Are You Your Own Favorite Brewer?

[Clint Yeastwood]

It's like the time I took my 1935 Duesenberg and spray-painted flames on it.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I just write a recipe, and if it fits a style, it's a coincidence.

Yup, that's how I feel too. I use the BJCP Style Guidelines as just that, a guide. I know a lot of the beer judges out there will disagree, but I brew my way to brew what I like. Now if I was brewing a beer so I could maybe win a nice blue ribbon or something else to hang on the wall then I'd follow the style path more precisely.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Yeah, I think it's ridiculous to try to tell other people how to brew. There has been so much innovation over the last two decades. How much would there have been if everyone was trying to copy someone else?

 

[beersk]

Yeah, I think it's ridiculous to try to tell other people how to brew. There has been so much innovation over the last two decades. How much would there have been if everyone was trying to copy someone else?

Case in point - Low O2 brewing came from trying to copy the Germans... I think we've learned a lot about brewing science in just the last 6-7 years because of that.

 

[Callacave]

I'm not too far from Hill Farmstead, so that's my ultimate gauge. And although I've enjoyed a ton of my beer, and have made a handful of amazing ones it's a dragon that I'm afraid I'll never quite catch, but it's been fun to chase for sure!

 

[Alan Reginato]

I have to ask: am I the only one who prefers his own beer to nearly everything else?

I finished making my first post-comeback beer a few days ago, and I overcarbonated it. It took several days for it to recover so I could get a beer that wasn't all head at first and then low on bubbles. Today it's perfect. I can open the faucet all the way, and it gives me about 2.5 inches of foam and still has the carbonation zing it needs.

I had some Old Rasputin the other day, and it amazed me. It changed the way I think about beer. But other than that, I like my own brews best. And I'm not going to sit around every day drinking imperial stout. Most of the time, I'm going to want to be down around 6%.

I love a beer that's exactly what I imagined when I first tried to write the recipe. No matter how good factory beer is, it's not tailor-made.

Oh no, you aren't. I just don't drink commercial beer anymore. I prefer drink water. Craft beer here, they just copy APA style. All citrus, fruit combined with high bitterness, that to me taste like spoiled fruit (sorry, didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings) or with too much additives. Lactose, coffee, spices, far from something you can call balanced. I can't even buy a normal, regular saison here. Neither a stout. And Imported beers are just too expensive...

So, I just drink what I brew.

 

[kingmatt]

I'd venture to say that I am my favorite home brewer but I can't compete with some of the better breweries out there when it comes to the styles I prefer most (hoppy beers). They have the ability to hand select hops, centrifuge their beers, propogate specific yeast strains etc. Hard to compete with that on a homebrew level. All this to say, I still purchase a good amount of commerical beer.

 

[11thStBrewing]

I’m not, but I’m working on it. Very picky.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Brewing today while overcoming a virus. Last night, beer, including Old Rasputin, tasted gross. This morning, I could not smell anything. Nothing. Not even Vaporub smeared on my nostrils. Suddenly this afternoon, I started smelling things again.

I was going to brew without a beer in front of me, which is unnatural and sick, but since my nose was starting to work again, I thought I should take a chance. But what if it still tasted bad?

I opened a Dogfish Head 60 Minute because I was afraid to risk wasting my own beer. I guess that shows how Dogfish Head and my own beer relate in my brew hierarchy. And I really like Dogfish Head.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Oh no, you aren't. I just don't drink commercial beer anymore. I prefer drink water. Craft beer here, they just copy APA style. All citrus, fruit combined with high bitterness, that to me taste like spoiled fruit (sorry, didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings) or with too much additives. Lactose, coffee, spices, far from something you can call balanced. I can't even buy a normal, regular saison here. Neither a stout. And Imported beers are just too expensive...

So, I just drink what I brew.

I completely understand this. Even before I brewed, I preferred water or nothing to things like Budweiser and Miller.

I am not a big fan of additives, although I won't close any doors. There is so much you can do with grain, yeast, and temperature. I think a lot of breweries never figured this out, so they just ran to things like orange peel and lactose and coffee.

I don't understand putting orange peel in wheat beer when you can get great citrus flavor from hops. Why not try hops first?

