Today (after a late start for me) is Fermentation Friday, a group blogging effort for which beer bloggers write on a given homebrewing topic. This month’s topic comes from The Panhandle Beer Snob and Redneck Brewery:

What, in the opinion of others, is the best beer you have ever made and why? It may be the beer that friends always want, the one that has done well in competition, or the one your significant other demands. Hopefully, for many, it will be a difficult choice since I’m sure everyone makes damn fine beer.

I have two answers.

First, my best beer is my pumpkin ale; in these days of rare homebrewing for me, that’s the one I consistently make each year and therefore is the biggest hit of my homebrewing efforts. It’s a tasty beer, too, if I do say so myself.

My second answer is a pilsner I made many years ago—10 or 11 years ago, actually. Not having proper lagering methods enacted when I brewed it, I was worried that it wouldn’t turn out, but instead I had my friend and brother (both avid beer drinkers) enjoy it and tell me it was a good beer—enough so that it still stands out in my head today.

And if memory serves me, I do think it was one of the best beers I had brewed—before and since. I still don’t quite know how it turned out so well.