Homebrew expectations vs. commercial beer

[obscure]

I would say that most of the time I can brew a fairly good butter or mild, but I do not have consistency. Case in point the batch I recently kegged fermented down to 1.001 instead of the target of 1.005, it tastes not too bad, but wasn’t exactly what I was aiming for. It’s a recipe I have brewed multiple time’s, and most likely I messed up the mash temperature.

When I buy a can of Punk IPA in a supermarket or a pint of Tribute in a pub, I can confidently say it will taste pretty much exactly the same as the last one I bought a few weeks or months before. When I drink the first pint of a home brewed batch I cannot say with certainty that it will taste the same as the previous batch, it might be better it might be worse but it probably will not be the same. I brew because it’s a fun hobby and I can get some pretty decent beer out of it, but I am under no illusion that my beer is superior to a lot of commercial beer. Yes their are some pretty mediocre or down right terrible commercial beer but there is a lot of pretty great commercial beer out there.

 

[dad_of_jon]

My homebrew varies sometimes it lives up to my expectations sometimes not. Varying from that was exactly what I wanted and better than I can buy to that didn't work out - still drinkable but still need to buy in my favourite commercials. My recent neipa was not cloudy and more like a dipa-aipa - but although I like dipa's & aipa eg. mr. president, Cannonball & life and Death they still beat my attempts. However for wheat beers I prefer my own aalthought I do buy an edringer and weihenstephener for old times sake. triples - I can knock out a tidy triple but its never going to be as good as a triple karmeliet and I don't expect it to as most of my brews are extract rather than AG. So now my HB fills in the gaps. I prefer my dark abbey beers to a lot of belgian ones, but not st. bernadus12 or la trappe Quad. This is my preference of course it doesn't mean I brew better beer than 95% of belgian breweries it's just where my taste lies.

I will finish off by saying I've never tipped any of my brews but I did have to pour Leroy Stout down the drain - absolutely minging!

 

[samale]

Some very good points made on the last 4 posts. This would also be my experience. I can brew some very good beer but still get the odd curve ball. My latest was a standard IPA. Maris otter, Munich , caramunich. It ended up looking like a NEIPA. It looked brilliant but not what I had planned. Taste wise it was poor, I used galaxy & Vic secret. The hops didn't shine at all. Not sure what went wrong, maybe I stressed the yeast
.

 

[kelper]

Liking something and personal preference is a completely different concept to something being qualitatively better.

So, how you make a qualitative judgement on whether homebrew is better than commercial?

 

[strange-steve]

I think forums can be a bit discouraging sometimes because most people only talk about their good beers, but trust me that anyone who has become a decent brewer has had some failures, which is OK as long as you learn something from it. I've been brewing for 8 years and I still have some batches that are a bit crap, but trying to figure out why they're crap will hopefully make me a better brewer.

 

[An Ankoù]

I think forums can be a bit discouraging sometimes because most people only talk about their good beers, but trust me that anyone who has become a decent brewer has had some failures, which is OK as long as you learn something from it. I've been brewing for 8 years and I still have some batches that are a bit crap, but trying to figure out why they're crap will hopefully make me a better brewer.

Agree 100%, I'm chucking the rest of a couple of half-batch experiments this weekend. Not infected or anything, just crap. Life's too short and all that. Now if I were still in my teens, it would be an entirely different story.

 

[Sadfield]

So, how you make a qualitative judgement on whether homebrew is better than commercial?

Try here for starters, Evaluating Beer.

 

[kelper]

Try here for starters, Evaluating Beer.

don't patronise me And that is still entirely subjective! Saying my beer is better than commercial is an opinion and is subjective bit I never claimed otherwise.

 

[Sadfield]

don't patronise me And that is still entirely subjective! Saying my beer is better than commercial is an opinion and is subjective bit I never claimed otherwise.

You asked how to make a qualitative judgement, that's how it is done, using sensory evaluation to remove subjectiveness. Common practice in homebrew competitions and for quality assurance in the commercial world.

 

[Linalmeemow]

I think it's very possible to home-brew beers that are better than the more unremarkable commercial beers. I've done plenty of pale ales that I'd say were better. It gets more difficult to make beers that are better than good commercial beers though!

 

[Sadfield]

I think it's very possible to home-brew beers that are better than the more unremarkable commercial beers. I've done plenty of pale ales that I'd say were better. It gets more difficult to make beers that are better than good commercial beers though!

Totally, this. I think the really good beers are attainable, but requires totally focusing knowledge, equipment and process to that beer, and then perfection through repetition.

 

[simon12]

My 1st all grain brew came out nothing like I was aiming for but my 1st thought when I tasted it was why don't they make this commercially.