Back when I smoked cigars, I never understood people who smoked flavored stogies. Gross. A Trinidad is sweet and tastes like vanilla all by itself. A Cohiba tastes like cloves. A Brazilia Gol tastes like dark chocolate. An aged Bauza pyramid with a little white mold tastes like cashews. Dumping additives in tobacco seemed like a way of admitting there was nothing going on without them. I think some brewers have the same problem.

That being said, I do want to come up with fruity stuff to put in finished wheat beers after pouring them.

 

[BrewZer]

I'm still a fan of several commercial beers, but I relate this story as an example of what CAN happen:

I was looking for a beer to brew, and chanced upon a mention of Abita's Mardi Gras Maibock. In their webpage, they foolishly listed the ingredients (not the quantities, of course) and I was able to put together a recipe in Brewtarget that approximated the inherent characteristics of a Maibock (category 4C - Helles Bock). Assistent Braulein and I did the brewing on the penultimate day of 2022, and the beer went to sleep in the garage for the requisite 3 weeks in the fermenter.

During the fermentation, Assistent Braulein was able to find 2 bottles of the Abita brew, so we squirreled those away for comparative tasting. After bottling, and suitable carbonation time, we did said tasting.

No contest -- hands down, our Maibock is better than theirs. I dunno -- maybe they filtered out all the flavor, but when I sipped theirs, all I got was stunted flavors. Our Maibock, however, slaps you upside the tongue with deep, rich maltiness wrapped in a blanket of alcohol warmth and offset by just a touch of post-swallow hoppiness. This stuff would be perfect in a biergarten in Munich in late April!

So, no, I'd have to say I'm not my own favorite brewer, but in some cases, I think I like mine better than theirs.

 

[seatazzz]

I'm late to this one, time to bloviate.

I will admit, I am my own favorite brewer. We do buy commercial beer on occasion, either when the pipeline is dangerously low, or we find something we (meaning I) might want to try to brew, either a straight clone or just get to style. And maybe it's just me, but I find that a lot of the commercial craft stuff we bring home tastes slightly oxidized/stale. Husband bought one of those German advent calendar beer cases in December (we still haven't finished it), and to me every last one tasted like a can of beer that got left in my golf bag from 2 years ago. I love the taste of fresh, possibly too young (to other palates) beer; to me the flavors pop more, and I get more satisfaction from it. Not only that, but with my own beers I can continue tasting them throughout the process, from wort to finished fermentation (albeit flat), on to carbonated; and if it lasts that long, aged a few weeks, or longer. Ferinstance, right now in my kegerator I've got a Strong that was brewed back in November, aged on bourbon-soaked oak cubes; a few others from the last month, and a blonde that went grain to glass in 6 days, only 2 weeks ago. Each of them has their own character. And drinking them I reminisce on that brewday, and other beers I've brewed.

And I understand that not all homebrewers keg, but being able to just pull a taster, or a full pint, whenever I want is very nice.

 

[BeerHolic]

I do not purchase any commercial beer, only drink the beer I brew.
Brew batched with final volume of about 21 liters, Keg 18 liters to corny and bottle the remaining which I take with when visiting friends etc.
The only exception is when we go with friends to the pub, which thankfully is not often.

 

[bwible]

I struggle with some, but I am really happy when I get one “right”. I spent about a week thinking about and putting together an amber lager recipe trying to get something close to one our local brewpub makes and I was really happy with that, especially for my first try. I plan to make that again.

I still buy beer, ranging from our local larger breweries like Victory and Troegs to stuff from our local area brewpubs to some macros like Miller High Life which I just like all year. Could be nostalgia. I bought a case of Schaefer beer recently. Again, maybe nostalgia. I’m a sucker for anything bourbon barrel aged. Then there’s all the German stuff and I’m only kidding myself to think I can brew much of that. Though I also did make a great Munich Dunkel last year.

I have a kegerator which only gets kegs of my beer and a glass front fridge for bottles and cans - which has all kinds of stuff in it, including bottles of my homebrew.

 

[mac_1103]

I bought a case of Schaefer beer recently. Again, maybe nostalgia.

I thought Schaeffer was just PBR now, but maybe that still works for the nostalgia.

 

[bwible]

I thought Schaeffer was just PBR now, but maybe that still works for the nostalgia.

Yeah they are owned by Pabst now. Could still be a different recipe though. I saw an article recently saying they were even supposed to start brewing it in NY again.

