I prefer homebrew!

[dad_of_jon]

That's a bold statement and if it's true then hats off to you :hat: There are some truly spectacular Belgian beers, Struise pannepot, Rochefort 8 & 10, St Bernardus 12, Westvleteren 8 & 12, Black Albert, Black Damnation, Abbeye des rocs to name only a few.
My Belgian quad won me a gold medal in the NHC competition at the start of the year, I was really happy with it, as was everyone else who tried it. But I compared it to a Rochefort 10 a while ago and there was no comparison. The Rochefort blew it away, hands down, it wasn't even close. I have never tasted a home brew that was anywhere near that quality. If yours is then Badseed is right, your possibly the best home brewer in the world
That being said though, I can understand that home brewing allows us to tailor our beer to our own specific taste which gives it an advantage over commercial beers.

To clarify a bit, I drunk these over the weekend.....

Here's what I found during friday/saturday - testing/tasting

marks out of 20:

sleighed in Belgium 17*
Poperings hommelbier 15
triple stealth 15*
st feuillian bruin 14
st feuillian saison 14
gouden carolus classic 12
bush pech mel 12

* - my beers

So from my perspective i'm brewing better beers than the Belgians! Are my brews better than all Belgian beers? - no

I appreciate symantics can subtly alter what was meant to be said. I just spend a shedful on Belgian beer and in hindsight I needn't have. However, I'm still on the lookout for that undiscovered classic! Just with I'd nor bought multiples of beers I really used to enjoy :-(

Taste is generally subjective, but I can say hand on heart I thought the st. bernadus 12 is less over-rated than the westy 12. I like it more The last rocheforts I had didn't do it for me. I enjoyed mine even more. I think choosing your carb level to suit your own preference has something to do with it to. Now choosing between a bengali or schnieder aventinus or st. bernadus who's to say any one is truly better than the other, it's like comparing apples and pears.

so yes I prefer homebrew, almost all of the time, but I buy commercials to:

a) cover the gaps in my repetoire.
b) top up my bottle stock.
c) cover any HB shortages. e.g Erdinger when my wheat beers stocks are low.

p.s. - happy to swap you a king kong for a quad or other high abv beer :whistle:

 

[IainM]

Taste is very subjective. You can't untangle beer from the people that drink it. Take DoJ's examples above. How can he possibly give the same score to Pêche Mel and Carolus? To me, Carolus is obviously, undeniable, far far superior. Not even in the same league. But, and this is the key, I started getting seriously into beer when I was in Spain. We used to a go to a local bar run by a Belgian guy, just selling Belgian beer, and at least once a week I'd meet friends there, have a laugh, chat with him about his beer, go for dinner somewhere, then go back to the same bar. We must have tried over 100 beers there, but often we would just order a big bottle of the Carolus Classic to share while we flicked through his extensive beer list and decided what to try. As soon as I smell that beer, it takes me back to then. No kids, no commitments, just chatting bollocks and having a good time. For me, that beer will never be anything other than excellent.

Experiences and expectation count for a lot. I was in Mexico for three months and bought, randomly, one of the sweets the kids there were eating. These things were coated in a mixture of chilli powder and salt. Weird doesn't even begin to cover it, but they loved them anyway because that is what they were used to. In London I worked with a Chinese guy who just couldn't understand why we didn't just give up our cuisine and eat Chinese food all the time. Italians scoff at what we call Bolognese. It doesn't matter that Dolmio is vindicated by some historical recipe where garlic and herbs were acceptable. That recipe isn't the one his mamma made, so it doesn't make the cut. Provenance matters. I worried about the balance of the recipe, bought hops from the most recent harvest, tasted the grain when weighting it, made sure I pitched at the right temperature, gave it the right time to condition, primed it to the desired level, chose the yeast, cultured it up and made sure it was happy. When you invest the time needed to gain the experience to brew good beer, and spend 5 hours on a brew day, the product becomes part of your ego - a crap beer is a learning experience, a hurdle to be overcome, and a good beer is a success, a vindication that the effort was worth it. No commercial brewery can compete with that. Of course your best beers taste good!

