The humility of the previous posters notwithstanding....
I think a lot of the beer I brew is terrific; excellent? Wonderful? Fabulous? Great?
I don't know what adjective fits, nor how to measure "great." I do have some evidence that my beer has good qualities; I like it, family members like it, friends want to pay me commercial prices for it, a local bar owner wants to sell it.
Does that make it "great?" For some people, maybe. Possibly you wouldn't like it.
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So how did I get here? While there are some basic things one needs to do in order to move beer from "meh" to "good," things like ferm temp control, yeast management, controlling mash temps, water composition, I think they're a given for the most part--except among those who don't read.
Instead, here is the twofold philosophy I followed when I learned how to brew:
First, I'd figure out what
best practices are in home brewing, and I'd adopt as many as I could, while being open to the idea that things might change (such as the nearly mandatory use of a secondary fermenter, which today almost no experienced brewers use unless aging for a long time, freeing up a fermenter, or maybe using adjuncts).
Best practices: adopt them, or come as close as you can.
Second, I'd follow a process of
continuous quality improvement. Every time I brew I try to do some thing better, more consistently, more accurately. When I'd discover a "best practice" I'd figure a way to incorporate it in my brewing, and then figure out how to make it work.
This philosophy has worked for me, near as I can tell. It's not a fast process (Mongoose, define "fast"
) but it works for me--not only in brewing, but in almost everything I've ever tried to master.
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There's a third element to the philosophy, but it's not necessarily a process element.
I think a lot of brewers fall into the style trap: they have to match a style guideline exactly, and that's their goal. They forget--or maybe never knew--that a/the major reason for brewing beer is to produce something you like that you can't buy commercially. Many here do, of course, have exactly that philosophy.
Early on, I was somewhat concerned about using competitions as a way to evaluate my beer. Several things moved me away from that. I've been part of small local competitions where the winner had identifiable off-flavors, and the judges didn't pick that up. My entry didn't have them--if you follow best practices guess what you tend not to have in your beer?--but the judges weren't really competent to judge the beer.
Another thing that moved me away was the guy who submitted two different entries to a competition--each entry was the same beer. One of the entries came in very high, won or second or something. A well-honored beer. The other entry was panned as bad.
Same beer. Different results. Tells me that relying on competitions to evaluate my beer is a crapshoot.
So I moved away from that. Today, I have a really good way to judge if someone likes my beer: do they have a second one? Lots of people will be complimentary of a beer but they won't have another. There are a lot of reasons you might not have a second--don't like the style, I'm driving, there's a lot to try and I want to try it all--but there's only one reason people have a second one.
And so--I use
two criteria to judge my beer. First,
do *I* like it? I've had a few "failed" beers that turned out fine, just not what I wanted. I have a friend who takes them to finish them off. But in the end, if I don't like it, I've found that others are usually unlikely to appreciate it as well.
Second, I use the "
do they have another?" criterion. If people aren't refilling their glass, why? But often enough, they do refill. And again.
I was part of a homebrew tasting here about 18 months ago. I had my Darth Lager on tap, a sort of Schwarzbier thing I developed before I knew there was a thing called Schwarzbier. A woman came up, asked what I had, and I suggested Darth. It looks like a dark beer (well, it is dark), but it's crisp and finishes clean. She said "I don't like dark beers." I asked her to try a sample, tasting it with her nose and tongue, not her eyes.
She had a sip. Then another. Then she drained the sample and handed me the glass for more.
She came back for three more fills.
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You can use whatever criteria you want--competitions, throwdowns, whatever. The above are mine. You're welcome to adopt them in full or in part, or laugh derisively at what Mongoose33 sees as his reality.