Taste difference: home brew vs commercial

[StunnedMonkey]

I have only been homebrewing for a year, and my home brew is better than standard commercial beers. It's like eating a fresh hot homemade loaf of bread out of your oven vs eating a dried out loaf of commercial bread that was sitting on the shelf for 3 days.

I dunno. I've bellied up to the bar at quite a few fine brewpubs and ordered any number of fantastic brews. I can't recall many that put me in the mind of a "dried out loaf of commercial bread that was sitting on the shelf for 3 days." Sure my homebrew might beat such a beer. But that's not really comparing it to the best commercial examples, now is it? I mean, can I make a beer that might be better than the bland factory-type stuff at Granite City? Yeah, probably. Can I routinely put out better beer than the stuff on tap at a place like Russian River? I really don't think so.

If you are making good beer, you will know it. If you are questioning your beer quality, you are doing something wrong.

Now that's an understatement.

 

[Denny]

I have only been homebrewing for a year, and my home brew is better than standard commercial beers. It's like eating a fresh hot homemade loaf of bread out of your oven vs eating a dried out loaf of commercial bread that was sitting on the shelf for 3 days.

If you are making good beer, you will know it. If you are questioning your beer quality, you are doing something wrong.

Define "standard commercial beers" and what makes them that, please.

 

[-TH-]

[My, Every, Some, All] homebrew [is always, can be, is never] better than commercial [macro, craft] beer according to [my, my friend's, a blind panel's, a BJCP judge's] opinion.

There's a true statement in there somewhere.

 

[tomwirsing]

3 Points:
1. What do these commercial guys do to make a beer we can't equal or best? There's only so much that goes into a brew. They're not sprinkiling pixie dust in there as a secret ingredient. Malt, hops, yeast, and water. That's what they use and that's what we use. Mill, mash, sparge, boil, add hops, cool, add yeast, ferment, carbonate. That's what they do and that's what we do.
2. On definition of quality is consistency. In a production environment repeatability and consistency are measured and recorded. A Quality Control department would count receiving the right target numbers and then just assume that if these target numbers are hit, good product will result. How product "goodness" is defined is quite different.
3. 90% of this thread (including the earlier portions of this post) has been off topic. The OP wanted to know why his homebrew seems to consistently have a flavor distinguishable form commercial. He did not say which, if either, he preferred. He did not express interest in comparisons of top homebrew versus commercial or the relative goodness of homebrew. The is a certain taste he consistently recognizes in his brews that distinguishes it from commercial. What is it?

 

[jdc2]

If you are making good beer, you will know it. If you are questioning your beer quality, you are doing something wrong.

Prost to that!
Jim

 

[NCBeernut]

I have only been homebrewing for a year, and my home brew is better than standard commercial beers.

What is a "standard commercial beer"? Sure I could give you a 100 beers that lack the quality of my homebrew, but I could also give you 100 beers that are just as good or better...and I consider my homebrew to be damn good, as does everybody else who has tried it.

 

[wrestler63]

My Amarillo IPA is better than a Summit IPA or Centenial IPA..Tasted by others.....That being said, I can't seem to make a beer that compares to Stones Riunation IPA.
Cheers

 

[kaiser423]

3 Points:
3. 90% of this thread (including the earlier portions of this post) has been off topic. The OP wanted to know why his homebrew seems to consistently have a flavor distinguishable form commercial. He did not say which, if either, he preferred. He did not express interest in comparisons of top homebrew versus commercial or the relative goodness of homebrew. The is a certain taste he consistently recognizes in his brews that distinguishes it from commercial. What is it?

Let's get back to this. I would imagine it's either bias on his wife's part, of some small part of his process is imparting a bit of flavor; whether his water profile leads to a certain flavor, or a small infection, or he's using extract, or something similar. He could potentially be not rinsing enough of his sanitizer out, etc.

Before I went to filtered water, my water profile definitely left a "sameness" taste in some of my beers.

I'd say that we help him get to the bottom of this. Can his wife describe the flavor?



P.S. some of my beers sampled better than commercial, some of my beers less than, and the beers where my thermometer was off and I ended up with only partial conversion and serious sweetness were the one's that a small group of people wanted to pay me to continue making beers exactly like that.

 

[EoinMag]

It depends on the homebrewer and the commercial brewer. I'd hardly say people like John Maier and Greg Koch (to name only 2) don't give a crap.

Not saying all commercials are like that, but what I am saying is that a good homebrewer will be just as good as someone who does it for a living, we'd all like to homebrew commercially in a dreamworld, but realistically if it's your livelihood you are less likely to be doing it for the love of it.

 

[Denny]

Not saying all commercials are like that, but what I am saying is that a good homebrewer will be just as good as someone who does it for a living,

No, I'd say "could be as good", not "will be as good"

we'd all like to homebrew commercially in a dreamworld,

Not me, by a longshot

but realistically if it's your livelihood you are less likely to be doing it for the love of it.

Might be true for some, but not true for all.