 

[DoctorMick]

Provenance matters. I worried about the balance of the recipe, bought hops from the most recent harvest, tasted the grain when weighting it, made sure I pitched at the right temperature, gave it the right time to condition, primed it to the desired level, chose the yeast, cultured it up and made sure it was happy. When you invest the time needed to gain the experience to brew good beer, and spend 5 hours on a brew day, the product becomes part of your ego - a crap beer is a learning experience, a hurdle to be overcome, and a good beer is a success, a vindication that the effort was worth it. No commercial brewery can compete with that. Of course your best beers taste good!

I agree with that completely, you can't take away the fact that someone made the beer and are rightfully proud of it so it improves their enjoyment of it. Bizarrely, I'm entirely the opposite...even with beers I've made that I think are good I've been super critical and I'm yet to make one that compares to a quality commercial beer.

 

[strange-steve]

I agree with that completely, you can't take away the fact that someone made the beer and are rightfully proud of it so it improves their enjoyment of it. Bizarrely, I'm entirely the opposite...even with beers I've made that I think are good I've been super critical and I'm yet to make one that compares to a quality commercial beer.

I'm exactly the same, I've never made a beer which I've thought was perfect, there's always some aspect that I think could be improved. But it's that striving for perfection that I believe makes us better brewers.

 

[Gunge]

Pah, amateurs! All my beers are perfect! Well, not quite but I've yet to buy a perfect one. Is there such a thing?? I never make the exact same beer twice ( be it recipe or method ) no matter how good, thinking that there's always room for improvement. That's what it's all about innit??

 

[dad_of_jon]

Taste is very subjective. You can't untangle beer from the people that drink it. Take DoJ's examples above. How can he possibly give the same score to Pêche Mel and Carolus? When you invest the time needed to gain the experience to brew good beer, and spend 5 hours on a brew day, the product becomes part of your ego - a crap beer is a learning experience, a hurdle to be overcome, and a good beer is a success, a vindication that the effort was worth it. No commercial brewery can compete with that. Of course your best beers taste good!

Agreed.

I have to add that there are some remarkably cynical mass produced crap 'brews' available for the sheeple to buy in supermarket that would struggle to get a 1 on the same scale.

I enjoyed the peche mel & carolus the same amount even though they are different and that is the beauty of HB that unless you have a really liking for a brew that is technically extremely difficult to make at home, (Tactical nuclear penguin anyone? :lol:) you have a good chance of brewing exactly what you like. In this regard I've been fortunate.

I gave a bottle of the same wheat beer out to two different colleagues - one didn't like it (lager fan) the other loved it. The lager fan no longer asks if there's any chance of a beer :lol: I find most of those who have the beers prefer a certain category so when brewing a dark beer person a&b&c get one but for hoppy citrussy ipa's its c,d & e. For saison's just c. There's one person in work who seems to have an identical liking of various styles as me (person -c) just like Brewdog's output matches what I like closer than any other brewer.

I brew to make the best beer i'm happy to drink, never the cheapest beer I can make so having being a great fan of Belgian beer for so long it's probably raised my game I suppose. Wish I was as successful with making my own tiramisu. I'm using good quality ingredients but not getting the result I want so the recipe,technique or lack of understanding on my part is to blame.

 

[Robin54]

I'm exactly the same, I've never made a beer which I've thought was perfect, there's always some aspect that I think could be improved. But it's that striving for perfection that I believe makes us better brewers.

Why does it make you a better brewer, just copying someone elses recipe too replicate ?? just make your own and enjoy , surely??? Whats perfection FGS?
Do you want to copy mine?? They aint bad.

