At my father-in-law’s while my wife does some Thanksgiving prep and there’s not a lot of beer. But in the back of the fridge I find a bottle of a blonde ale I brewed about 6 months ago.
It’s delicious and I think, “Doggone it, I’m not too bad at this homebrewing thing sometimes.” ;D
Nice!
I love that feeling. I’ve brewed several, myself, where I thought to myself, “Hey! I brewed this, and it’s really good!”
Happy Thanksgiving!
Absolutely. I moved back to this country after 10 years away and found some extremely old batches that I ever brewed in a crawlspace. incredibly oxidized and not good, but I had a sip of each before dumping them lol.
I’m brewing a fair amount of strong beers these days with the intent to keep some around bottled and forget about them. If I do this enough I’ll be able to have a lot of different examples of my stuff that I can pull out and mix in.
An opportunity to share and point out the merits of homebrew!
Something magical happens to all my bottled brews after being cold for months.
I know what you mean proud/surprised, I brewed this ?
I have a current batch I’d swear would snag a medal, but would
probably enter it in the wrong category and get slammed.
Cheers
I wish this happened to me more often. I’ve been brewing for 23 years now, and I’m pretty certain that the more I’ve learned, I’ve become a WORSE brewer. It’s weird. Or maybe I’m just that much more self-critical than I used to be. Perhaps that is more likely. I haven’t been super happy with many of my beers over the past few years. Some have been reasonably good, most not. I have like the opposite of the Midas touch. 
My first brew was a can of hopped LME and a bunch of sugar. I thought it was great - had been drinking American macro beer. In reality, it probably would have scored a 1 in competition, but my standards and knowlege weren’t that high. So I agree - way more likely that you’re more self critical. The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.
Dave, I’ve been brewing even longer than you have and I know exactly what you mean. I see one of the biggest problems facing homebrewers as too much information with no context. We jump from one thing to another without a full understanding of the effects on other parts of our process. That’s why I’m an advocate of trusting experience and not trying to fix issues that don’t exist just because someone said it’s a problem.
I agree Denny. I think simplicity and/or getting back to the basics is what I’ve learned over the years to help my beers be the best they can be.
Dwain, I know what you do works for you and you enjoy it. That’s great. But from my point of view it’s not simple. But that’s me. I’m not brewing your beer! The point being is that we all need to pay attention and do what ever makes us happy, not do it simply because someone said you should.
My latest example of “do what ever makes us happy, not do it simply because someone said you should.”: I’ve been reading about warm fermented lagers. I don’t have refrigeration, so I tried it. I think it makes a pseudo lager - not quite right, but a good beer. The folks at the homebrew club give me some funny looks, but that’s ok. Brew how you like.
Spot on. [emoji106]
Disclaimer: Any comment I add is simply the way I brew beer. I am not paid or sponsored by anyone. There are certainly other ways that can be equally effective which other brewers may contribute. This is what I’ve found that works for me using my equipment and processes so I offer this for your consideration. YMMV
Yes, simple is in the eye of the brewer. The key to enjoying brewing as a hobby is finding ways to emphasize the parts you enjoy and minimize the parts you don’t. That looks different for everyone. I’m glad I did a lot of experimentation over the years so I could learn where to streamline things in my processes to end up with brewdays and beer that I enjoy.