Judging your own beer

[huckdavidson]

What are some best practices when evaluating your own beer?

In general, I don't detect defects in my beer. That makes me sound like a pompous ass but it's true.

If I do detect a defect or I'm not a fan of the beer it goes down the drain (happens mostly with new recipe/ingredient tries).

Mostly an adjunct lager brewer so I do get a lot of practice on the style.

I think my processes and knowledge are nailed down to the point where it's difficult to screw it up.

Brewing beer isn't all that complicated, it seems.

Aside from entering a competition or asking the neighbors to try it, how can one objectively evaluate their own beer?

 

[hotbeer]

If you like your beer, then it doesn't matter what others think. If you are brewing for others, then they are your judges. If you don't make the stuff they like, then it matters not how much you like your own beer.

Takes quite a bit more skill, IMO, to be able to consistently make a beer that others agree is a good beer.

So I just brew for myself!

 

[Beekeeper]

I am pretty lucky since my wife likes my beer over those that we have tried at the local breweries. Win-win.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

One thing you might want to try is get a copy of the BJCP guidelines. This is what beer judges use to evaluate beer in competition. You should be able to find them on the internet plus there's an app for your phone or PC.

I've gone through the training to become a beer judge and keep a printed copy of the style guidelines at my bar. I also have it on my cell. I like the printed copy as I can have it open to the beer style I'm sampling. I also have some blank judging forms I can take notes on.

This might help you "judge" your own beer, but remember your impressions might be different than what others think. In the end, you're brewing beer for you.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

I judge my own beer all the time. Turns out I am an infallible brewer with perfect beers. I have given myself several blue ribbons and gold medals.

Just recently at a competition I held at my kegerator, all three of the beers I had on tap all tied for first place. I know... I couldn't believe it either.

 

[AlexKay]

Entering competitions and bringing beer to your local homebrew club are the obvious and straightforward ways.

Judging competitions has given me a ton of insight into what’s right and wrong about my own beer. If you’re willing to put yourself forward a bit and talk to the judges, volunteering as a steward can also give you exposure to a range of beers while also getting sort-of-maybe-expert assessments of them.

Running side-by-side brews (and side-by-side tasting) with small changes can help you pin down the ingredients and process that produce beer that suits you best. Dry or liquid yeast? Run a test. Hallertau or Crystal? Test. Rice or corn? You get the idea…

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Okay, here’s a little story about getting feed back. I made two different experimental meads. Both were enjoyed by myself and others. One of them was given rave reviews by many. That one scored poorly in competition. Could the judges been cranky and fatigued? Sure, but the other mead a grapefruit rosemary mead was strongly disliked by one particular judge, however scored reasonably well because it wasn’t flawed. Then there’s ”ugly baby” syndrome that makes most self-evaluation suspect.
As said before, if you are happy with it and those you share it with are enjoying it, all is good enough. If you want educated opinions enter a competition or bring it to a homebrew club meeting.

 

[seatazzz]

I don't 'judge' my beers via the BJCP guidelines unless I'm sending it to competition, where I'm trying to nail a particular style. Most of what I brew is for home consumption, with some given out to friends, and on rare occasions brewed specifically for someone who asks me to brew a batch for them (they pay for ingredients and bottles, I supply the labor). If a beer tastes good, yay. If I don't like it, and my husband doesn't like it, down the drain it goes. Then I might go to the guidelines to see where I went wrong.

 

[dmtaylor]

My favorite thing is when my homebrew club asks us all to brew the same recipe and then we taste them all blind. As long as you don't totally screw up, all the beers should taste reasonably similar. Judge and score each one and discuss them before finding out whose is whose. Many people will think they know which one is theirs, including myself, but we'll be wrong. This way I've been able to judge my own beer and give myself true feedback without knowing that it was my own beer. I've learned some great stuff this way about off-flavors and bias. And then of course try to get helpful hints from others who might have had slightly different process or water, and see if you can find ways to improve to match theirs in future.

 

[camonick]

I judge my own beer all the time. Turns out I am an infallible brewer with perfect beers. I have given myself several blue ribbons and gold medals.

Just recently at a competition I held at my kegerator, all three of the beers I had on tap all tied for first place. I know... I couldn't believe it either.

 

[BrewZer]

If I do detect a defect or I'm not a fan of the beer it goes down the drain (happens mostly with new recipe/ingredient tries).

Instead of polluting your local water supply with your rejects, consider saving and using those "bad" batches in cooking. For example, steam hot dogs in beer, braise a pork butt in beer, add a pint to your next batch of chili, or put a bottle in the big pot of beans...

In my experience, the off flavors cook out and you're left with a wonderful transformation.

