grade yourself and be honest

[Smellyglove]

I started with AG maybe a year ago, And I'd say a D when it comes to turning out beers. A D because they are "ok", they are fully on par with or better other local microbreweries' "standard ales", like Pale Ales and IPA's and such.
But still a whole lot of styles to learn from, I don't like to brew "to style", since I can do whatever I want, and theres still som unexplored fields for me, where I lack the skills about for instance water chemistry, which would totally park my bohemian pilsener comparing to the real deal.

I experiment a lot, I don't only brew because I'm trying to make a great beer. It's fun, even if the outcome is sub-par. Since I'm only one year in (and some months) I want to learn as much as possible, and "after" that I guess I'll put that knownledge into making some really good beers. You can't learn it all, if you think that you've lost. But after about a year more of experimenting and an occasional not-experimental beer, I guess I'd be able to turn out good beers.


I'd give myself a B, or close to an A when it comes to sharing stuff, giving away stuff I don't need, or just helping people out if they need something done, like taking some holes in a kettle or such.

 

[brettwasbtd]

C to A range most of the time. C being average. Once I got temp control focused on water, yeast health and oxygenation I don't produce undrinkable beer anymore. What separates an average beer to a good or great beer for me is more recipe and balance based. I recently made a Belgian pale ale and at first I wasn't blown away by it, but then I realized I kept pulling points from the keg! It was so drinkable and perfectly balanced. A lot of my early diy recipes weren't flawed but way out of balance. I am very picky when it comes to commercial beer but that's more so cause I am a cheap ass.

Also being a homebrewer and knowing what a fresh IPA tastes like I am always leary to order hoppy beers out unless I know they are fresh

 

[Xpertskir]

Against the average commercial I'm definitely a solid A(there is SOOOO much bad beer out there). Against the great commercial breweries I'm more like a B+ or A-.

LOL at people judging themselves as brewers based on what happens on brew day.

If you can put repeatably good beer in my glass I do not give a **** what you do on brew day or how much grain you need to use.

 

[bluemoose]

1-10? I'm an 11!

 

[Braufessor]

I guess it depends on styles to some extent....... and I agree with the issue of consistency. I have definitely brewed some A's....... But, I am no different than anyone else in that I have had some D's and F's too. To me, consistency is the holy grail of an "A" brewer - brewing great beer, every time - and "knowing" what your beer is going to turn out like.

If I look at the styles of beer I brew regularly:

English beers - Ordinary Bitters and Milds (scottish 70 too) ..... I would have to say this is my most consistent categories and I think I regularly can brew B's and A's.

Light German Lagers - Mainly B's. Some A's once in a while, Some not so great ones from time to time too though.

Browns, Porters, Stouts - C+/B-/B. Always seem to be good, very rarely anything "great" though. Very rare that they are bad either, however.

APA, IPA, Ambers - I have only been really focusing more attention on these over the last couple years, and, I feel like I am all over the place. I have had some great ones..... but I have had some bad ones, and everything in between. I do feel like I have learned a lot this past year though, and am on the verge of getting more consistent with these beers. Individual beers have been B's and A's, but overall - my lack of consistency I would have to say C.

Belgians, specialty, unusual, unique, fruit, sour....... D/F - These are consistently my worst beers. I am just as likely to dump a keg of one of these as I am to drink one.

My goal is to get my lagers and hoppy american ales as consistently good as my english beers - all of those tend to be the beer I enjoy drinking the most, so I hope to get them nailed down over the next year or so.

 

[chjohnson622]

Not going with a letter grade here. I'm going 80/20 80% of the time beer turns out good 20% not so good.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

I refuse to sit back and do nothing while a broken society grades me, why would I grade myself? some I like, some I like less.

 

[boatcapt]

Usually C- but becoming more and more consistent getting to the C+ level.

 

[Conestoga]

Does not play well with others.

 

[drainbamage]

I'd say a C+ or a 6/10. I've made a few batches where I've thought, "holy s**t, I could totally sell this!" and I've made some stinkers as well. Part of my problem is I rarely re-brew the same recipe, so I never really take the time to tweak it to smooth out any of the rough edges and refine it into something awesome.

I also feel like my attempts at malt-forward beers have been a little lackluster for the most part. If I could improve that area, I think it would help a lot.

 

[WileECoyote]

Hello,

I would have to say that my wife and I like our home brews quite a bit better than store bought micro brews, I think this is for several reasons, first of all we like lower hop beers and those are not very easy to find, we also like the smoothness of a beer that is on tap compared to a bottled beer, and I really like well aged malt forward beers with lots of flavors and very low hop flavor and bitterness.

With what our tastes are in beers its really hard to find store bought micro brews made to fit our taste, fortunately from the information on this site and the people here answering questions, I have learned to make up recipes and brew lots of beers that we like much better than store bought beers, I also don't really brew to style, I tend to brew to make a beer taste the way I want it to taste.

I have no idea how any of them would do in a competition, then again I am brewing to suit my wives and my taste and have been able to accomplished that very well, as of now we have 9 house beer recipes that we just repeat and every 4th or 5th batch we try something new, so I guess I would rate most of my beers at a B+ and about 1/2 of them at an A, I am not including the new recipes in this rating.

Cheers

 

[kingmatt]

I was just pondering this the other day as I sipped on my rye IPA and thought, "wow, I haven't had a commercial beer I liked this much in a loonnggg time".

