How do you know when you really start making good beer?

[iamwhatiseem]

I know, it seems like a dumb question, the answer seems obvious...but is it?
Right now I would consider my skills to be proficient.
Looking at my beer, it is has great clarity, I can make a head any size I want depending on how I pour it. Great head retention.
Tons of lacing. Taste very good, very few flaws I can pick out. No off flavors anymore.
I can honestly and objectively say I make good beer. Not great, but good enough I would be happy to pour a pint to anyone and feel confident they would like it regardless of their beer geekness.
However, I sit here with a bottle of Three Floyds Man-o-awe...and I feel like a child. Holy sh*t how do they do it?
Man...someday...maybe....

 

[tommyguns]

Im new to brewing but I drink ALOT of beer. No matter what beer I drink or try every time I sit down with a gum ball head it pops my cherry all over. Those guys just nailed it lol

 

[kh54s10]

You know you are making good beer when you take a taste and say "Boy o boy this is good!" This first came on my second batch of around 50 to date.

I don't have the most sophisticated taste, but I like a lot of my beers as much or more than most commercial beers. I don't buy the top shelf ones though, so I can't compare to those.

Now I like these beers, I have never entered a contest. My friends like them but I cannot say they taste the way they should by style, but I don't really care either.

 

[lhommedieu]

Are you buying beer?
No? Why not?

'Cause I'm making good beer!

 

[stpug]

How do you know when you really start making good beer?

When you have plenty of high quality commercial varieties sitting chilled and ready to drink, yet you keep going back to the tap .
That's when you know it's good sh*t

 

[Pappers_]

Placing in a competition is a good indicator that you are making good beer. The reverse is not true, of course - many good beers do not place in competitions.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Probably the best beer I have made so far was an Imperial Stout last fall.
When I took my first drink I laughed out loud. I am sure many of you have done the same at some point. Just laughed.
I got my mash/sparging down solid. My OG's are very acceptably in range.
The physical characteristics are all near perfect, like I listed above.
Now I want to make recipes from total scratch. Everything I have made is someone else's recipe, that I may have adjusted a bit...but I have yet to make a complete beer of my own.
Maybe that is when you know you make great beer.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Im new to brewing but I drink ALOT of beer. No matter what beer I drink or try every time I sit down with a gum ball head it pops my cherry all over. Those guys just nailed it lol

Yeah...Three Floyds is on a planet all their own.
I live in Indiana, about 2 hours away from their brewery so I am super fortunate enough that I have had just about every beer they have made.
These guys are hopoligist. No one comes close to their skill of manipulating hops. They seriously need to write a book for the rest of us to learn from.
A true art form.

 

[Nightstrife]

It's a good question... If I make a beer that tastes like sh** I will still drink it and say it's great. 1. I made it so it must be great. 2. If the SWMBO finds out I am making swill she may not let me keep going lol!

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

I'm my own worst critic so 6+ years later I've never made a good one, not once. That being said the question, 'which brewery makes this?' does briefly fill me with joy.

 

[Nightstrife]

I'm my own worst critic so 6+ years later I've never made a good one, not once. That being said the question, 'which brewery makes this?' does briefly fill me with joy.

Agreed, the next time I have anyone over for a beer I won't tell em I made it, it will be a blind test... If they ask before they taste I'll just tell them it's a "new" Sam Adams they just came out with. This way if they hate it I can try again with a different beer and they will never find this non existent Sam Adams. It's a win win

 

[Jamming]

My beer has always been good to me, but i guess it all depends on peoples point of view about the type of beer there drinking. Have friends that are dead set on hating dark beer and friends that hate hops. But my biggest improvement was made with the correct equipment. Plate chiller it got better. fermentation chamber with a Ranco controller. huge improvement. Making a yeast starter with a stir plate even better. Then i suddenly realized some of my first batches sucked. Still don't know much about the fancy words and science, but have the process down. So you just need to know your set-up and program. Cheers !

 

[iamwhatiseem]

My beer has always been good to me, but i guess it all depends on peoples point of view about the type of beer there drinking. Have friends that are dead set on hating dark beer and friends that hate hops. But my biggest improvement was made with the correct equipment. Plate chiller it got better. fermentation chamber with a Ranco controller. huge improvement. Making a yeast starter with a stir plate even better. Then i suddenly realized some of my first batches sucked. Still don't know much about the fancy words and science, but have the process down. So you just need to know your set-up and program. Cheers !

I hear that... yeast starters, chillers, ferm chambers...you can make beer without them. But you can't make good beer w/o them.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Also my own worst critic, and really hard on my own beers. I think I make pretty good beer, and I've gotten a number of medals in competitions. But I always think they could be better. However, when I try a random craft beer for the first time, and think "my version is much better", I think I'm doing alright.