Are You Your Own Favorite Brewer?

[Miraculix]

Can confirm, was in Hamburg on a booze buying weekend trip a few years ago, and Astra was the worst.
Even seemed many bars refuse to sell it.

That is a politically captured beer. Astra is the beer of the lefties. So if you are selling it as a bar, it's kind of a political statement. Makes me giggle a bit that the socialist/Communist/leftie guys have chosen the worst beer on the market. Should serve them well me thinks!

 

[VikeMan]

There's nothing wrong with preferring one's own beer over all (or nearly all) other beers, but folks shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that means their own beer is necessarily better. The brewer (whether commercial or home brewer) is the person least capable of judging his/her own beer. I wrote a BYO article about this several years ago. For anyone interested and in possession of a BYO online subscription and maybe a case of insomnia: How Good is Your Homebrew? Get the Best Feedback on your Beer

 

[redrocker652002]

I will join the No crowd. I am nowhere near as good as the pro's, so I enjoy my beer cause I did it, but I enjoy a good brewery done beer as well cause they are much better at it than I am. Racer 5, Hazy little thing IPA from Sierra Nevada, Blind Pig and Pliny, and a few others are my go to beers from stores. But, I will surely enjoy one of mine simply because I did it. LOL.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

There's a sticker out there I've seen, "I brew the beer I drink". That sums it up for me but I still try other home brews by folks in the local club I belong to or if they bring something over. I still try all of the craft beers if they fit the styles I like. Even as a home brewer I feel we should support the craft industry as much as we can. Some of them were the pioneers that have made our home brewing easier to do.

I've been home brewing since around 1985, starting out with very primitive equipment and ingredients for that matter. Not much of either available in those early days. I too have lots of dumped beers but that's part of the learning process.

Keep brewing, keep learning and enjoy!

 

[Zambezi Special]

Nope, I am not my own favourite brewer, although I'm starting to make some nice brews.
I don't think I would have started brewing if I had stayed in the Netherlands with the big choice of Belgian & German beers.
I really like Belgian beers and can't get them unless I brew them.
So yes, here I prefer my brews (although I do enjoy our local lager).

I just like beer and I like brewing

 

[Protos]

Makes me giggle a bit that the socialist/Communist/leftie guys have chosen the worst beer on the market. Should serve them well me thinks!

Communist beer must be schitty by definition.

I won't share my personal experiences from the times of the Communist occupation of the Baltic states, although I have something to recall, even though I was young and undemanding back then, and even though The Baltics were - beer-wise, I mean - the most privileged colony of the USSR.
I'd better refer to a less subjective source: a Soviet book of 1974 in Russian I downloaded and read recently, which contains Soviet State Standards for some 60 beers from three Soviet republics: Russia, Ukraine and also Latvia (from which, the latter, I originate from). Most of the beers in there are modified knockouts of European traditional styles: Pilsners, Bohemian Dunkels, Bocks etc. The main distinguishing thing is that each and every style is "optimized" in the sence of replacing Barley malt, because of economy, with considerable doses of adjuncts: mostly Rice, but also Raw Barley, Maize, Soybeans, Beet Sugar etc. The only classic all-barley-malt beers in the book are those grandfathered from the pre-occupation times, like the Pilsners of Riga (annexed in 1940 from Latvia) and Lwow (annexed in 1939 from Poland). It seems the Politbiuro allowed people on the newly-occupied territories, accustomed to real lagers, to keep enjoying their favourites (those grandfathered beers were hard to come by in the stores, however) while the Ruskies themselves were deprived of even such a luxury and their beer of choise (90% of the Soviet brewing output actually) was Ziguliowskie Piwo, a bastardised Wiener made of up to 50% Raw Barley fermented with Aspergyllase.

When in the 1970s there happened a Barley crop shortage in the USSR, the government had to purchase a large batch of brewing grain from Denmark. The quality of the Danish grain was so immensely higher than the Ukrainian Barley the Soviet breweries usually employed, they had to create a specific beer to brew from it - the Senču Alus ("The Forefathers' Beer"), distributed exclusively in the occupied Baltic Stastes. It was nothing more than a simple-and-nice all-grain Hellesbier, but it was a rarity on the Soviet beer market. The rest of the empire had to be content with the 50%-Adjunct Ziguliowskie, so the Ruskies used to travel to Latvia from Russia by car or by train to get back home some crates of the rare "real beer" from there.