 

[lumpher]

I like my beers, so that works for me. If others don't, let them eat cake, or drink orange juice, or Coors... whatever...It's almost impossible to judge your own objectively. Everyone's going to taste different flavors. That's the reason for multiple judges. What is important to me is the flavors I taste. There are some commercial beers that rank in the 90s out of 100 on the international scale I can't stand. Does that bother me? Nope. I'll just drink my IPA and enjoy the sunset from the back deck.

 

[Noob_Brewer]

Based on your own question "how can I objectively evaluate my own beer" I like the approach described by @OakIslandBrewery . Download 2021 BJCP beer styles first and then download and print off a scoresheet used at BJCP comps. even if you don't want to put a numerical score to it, this process will force you to take a systematic approach to evaluating your beers ie judging your beer based on Appearance, Aroma, Flavor, Mouthfeel, and overall impression. Looking at how each category is worth points-wise is important too I think because each of these categories aren't weighted the same. If you have a glorious looking beer great! But appearance is only worth 3 points out of 50 lol. The scoresheets also allow you to look for and note any off flavors. After you do this on your own beer on your own while reading the 2021 guidelines for the style, I would also encourage you to have another person do the same. Hopefully, if you are in a club, you will know someone who has a great palate and is willing to do this for you. The second opinion is important simply because palates are subjective and some people have an easier time detecting things you might not be able to yourself. Then compare yours to that persons and decide for yourself what you want to do for the next iteration of the same beer. I look at BJCP as "guidelines" so here is where you can take some latitude yourself to decide the next step. IF you are going to enter comps, I strongly suggest that you enter the beer into 3 comps and in my experience you will more easily see some consistencies between the three and also notice a comment or two that you can disregard possibly. But again, even though you are brewing for yourself, I do think you using the BJCP scoresheet forces you to evaluate your beers systematically across several areas. Whether or not you want to be honest with yourself is completely up to you lol. Also remember that when using the BJCP guidelines, recognize that even if you score your beer low, that may simply be because your beer was "out of style" with that particular style and it may still be a spectacular beer! Good luck and hope this helps.

 

[huckdavidson]

Thanks for addressing the question @OakIslandBrewery and @Noob_Brewer. Filling out a BJCP score sheet seems reasonable. My first thought was that there may be some sort of test kit one can buy to test for things like diacetyl, acetaldehyde, various esters, etc... as opposed to one's own senses.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Thanks for addressing the question @OakIslandBrewery and @Noob_Brewer. Filling out a BJCP score sheet seems reasonable. My first thought was that there may be some sort of test kit one can buy to test for things like diacetyl, acetaldehyde, various esters, etc... as opposed to one's own senses.

There might some sort of test kits out there but the cost might be high. I think your own evaluation should be enough. As others suggested share your beers with others and get their thoughts. At the same time have the BJCP guidelines handy and compare their perceptions. Remember, the guidelines are just that, a guide, not gospel.

As I mentioned before, if you enjoy your beers, that's all that really matters.

 

[Noob_Brewer]

Thanks for addressing the question @OakIslandBrewery and @Noob_Brewer. Filling out a BJCP score sheet seems reasonable. My first thought was that there may be some sort of test kit one can buy to test for things like diacetyl, acetaldehyde, various esters, etc... as opposed to one's own senses.

There are these types of kits. I believe Yakima valley hops sells one for like $40? It includes like ~12 vials of off flavors. I’ve never done it mysef but I’m sure other manufacturers are also doing this as well

 

[jdauria]

Thanks for addressing the question @OakIslandBrewery and @Noob_Brewer. Filling out a BJCP score sheet seems reasonable. My first thought was that there may be some sort of test kit one can buy to test for things like diacetyl, acetaldehyde, various esters, etc... as opposed to one's own senses.

There are kits out there, though while not for testing your own beers, allow you to learn the off-flavors. Kits come with vials of liquid to add to a base beer, my club used Coors light, you dose samples of beer and then can really pick up what those off flavors taste like.

 

[huckdavidson]

Ok, after a little searching based on @OakIslandBrewery, @Noob_Brewer and @jdauria posts it seems the Siebel Institute offers off flavor kits and Yakima offers hop aroma kits.

https://shop.siebelinstitute.com/advanced-off-flavor-kit
https://yakimavalleyhops.com/products/barth-haas-hop-aroma-standards-kit
I can see where that would help me evaluate my own beers without input from others.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Aside from entering a competition or asking the neighbors to try it, how can one objectively evaluate their own beer?

One of my favorite activities is to taste my beer blind in a lineup vs similar commercial beers. If you can get somebody else to pour and mix them up, great. Some might advocate for opaque glasses, but I like drinking a beer out of a clear glass, and appearance is an aspect to evaluate. Even if you are not trying to clone a commercial example, you might find that you enjoy the sweetness of a specific commercial example, or maybe you like the earthy hop flavors in your brew. Sometimes I am surprised how hard it is to pick out my homebrew.