Rolling Rock got bought by AB a few years back and they make it in St. Louis, MO now instead of the glass lined tanks in Latrobe, PA. Its also supposed to be the old recipe. I don’t know because I haven’t bought it since.

 

[duncan_disorderly]

i might be my own favourite brewer but I'm probably not anybody else's! And I do enjoy getting out in the pubs and drinking cask ales. There are some very good cask pints out there these days, influenced by craft ale and competing with craft ale - the cask brewers have upped their game in my opinion. I've had a couple of cask ales by Brightside Brewing in Manchester UK recently that were delicious. Both used American hops. The combination of those hops with English malt and yeast via a beer engine is something special when it's done well. I can make similar beers but not with that cask condition.

 

[bwible]

i might be my own favourite brewer but I'm probably not anybody else's! And I do enjoy getting out in the pubs and drinking cask ales. There are some very good cask pints out there these days, influenced by craft ale and competing with craft ale - the cask brewers have upped their game in my opinion. I've had a couple of cask ales by Brightside Brewing in Manchester UK recently that were delicious. Both used American hops.

I know more and more UK breweries are using American hops but thats still blasphemy to me with these beers.

The combination of those hops with English malt and yeast via a beer engine is something special when it's done well. I can make similar beers but not with that cask condition.

There are a few threads on here how to emulate a cask. Theres one article about turning a corny keg on its side and venting through the dip tube and drawing beer out of the gas port. There is another one about people using collapseable cubitainers.

I agree though, there’s something special about a beer engine. I have one and I don’t use it nearly enough. Because the beer spoils too quickly and I can’t even go through 3 gallons or a half batch by myself fast enough. I’ve thought many times about how to hook a beer engine to a 5L minikeg and never even found a way to do that.

Brewing beers I can’t easily get, like Britsh ales, was one of the reasons I wanted to start brewing.

 

[duncan_disorderly]

I know more and more UK breweries are using American hops but thats still blasphemy to me with these beers.

There are a few threads on here how to emulate a cask. There's one article about turning a corny keg on its side and venting through the dip tube and drawing beer out of the gas port. I agree though, there’s something special about a beer engine. I have one and I don’t use it nearly enough. Because the beer spoils too quickly and I can’t even go through 3 gallons or a half batch by myself fast enough. I’ve thought many times about how to hook a beer engine to a 5L minikeg and never even found a way to do that.

Brewing beers I can’t easily get, like British ales, was one of the reasons I wanted to start brewing.

I don't see it as blasphemy - just a choice. I like all trad British ales, and I like versions with new ingredients. Plus, American hops were being used in British breweries many years ago.

I'm a small batch bottler, I am not likely to start building draught systems at home. As cool as that would be. It's good to hear of people enjoying British stuff around the world. I'm not particularly patriotic but I love British beer and I fear for it and enjoy hearing about people treasuring it! And brewing it. And using English hops, cos that is a pretty fragile industry - not very many growers left now. Yes, imported hops partly to blame. There was a reported doubling of exports a few years ago. I hope that's still the case but I think it's not. Seems odd cos there must be a demand for UK Golding and Fuggle in other beer countries. Maybe tastes are just changing. Willamette does a similar job in a more modern taste way I guess.

 

[bwible]

I don't see it as blasphemy - just a choice. I like all trad British ales, and I like versions with new ingredients. Plus, American hops were being used in British breweries many years ago.

I'm a small batch bottler, I am not likely to start building draught systems at home. As cool as that would be. It's good to hear of people enjoying British stuff around the world. I'm not particularly patriotic but I love British beer and I fear for it and enjoy hearing about people treasuring it! And brewing it. And using English hops, cos that is a pretty fragile industry - not very many growers left now. Yes, imported hops partly to blame. There was a reported doubling of exports a few years ago. I hope that's still the case but I think it's not. Seems odd cos there must be a demand for UK Golding and Fuggle in other beer countries. Maybe tastes are just changing. Willamette does a similar job in a more modern taste way I guess.

I’m a big fan of First Gold

 

[duncan_disorderly]

I’m a big fan of First Gold

Me too!

 

[RyPA]

I did stop buying beer for the house and stick 100% to my own beer. Not to say I don't enjoy brewery beer, but I am happy with 90% of what I make.

The only time I buy commercial beer, usually PBR, is to bring out on the boat when I go fishing with my buddies. Cheap and low ABV for a good ~8 hour day of fishing.