Etc.

Please let me avoid the titanical topic of the GDR brewing - I hope there are people here who could say more on the subject than I can. To hell with the centuries-long German brewing heritage and Reinheitsgebot, they said. To hell with the capitalist brewing economy, they said. Then they had East Germans seeking for West German brews on the black market and paying several times their retail price at home. As it happens everywhere the Communist/Socialist markets exist.

I wish those Leftie-beer brewers and Astra-promoters to get somehow back into the USSR and to spend there some 20 or 30 of their most productive years, being limited to at best 3 kinds of "optimized" beer at their local stores. I also whole-heartedly wish them to experience fist fights in kilometer-long cues for anything other than the Aspergyllase swill. That's the true Communist way of drinking beer, it would be a shame to not let them enjoy it.

 

[Miraculix]

Communist beer must be schitty by definition.

I won't share my personal experiences from the times of the Communist occupation of the Baltic states, although I have something to recall, even though I was young and undemanding back then, and even though The Baltics were - beer-wise, I mean - the most privileged colony of the USSR.
I'd better refer to a less subjective source: a Soviet book of 1974 in Russian I downloaded and read recently, which contains Soviet State Standards for some 60 beers from three Soviet republics: Russia, Ukraine and also Latvia (from which, the latter, I originate from). Most of the beers in there are modified knockouts of European traditional styles: Pilsners, Bohemian Dunkels, Bocks etc. The main distinguishing thing is that each and every style is "optimized" in the sence of replacing Barley malt, because of economy, with considerable doses of adjuncts: mostly Rice, but also Raw Barley, Maize, Soybeans, Beet Sugar etc. The only classic all-barley-malt beers in the book are those grandfathered from the pre-occupation times, like the Pilsners of Riga (annexed in 1940 from Latvia) and Lwow (annexed in 1939 from Poland). It seems the Politbiuro allowed people on the newly-occupied territories, accustomed to real lagers, to keep enjoying their favourites (those grandfathered beers were hard to come by in the stores, however) while the Ruskies themselves were deprived of even such a luxury and their beer of choise (90% of the Soviet brewing output actually) was Ziguliowskie Piwo, a bastardised Wiener made of up to 50% Raw Barley fermented with Aspergyllase.

When in the 1970s there happened a Barley crop shortage in the USSR, the government had to purchase a large batch of brewing grain from Denmark. The quality of the Danish grain was so immensely higher than the Ukrainian Barley the Soviet breweries usually employed, they had to create a specific beer to brew from it - the Senču Alus ("The Forefathers' Beer"), distributed exclusively in the occupied Baltic Stastes. It was nothing more than a simple-and-nice all-grain Hellesbier, but it was a rarity on the Soviet beer market. The rest of the empire had to be content with the 50%-Adjunct Ziguliowskie, so the Ruskies used to travel to Latvia from Russia by car or by train to get back home some crates of the rare "real beer" from there.

Etc.

Please let me avoid the titanical topic of the GDR brewing - I hope there are people here who could say more on the subject than I can. To hell with the centuries-long German brewing heritage and Reinheitsgebot, they said. To hell with the capitalist brewing economy, they said. Then they had East Germans seeking for West German brews on the black market and paying several times their retail price at home. As it happens everywhere the Communist/Socialist markets exist.

I wish those Leftie-beer brewers and Astra-promoters to get somehow back into the USSR and to spend there some 20 or 30 of their most productive years, being limited to at best 3 kinds of "optimized" beer at their local stores. I also whole-heartedly wish them to experience fist fights in kilometer-long cues for anything other than the Aspergyllase swill. That's the true Communist way of drinking beer, it would be a shame to not let them enjoy it.

Funny and sad at the same time. I got many friends from the ex communist countries and my girlfriend is Polish. I have friends from Latvia too btw. So I know about the stuff first hand, her parents told me many storys, my friends and their parents told me storries.... Those storries are hardcore to the bone. Different countries, same outcome. A sane person definitely does not want this type of thing in their live.

