re: Homebrewing Thread: Volume II

quote:

---

Fellow homebrewers, are you to the point now in your hobby, where you legitimately like your beer over anything commercial?

What styles have you "perfected" in your mind, compared to what's out there?

---

Anything? No. But most of my beers would stack up against a good commercial example of the style. I really feel like my German pilsner recipe is nailed down nice and tight. When I brew that it's easy to resist the compulsion to tweak the recipe other than some hops substitutions depending on what I have on hand. The only other lager I brew regularly is a malty lager in the Vienna/O'fest/Marzen spectrum. I rarely modify that recipe either.

I have a solid altbier recipe that I think would hold up in Dusseldorf but it's hard to know because good examples are hard to find in the States. In any case, I like it.

My saisons usually turn out good but they're a series of one offs built around a standard grain bill. No two are ever alike. My ambers are good and my trappist beers are solid. One thing I haven't quite wrapped my head around is an IPA. Sometimes I like them; sometimes not. The problem is that I'm just not consistently getting enough hop character so I'm going to start doing more hop-bursting.