Bottled Beer vs can kits

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jamesw

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I have made quite a few 1 and 2 can kits, and am very impressed with them, even to the point that I think some of them have been better than professionally made beer.

How is it then that a 1 can kit with DME can taste better than a brewery made beer (which presumably uses AG techniques)?? What are they doing to it which makes it "worse"? Not aging long enough? or just using cheap/minimal grains and hops?

(I know someone might say its personal preference, but Ive had a lot of people say that some of my 1 can beers are better, and i havnt even dry hopped them!)
 
James I think it's a case of breweries being commercial enterprises they will look to cut every cost they can in both buying ingredients and in the production process. I once had a half of Wherry in a pub at lunchtime and then tried my first ever brewed Wherry that night when I got home, you wouldn't think they were the same beer. Another thing I've noticed is that when drinking my kit beers I don't get a hangover but with commercial beers they kill me in the mornings and as I'm drinking less and less commercial beer I'm noticing this more and more when I do drink commercially brewed beers. There is also the little issue of 35p a pint against £4 a pint.
 
Some professionally made beer is really poor. Cask beer can be badly kept, and not made with quality as a major objective. Bottled beers are mostly pasteurized and filtered, two processes that strip flavour and body out.

But good beer made professionally is better than kits. Good home brewed beer made with grain is better. The best beers I drink are all grain beers, made by home brewers or really good breweries.

That's my take.
 
Your thread title suggests you're comparing bottled commercial brews to homebrew. There's a simple answer: most commercial bottled beer is pasteurised and isn't live beer (no yeast in the bottom of the bottles). Add to that breweries making bottled versions in different places to the cask version (e.g. Doom Bar, only the cask version is brewed in Cornwall) so many bottled beers are inferior products.

That's why I started homebrewing. It was only after investigating that I realised Doom Bar in a bottle is nothing like Doom Bar from a handpump, Old Peculier from a bottle is nothing like Old Peculier from a handpump, etc. The bottom line was going into a London pub with Doom Bar on the chalkboard, only to be given a bottle straight out of the fridge - and charged 6 quid for the pleasure - arrrggghhh :doh:
 
@nbpickles it isnt just me, a lot of my friends who have tried my kit beers have said that too. (not just being kind).
@LarryF I would have thought that some breweries cut corners when it comes to grains etc, but then you wouldnt use expensive grains to make DME or canned ME.... so how much are they cutting down???
@Clibit, you have a good point, additional processes might well make beer worse (is it CO2 injected rather than bottle (secondary) brewed? that might make a difference).
Then again, you would imagine that making DME and LME would drive off some flavour too...
@darrellm that is true of bottled beers, but even some beers on tap are inferior... really no excuse!
 
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