 

[Hanglow]

And it's not just the brewing, commercial brewing materials take things to another level. I recently switched to Minch pale malt (Minch supply most breweries and distilleries in Ireland) and it threw my efficiencies totally out of whack. On the first brew mash efficiency jumped from about 75% to 89% and yeast attenuation has also taken a big jump.

Wonder if you got distilling malt then instead of brewing malt? for malt whisky it is malted for great extract, for grain whisky it is malted for huge diastatic power. Both would give much different results to brewing malt in beer

 

[stan.distortion]

Wonder if you got distilling malt then instead of brewing malt? for malt whisky it is malted for great extract, for grain whisky it is malted for huge diastatic power. Both would give much different results to brewing malt in beer

It's their Hooks Head Pale malt, branded 25kg bag so I'm fairly sure there was no mixup at the HBS. I'd expected a bit better efficiency after reading through a thread on it here but the 14% jump took me totally by surprise. My previous batch was BEST Pale and I'd had it more than a year by the time I got around to finishing it. It was tasting a bit off by then (got airtight storage barrels since) but mash efficiencies where always a fairly consistent 75% with it.

 

[nickjdavis]

It takes time to learn and refine your processes but eventually you will be producing beer of such high quality you’ll think you bought it.

I'll correct you if I may....

It takes time to learn and refine your process but eventually you will be producing beer of such high quality you will wonder why there is so much dross sold commercially.

I'd say that the only things the commerical breweries generally do better is get their beer from grain to glass in a much shorter time4scale (if indeed you think that such speed is a good thing!) and have a degree of repeatability and consistency in their beer.

 

[Sandimas]

Brewing 11 years here

• Still learning
• Progress is not even, flatline for a bit, sometimes even go backwards, but then occasionaly make a step up
• Still have the odd failure: in fact, last brew #181 ended up with a phenol/TCP taste, probably due to the heatwave
• But I often think my beers are better than those in the pub
• Probably 10% rubbish, 30% great, 60% good
• Still struggling with lagers though and have resorted to buying those this summer (Budvar and Estrella) as, frankly, they are way better than I can currently brew

 

[trueblue]

As I said in my first post when you go to a weekend home brew festival and get to a sample a lot of different beers back to back you get an idea how good, bad or indifferent home brewed beers can be. At one festival I was a steward for 2 of the judges so got to sample with them and to be honest a few of the beers were so bad I felt sorry for the judges having to give the brewer a review, it's easy to see how home brewing can get a bad name. At one of the festivals the esteemed beer writer Ron Pattinson was a speaker and ended up staying the whole evening joining in the drinking and one comment he made was HB beers are amongst the best and worst beers he has drank over the years but he said you think what resources the big boys have to work with in comparison to the home brewer it is remarkable how close they can be.

 

[foxy]

don't patronise me And that is still entirely subjective! Saying my beer is better than commercial is an opinion and is subjective bit I never claimed otherwise.

It isn't an opinion it is fact when your beers reach a certain standard you, yourself will notice the dropping off of purchasing commercial beers. The better your beer gets there will be zilch purchases.

 

[Brewnaldo]

I made a similar thread before, but I think it's a bit apples/oranges. I recently made a tropical IPA and tasted it against the one I was cloning. For me mine tasted better but then the commercial one was crystal clear and mine wasnt. A lot of folk would give theirs the nod based on that for example.

In the end of the day it's only bulk process and consistency that separates us and them. When I spoke to a pal who runs a small brewery, he said on his commercial brewers course they were, for example discouraged from large and complex malt bills. Basically, if theres loads of light and loads of dark, average it out with a medium. That sort of drive to efficiency of cost will alwyas play into the home brewers hands. On the flip side, their big fancy kit will allow them to easily nail precise temperatures, do high efficiency filtration etc etc.

Flavour wise I think a home brewer can match and exceed them easily, but it's like how being a great home cook doesnt mean you can run a restaurant. The whole thing is a business operation. It's not just about what the beer tastes like. It's about turning out the beer the targeted customer will pay most for, at the cheapest cost to yourself.

Others might be different but (ingredients wise anywya) I dont care what a brew costs if it's good.

 

[MickDundee]

It isn't an opinion it is fact when your beers reach a certain standard you, yourself will notice the dropping off of purchasing commercial beers. The better your beer gets there will be zilch purchases.

I wouldn’t necessarily say “zilch”, but I only very occasionally buy beer and never buy mass produced stuff anymore (unless I’m in a pub). I still buy beers for “research” purposes, still pop to my local microbrewery every now and again (they have a built in bottle shop with beers from other breweries too) and when I’m in M&S I’ll pick up some Westmalle and their “Proper” German lagers.