I have been entering beers in competitions lately. There is some value, but there are also negatives. Entering the same beer into 3 or 4 competitions is a good way to get more accurate feedback, but that means you have $30 to $40 in entry fees, and maybe $50 in shipping and supplies. Competitions also score beers toward a narrow style definition, often with bigger beers that stand out getting higher scores. That 4.8% Willamette Pale Ale you love just might never score well in a competition. I brew some beers that I love but I know would not fit into a competition.

I tell myself that I should fill out scoresheets for my beers more often.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Interesting on those sensory kits, didn't realize one could had for 40 buck, $187 is a little steep though.

When I went through the judge training they had spiked beers so we could try to detect off flavors.

Glad you got some help and ideas to understand/learn more about your brewing hobby!

 

[jdauria]

Ok, after a little searching based on @OakIslandBrewery, @Noob_Brewer and @jdauria posts it seems the Siebel Institute offers off flavor kits and Yakima offers hop aroma kits.

https://shop.siebelinstitute.com/advanced-off-flavor-kit
https://yakimavalleyhops.com/products/barth-haas-hop-aroma-standards-kit
I can see where that would help me evaluate my own beers without input from others.

If you know anyone in your club, if in one, that is a BJCP judge, the Siebel kits can be ordered through the BJCP for a lot cheaper that say More Beer sells the Siebel kits for. Only issue is they will only ship to business addresses. My club has a National ranked judge who is a pro brewer, so he ordered for us and had it sent to the brewery Every meeting we did two off-flavors using Coors Light as the bland base beer to dose. We would then dump our samples in a dump bucket when done. And every time, this one guy in the club just had to chug the dump bucket. Siebel kits via BJCP

 

[huckdavidson]

If you know anyone in your club, if in one

Not many clubs at sea.

And every time, this one guy in the club just had to chug the dump bucket. Siebel kits via BJCP

What was his name, Chuggy?

 

[tracer bullet]

One of my favorite activities is to taste my beer blind in a lineup vs similar commercial beers.

You beat me to saying this. I use my favorite commercial beers as launching points, and then tweak them further some direction if I have a preference. I don't feel at all the need to clone, I know I'll make variations, but if I can hit close to those to start with then I know I'm on the right track. Afterwards I tweak for "but with more chocolate flavor", or "but with more fruitiness", and things like that to really get excited about brewing again.

 

[jdauria]

Not many clubs at sea.



What was his name, Chuggy?

Ah, did not see your location! Close, we called him Cowboy, as in "I want to party with you Cowboy" line from the movie Stripes!

 

[z-bob]

I use really good commercial beers as inspiration and try to brew something similar. Or sometimes I read an article about an interesting indigenous beer and see if I can brew one that resembles it. I also have a few regular beers in my rotation that were just interpretations of BJCP guidelines and I liked how they turned out. But whether the beer hits the target or not, my standard is "would I pay $1 for a bottle of this?" (I should up that to $1.50 since beer has gotten more expensive lately) If the beer doesn't hit the mark I try to learn from that, but it can still be a success if it tastes good.

 

[bike2brew]

I judge my own beer all the time. Turns out I am an infallible brewer with perfect beers. I have given myself several blue ribbons and gold medals.

Just recently at a competition I held at my kegerator, all three of the beers I had on tap all tied for first place. I know... I couldn't believe it either.

Glad to hear that I am not the only one in the league. However once I a while my beer might miss the mark and receives an honorable mention

 

[Immocles]

I use really good commercial beers as inspiration and try to brew something similar. Or sometimes I read an article about an interesting indigenous beer and see if I can brew one that resembles it. I also have a few regular beers in my rotation that were just interpretations of BJCP guidelines and I liked how they turned out. But whether the beer hits the target or not, my standard is "would I pay $1 for a bottle of this?" (I should up that to $1.50 since beer has gotten more expensive lately) If the beer doesn't hit the mark I try to learn from that, but it can still be a success if it tastes good.

Being the only beer drinker in the house, I generally have to ask myself "How would I feel about this beer if I had spend money on it instead of brewed at home?"

Most times, Im okay with the thought of buying it.
A few times, Ive been furious if I would have paid for it.
A few other times, I definitely got the better of the deal.
All the times have produced beer, though. Which is win A+.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Glad to hear that I am not the only one in the league. However once I a while my beer might miss the and receives an honorable mention

Just mis-categorized is all. Simply introduce a new variable style guideline and include an "etcetera" category. If your honorable mention doesn't favor well in the lager (or other) category, it automatically gets moved to etcetera and brings home that sweet, sweet blue.