Every time I see a "modern communist/socialist" I do not know what to do. Really. So much ignorance. Unbelievable.

Only in a free country, you have the freedom to be this dumb.

 

[Broken Crow]

So without commenting on the inaccurate labels that authoritarian police-states give themsleves that bear little resemblence to the actual idealogy they enforce in pretty much every nation on earth and respond to the original question;
For myself, my own brews are not as good as my all-time favourites:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/4028/17885/or
https://www.blacksheepbrewery.com/But they are significantly 'better' than my usual cheap, but still very satisfying
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/155/42/and somewhere in there is the homebrew of the woman whose stout inpired me to brew my own.

 

[beersk]

Interesting stories/perspectives @Miraculix and @Protos, thanks for sharing.

I would say I'm mostly my own favorite brewer. The beers, at least locally in Iowa City, are rubbish. I'm more in to lagers than I am ales, but I've been saying for a while now, especially more recently, that it's never been a better time to be a homebrewer. If you go to the store, it's difficult to get anything that isn't a fruited/pastry sour, pastry stout, NEIPA, or a f*cking hard seltzer. The lagers that are sold are bereft of any malt character and are way over hopped.
So, yes, I prefer what I brew to anything else locally available.
I like various commercial beers, mainly from the bigger breweries in the UK, Germany, and Belgium, and a few US/Mexican lagers.

 

[T Murph]

Thanks @Protos , @Miraculix and @Broken Crow I very much enjoyed your post sharing your experiences in other countries. While I traveled the USA extensively, I've never experienced beer life in another country. Your stories are very interesting.

Cheers

 

[chthon]

Communist beer must be schitty by definition.

I won't share my personal experiences from the times of the Communist occupation of the Baltic states, although I have something to recall, even though I was young and undemanding back then, and even though The Baltics were - beer-wise, I mean - the most privileged colony of the USSR.
I'd better refer to a less subjective source: a Soviet book of 1974 in Russian I downloaded and read recently, which contains Soviet State Standards for some 60 beers from three Soviet republics: Russia, Ukraine and also Latvia (from which, the latter, I originate from). Most of the beers in there are modified knockouts of European traditional styles: Pilsners, Bohemian Dunkels, Bocks etc. The main distinguishing thing is that each and every style is "optimized" in the sence of replacing Barley malt, because of economy, with considerable doses of adjuncts: mostly Rice, but also Raw Barley, Maize, Soybeans, Beet Sugar etc. The only classic all-barley-malt beers in the book are those grandfathered from the pre-occupation times, like the Pilsners of Riga (annexed in 1940 from Latvia) and Lwow (annexed in 1939 from Poland). It seems the Politbiuro allowed people on the newly-occupied territories, accustomed to real lagers, to keep enjoying their favourites (those grandfathered beers were hard to come by in the stores, however) while the Ruskies themselves were deprived of even such a luxury and their beer of choise (90% of the Soviet brewing output actually) was Ziguliowskie Piwo, a bastardised Wiener made of up to 50% Raw Barley fermented with Aspergyllase.

When in the 1970s there happened a Barley crop shortage in the USSR, the government had to purchase a large batch of brewing grain from Denmark. The quality of the Danish grain was so immensely higher than the Ukrainian Barley the Soviet breweries usually employed, they had to create a specific beer to brew from it - the Senču Alus ("The Forefathers' Beer"), distributed exclusively in the occupied Baltic Stastes. It was nothing more than a simple-and-nice all-grain Hellesbier, but it was a rarity on the Soviet beer market. The rest of the empire had to be content with the 50%-Adjunct Ziguliowskie, so the Ruskies used to travel to Latvia from Russia by car or by train to get back home some crates of the rare "real beer" from there.

Etc.

Please let me avoid the titanical topic of the GDR brewing - I hope there are people here who could say more on the subject than I can. To hell with the centuries-long German brewing heritage and Reinheitsgebot, they said. To hell with the capitalist brewing economy, they said. Then they had East Germans seeking for West German brews on the black market and paying several times their retail price at home. As it happens everywhere the Communist/Socialist markets exist.

