Finally a beer that doesn't taste like 'homebrew'

I have been brewing for about 2 years. I made 3 extract brews, then 3 partial mash brews before moving to AG. Along the way I have moved from 5G batches to 10G batches. While all have been 'good' beers that I drank, they all tasted like 'homebrew' to me. I couldnt identify what it was but could always tell something was different than commercial brews. Finally this last batch I made and subsequently the first that I kegged it didn't taste like homebrew just really good beer. I finally felt confident enough to let someone else try it, he ended up loving it and left after filling his glass 7 times and took a sixer with him!

I think the kegging has something to do with it. I noticed a similar thing when I started kegging as well. The head retention improved dramatically.

"Tastes like homebrew" for me usually is in the hops. They aren't melded in with the beer as you find in most commercial brews. And even then, I can sometimes just tell it is a homebrew, but that is not always a bad thing. Congrats either way!

IMHO, I think homebrew > commercial for taste....

Sometimes the dry yeast I think gives you the same taste (especially since most use the same damn yeast packets).... with liquid yeast taste changes.... for the better usually I think...

AlphaWolf-Brewery said:

I have been brewing for about 2 years. I made 3 extract brews, then 3 partial mash brews before moving to AG. Along the way I have moved from 5G batches to 10G batches. While all have been 'good' beers that I drank, they all tasted like 'homebrew' to me. I couldnt identify what it was but could always tell something was different than commercial brews. Finally this last batch I made and subsequently the first that I kegged it didn't taste like homebrew just really good beer. I finally felt confident enough to let someone else try it, he ended up loving it and left after filling his glass 7 times and took a sixer with him!

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Congrats - what beer was the breakthough brew?

You gave someone seven glasses plus a six pack? You are a generous person. Just wopndering - since the beer is kegged, did you fill and cap some bottles?

I always felt like home brew was almost always better than commercial beers of the same type - no one is surprised by how good home baking or cooking is, and brewing is kind of similar to those efforts. So while I'm confused about what you would be looking for in taste, I offer my congratulations!

I have always thought that LME, especially old cans, can give that "homebrew" taste of melanoidins. Switching to DME or just going all grain seems to get away from that.

Do you force carbonate?

SteveM said:

You gave someone seven glasses plus a six pack? You are a generous person. Just wopndering - since the beer is kegged, did you fill and cap some bottles?

I always felt like home brew was almost always better than commercial beers of the same type - no one is surprised by how good home baking or cooking is, and brewing is kind of similar to those efforts. So while I'm confused about what you would be looking for in taste, I offer my congratulations!

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I'm with you too SteveM. I feel my homecooked food is better than food I get at a restaurant. The key is buy equal quality ingredients. So if the restaurant is serving grass fed/hormone free beef go buy some cook it yourself and your $30 dinner can now serve 2-3 people plus it tastes better.

I feel the same thing with beer. Use good water, use good grain/extract, pitch enough yeast, and keep temps constant/not too high.

rocketcrab said:

Congrats - what beer was the breakthough brew?

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It was an amber ale, pretty basic recipe.

I do force carbonate, and I just whipped out the BMBF and filled a sixer on the spot for him to take with him.

And I cant really say what taste I was looking for, and it is possible that it was just me being really hard on my own brews but this one just seemed to be so much better.

I too am waiting for that day. All of my beers to day (3 total) with the exception of my robust porter have had that "homebrew taste" to them. Its not necessarily a bad thing, but I cant wait for that day that I brew a batch and can say "Holy crap, I could actually sell this"

Congrats on your breakthrough!

I kept trying to read the darn post, but I get stuck at the avatar.

There are a few things I've noticed that have really hurt my beers compared to solid commercial examples.

1) My beers usually don't attenuate quite as much as commercial examples. They are usually just a bit sweeter and richer. When I hit the local brew pubs around here, I notice their beers are always a bit dryer and seem just more "drinkable" if you want to consume more than one. I'm still experimenting with small tweaks on recipe formulation and mash adjustments to increase attenuation. This isn't exactly a terrible thing, but it does distinguish my beers compared to commercial microbrew. Other people have their beer over attenuated which makes for a bone dry drinking experience. So I think achieving the correct FG for a style is critical to achieve the best possible mouthfeel.

2) I've had trouble with fermentation temperature and my beers usually ferment on the hot side which means much more esters than it is normally found in good microbrew. Professional brewers tightly control fermentation temperature and from what I've tasted, they usually ferment on the low side to suppress yeast character (except for belgians of course). So my beers are fruitier and have more ester character.

3) Water profile plays a critical role. I was shocked when I first started experimenting with brew salts as how much a beer can change and can be perceived depending on the mineral content of the water it is brewed with. The local water where I live is a bit too soft to do most style of ales so I've had the darnest time trying to really nail a simple pale ale before I started making adjustments.

So these are usually three of the issues I've encountered while tasting other peoples as well as my own homebrews. Of course there is much more to homebrewing than that, but assuming you're already capable of mixing water, sugar, hops and yeast and comming up with an alcohol beverage, working on the above three issues will take your beer from being an average homebrew to a product that is on par if not better than commercial beers.

I have had this same situation happen to me as well this month. My first kegged batch was my best batch ever and didnt taste like homebrew which I have found with the rest of my beers.

I also am not hesitent to let people try this one, luckily though, i have not had anyone over since I tapped the keg, so its all gone into my belly so far.

So you let your beer age long enough for the flavors to mostly
disappear and it ends up tasting like a commercial brew. Big
surprise!

You should be able to get great beer with malt extract, it's
exactly the same thing you get out of a mash.

In general I think people on this board are obsessed with getting
a beer that is as tasteless as commercial beer that's been
sitting on a store shelf for 3 months, *after* it's been filtered
and pasteurized. If you made your own rice pilaf using fresh
herbs and seasonings from your garden would it taste the same
as Rice-a-Roni? Probably not, and probably someone would
complain about it, but so what? The best selling beers in this
country are pretty tasteless. If all I could get out of my home
brewing was beer that "somebody would buy", I wouldn't
bother, I'd just buy it off the shelf.

Ray

RDWHAHB said:

I kept trying to read the darn post, but I get stuck at the avatar.

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Sorry about that!

rayg said:

So you let your beer age long enough for the flavors to mostly disappear and it ends up tasting like a commercial brew. Big surprise!

You should be able to get great beer with malt extract, it's exactly the same thing you get out of a mash.

In general I think people on this board are obsessed with getting a beer that is as tasteless as commercial beer that's been sitting on a store shelf for 3 months, *after* it's been filtered and pasteurized. If you made your own rice pilaf using fresh herbs and seasonings from your garden would it taste the same as Rice-a-Roni? Probably not, and probably someone would complain about it, but so what? The best selling beers in this country are pretty tasteless. If all I could get out of my home brewing was beer that "somebody would buy", I wouldn't bother, I'd just buy it off the shelf.

Ray

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I don't necessarily agree that people here want to make bland beer, but your point about extracts is well taken. I took third in a home brew IPA event at Philly Beer week this year, using LME. No one complained about it having too much of a home brew taste.

I also agree completely that if all I could do was match commercial beers, I wouldn't bother with brewing it. This is why I don't bother with hefes any more - the ones I made are easily surpassed by those that I can buy commercially.

I brew at home because of the outcome, not so much because of the process.

For me it was when I began to control my temperatures at fermentation. My beer had been fermenting too warm and the results were spotty depending on the weather and resultant temperature in my basement.