 

[Falcon3]

Difficult question....

I (and most brewers and breweries) do a lot of experimentation. When I'm making brews, I formulate recipes and take lots of times brewing them and tweaking them to make one beer that I want to reproduce. Even production breweries do this on their pilot batches. I'm sure that if you took Stone or Russian River or Lagunitas and drank every one of their pilot batches, their grade would be lower, but when you drink their production stuff, it obviously gets an "A"

My "production" beers are probably a B+, my overall grade including pilot batches is probably a C+ or B-

 

[JohnSand]

I think some of you are being modest, or judging yourself harshly. If you are winning competitions, you probably get an A.
I would give myself a B. I actually do grade my beers. Early on were lots of D and some F. Now mostly B, with some A. This is as a homebrewer, not compared to professional craft brew. My only competition scores were 29 and 37, the top of "good" and "very good". Those were last year's beers, I'm doing better now. My homebrew club approves, one member told me he has seen me progress to professional quality. That's great, I still want to improve. I'd like to be a straight A brewer.

 

[kaconga]

I think some of you are being modest, or judging yourself harshly. If you are winning competitions, you probably get an A.
I would give myself a B. I actually do grade my beers. Early on were lots of D and some F. Now mostly B, with some A. This is as a homebrewer, not compared to professional craft brew. My only competition scores were 29 and 37, the top of "good" and "very good". Those were last year's beers, I'm doing better now. My homebrew club approves, one member told me he has seen me progress to professional quality. That's great, I still want to improve. I'd like to be a straight A brewer.

I judged mine based on craft beers. For instance, I would give Widmer hefe a C-C+ and so if my beer was on par with that then I would rate it the same. Most people who try my beers would rate them B+ to A- but they aren't as adept at picking out flaws. My biggest concern is having UBBs (ugly baby beers) where only I love them. So I constantly look for good feedback, always asking people "what DON'T you like about it?" I think people are just being honest when they say C/B because they have tasted grade A beers before.

 

[Devin]

Hard question to answer. I have had some beers that I made that were simply phenomenal. In fact, my favorite beer that I have ever had was one that I made. Bad part is I haven't been able to recreate it. I keep excellent notes and tried to do all of the things the same, but my next two attempts weren't even close to the original. I have been fighting a possible water issue. But lately, it seems that I am only getting about a 50% success rate on whether I like the beer or not. It seems that it is either really good, or it pretty much sucks. So, I will give myself a D-.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

I know of a guy that brews the most amazingly perfect beer than anyone else in the whole world. and he should know since he's tried every beer ever brewed throughout the whole history of all time, including the future. but he won't share his recipe, just his table top. he get's an A++.

 

[poptarts]

I found a super secret spiced ale that is defiantly an A+ every time.

 

[hunter_le five]

I know of a guy that brews the most amazingly perfect beer than anyone else in the whole world. and he should know since he's tried every beer ever brewed throughout the whole history of all time, including the future. but he won't share his recipe, just his table top. he get's an A++.

In his defense, those were some pretty sweet tiles in his tabletop. :rockin:

 

[Temptd2]

Well, that's a pretty subjective question - the beers we brew that are in the style we prefer, I'd say we're doing pretty consistent B work at this point. Two clones we've made for other people as well as ourselves, have gotten "better than the original" from a number of people, including our LHBS guy!

We are very consistent in our mashing and brewing now and making repeatable beers, when we don't decide to try something a little different - add some wheat for head retention, late hop, etc. LOVE our own brown ale, which started out as a mistake because the LHBS guy filled the grain bill incorrectly - but we liked the results so much that we're making it again mistake included!

We make an awesome porter too.

And then on the other side of the grading scales - we poured out a few batches early on, and had a few that while certainly drinkable and "good" lack some of the flavor we were hoping for. So it's a movable target for sure!

 

[JohnSand]

I judged mine based on craft beers. For instance, I would give Widmer hefe a C-C+ and so if my beer was on par with that then I would rate it the same. Most people who try my beers would rate them B+ to A- but they aren't as adept at picking out flaws. My biggest concern is having UBBs (ugly baby beers) where only I love them. So I constantly look for good feedback, always asking people "what DON'T you like about it?" I think people are just being honest when they say C/B because they have tasted grade A beers before.

I hear you. And somewhat agree. For instance, my last couple of pale ales honestly rival some craft brews. But to give myself an A, they should rival the best craft brews. I'm working on it. I think that to improve, we all need to identify and correct any flaws in our brews, even if very small.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

Well, that's a pretty subjective question - the beers we brew that are in the style we prefer, I'd say we're doing pretty consistent B work at this point. Two clones we've made for other people as well as ourselves, have gotten "better than the original" from a number of people, including our LHBS guy!

We are very consistent in our mashing and brewing now and making repeatable beers, when we don't decide to try something a little different - add some wheat for head retention, late hop, etc. LOVE our own brown ale, which started out as a mistake because the LHBS guy filled the grain bill incorrectly - but we liked the results so much that we're making it again mistake included!

We make an awesome porter too.

And then on the other side of the grading scales - we poured out a few batches early on, and had a few that while certainly drinkable and "good" lack some of the flavor we were hoping for. So it's a movable target for sure!

I don't believe you. I think you need to post a video of your table top while drinking beers and rambling on about your awesomeness.