I wish those Leftie-beer brewers and Astra-promoters to get somehow back into the USSR and to spend there some 20 or 30 of their most productive years, being limited to at best 3 kinds of "optimized" beer at their local stores. I also whole-heartedly wish them to experience fist fights in kilometer-long cues for anything other than the Aspergyllase swill. That's the true Communist way of drinking beer, it would be a shame to not let them enjoy it.

At Barclay-Perkins there is a series of blogs about DDR brewing and hops: Shut up about Barclay Perkins

 

[chthon]

Living in Belgium, why would one brew their own beer? For fun and as a distraction perhaps, and because I like to cook, and I thought that brewing was a logical extension of cooking )).

So I started brewing (without help, no homebrewers in the vicinity, or a brewing guild), and I succeeded. And I liked my beer, and my wife liked it, and my family liked my beer, and friends and acquaintances like my beer. So I continued brewing, but also got into more tasting different beers. Tracking using Untappd, I tasted 350 Belgian beers and 255 Dutch beers.

I haven't had any stinkers, only a couple of brews that were less than stellar (but nobody else gets to taste them).

Beers that I like to match: Westmalle Tripel, Affligem Tripel, Westvleteren 12, a nice IPA.

Beers that I have matched: Leffe Blond, Grolsch Kruidige Tripel (beer with cardamom, lemongrass and corianderseeds), bocks (can't find any German bocks here in Belgium and Holland).

I don't have that much gear, but I like to buy ingredients, and sometimes I have too many dry yeasts on stock, and that influences what my next brew will be. And that sometimes influences negatively the outcome of the brew, in that it is not what I had hoped for. But I always try to brew well, and I have at least always beer without flaws.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Living in Belgium, why would one brew their own beer? For fun and as a distraction perhaps, and because I like to cook, and I thought that brewing was a logical extension of cooking )).

So I started brewing (without help, no homebrewers in the vicinity, or a brewing guild), and I succeeded. And I liked my beer, and my wife liked it, and my family liked my beer, and friends and acquaintances like my beer. So I continued brewing, but also got into more tasting different beers. Tracking using Untappd, I tasted 350 Belgian beers and 255 Dutch beers.

I haven't had any stinkers, only a couple of brews that were less than stellar (but nobody else gets to taste them).

Beers that I like to match: Westmalle Tripel, Affligem Tripel, Westvleteren 12, a nice IPA.

Beers that I have matched: Leffe Blond, Grolsch Kruidige Tripel (beer with cardamom, lemongrass and corianderseeds), bocks (can't find any German bocks here in Belgium and Holland).

I don't have that much gear, but I like to buy ingredients, and sometimes I have too many dry yeasts on stock, and that influences what my next brew will be. And that sometimes influences negatively the outcome of the brew, in that it is not what I had hoped for. But I always try to brew well, and I have at least always beer without flaws.

Nice to hear from the other side of the earth on brewing. I think you are very lucky to experience all the brewing history most of us only get to read about. All the beer you mention are ones I really love too. Great you are able to brew some of them even though you can just buy them.

Welcome to the group and sharing your words!

 

[Protos]

At Barclay-Perkins there is a series of blogs about DDR brewing and hops: Shut up about Barclay Perkins

Yep, I've read all of those posts. I even found online and downloaded the original TGL 7764 State Standard Document Ron is referring to. A lot of useful info in it (although no direct recipes). Pity, German beers are rarely featured in his "Let's Brew Wednesdays".
Generally, the brewing scene in the GDR is an interesting research topic. From one side, "the time capsule" of their state planned economy retained some old traditional brewing technologies that had long been abandoned in West Germany at the time (a similar "conservation" happened in Czechoslowakian brewing industry as well - and even in those "grandfathered" beers of the Soviet-occupied Baltic and Polish areas I mentioned above, still brewed along the lines of the canonical Bohemian double-kettle regimens). From another side, the shortcomings of the same state planned economy forced them to be "inventive" and unscrupulous with the "optimized" and "economical" ingredients choise, which gave birth to grists unimaginable in traditional German brewing. Maybe the latter was one of the reasons behind many East Germans despising their local production and coveting beers coming from the Western part of the divided country.

