Skip to main content

Miscellaneous Musings: The Freshness Factor



I stake no claim to being the Greatest Homebrewer in the WorldTM. There are plenty of homebrewers out there who have been at this longer than me. They have brewed many a fabulous beer. All I'm doing is showing people how to brew really good beer without taking out a second mortgage. A simple setup, proper sanitation and practice, practice, practice are all it takes.

Having admitted I'm not an AHA master, I like the beers I brew (with the exception of this one anyway). Some beers come out better than others, but I have yet to dump a batch. In addition, I've made plenty of friends and colleagues happy.

With the backstory out of the way, I'd like to focus on what I call the Freshness Factor.

Over the years, I've reviewed several kegs worth of beers on Beer Advocate. Since I returned to brewing, a pattern has emerged. The scores I give now are generally lower than what I used to give. I don't think this means I've suddenly become a BJCP expert who can detect every little flaw in a brew. What I mostly found was that all of a sudden many commercial beers lacked a certain something that I couldn't quite nail down.

Shuffling back through old reviews, I noticed that when I was in Germany for Oktoberfest a few years back, the beer I was drinking there was better than the same brew here. I highly doubt that it was because the Germans are sending the US an inferior product (a myth I've heard more than once). What my friend and I realized was that it was the beer's freshness that made it better.

It's a simple question really. Which would you rather have: a beer at a brewery's tap-room, or that same beer after it's had an unknown journey from Brewery, to Distributor, to Liquor Store, to you? I imagine most of us would prefer the former. I know that I do (A quick note: Yes, there are a lot of beers that benefit from aging. My favorite local Pils isn't one of them.).

Many beers I've had came from a long ways away. I feel freshness is what was lost in their journey. Over time flavors fade, especially those from hops. To prove it, hang onto a bottle of one of your favorite local beers for a few months. Then try it side by side with a fresh bottle, or better yet, a fresh glass at the brewery's tap-room. I promise that the change will be noticeable, with IPAs leading the pack.

Beer doesn't get any fresher than homebrew. You're there when it goes into the bottle or keg (Admit it. You sneak a taste). And you're there the first day it's ready to come out. By the time you've polished off a batch, the beer has maybe been in that bottle or keg for a couple of months. Unless you're standing in line the day it's released, commercial beer doesn't stand a chance against that.

I think this is a big part of why I brew. I want fresh beer and it doesn't come any more fresh than what I brew myself. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In the Fermentor: Kitchen Sink Barleywine

The Leftovers It's time for a cleanup of leftover grains and partially used packets of hops from 2012. With the exception of the 2-Row base malt, everything in the recipe below has been sitting on the shelf, or in the fridge waiting to be used. I had several open hop packages, some leftover toasted malts and a half-full bottle of malt extract too. I also had yeast cultured from my White House Honey Porter . My decision was to use almost all of my leftovers and make a partial-mash Barleywine. The finished beer will be quite strong and quite bitter. A toasted malt backbone should nicely complement pine, spice and citrus hop flavors. Because of the beer's strength, it will not be ready for at least three months and should improve with age. The recipe has been scaled up to five gallons from the 2.5 gallons I actually brewed: Grains: 9 lbs Rahr 2-Row 8.5 oz Victory 7.5 oz Brown Hops: Bittering: 0.75 oz Chinook (11.1% a.a.): 60 min 0.5 oz Colum...
Post a Comment
Read more

In the Fermentor: Flaming Pumpkin

I'll admit that I'm not a huge Pumpkin Beer fan. I didn't have one on my brewing calendar for this year and didn't have my sights set on one for next Fall either. Then my niece came along and threw down the gauntlet. She asked me to brew her a pumpkin beer and I accepted the challenge. I did a lot of reading to see how to best go about using pumpkin in beer. Some people mash it with the grains. Others add it to the brew kettle during the boil. Some add it to the primary or secondary fermentor. The consensus from professional brewers appears to be adding it to the mash, so I took the same approach. The pumpkin was cooked ahead of time by my girlfriend to soften it, convert some of the starch and help release some of its sugars. It then joined the grains in the mash. I really want the pumpkin pie effect here, so I've thrown in all of the requisite spices toward the end of the boil. I've also gone with just enough bitterness to balance the sweetness of the ...
4 comments
Read more

Out of the Bottle: Flaming Pumpkin

It's Halloween night and Flaming Pumpkin is ready to frighten away the ghosts and goblins. Hopefully it won't also frighten away the people who drink it. This is my first Pumpkin Beer, so I was flying blind outside of doing research and trying commercially available brews. I basically cobbled together suggestions I thought were the best approach to the style, with a vision in my head of what the finished product should taste like. So how did it turn out? Pretty good. My goal was pumpkin pie in a bottle. What I got is more spice than sweet, but I still like it. The pie spices are right out front, with clove and cinnamon leading the way. The sweeter flavors are muted and focused toward dark sugars from the brown sugar and dark crystal malt. Bitterness is just enough, with no hop flavors competing with the spices. And what about the pumpkin? You can taste it. It's subtle. But you can definitely tell it's there. Overall? I'm quite happy and hope that my niece l...
Post a Comment
Read more