Sometimes I have found that I am my biggest critic of my beers. Maybe you are being a little too harsh on yourself gmac.
You're probably right. The one that's got me bummed out is my California Common. I've entered that in two competitions and scored well in both but this time I think the cooler fermentation temps at this time of year have really made a difference. My basement was probably 60 or so and the beer just doesn't have the ester profile that I'm used to. It was probably 65 to 68 last time I made it.
I also think I do a decent APA (it's scored in the low 40's before) but I didn't get it done in time
My English IPA is ok but the gravity ended up weaker than I wanted and then I had a keg-related mis-hap. The picnic tap blew off the end of the line and dumped about 3 gals of beer into the bottom of the freezer.
My wheat is good, can't complain about that one.
I put my Kolsch into the cold room with a blow off hose and water and it got really cold and sucked some water up from the cup. It doesn't seem contaminated but I was worried for a while.
I used the Kolsch yeast to make cider (last time I used American Lager). It's taking forever to clear. Yes, I know that's a major change.
I tried an Irish Red (first time) and it's really, really cloudy. Fined it today but I guess I can't say too much about it because it's the first time I've done this one. I used 2 oz of roast barley and there is no perceptible roast character. I made an ESB that I've done lots of times and really like and added 2 oz of roast barley at sparge just for colour (which I've done before) and got very strong roast flavour that clearly doesn't belong in an ESB.
I don't think my smoked porter is smokey enough this time but it'll be ok.
My French Saison has too much coriander despite being exactly the same amount as I used last time when it was great.
I made a CAP that is reading 1.002 FG right now (WLP800). Seems a bit lower than it should be.
Otherwise, everything went great.