in a rut

[Donner]

Anyone else feel like they go back and forth on the quality of their beer?

For a while i had centennial blonde, SWMBO Slayer and flyangler's Mild on tap and i felt good about each of them.

Now i've got a few different one on tap and i don't feel good about any of them. I can't decide if they are poorer quality or if i'm being overly critical of myself. They don't suck, but i don't know, they just haven't come together like i'd hoped.

I also find i'm less inclined to take my beers to parties and share with my friends since i don't feel as proud of these as i did with my other beers.

this ever happen to any of you all?

 

[Dougan]

Yes.

For me, I tend to get into a quality vs. quantity debacle. I'll get excited and brew three times in a week, and not tend to their fermentation at all, and get ****ty beer. Or, I'll brew once in a month, and treat it like my baby. Definitely go back and forth.

I actually have a witbier recipe that is based on me letting the fermentation warm up after a couple days of fermentation because I was lazy each time i brewed it, trying to perfect the recipe. Perfect amount of fruitiness.

I also do find myself being increasingly critical. My first few batches I loved, and they were truly awful. Now, my beers are becoming more and more spectacular, but I still don't even give them to friends without telling them that I'm "unloading my reject batches".

Also, I find my intentions changing. I went through a couple phases this past year where I wanted to experiment, which of course was hit-or-miss, and also a couple phases where I wanted to make the best beer possible with what I had at the time.

I'm more incline to bring beer around these days as I'm getting more and more requests, now that the word is out.

 

[Beernik]

The "lower quality" beers are the ones to take to parties... to get rid of.

I had the worst attempt at a ginger beer. I gave six packs away like they were candy on Halloween. My coworkers enjoyed them, told me how wonderful they were, and I didn't have to drink 5 gallons of something I considered pouring down the drain.

 

[Poindexter]

I find I am not only mroe and more critical of my own beers, but commercial stuff too. Right now I have two mediocre beers on tap, a pretty good one kegged on deck, but the only beer I will order in a (typical) bar or resturant is Guiness in bottles with the widgets.

There is one place in my town with properly carbed Guiness on tap and their lines aren't cleaned often enough.

Of the nine bottled batches I have aging right now I have high hopes for one, four that need recipe tweaks....


So yes, back and forth on quality. Some of my batches are much better than others. It does help me to brew regularly, I got rusty on hops sunstitutions when I took about a year off.

 

[Dougan]

I find I am not only mroe and more critical of my own beers, but commercial stuff too.

That's a good point too. Lately I've been reverting back to drinking BMC beers simply because I have such high standards in "real" beers.

 

[david_42]

The "lower quality" beers are the ones to take to parties... to get rid of.

Not if you only party with other homebrewers.

 

[jschaf]

I only get to brew about once a month now, although I'd like to brew a few more times a month, but this way I think about what I'm going to brew for so long that I research as much as I can and focus on precision in technique when it comes time. I'd rather have a little bit of some great beer on hand than a lot of so-so beer laying around. Even though I enjoy drinking massive amounts of the stuff.

 

[Grinder12000]

I brew about 3 times a month and not every brew is GREAT. I think on average about 25% are what I deem fantastic, the rest are just good and a few clunkers.

The question is are your GOOD brews coming out BLAH? or are the new recipes?

When I have a few average/clunkers in a row I go back to a recipe that was great and recreate it or maybe tweak it a little to get my brewing mojo back.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Did you know that "Donner" is German for "Thunder"???

Feel better now???

 

[Donner]

Ha ha, i did know that and i do feel better. Thanks.

I've really only been brewing for a year and haven't had too many chances to make batches again. In that year i've gone from extract only (1) to PM (4) to all-grain (4). I've made two beers a second time, BM's centennial blonde and O'Flan's Stout. I am not sure my keg got fully cleaned because the stout tasted fine out of primary, but had developed a sour flavor at the end.

I am coming to realize that even if i liked a beer the first time, the chances that i make the same brewing mistakes the second time around are small. Like with the stout. It was a fiasco brewing a PM stout that was also a partial boil. Even with good directions there is no way i can replicate all the things that went wrong. The biggest was that we left town for xmas after i brewed. Set the house to 60 thinking it'd be cold for the holiday and put a blanket around the bucket. Of course it wasn't a cold week in MS, sooooo the second time around i felt i should do it right and watched the ferment temps closely (also brewed it all-grain). SO who knows where the good differences and bad differences are coming from.

It's a learning process. I think the other thing that is making me a bit frustrated is that i haven't been able to successfully brew the one beer i really want. I really want an ESB and have tried two. The first was great, but i left the dry hops in the keg a bit too long and it went bad. The second just hasn't come together like i'd like.

I'll get there, it just isn't exciting me right now i guess.

 

[Beernik]

Not if you only party with other homebrewers.

True, but that's a "know your audience issue".

 

[Homercidal]

Well, I may be more critical of my beers now that I am learning more. I recently made a Pale Ale for competition and got "ok" results. The feedback was about what I expected and although it's def drinkable, it's not the beer I wanted it to be.

An IPA I made got similar responses and some of the same issues that I think could be corrected to make a great beer.

But the IPA won 3rd place at a different homebrew competition, so apparently it's not as bad as I imagined.

It's hard to get real good real fast when you only have time to brew once every month or two. Oh, and be sure to let your beer age a bit before deciding it's not that great. Time makes it better usually.