 

[beersk]

Yep, I've read all of those posts. I even found online and downloaded the original TGL 7764 State Standard Document Ron is referring to. A lot of useful info in it (although no direct recipes). Pity, German beers are rarely featured in his "Let's Brew Wednesdays".
Generally, the brewing scene in the GDR is an interesting research topic. From one side, "the time capsule" of their state planned economy retained some old traditional brewing technologies that had long been abandoned in West Germany at the time (a similar "conservation" happened in Czechoslowakian brewing industry as well - and even in those "grandfathered" beers of the Soviet-occupied Baltic and Polish areas I mentioned above, still brewed along the lines of the canonical Bohemian double-kettle regimens). From another side, the shortcomings of the same state planned economy forced them to be "inventive" and unscrupulous with the "optimized" and "economical" ingredients choise, which gave birth to grists unimaginable in traditional German brewing. Maybe the latter was one of the reasons behind many East Germans despising their local production and coveting beers coming from the Western part of the divided country.

Well, it's because his blog primarily focuses on the history of beers brewed in the UK. No surprise there.

 

[Yeast Farmer]

Yep, I prefer my own. My honest opinion is that most craft beer sucks. Some of it is absolutely fantastic, but most of it is not well made, just well marketed.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Yep, I prefer my own. My honest opinion is that most craft beer sucks. Some of it is absolutely fantastic, but most of it is not well made, just well marketed.

I agree totally with your statement. It's sad that some of the craft brewers have gotten into the business just to sell mediocre beer. I'm amazed when I go to some of these places to try their beer myself and talk to people that rave about the beer that I wouldn't even admit I brewed. But the stellar ones out there make up for them, and there's plenty out there.

I'm just glad I brew my own too, so I don't need to be disappointed with the entire craft industry because of a few bad ones.

 

[beersk]

Completely agree with the sentiments of @Yeast Farmer and @OakIslandBrewery. I am, however, starting to feel disheartened by the general craft industry because most cater far too much to the people who don't want their beer to taste like beer, like I mentioned above, anything pastry, sour, NEIPA, or seltzer. We got into craft beer because we were fed up with the macro/industrial beer market and getting fizzy yellow beer. Now it's gone completely the other way such that beer doesn't even really resemble beer anymore, at least not in the classic sense. Sure, many of the ingredients are beer-related, but the end result? It seems we're getting farther and farther away from what beer is in a classic sense. And that's what I'm interested in. There are a few exceptions making good quality classic styles with a few newer styles mixed in. But mostly, craft brewers are just trying to make a buck it seems by producing sh*t that simply just doesn't taste like beer.

The other element to craft breweries is, somewhere down the line, someone thought it was a good idea to have a big open space that is echo-y, hard cement, COLD, uninviting as the general atmosphere require of small craft breweries. Hardly any place has a warm, low ceiling, wood tap room. I remember Russian River being especially nice as well as 21st Amendment with the brick building it was in. And don't get me started on all the TVs...

Overall, I'm pretty disheartened with craft brewing. But does that stop me from going to breweries with the hopes that it won't disappoint? No...

 

[mac_1103]

I can't get too upset with a craft brewer for trying to make a living. The kids today all seem to want to drink sours in a warehouse with 37 different sporting events on giant tv screens, so the business is going to cater to that demographic. Especially if you're in a college town like I am.

But even though I find that three out of every four beers are things that I'd never want to try, most of the local breweries are usually also pouring a couple of good lagers, a nice kolsch, a dry stout, a well-balanced IPA or two, etc. IOW, there's plenty of real beer along with all the gimmicky stuff.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I agree with your statement on the "gimmicky stuff", I feel the same way. There's one brew pub nearby that has an old pub feel to it; not a flat screen to be found, nice seating, a small beer garden to enjoy (when summer comes) and great beers. I like to relax there as it feels like my home bar. But I take the bad with the good and go to other brew pubs to try their brews, met up with friends and just support the industry even though it's not an ideal setting.

 

[Protos]

Well, it's because his blog primarily focuses on the history of beers brewed in the UK. No surprise there.

