Who drinks your beer?

Lovely Bloke

So, just a quick question for you all.

Who actually drinks your beer?

I brew with a group, and we use my parent's house/garden for the day - after the beer is bottled we give my Dad a few bottles, problem is, he thinks we are 6 and every time he opens and drinks a bottle he says "Ah lads, that's gorgeous, better than the last one" - which isn't helpful. Same as with mates, hand them a bottle of something I've brewed myself and they are always saying "yeah, not bad" - but it's not a proper critique, it's mates trying not to hurt feelings.

Do you have any "external" quality control? We obviously know ourselves if a beer is rank or whatever, but we'd like to know if "other people" would drink it, what's the best way to get a good feel for this?

My initial thoughts is a blind tasting - line up three or four beers of the same style as what we've brewed, and ask friends to rate them, if my own homebrew didn't come bottom, I'd be very happy.

Competitions only come round once in a while, and never having been to one, do the judges give feedback on beers at all?

We also know a guy who knows a guy in Trouble, and were hoping to get a few bottles to him, see what he says, but that's a long shot.

We brew about 46 litres each brew day (2 brews every 3 weeks, previous brew bottled on next brew day), which we distribute among 5 of us - everyone gets 6 pint bottles of each of 2 beers we'd bottled on the day, we keep 2 pint bottles of each in a "competition crate" and the rest is bottled into 330ml bottles, to give to people - eventually - the thinking here is that we've more bottles to give to more people if we want to.

drumswan

Join your local homebrew club and attend the meets. The other members will give you excellent feedback when tasting.

BeerNut

drumswan wrote: »

Join your local homebrew club and attend the meets. The other members will give you excellent feedback when tasting.

+1. There are several homebrew meets in central and greater Dublin each month. Everyone's welcome and they don't cost anything.

And yes, to my knowledge you do get proper feedback from judges in competitions.

Lovely Bloke

Cool, will look into that.

loyatemu

list of clubs here - http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/forum/index.php/board,49.0.html

went along to my local club recently - good bunch of guys, some of them brewing on a whole other level but others doing kits etc like me. Got a lot a of good constructive advice and tried some really interesting brews...

Ronan|Raven

Going to the club meets is a great way to get people to taste ones produce and get good feedback.

baron von something

a homebrew club in my area would be a great idea.i've been trying to get my mates into brewing since i started doing it but they're happy enough to sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labour.theres only 2or3 in the group who haven't emigrated yet who get to taste it so i don't get much feedback and we all have completely different tastes.my personal favourite brew was also my mates least favourite but they generally get the thumbs up

Lovely Bloke

baron von something wrote: »

a homebrew club in my area would be a great idea

where are you based?

baron von something

based in dundalk.as far as i'm aware there's no club in the louth region,the closest would be north dublin

blueshed

baron von something wrote: »

based in dundalk.as far as i'm aware there's no club in the louth region,the closest would be north dublin

Looks like North Dublin, Belfast, or the new club about to form in Navan. all of which is a fair trek for a HB meeting.

must be a few more brewers in the Dundalk, Drogheda area. maybe post on the NHBC site http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/forum/index.php/board,49.0.html

and look for fellow brewers

sharingan

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

Do you have any "external" quality control? We obviously know ourselves if a beer is rank or whatever, but we'd like to know if "other people" would drink it, what's the best way to get a good feel for this?

Join local home brew clubs, or meet other home brewers and do bottle exchanges. Also try and brew to style, and compare your brews against commercial offerings in that style.

In order to get good feedback, you will need to be giving your beers to people with a well developed palate. You can research off-flavours online and see if you pick them up in the beer, but it is trickier to get a good palate for style - it involves drinking a lot of beer that may not be available locally or cheaply.

To develop a palate for ingredients is harder still. What does Cara-pils, black malt, flaked wheat do to your beer? What can you expect from certain kinds of hops?

My initial thoughts is a blind tasting - line up three or four beers of the same style as what we've brewed, and ask friends to rate them, if my own homebrew didn't come bottom, I'd be very happy.

If your friends have a broad taste this is useful. However if all they drink is macrobrew, you may find that they will favour beers close to or furthest away from their preferred tipple. Blind tasting is easier here in the UK, as a decent slice of the population drinks real ale, but in Ireland it is tough.

Competitions only come round once in a while, and never having been to one, do the judges give feedback on beers at all?

Yes. Usually very detailed.

We also know a guy who knows a guy in Trouble, and were hoping to get a few bottles to him, see what he says, but that's a long shot.

Look out for meet the brewer events instead. In my experience brewers are quite happy to help out, but the microbrew scene in Ireland at least is very spread out.

We brew about 46 litres each brew day (2 brews every 3 weeks, previous brew bottled on next brew day), which we distribute among 5 of us - everyone gets 6 pint bottles of each of 2 beers we'd bottled on the day, we keep 2 pint bottles of each in a "competition crate" and the rest is bottled into 330ml bottles, to give to people - eventually - the thinking here is that we've more bottles to give to more people if we want to.

What kind of process? I presume you have temperature control on your fermenters? You would struggle to hit that schedule without it. What kind of brews have you made?

dm09

baron von something wrote: »

based in dundalk.as far as i'm aware there's no club in the louth region,the closest would be north dublin

Would be very interested in getting involved in something in Dundalk area.. PM me if you get something going!

thenightrider

I'm in Dundalk and would also be interested we could prob use that room that is in the new tesco. Clubs etc can use it for free just an idea ?

baron von something

thenightrider wrote: »

I'm in Dundalk and would also be interested we could prob use that room that is in the new tesco. Clubs etc can use it for free just an idea ?

hmm i dunno about there, i'm trying to avoid the place as i just quit my job there last month or so,but yeah awesome thats 3 so far.if i get a chance i'll register on the nationalhomebrewclub site and see if there's a few more from Da Town who'd be interested

loyatemu

Meeting in a (friendly) pub seems to be the usual setup - where better to drink beer? I've heard Dundalk has quite a few pubs...

Pablo ferretta

Yes surely everyone has the qualities of control and the adherence to quality. We try not to provoke people or put your self in the place of an expert or educator.