Homebrew or Pro brew?

Yooper

Yooper

Ale’s What Cures Ya!
Lifetime Member
Staff member
Established Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2013
Messages
3,307
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
Location
Upper Michigan/Florida
Some weeks (even months) I only want homebrew, other times I like a pro brewer's offerings in between.

What do you say? Do you have a mix of commercial and homebrews on hand?
 
I mix. Living here in Chico makes it easy. There is quite a brewing scene here plus SN has lots of stuff I can get at the tap house that isn't generally available. The SN standards are cheap I can score almost any offering for about $13 per 12. There is also a store in town called Spikes Liquor and they have a huge selection of craft brews - ChicoBeerEnthusiasts on face book.

Sierra Nevada Brewery
Nor Cal Brewing
Secret Trail Brewing
Waganupa
 
When I'm stocked up, I'm pretty content to just have the beer I brewed. When I'm low and don't have anything interesting on tap, I get bored and want something different. Right now I don't have a good IPA running and I'm overdue to brew my wife's favorite Pale so we have a 6 pack of Lagunitas DayTime IPA in the fridge. When we go out to dinner or meet friends, I'll happily have whatever's on tap but I don't feel compelled to keep much store-bought beer around the house.
When the brew club meets up at a taproom for a happy hour, I don't usually get particularly excited. I like trying a few things to see how they are but there are only a few places in town that I really look forward to visiting.
Mostly I'm content to drink beer at home and probably end up having a beer that I haven't brewed only a couple of times a month. When we visit the NW, it's totally a different deal. There are a couple of beers that I definitely seek out and a couple of breweries that are on my must-do list and I really enjoy trying new beers and nerding out with the bartender or bottle-shop owner.
 
Yooper said:
Some weeks (even months) I only want homebrew, other times I like a pro brewer's offerings in between.

What do you say? Do you have a mix of commercial and homebrews on hand?
Click to expand...
We go out, we drink Pro Brew. At home, it's the homemade stuff, exceptions being a style I want to study for the BJCP.
 
  • Like
Reactions: J A
I always drink my own brew but when I want a hop fix I get a local made IPA from bru Ha Ha I've been to a few hombrew comps and tasted his brews and their pretty top notch to my pallet. When out to dinner at the local it's always mass produced swill:). Beer ain't cheep in Aus good beer less so our government likes to tax everything that people enjoy for their slush fund lol!
 
We like a variety. While we are still new to homebrew, we keep Pro on hand to learn and compare. When work gets busy and we don't have time to brew, the ratio gets biased toward Pro. Also, I get caught out by seasonal changes, especially not making my summer beers before warm weather hits.
 
I'll generally buy a pack of something local a couple times a month if only to support the breweries I like.
 
I keep a big selection of both homebrew and commercial/pro. I usually have 3 kegs of homebrew on tap and one pro brew keg on tap. I keep a large selection of bottles and cans also. I like a lot of variety.
 
Almost exclusively homebrew here, but I will buy some pro beer from time to time to research a new style I am thinking of brewing or to be able to compare my homebrew to a well respected pro version of that style.
 
Always both, but I'm trying a month of only draught beer or packaged homebrew. Not a big challenge when there's about a dozen pubs and a brewery within 1km of home.
 
Almost always have both on hand. Usually 2 home brews on tap and at least a couple of commercial. Try to keep PBR in stock at all times for a light and refreshing brew.
 
I think most probrew is vile so it's my own "homebrew" only.
 
Last edited:
I typically drink a mix of my own along with fresh brew from local craft brewers. As my inventory is low at the moment I have been buying a fair bit of commercial craft brew lately.
 
rabeb25 said:
I think most probrew is vial so it's mu own "homebrew" only.
Click to expand...
Guess it's where your standards are at your brews all looked Stella. Hey go and pour a beer a snap a pick for me to remind me of that mountainous foam you seem to be able to accumulate ontop of your glass:D.
No disrespect btw:)​
 
I'm in a unique position that I have my Brewing and Wine making license. At my shop I typically keep 6-8 beers on. So no longer are my beers "Home Brew", but I still brew them.
I like that I always have a variety to pick from just from what I have on tap at the shop.
That being said, there are always certain seasonals and beers that I don't brew that are a treat to get.
Also, trying others beers can spark ideas and help in your own development. Its amazing the amount of creativity there is out there, some good, some bad, but creative none the less.
Remember, variety is the spice of life!
Cheers,
Brian
 
We try to keep some pro Brew around for extra variety. Being close to nw we occasionally get a few excellent varieties at the local store but If we make the trip to Missoula there is a bottle shop tied with LHBS (insert plug for Summer Sun and Brew & Bigheads bottle shop) that is well stocked for trying new beers. If we see something we haven't tried we snap it up to try. There are lots of beers we only buy once though. We allways keep at least 2 beers on tap and they change with the seasons a lot. My brew report seldom has a single variety brewed more than twice and we brew around 18 to 24 a year. We do keep some bush lite around all the time in warmer weather, just water gets boring.
 
Trialben said:
Guess it's where your standards are at your brews all looked Stella. Hey go and pour a beer a snap a pick for me to remind me of that mountainous foam you seem to be able to accumulate ontop of your glass:D.
No disrespect btw:)​
Click to expand...

Maibock for lunch?
eu9NHRC.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Want no ads? Go Premium and unlock all our brewing tools!
Copyright © 2007-2025 Brewer's Friend, Inc. - Send Feedback - Terms - RSS Feed - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Back
Top