Hooked On Your Own Brew(s)?

[Salty-Dawg]

I am just getting started in home brewing. So, I don't have a pipeline yet. However, I just popped the first top on my first batch (Canadian Blonde) on New Years Eve and it was pretty good. I have a Belgian Wheat bottled and waiting for it to be ready. I also have a Big Ass Texas Brown Ale in my secondary right now.

As far as commercial beers go... I have been buying mostly craft beers (research). Trying to find what I like so I can find similar recipes to brew. I probably buy 4 bombers a week right now. I do sometimes buy a Budweiser when at the bar with friends and it kind of resets my palate so to speak. ( it will definitely make you notice the quality of a good craft or HB)

I would say I probably am at 80-90% craft right now but I am sure that will change once the pipeline of HB is well established. I am trying not to drink up my HB in order to get a stock built up.

Cheers

 

[muels]

I rarely buy commercial. If I'm in the mood for something I don't have on tap I will buy a sixer. Other than that it's just for R&D purposes. I really don't have much room for it anyway!


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[2ellas]

I'm a 50/50 mix as well. Being in NH, I am lucky to be within a couple of hours of lots of very good breweries (Portsmouth Brewery, Smuttynose, Maine Beer Company, Funky Bow, Hill Farmstead, Alchemist, From the Barrel, etc) so I like to get their stuff simply because they all make fantastic beer.
However, I love to drink my own beers and also share them. I get more excited having a buddy over and watching their faces change once they smell and taste something that I have made myself. I have a couple of big time beer snob friends that couldn't believe that I put together some of the recipes that I have.

don't forget stoneface, Trillium and the good folks at Candia Brewing/nepenthe ales!

 

[HB_in_Subic]

I prefer my brew 95% of the time and 5% local when socializing at the watering hole. I have no craft beer pubs locally and because I like everything but the locally mass produced beer I primarily drink at home.

I have to experiment with different styles on my own to determine if it works for me.

I am at the point now, that I can't even stand the imported beers (Heineken, Grolsch, Leffe, etc.). Besides they cost twice as much as what it costs me to brew my own.

 

[Melana]

I brew the bulk (90% or so) of the beer consumed in my house. It's getting a bit too cold to brew much outside now and it looks like DH will be drinking more commercial beer soon.
He has told me that he prefers my beer to most commercial offerings.

 

[poptarts]

put on a coat for a few hrs and suck it up

 

[Brettomomyces]

When I had a two tap setup with a kind of inconsisten pipeline I was buying a lot of commercial beer, but we also had a few more drinkers in the house. Now, 4 taps, a few more kegs...I can't justify spending the $$ at the liquor store, haha.

 

[tdbc2011]

I have so much homebrew that drinking commercial beer is impractical, especially considering the space I have taken up in my fridge/freezer with hops and yeast cultures in mason jars. Everyone once and a while I buy a variety pack at Costco, but it lasts me a pretty long while. Right now I have an English Mild, American Brown, American Pale, Oktoberfest, Dunkel, Saison, Double IPA, and Oatmeal Stout on tap (several ready to be exhausted). A couple carboys of American Amber that are being kegged tomorrow. I guess I would say I am hooked on homebrewing, and becoming addicted to homebrew (at least 2-3 beers a night).

However! I still buy special brews (sours, other age-ables) and store them throughout the house. Pop one of them in the fridge every week.

Sounds like my situation. I have a Tripel, Black IPA, Stout on Nitro, American Pale Ale, English Pale Ale, IPA II, and IPA all on tap. There is a Belgian Stout and a Sasion waiting to tap. If that is not enough, I hope to brew a Hefeweizen and a Dunkelweizen this weekend and next. I really like to brew!

But when I travel, I like to try new beer and enjoy the ones I really like. I usually do not take home brew away from home.

 

[Murphy2012]

don't forget stoneface, Trillium and the good folks at Candia Brewing/nepenthe ales!

I just got tired of typing! It's great that the Northeast is blowing up the way it is right now, and NH has taken leaps over the last couple of years. Have you made it to FTB yet? Try their DDH Elle and/or Lilly and also their Bourbon Aged Porter, top notch stuff!

-Murph

 

[SnakeRidge]

I brew well over 95% of what my wife and I drink. Aside from the every once in a while bottle shop stop, we only drink commercial when we go out. She loves my IPA's and it warms the cockels of my heart when she takes a sip of a commercial beer and says, "it's good, but yours is better."

 

[Clonefan94]

I prefer to drink my beer over most other stuff. My wife and I like to entertain though, so if I know I have a party coming up, I usually will pick up some commercial beer to drink at home, to make sure I have a healthy supply for the party. I assume I make pretty decent beer as it usually gets hit pretty hard during our parties, but sometimes that gets tough. I don't dislike commercial beer, but I do prefer tap beer over bottles or cans. I think that has as much to do with it as the actual taste. Plus, when I brew, I'm usually building recipes to my specific tastes.