.

What style do you like to drink? Perhaps use or develop a recipe for that style and perfect it.

Also, is there a consistent flaw or flaws in your beers? Perhaps those could be troubleshoot.

I am severely critical of myself, whether it's good, beer, antenna designs, whatever. So, I'm rarely very satisfied, BUT, I've gotten a lot of good, honest reviews, and that seems to increase my satisfaction level. I offered my second brew to friends and was well enjoyed. Nothing fancy, but enjoyed.

Kosch

I am very satisfied. I always push myself to make something with focus. If I want to make a tropical fruit type IPA then I really aggressively go for those flavors. A mocha stout will get premium cold brewed coffee and cocoa nibs. Just trust your palate and get as much feedback from beer lovers as you can.

I've made about 20 batches so far. All extract. Only one I was truly unhappy with. I messed a bit too much, got cocky on my 1oth batch and made a batch I didn't enjoy cause I messed with too many additions. learned my lesson. Everything since has been very good.

NewkyBrown said:

I need to step up to extract or even AG but am wondering if I'll have similar results.

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You make beer without extract OR grain?!?!? Are you a wizard?!?!

Seriously though, we are often our own worst critic.

I researched for months, watched lots of YouTube videos, read John Palmer and Jamill's books, trolled HBT and jumped in to AG from the start. Never had a bad batch and two years later have brewed numerous batches. Now have four great beers on tap (Dead Guy, Oktoberfest, Fat Tire, and Arrogant Bastard).

Life is good!

Just hang out here, gather as much info as you can, and realize that often we are our own worst critics and that our beer almost always tastes better to other people than it does to us. Try to find a homebrewer or hopefully a club nearby, the people there will usually be happy to help and will likely supervise your brew day or let you sit in in theirs if need be. Don't give up. ANYONE can make good beer.

My first ever batch, a nut brown ale, was a bit of a disaster due to not being able, nor having the knowledge, to control fermentation temps. I was never satisfied with that beer but a couple of friends were quite impressed. Then everything after that has been really drinkable to surprisingly good with a few great batches in there. There was one experimental batch with a ludicrously old can of Brewiser pilsener and another batch, which got an infection, that I dumped though.

If you were to give some details on what you have tried brewing so far and details of your process, plus maybe what beers you really enjoy drinking or aspire to emulate, you might get some valuable insights from the forum.

Definitely don't get despondent.

gandalfiii said:

I can tell you that it took me quite a while before I was making beer that I would serve to friends. I probably brewed for close to a year before I was making beer I was comfortable sharing.

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I'm the same as this guy, I had an experienced brewer drink my very first batch, and he said it was a good beer. Most of my friends still don't enjoy my homebrew, but those are guys that if it doesn't taste like coors light it's not good beer.


I had some friends over one night and my buddy was drinking coors light all night. I had a few coors light in the fridge with no labels (fell off in ice/water bath campinga few weeks earlier) so I popped the cap and recapped it and offered it to him. A few sips later he refused to drink anymore of it because he could taste the yeasty homebrew taste off it.

I had to edit to say something else. Before you brew a batch, make sure to pick up a bottle of that style at the beer store to compare it to.

One of my first batches was a nut brown ale. After bottle carbing for 3 weeks I drank 4-5 of them and thought it was a bad beer and gave the rest away. About a month later I saw a craft nut brown ale and picked it up. Even though I still thought it was a poor beer I realized my batch was a pretty good example, and what I thought was a bad batch was really just not knowing what to expect from the style, and me not being a fan of but browns.

Antler said:

I had some friends over one night and my buddy was drinking coors light all night. I had a few coors light in the fridge with no labels (fell off in ice/water bath campinga few weeks earlier) so I popped the cap and recapped it and offered it to him. A few sips later he refused to drink anymore of it because he could taste the yeasty homebrew taste off it.

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Got to wonder if, bottling some, not too heavy, homebrew in a Coor's light bottle with labels in-tact and an authentic cap, someone like that wouldn't notice any difference at all if it were the first beer of the day for them.

Ogri said:

Got to wonder if, bottling some, not too heavy, homebrew in a Coor's light bottle with labels in-tact and an authentic cap, someone like that wouldn't notice any difference at all if it were the first beer of the day for them.

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Nah they wouldn't notice.

I started with a extract/specialty grains kit (irish red, from Midwest). Hadn't done any research prior, and made a not bad brew that my friends liked. I have only had a few bad brews, mainly due to lack of temperature control. As my knowledge\experience\process improves my brews reflect that and I am even more proud of the finished product.

Then again, most of my friends enjoy a wide selection of beer styles.

If you want to really learn how to make really amazing beers you need to invest in 3 things (IMHO):

Fermentation temperature control
Water chemistry
Yeast quality/quantity

I believe that these above all else significantly increase the quality of your beer. I recently started paying attention to these and the quality of my beers have improved immensely.

Pitching the right amount of a healthy, happy yeast in a controlled environment does wonders.

Not knowing your water chemistry can make for some fairly funky brews as well. I was always told that if your water tastes good then it's good to brew with. This may be so but I failed to realize that I was filtering my water before drinking it, but not filtering before brewing (DOH!). Once I realized this I got a brewing filter, re analyzed my water, and made adjustments from there. I can't wait for the new water chemistry book to come out. I think Palmer is authoring it.