That's true. But when he rarely does go German, he publishes astonishing recipes.
Like this 1927 Kölsch, the most authentic and noble iteration of the style I've seen whether in English or in German sources.
I've brewed this recipe three times, one recreated to a tee with that exact super-long rising temp infusion, second with triple decoction and again with infusion. Got one of the finest beers I've ever brewed.

 

[GoodTruble]

I prefer my beers to 90% of the commercial beers available locally. That being said there are still a few breweries that consistently blow my doors off and make me think "why even bother trying to brew this style when this brewery's version is available."

 

[NSMikeD]

While I like the beers I brew and I enjoy the variety, nothing I brew compares to what Blue Point did on their way to stardom, I love Sierra Nevada's Pale ale and Dog Fish 60 minute. I love my Belgium's but I still chase Chimay. I haven't brewed anything that come close to Schneider Weiis. One day I'll do a side by side with Guiness and my Irish Stout cause I think I might like mine more. There are a whole lotta beers out there that inspire me to raise my game, but there are way too many on tap these days that I think fall short and more often lack balance from a brewer who's trying to go over the top. A lot of times, less is more when it comes to culinary experiences.

 

[Dland]

Yup, for sure,... applies to original question.

 

[WestMichiganSteelheader]

Yep, I prefer my own. My honest opinion is that most craft beer sucks. Some of it is absolutely fantastic, but most of it is not well made, just well marketed.

I agree totally with your statement. It's sad that some of the craft brewers have gotten into the business just to sell mediocre beer. I'm amazed when I go to some of these places to try their beer myself and talk to people that rave about the beer that I wouldn't even admit I brewed. But the stellar ones out there make up for them, and there's plenty out there.

I'm just glad I brew my own too, so I don't need to be disappointed with the entire craft industry because of a few bad ones.

I just returned home from an 8 day trip to a western state. The beer there was like being in purgatory for the most part. However, I did have a Belgian aged in a rum barrel. WOW!!!! And to think, I have never had a Belgian that I liked.

With that being said, I am very spoiled at home as New Holland, Founders, Bells, and others are very close by. I shouldn’t forget my Homebrew too.

 

[Zambezi Special]

@chthon
I really need to rack your brain!
Sounds like you brew the beers I really like

 

[rallenhall]

Prefer my own because I'm a brewer of the classic styles, and few craft breweries within driving range make an honest attempt at helles, pils, dunkel, etc. (and calling your beer one does not make it so).

 

[sibelman]

I get a feeling of pride/satisfaction/accomplishment from creating yet another really good beer. That feeling is not available in stores. Operators are not standing by.

My ego influences my judgment of my beers in both directions. My occasional mediocre or flawed brew might be no worse than many commercial beers, but I judge it more harshly because I failed. A really good result seems even better because, hey, I made that.

I've had scant training in beer judging -- one session with Charlie Papazian at an AHA conference, and a beer class taught by Fred Eckhardt, both back in the 90s. Without better training and double-blind evaluation, I can't be relied on to fairly and pseudo-objectively judge my own beers.

But, so what? Even my experimental batches usually come out really well, if I do say so myself. Dumpers? Extremely rare. I enjoy the process and the product. Commercial brews often disappoint, and I don't buy much -- but I still try new ones alongside my favorites.

 

[user 263363]

Everyone here has their own reasons for brewing their own beer. Shortly after discovering craft beer around 2017, it wasn't long before I had my first extract kit bubbling away. I've made 2-3 beers that I can say I absolutely loved and many more that I liked and even a few I had to dump.

My brew days are so few and far between I really try to focus on making beers that are not readily available in my area. That's usually English beers and lagers that are any more complex than a typical Vienna style. Otherwise, I have so many great breweries within an hour drive of me that it is hard for me to justify the time to brew as much as I would actually like to.

So to answer the original question, no I am not my favorite brewer.

Now if you wanna talk about making mead, I would say I like mine best. I have been incredibly disappointed in so many expensive bottles of commercial mead. Turns out I am pretty good at turning honey and water in to alcohol.

 

[grampamark]

I must be my favorite brewer. About 95% of the beer I drink was made by me. If I didn’t like my beer I suppose I’d buy more store bought beer.