What is your homebrew to commercial brew consumption ratio?

[StunnedMonkey]

Just curious if most of you guys drink more commercial beer at home, or more of your own. Obviously I'm talking strictly about home consumption. Tough to drink homebrew at a restaurant or pub after all.

 

[Fingers]

I like to sample other varieties and I have a few that really make my flag blow in the wind. My homebrew is good, but I like the variety.

 

[elkdog]

I buy a couple of bottles or a sixer every couple of months, to either try something new or to satisfy a craving for something I wouldn't want to make 5 gallons of. The rest is brewed in my basement.

 

[Evan]

i'm about half and half, i've never brewed enough to keep up. i give 1/2 or 1/3 of my homebrew to friends. but now i'm brewing every few weeks and building a stock pile up that i hope will allow me to drink about 90% homebrew. but i dont think i'd ever stop buying commercial.

 

[Clayton]

what he said /\ /\ /\

 

[BrewBrain]

I'm in the half 'n half camp at the moment, but also building a stockpile that should push me closer to 75/25 or so in favor of homebrew. Kegging will allow me to keep more homebrew on hand.

That said, I like trying new commercial beers, so I'll always be looking for something I haven't had before. I also have some commercial favorites that I'll always buy. I can't imagine not picking up Sierra Nevada seasonals, Calico Amber, the odd Stone bomber, etc...

 

[FreakinA]

I had to be lame and vote for the last option. First batch of homebrew in T-8 days. Untill then, Im a college kid thats got a supernatural BeerPong shot, so the best I can do is chip in more then my friends and AT LEAST upgrade it to Miller Lite. People were not please last week when we played with all Heinis.

 

[A4J]

I buy a couple of 22oz bottles every week just for variety. There's also certain styles that I like every once in a while that I'd rather not brew 5 gallons of.

 

[Brewmando]

My brewing just can't keep up with my drinking. My mainstays of "commercial" beers though include SNPA, Boulevard PA, Goose Island IPA, Point Cascade pale, Bell's stuff, Pete's Wicked Ale, Red Hook Seasonals plus many, many more. I likes me some hops.

 

[StunnedMonkey]

I think the voting is coming out sort of how I expected, and that was my answer as well. I'm fairly new in my return to brewing, but I find myself drinking my own predominently, and supplementing with commercial brews. As others have mentioned, some styles are either difficult to brew well at home (lagers for me) and others just don't lend themselves to allocating full kegs of space for. And of course it's always fun to try new beers that you've not had before.

I'd say that I've been drinking 80% my own, and 20% commercial.

 

[david_42]

Sort of meaningless, as I drink most of what I drink away from home. Looking just at home, that can run from 100% my own to 90% commercial for weeks at a time. If I've got a case of Geist Bock, or another seasonal I really like, it gets drunk while it is relatively fresh and I might not drink any of my own until it's gone. On the other hand, the last batch of Schwartzbeir only lasted three weeks.

 

[Yooper]

I almost always drink homebrew (I very rarely go out and have a beer) but I have a couple of good commercials just in case I get a hankering for a nice barleywine, or an IPA when I don't have one on tap. I'd guess that the two adults in our house drink 95% homebrew, which is about 2-3 kegs a month.

 

[fat x nub]

I drink about half and half just to try different stuff

 

[Saccharomyces]

Ratio is getting to be more homebrews, now that I have figured out what styles I want to keep on tap as house brews. Lots of sampling whenever I decide I want to brew a style, my next style not brewed yet will be IPA so I have been going through about 20 different commercial IPAs for the last few months...

 

[BuffaloSabresBrewer]

Mostly HB close enough to 100% for me to vote all HB.

 

[Sager Brewing Co.]

There needs to be another option in the poll:

I drink mostly store bought, but only because I don't have enough time to brew more homebrew.

That would be my selection. I travel a lot right now so I am not home enough to keep homebrew in the fridge, some day though...