 

[Tim1975]

Because I am carbing up my IPA and Lager I was forced to go and buy some commercial beer and I am sitting here drinking it now, my usual "go to" beer was Kronenbourg but is tastes so flavourless now since I have been making my own, it's just like I am drinking it because it has alcohol in it. So yes, I prefer homebrew and can't wait for my kegs to carb up so I can tuck into those instead :thumb:

Bought another kit today so will need a new Keg for it, this is getting out of control now :lol:

 

[strange-steve]

Why does it make you a better brewer, just copying someone elses recipe too replicate ??

Tbh I don't know what this means

just make your own and enjoy , surely???

I do enjoy them, doesn't mean they are perfect though.

Whats perfection FGS?

Noun - the state or quality of being flawless.

Do you want to copy mine?? They aint bad.

If you feel you are as good a brewer as you ever will be and have no room for improvement I'm pleased for you, I haven't quite reached that plateau yet so thanks for the offer.

 

[Robin54]

Tbh I don't know what this means

I do enjoy them, doesn't mean they are perfect though.

Noun - the state or quality of being flawless.

If you feel you are as good a brewer as you ever will be and have no room for improvement I'm pleased for you, I haven't quite reached that plateau yet so thanks for the offer.

Tell the FOROM Exactly what you wish to achieve..
Dont quote me (thats easy...here we go Stevies OFF)) and pretend ...plesae tell the Forum what YOU want /wish to achieve with each brew you make and why.. Hey we are all here to all listen and learn from experts and I regard you as an a expert..actully as the forum guru, where should we all be going along this hard road. You are such a sensitive soul.

 

[pms67]

Ok, so I've only been brewing 'premium' or pimped kits, and not for that long (although I do plan to try stove top AG in the near future!).

However, it's just occurred to me that I genuinely would rather have a beer I've brewed myself than most bottled beers, and many pints I've been served in the pub.

I wonder if there's a subconscious bias or whether my tastebuds have adjusted to prefer homebrew? Maybe it's because I can brew what I really like? :grin:

See what happens when you ask a question?
7 pages may just do this one 😂

 

[Oneflewover]

See what happens when you ask a question?
7 pages may just do this one 😂

I will try to steer clear of such controversial subject matter in future

 

[strange-steve]

Tell the FOROM Exactly what you wish to achieve..
Dont quote me (thats easy...here we go Stevies OFF)) and pretend ...plesae tell the Forum what YOU want /wish to achieve with each brew you make and why.. Hey we are all here to all listen and learn from experts and I regard you as an a expert..actully as the forum guru, where should we all be going along this hard road. You are such a sensitive soul.

No thanks. Despite my sensitive nature I'm happy to continue brewing without my motivations and goals being validated.
I may change my title to "forum guru" though

 

[Badseed1974]

Tell the FOROM Exactly what you wish to achieve..
Dont quote me (thats easy...here we go Stevies OFF)) and pretend ...plesae tell the Forum what YOU want /wish to achieve with each brew you make and why.. Hey we are all here to all listen and learn from experts and I regard you as an a expert..actully as the forum guru, where should we all be going along this hard road. You are such a sensitive soul.

It seems to me that you're the sensitive soul of the forum going off on one like that for no reason

 

[dad_of_jon]

I always put any forum 'tetchiness' down to a lack of HB and the sad feeling that comes with having to buy stuff in :whistle:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzNKZdzMEWA[/ame]

 

[Badseed1974]

It's either that or too much HB

 

[MyQul]

I see everyone is getting into the festive spirit (drunkenly arguing with family members) :lol:

 

[BeerisGOD]

I see everyone is getting into the festive spirit (drunkenly arguing with family members) :lol:

I think the term 'keep it light' may have made a difference a few posts back.

 

[Gunge]

Put it this way - how many commercial brewers make their wares from kits? That was meant as something like a joke, but judging by some of the cack that's available I'm not so sure...

 

[dad_of_jon]

Brewdog make kits from their wares, but that's the other way round isn't it :grin: