My most disappointing brew vs. store bought.

I have an amber I experimented on and wasn't thrilled with. It was my most disappointed beer (of 9 batches).
I just did a side by side comparison with the beer I buy for bottles.
Wow my bad beer is WAY better than store beer.

So, my fellow new brewers, be confident. Your beer will be good.

Well Dave I suppose it depends on what store bought beer your it comparing to. I have brewed around 13 to 15 batches to far and all were drinkable, but to be honest as far I can say, personally, I prefare commercial beer no matter how bad it is.
It doesnt say a lot about my home brewing abilities I know. Anyway I am going to change some things and hopefully get a really good home brew.

I like big beers. Someone told me they cover off flavors better.
Still, I'll take my homebrews over nearly everything I've bought.
Stay with it and good luck.

beersydoesit said:

I have an amber I experimented on and wasn't thrilled with. It was my most disappointed beer (of 9 batches).
I just did a side by side comparison with the beer I buy for bottles.
Wow my bad beer is WAY better than store beer.

So, my fellow new brewers, be confident. Your beer will be good.

Click to expand...

Im going to have to agree with you here. VERY FEW store bought beers have made me wow like my own brews have. I think that Hobgoblin is an exception here. That is a mighty tasty brew!
-Me

There are some. I'll have to try Hobgoblin if you like better than HB!

Hobgoblin was what my English Brown Ale should have tasted like (if I ever let it finish conditioning)

Yes, that was tasty
-Me

I made a nasty Coopers lager with ale yeast (my first brew and I used what was in the kit) that acceptable but even some BMC beers were better.

Other than that I've enjoyed my brews far more than commercial beers. However, I suspect that sometimes pride was making my homebrew taste better than it really did. Like I made a holiday spiced ale that I absolutely loved...but everyone else who tried it passed on having seconds.

I've definitely brewed some crap. The latest was a sweet chocolate stout. It underattenuated a bit. My roomate wanted to make it a chocolate macadamia nut stout, so he added 4 oz of macadamia nut extract. Needless to say, that was WAY too much. The beer tastes like ****. I told him we just need to let it sit. Hopeflully it will be good in 6 months.

Well let's be honest there is a bit of a psychological thing happening when you think about how good your beer is. Usually that happens for the first few batches you make, you made it so you think it's the best thing ever. But after some time you become very critical of your beer and often find yourself being disappointed by slight variations in beers that you have made many times. I think it happens to all of us and a lot of times I wish I could go back to being a beer making virgin but really you make way better beer the longer your at it. I still haven't found a pale ale that is as good as I make, but there are a lot of other commercial beers that I drink from time to time that I can imitate but often can't replicate to the same quality. There is a reason popular commercial beers are popular, it's because they are good. Now this is all subjective because if your comparing your homebrew to natti light and other bmc then well yeah your beer is way better.

I love my HB with two exceptions:
The Samiclaus- so awesome
Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout- I just can't make one better

Farmbrewnw of course you're right. I am certainly inclined to
favor my beers for psyc. reasons and am likely to to get fussy
about small variations. Good points.
In my case when I took up the obsession, it was one part
interest in beer and one part science experiment.
I promised myself that if I couldn't brew good beer I'd
quit.
Of course there are beers better than the ones I make.
I didn't mean to compare my beers to the best craft beers.
I meant to compare it to what I have always thought of
as "staple" beers. The kind I keep around for casual consumption.
I can definitely do better than those.
What surprises me, pleasantly, is how often my beers are
as good or even nearly as good as the craft beers I prefer.
As I am new I am learning bucketsfull and am getting much better
at this. I suppose there will be time when my learning curve
will flatten out and I will be less wide eyed about the whole thing.
I am in no hurry.
Regards