Anyways, that's my 0.02. I would suggest looking at these before investing in all grain. You can make some damn good extract batches to be proud of if you focus on the above 3 first.

The higher end kits (like Brewer's Best) produce beer that is worth sharing. Stepping up to partial mash should be your next step, it's easy and can be done with minimal equipment that you already have, not like AG.

I've been brewing for just over 1 year and been doing all grain for 8 months and I am at the point where I have 3-4 beers that I keep doing because they come out great every time. Then I experiment every 4th or 5th batch to try something new.

When going into AG I suggest that you start with tried and true recipes. Leave the experimentation and building of your own recipes until after you can consistently brew a good beer from a known recipe.

I was satisfied right out of the gate, but then my expectations were pretty down to Earth. I just wanted to make something drinkable. If I could choke it down and it had alcohol in it I considered that a success. So, when I actually started enjoying the beer I had vastly exceeded my goal. It's just gotten better from there.

Now I'm 100% confident that my beer is at least good. If someone doesn't like it I chalk it up to them not liking the style or not liking my interpretation of the style. It's not personal. There's no "homebrew funk" in my beer.

I'll add proper oxygenation of the sort to the list from mrrshotshot. While shaking/pouring/aquarium pump can be OK for low OG batches, it maxes out at 8ppm due to the O2 source. Using a pure O2 infusion system removes that limitation. You can also reduce the time to oxygenate by a good amount, compared with the pump, and without a lot of work compared with shaking. I typically do 60-90 seconds at 1-2LpM of O2 for my batches. Higher OG batches typically get 2-3 minutes at 1.5-2.5LpM.

Making starters are easy, IMO. Especially if you have a stir plate and flask. Use the yeastcalc.com tool and you can make up to three step starters for your batch. That can get you to target cell count with much smaller starters compared with making just one starter. It just takes a little more time.

mrrshotshot said:

If you want to really learn how to make really amazing beers you need to invest in 3 things (IMHO):

Fermentation temperature control
Water chemistry
Yeast quality/quantity

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Of course this depends on your location and the quality of your water but odds are you can get away with ignoring water chemistry right off the bat. I'd second yeast and temp while subbing in cleaning and sanitizing for water chemistry.

Other than that, you can get really good results from good fresh extract, steeping specialty grains and fresh hops so that might be the easiest way for you to go.

I do have one beer recipe that is so good and unique that everyone who has tried it says it is the best beer they have every had. Those kind of compliments will make you feel like you must be doing something right! If you have friends that like craft beers they would be your best judge on how you are doing.

My first 4 brews were Northern Brewer extract kits. The first got warm in fermentation and was good. The other 3 were very good. I have since done partial mash, BIAB and all grain. All of them were good, some better than others and all but one (experiment with running more wort from a grainbed) I would be very comfortable sharing.

IMO. If you are using fresh, quality extract kits and are not getting good results, just switching to all grain might make no difference. You should be getting good results with extract brewing.

Thanks for the great feedback. I have been struggling with carbonation - too gassy but have just kegged my first batch so hopeful that will improve. I also find my beers lack good body.
I prefer darker beers, especially at this time of year in Canada. I will stick with it. I have a stout to brew next so hopefully that will be enjoyable!

I have been using the wyeast packs but not making a starter. Is this a mistake for 5 gallon batches?

NewkyBrown said:

Thanks for the great feedback. I have been struggling with carbonation - too gassy but have just kegged my first batch so hopeful that will improve. I also find my beers lack good body.
I prefer darker beers, especially at this time of year in Canada. I will stick with it. I have a stout to brew next so hopefully that will be enjoyable!

I have been using the wyeast packs but not making a starter. Is this a mistake for 5 gallon batches?

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If the OG is above about 1.030, then yes. Go over to yeastcalc.com and plug in the parameters for the batch, including yeast production date. That will tell you what size starter to make. Be sure to select your aeration method too, since that can have a significant impact on starter size. IME, using a stirplate makes for starters that finish faster and can be made smaller than with any other aeration methods. Going with two, or three, starter steps will also get you to the cell count needed by using smaller starters. I did that with a few batches, where I would have needed more than 20L of starter otherwise. Got the cell count by making two <2L starters. Savings in DME is significant that way.

Golddiggie said:

If the OG is above about 1.030, then yes. Go over to yeastcalc.com and plug in the parameters for the batch, including yeast production date. That will tell you what size starter to make. Be sure to select your aeration method too, since that can have a significant impact on starter size. IME, using a stirplate makes for starters that finish faster and can be made smaller than with any other aeration methods. Going with two, or three, starter steps will also get you to the cell count needed by using smaller starters. I did that with a few batches, where I would have needed more than 20L of starter otherwise. Got the cell count by making two <2L starters. Savings in DME is significant that way.

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Great. Thanks for the reply.

Always but I've brewed over 100 batches at the point - check out BIAB and step up to all grain

Or partial mash in a bag - dry yeast - perfect an American pale ale 3 gallon batch and go

I've only made one beer that I've had to dump. I spent countless hours on HBT before I brewed my first batch and I've tried to get the main things right. Sanitation, yeast count, and fermentation temperatures are the three things that I focus on. Even with a bad recipe I've got a good enough beer to share with friends. Good luck and RDWHAHB