Are You Your Own Favorite Brewer?

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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
 
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.
 
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!
 
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.
 
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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.
 
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.
 
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... :rolleyes:
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
I am not my favorite brewer, I leave that to Russian River; I am forever chasing Pliny the Elder as the gold standard for a hoppy beer. But as for most of my beer, I find it to be superior to most of the beers out there, if only because I now can taste the flaws in beers, my own and others. If I get an off-flavor from a home-brewed 25c pint, I am learning from my mistakes; if I get the same flavor from a $7 pint, then I'm pissed off. I still buy beer to taste styles and if the pipeline is dry, but usually I'll take my homebrew over commercial stuff.
 
I have tried and tried to get my hands on a Pliny the Elder to no avail. That beer is at the top of my list of brews to enjoy before I die. Apparently they don't get shipped to the southeast coast. Some day I'll get my hands on one.
 
I like my own beer pretty well. Then I send beers to competitions to get the opinion of people with more discerning palates. Sometimes they like it pretty well too, and sometimes a beer that I think is super bombs out with the judges.

I know this page of Gordon Strong's, where he fills out score sheets (blind?) for best-of-the-best beers, and they pretty much all score between 40 and 50. (Some of these I don't really get; e.g., Goose Island has never impressed me much.) So, when I enter a competition and score in the 40s, I know I've made a beer anyone would have been proud to brew. (It happens, though not especially often...)

What sort of scores would you expect to see for more typical commercial offerings? What is "pro" level, really? If you walked into a local taproom and filled out a score sheet for every beer there, what would you expect the range of scores to look like?
 
What sort of scores would you expect to see for more typical commercial offerings? What is "pro" level, really?
Zymurgy Magazine had (past tense) a "Commercial Calibration" column. Here's the overview from the July 2012 column:

One way beer judges check their palates is by using commercial "calibration beers"-classic versions of the style they represent. Zymurgy has assembled a panel of four judges who
have attained the rank of Grand Master in the Beer Judge Certification Program. Each issue, they score two commercial beers (or meads or ciders) using the BJCP scoresheet. We invite you to download your own scoresheets at www.bjcp.org, pick up a bottle (or can) of each of the beverages and judge along with them in our Commercial Calibration.

Assuming proper shipping and handling, I would anticipate most scores for popular regional commercial beers to be in the 35 - 45 range.

If you walked into a local taproom and filled out a score sheet for every beer there, what would you expect the range of scores to look like?
I saw someone do this once at a regional tap room. Don't be that guy.

At a local tap room that's been around for a while: a 19, a couple of 29s "(yummy but not to style)", and the rest go to mini-BOS.
 
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@AlexKay as a beer judge I'll tell you some of the best beers I have had the pleasure of tasting were homebrews. Sometimes a well rounded homebrewer hits a home run that beats the pros hands down. And of course there are plenty of professional craft brewed beers that are standards we homebrewers strive to duplicate. Judges don't always agree with each other and have to deliberate to come up with a collective opinion of a brew. With that said, I find myself judging every offering I sample be it pro or beginner. I have purchased my share swill at craft breweries but that is not the norm. I find most brew pubs have decent beers while once in a while I find excellent beers and unfortunately occasionally I find the opposite. My wife cringes whenever a brewmaster approaches me and ask what I think about a beer. I am not the type to sugar coat my opinion. If you ask I feel it is my responsibility to give you an honest answer. The one issue that I have to speak up about is an infection. You have to let them know and it happens to some of the good ones. As to Gordon's data sheet that too is subjective. No mention of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale in the Xmas/specialty beer. It should be at the top of the list IMO.
 
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 agree, too. Budweiser is popular for a reason. Marketing works. If it works for disgusting mainstream quasi-beers, it also works for craft beers that are just as bad. I believe there are tons of people out there who have a bizarre desire to be seen drinking craft beer, even though they can't tell PBR from peach Nehi. Give your brewery a clever name, pay for eye-catching labels, hype your bad beer as though there were something special about it, and hipsters will buy it. Craft beer entrepreneurs know these things, and some are putting time-tested marketing methods to work.

Most people can't tell good beer from bad. This will always be true. Most people will buy anything the masses or a person they admire tells them is good. A lot of people can't be taught to recognize and like good beer, but anyone can follow a herd.

If people will drink a fake craft beer made cheaply, why bother improving it? It's already doing what it's supposed to do: earning money. People bought Killian's Red, which was like Coors with dye in it. It gets good reviews on Beer Advocate, which tells you something about Beer Advocate.