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I drink mostly commercial simply because I can't brew enough

 

[faber]

Sometimes I keep up with my dream brewing schedule. Sometimes I have to travel a lot for work and I get behind.

But there are *so many* interesting beers out there, and more and more lesser-known imported beers are appearing on the market shelves.....

How can I keep myself from "research"?

 

[FreakinA]

Poor college kid here, currently 100 percent crappy beer(not just MacBs, but the crappy versions) but next semester we hope to make it 85% homebrew 15%MicBs.

 

[SkinnyShamrock]

About half and half, the ratio was higher in the summer when I brewed a lot, but now that I'm in school I'm not brewing at all, so I'm trying to drink it slower to make it last!

 

[BigKahuna]

Commertial brew is mostly for research!....except for this weekend...The GABF had none of my homebrew (narrow minded bastards)...so it skewed my ratio!

 

[Fat Guy Brewing]

A beer store near me has a 'build your own 6-pack' where you can pick 6 different beers to make a 6-pack. After brewing something, I make my own 6-pack of the same style I brewed then do taste tests to see how I did and how I might change it next time. Right now I have a 6 pack of 6 different Octoberfests in the fridge for when the Oktoberfast is ready.

 

[aliu630]

1/2 and 1/2. I don't brew enough so I usually end up buying some commercial stuff to try out. Hopefully I have more free time to start brewing some more, especially since the weather is starting to turn out pretty nice over here

 

[McKBrew]

I don't know, I'm drunk and I guessed. I drink alot of homebrew when I have it, otherwise I go to the store.

 

[Bigsnake]

It's been mostly commercial stuff but I'm getting setup to mainly drink home brews. Have a Primary and two secondaries now. About to get a rotation started. Just put one in primary yesterday and have stuff ready to go when it clears primary for another batch to go right in.

 

[mmb]

I'm still buying commercial mostly to get styles and have a "control" beer when brewing different recipes or styles for the first time.

BierMuncher's OctoberFast Ale kicks all over Sam Addams' Oktoberfest, FWIW. Go Me!

 

[blk94f150]

At most 50/50, but just because production isn't up to where I want it to be. I just got 10 gallon capacity, so that should help quite a bit. I just need a couple more freezers and I think I'll be almost 100% homebrew.

I do still go out and buy commercial if I'm trying a new style or if I'm having a large party and supply is an issue.

Mike

 

[zoebisch01]

A while back I made it my personal brewing agenda to not buy commercial beer save only for testing a style or to have an occasional "something I don't want to have a lot of" beer. I have been doing well with that goal since the beginning of the year. I'd say in total I have probably spent around $40 in the past 3 months on 6'ers and singles. My goal is to do a huge run of high gravity and/or Belgian-esque stuff to have aging....my stock is a little low in that regard.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I drink mostly homebrew when I have it on hand, commercial brews when I don't.

 

[IrregularPulse]

I just had a little one 2 months ago so definitely mostly commercial right now. I have been drinking the remnants of my wheat, DeathBrewer's Cream Ale and a Brown I have bottled. They're about all gone now and all I have left is a Chocolate hazelnut Porter that I don't wanna start on till December at least. I have a mild in primary and a Scottish 60 that needs to hit the Mash Tun soon. They will be my first two into the Kegerator. After the the 60, I plan on ditching Kit's (primarily), buying in bulk, and doing 10G's at a time since I don't getta brew often. I already have a setup to allow for it minus another 6.5 G Carboy. Better Bottle here I come.

In regards to commercial, I have been stepping it up though. In the last 2 weekends I've treated myself to:
Rochefort 6,8,10
Orval
Delerium Nocturnum (sp?) and NOEL
Stone Epic 08 (x2)
CHIMAY Red, White and Blue
Victory's Saison
Some Rogue varieties
and a couple other I can't think of.

Gotta justify commercial beers by getting the good stuff