When did you start drinking all home brews (or the vast majority of your beer intake)? I’m curious how many of you can replicate recipes you like enough to only drink them. I still find myself only wanting a handful of commercial beers that I like far more than my home brews at this point.
*It’s hard to enjoy my meager home brews when I can get these that were canned a couple of weeks ago.
For me it varies. I can go months only drinking Homebrew at home. Then I go crazy at the bottle shop and come home with my wallet $100 lighter.
I’d say on average I drink 70% Homebrew.
I have beer drinkers ADD - I drink my beers plenty, but I like to sample good beer from brewpubs and beer bars as well. My brewing doesn’t take away my interest in fresh quality beers nearby. It’s nice to get out of the house, no ? 
I agree with Hoosier. While I drink a lot of Homebrew at home. It is nice to get out and sample other great beers out there. No sense on limiting yourself. Consider it “R&D”. 
I like sours a lot, but don’t have much at home, so as to that style, I have to buy for now as I ease into a Solara project for blending. As to most other styles, I brew a lot of lagers, so I don’t drink a ton of commercial lager beers, but I’m not a snob about commercial beer. I rarely make IPA’s, other than Denny’s RIPA that I make for a friend and keep a few, so those are a commercial style that I will drink when I get a hankering for it. But mostly I drink homebrew when I can and if I have a choice…
This year. So far have stuck to it but with me as a customer you had better keep up production…
Took the opportunity on my trip to sample some beers and they were all a treat. I allow that and will buy the hard stuff- such as wine and spirits. Otherwise commercial beer is of little interest to me. I just phased it out over time.
I have found myself brewing less American, British, and Scottish styles, since I can drink fresh craft brewed ales at almost every pub and taproom I brew and drink lots of lagers and Belgians, as where I live, finding good versions of those on tap is difficult.
I don’t ever see myself ever drinking only home brew, as I like going to bars too much. I do find myself going less and less to the fine beer store, though, and very rarely ever get a growler filled.
90% percent has been home brew for the last few years but I’m in a brewing rut so I have bought beer recently. I do buy some lagers for the cottage in the summer because I don’t do lager well and it’s hard to take home brew
Only a quarter or so of the beer I drink is homebrew. My biggest trouble is that on my bike ride home from Downtown Seattle to West Seattle I directly pass (Pike, Elysian, Pyramid, Epic Ales, and Schooner Exact) and within another 15 minutes or less I can easily hit up (Seapine, Emerald City, Machine House, Georgetown, Lowercase, Burdick, Tin Dog, West Seattle, Elliot Bay and Big Al’s) Yes, we in Seattle are lucky. I didn’t even include the other 10 or so breweries in Ballard and Fremont which are just on the other end of town. I enjoy trying new beers and supporting local businesses more than I can possibly keep up with an adequate homebrew supply alternative. As a result of all this local beer, I tend to brew beers that they don’t offer as much (milds, double IPA’s, oaked beers, cream ales, kolsch’s, flavored stouts, alts etc.)
I’ve been drinking homebrew at least 95% of the time for the last 10 years or so. When I was first starting out I bought a lot of commercial beer to get a feel for different styles. Every once in a while I’ll pick up a seasonal like Celebration Ale, or maybe a sixer on a whim. But overall, I enjoy brewing and drinking my own beer so much that it’s not hard to pass it up. A couple commercial sixpacks, or a batch of homebrew? The cost is about the same for me and that’s often the main motivation. If my beer was crap I’d whistle a different tune, but it seems that each batch is better than the last, and there are always 5 more styles I’d like to brew waiting in the wings.
Cheers!
At home I drink about 90% Homebrew, but I enjoy a good craft beer when I’m out places. I feel it’s important for my home-brewing to taste a wide variety of non-home-brewed beer. Gives me a sense if where I’m at and where I want to be/go.
As the only qualified expert on what I drink in the privacy of my own home I would say that approximately 72.39% of the alcoholic beverages that I consume were brewed by myself.
I only buy beer at the store if I am attempting a clone. Other than that I go to the local brew pub once a week and Old Chicago once a week. I try 2 beers at each place. At home I pretty much drink nothing but my own beer.
I got to where I rarely drank commercial beers and almost always found I preferred my beers to most of what I could buy in the store. I still very rarely buy beer unless I’m at a pub. I have 4 taps in my pub room that are always pouring my beer.
There are still some sublime styles I must have - Orval, for instance. And I am always looking for beers I have not tried before. But 95% of the time I drink beers I have made.
Once you get the hang of the craft you will find it pretty easy to dial in recipes. Sure, there will be some drift here and there but you should be able to get dialed in where your beer is as good or better than what you can buy in the store. For me the key is freshness. You simply can’t buy beer fresher than you can make yourself.
I’m probably about 50-50. With breweries opening up what seem like every day and new bottles shops getting closer and closer to my house, there are just too many commercial styles to just drink homebrew.
Besides, I’m only 4 news beers away from “Master” on untapd 
I pretty much never drink homebrew at home. No clue why… I guess I enjoy tasting a variety of beers too much. I mean I brew at least 2-3 times per month… I usually just bring lots of beer to homebrew club meetings and enter alot of competitions… When I bring beer/mead to share… that’s usually the first time I had any since kegging lol.
i prefer my homebrew, but i like trying new beers and getting an idea of what i want to brew next. or if i have a recipe in mind, i like to hunt down a similar beer and try it before i buy anything for it.
+1
I go through phases where I get into a style (or group of styles - British ales, malty German lagers, etc.), then I end up hunting down every commercial example I can find at my mix-a-six shops. At that point, I kind of know what I like and don’t like in that style and I start working on homebrew recipes.
So I’d say I drink anywhere from 2 to 4 homebrews for every commercial beer. I end up trying 6-12 beers of a style, then brewing a case of my own. It varies a bit depending on style and season. I rarely buy commercial IPA’s, since mine are so much fresher (and hoppier). And there are some commercial brews (Fullers ESB, Paulaner Ofest, Bigfoot, Gueuze Girardin) that I will always buy at least once or twice a year, even if I have a homebrew recipe that I like in the style.
The majority of my drinking is homebrew but somehow I always seem to have way too much homebrew on hand.
along the same lines. I drink probably 80-90% of my own beer, which i vastly prefer. I do, however, go to my local brewery for happy hour most fridays after work.
most times i am disappointed by what I buy, because i inherrently like the way i produce that particular style better. the cigar city you pictured is a good example - I know everyone is gaga over them, but they all too often let me down. I guarantee you, if you hone your craft, you can make a better IPA than Jai alai.
there are also a lot of breweries coming out now that make mediocre beer - beers that i will try to give them a chance, but won’t be buying a second time.
i do tend to buy a few things every year - at least one 12 pack of Celebration and a six pack of Bigfoot (I guess 4 pack now) because of nostalgia/tradition for me, and I have much admiration for SN. Everything else is either 1 off stuff that i have a taste for but don’t have on tap now, research, or simply i dont’ want to make 10 gallons of that style.
