Home Brew Quality Scale
The Neutral Yardstick To Measure The Quality Of Your Home Brews
How do you know how good your home brew is?
Good brews were meant to be shared. And we hope you’re enjoying your brews with friends and family. But we also know from experience that friends and family (bless them) have opinions.
So, in the words of French writer Joseph Joubert “It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.”
We can’t be the judge of how good your brew is but we can give you a neutral yard stick to measure the quality of your brew against. So let the home brew (and debate) flow!
Home Brew Quality Scale
Brew For Yourself First
On a personal note from Russell:
Every person’s tastes and preferences are unique. Which means that everybody has different preferences to what they drink – whether from the store or a home brewer.
Our biggest piece of advice is brew for yourself. What we mean by this is brew because you enjoy it – irrespective of what people think of your brews.
The second biggest piece of advice we would give you is, if you are going to ‘care’ about the opinions of others, listen to those who you want to enjoy your brews – and know that this won’t be everyone at the same time.
Some people brew so that they have something to enjoy drinking. In which case the only opinion that counts is your own. For a long time the reason I brewed was because I enjoyed drinking something I made. I’m also a value for money kind of guy and I figured if I could brew something at a fraction of the cost of store bought products and be happy with the quality then we’ve got a winner winner chicken dinner. The only person I really had to please was me. If I enjoyed drinking the brew then it didn’t really matter what anyone else thought.
I still drink my own brews for all of the reasons above. But I also share my brews more widely that I ever have before. The one thing that always surprises me is that one person can lament a brew yet at the same time another person can tell me they would be happy to pay for the brew at a bar. Neither person was right or wrong – it was their personal taste and preference. A bit part of my enjoyment in brewing now is learning what people like.
Others spend a lot of time with a tight friend group and home brews on the deck can become a theme. And if the crew likes the brew then the party is on!
Then there are people who brew because they like to experiment. There is no concern for what the outcome actually is – it’s all about the idea of what it could be. And sometimes the result is a rocket that takes everyone to the moon, sometimes if ok and sometimes we find somewhere safe place to dispose of the result without killing the grass – but that doesn’t matter – it was all about the idea and the experiment.
There is no right or wrong – go with what works for you. And if it’s not fun, you’re doing it wrong.
One Small Personal Story
All of the ratings on the Home Brew Quality Scale are somewhat comical. Except one.
The best there is. Ten out of ten.
Every boxing day my siblings with their children are all welcome at our house. And I always make sure there are extra bottles of brew in the fridge.
Often my Mum and my Nan will be there. I went and sat next to my Nan who was 89 at the time to check if she was ok and to say ‘hi’. She asked me if the brew I was drinking was my home brew. I replied it was. And needless to say I was a little surprised when she said “pour me an inch in a glass would you”. But I happily obliged.
My Nan told me that she liked it and it reminded me of her favourite beer. How cool is that!
I’m old enough to know that my Nan won’t be here forever. And so this is a special memory for me. I got to sit on my deck with my Nan having a pint of my home brew.
So – number ten-out-of-ten on the Home Brew Republic Home Brew Quality Scale is dedicated to my Nan.