The principle applies to everything. I saw a bunch of videos about pizzerias in New Haven, Connecticut. Youtubers who claimed to be pizza experts raved and said it was unbelievably good. People, including at least one celebrity, brag about being given a special phone number for placing orders quickly, like it's an honor to be allowed to give someone money. As a person who makes pizza frequently, I was curious because I thought the pizza had to be really great in order to impress so many people.

I told my best friend about it, and he said he had eaten at these hyped pizzerias more than once when passing through for business. He knows pizza. He taught me how to make pizza. He said they were was "okay." Not especially good. If they had been anything special, he would have been able to tell. He says my pizza is better.

Then there's the Peter Luger steakhouse in Brooklyn. An unbelievable dump with terrible service and steaks just like the ones every other steakhouse serves, except Peter Luger serves them on worn-out tables you literally couldn't give to Goodwill and surrounds them with other food that is of institutional quality. People get furious when you criticize this place, because the herd instinct dominates their brains. It got some inexplicable stellar reviews decades ago, and the reputation has carried it since. It's hard to imagine anything more they could do to drive people away, but they flock to it.

Someone here will probably get mad at me for criticizing it, but I know what I experienced. When I was there, it was freezing outside, and every time someone came in, a blast of cold air went through the place. Customers were wearing overcoats. Not only were there no tablecloths; there was no finish on the tables or the floor. The bread came from a bag. I ordered a Coke, and they brought me a hot 6-1/2 ounce bottle and a small glass with a few cubes of ice that were melting fast. The steak was great, except that they cut it up for me without being asked, like I was a six-year-old.

A steak alone can't justify a restaurant's existence. Anyone who can't make a great steak has no business owning a stove. It's as hard as making toast. People still insist there is something magical about Peter Luger's anointed steers.

Lawry's is also pretty bad, but it has mythical status anyway. My wife and I went to Lawry's and Ruth's in Singapore. Lawry's gave us thin, cool slices of tough, underseasoned prime rib, which is amazing, given the name of the restaurant and the fact that Lawry's sells seasoning. They served it with canned peas and mashed potatoes that tasted like they came from a box. The creme brulee was a combination of lumps and egg soup. Ruth's, on the other hand, was great. Not as good as food cooked at home, but very nice.

It's not the steak that makes you rich. It's the sizzle.
 
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Sally’s or Pepe’s?

Sally’s, in particular, is a hole-in-the-wall place that doesn’t advertise.

And Budweiser is good if you catch it young.
 
I encountered Celis White in about 1994. Then the brewery shut down. Then Hoegaarden came along, supposedly the same thing, since Pierre Celis was involved. It was nice, but today I drank a wheat beer I made myself, and it has crystal malt in it to take the edge off the dryness, and I used Amarillo to kill the blandness. I love it. I can't get anything like that at the store.

This is the great thing about homebrewing. Something you don't like about a factory beer? Fix it. Factory go out of business? Make their beer at home.
 
I encountered Celis White in about 1994. Then the brewery shut down. Then Hoegaarden came along, supposedly the same thing, since Pierre Celis was involved. It was nice, but today I drank a wheat beer I made myself, and it has crystal malt in it to take the edge off the dryness, and I used Amarillo to kill the blandness. I love it. I can't get anything like that at the store.

Sounds like an American Wheat Beer, unless you used a Belgian Wit strain. Even then, it sounds kind of like an American Wheat Beer. :) And if you happened to use an English strain, it sounds like a Gumballhead clone.
 
For me, it's enough (when inspired by a commercial brew) to make a good beer that strongly reminds me of the original. I'm not gonna claim my Chimay Red clone effort exceeded the original, but I was pleased as punch to make something similar and very enjoyable.

Though I'm often disappointed in beers I buy at the store or at a taproom, some also exceed my abilities, offering further inspiration.
 
Sounds like an American Wheat Beer, unless you used a Belgian Wit strain. Even then, it sounds kind of like an American Wheat Beer. :) And if you happened to use an English strain, it sounds like a Gumballhead clone.

I used about 75% wheat and WLP300. I don't think about styles. I just write a recipe, and if it fits a style, it's a coincidence.
 
I used about 75% wheat and WLP300. I don't think about styles. I just write a recipe, and if it fits a style, it's a coincidence.

I see. From your first post, I assumed you were trying to make something at least similar to Celis White and/or Hoegaarden. And just in case you were trying to do that, and at the risk of telling you something you already know, WLP300 is german hefeweizen yeast. It's really not very similar to the Wit strains.
 
I would say it's what I wish Hoegaarden was. If I were to drink a Hoegaarden right now, I'd think, "Man I wish there was more of this and less of that." Then if I followed up with my own beer, I'd think, "That's more like it."

It has been too long ago to remember, but I think I chose WLP300 for the side flavors.
 
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