I've never made a repeat brew

I Have never brewed the same beer twice. Anyone else like this?

Although, I just made an IPA which I loved! I might have to brew that again. It will be my first rebrew. I guess none of my other beers were worth it.

For myself I will probably keep brewing new beers and experimenting with styles. For my friends I will probably repeat beers - eventually. I have a friend who wants to brew beer with me, if he gets into it we may repeat beers.

yep made 75+ beers now... never the same recipe. Obviously I have repeated styles. I'm trying to use every Wyeast Ale Yeast as well.

I'm the opposite. I've been brewing for a few years now and I've made an ESB for at least half my batches, followed by a kristalweizen, a porter and an IPA. I did make an Oktoberfest kit and my second brew was a steam beer kit. That's everything I've ever made in well over 50 batches.

hey, never made a kristalweizen... got a solid recipe??

BradleyBrew said:

hey, never made a kristalweizen... got a solid recipe??

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Super simple recipe. This is for my BMC drinking poker buddies.

10gal recipe

10lbs 2-row
8lbs White wheat
1oz Hallertauer 60min
Wyeast 3333

Mash at 148
Ferment at 62F for 2 weeks
Cold crash
Filter with plate filter using a "rough" then a "polish" pad.

I have re-brewed two beers. A hefe for my mom's birthday which turned out darn near undrinkable the first time, the second time.... incredibly delicious!

A blonde for my sis' birthday was AWESOME the first time and the second was still great but not as good as the first.

I've been brewing for about 1.5 years now. I've made about 35-40 total batches, most of which I've entered into BeerSmith. Once each beer is complete, I keep it in BeerSmith if I think it is a keeper that I might want to remake, or delete it if I'd rather try something new. To date, out of 35-40 total batches, I have 8 keepers, 3 of which I have remade.

As long as you have good notes or software like BeerSmith, it's easy to remake recipes!

Boyfriend and I disagree on this. He wants to start repeat brewing (the other day, he said, "I am not buying anymore ingredients until we do a repeat brew!) while I want to continue experimenting.

Except I do want to keep a continuous supply of cider on hand, if possible, because cider is delicious.

I think the eventual compromise is going to have to be, one carboy for experimenting with, and one for repeat brews.

I have a few that I like that I've redone and a few more that I will redo but I like trying different things. Plus, I have a family and friends that demand certain beers.

Many people say my '79er IPA is the best beer they've ever had. So I keep making it. Sometimes I'll change a little tiny something here and there, but for the most part its the same thing every time.

One day you'll make a batch that's worth repeating - hang in there.

Since in my tenure I have been doing kit beers, I haven't felt the need to repeat. But there was the one time when a Borboun Barrel Old Ale kit from Midwest came with an open bag of grains (which was replaced upon notifying them) I decided to rebrew using the opened bag alongside it for a Strong Ale (sans borboun). Does that count? Also I am just now doing a different recipe Octoberfest as the last one somehow became a sour (ick).

I've only ever repeated one brew, except for my base stout which gets different treatments of oak, bourbon, vanilla, cocoa, etc as I continue to pursue the ultimate bourbon stout. Otherwise every batch is a new one.

I feel like I can't move on until I get my ESB absolutely perfect. Still trying.

I know much of the appeal of homebrewing is being able to create any style of beer you want, and here in Utah with all beer above 4% abv being sold in the state run liquor store (no cold storage at all, beer sitting on the floor being bathed in florescent lighting, closed on sundays, holidays, election days, selection is getting better but is far from good) homebrewing is the only way I can experience a number of beer styles. However, I feel that focusing on a single recipe and trying to adjust it to get it where I want it has been very valuable in my learning process. If I always made something different I wouldn't know for sure what effect different techniques and ingredients made on my beer. Since most my beer is a repeat with minor adjustments I can identify what works and what doesn't as well as what I can do (and how much I should do) to change the beer in the way that I want. So for me once I am ready to call my ESB "done" I'll move on to the porter and obsess over it for a few years.

I like variety so I do brew a lot of different recipes. However, I do a few that are very good and re-brew them occasionally, just because I like them a lot and so do my friends.

Kmcogar said:

I Have never brewed the same beer twice. Anyone else like this?

Although, I just made an IPA which I loved! I might have to brew that again. It will be my first rebrew. I guess none of my other beers were worth it.

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IMO, brewing the same recipe over and over is the best way to improve your brewing skills or perfect a recipe. If you can make the same beer every time you brew it, you know you have consistency conquered. By brewing a recipe repeatedly and changing only one thing each time, you can learn a lot about ingredients and recipe formulation. I think I brewed my Rye IPA recipe maybe 8-10 times to get the recipe down, and then another 3-4 tines without changing anything to be sure it was repeatable. Now I brew it often, but I don't change a thing.

I keep two different files for my brews.

One has brews I did and the notes with changes I would make to them, if I brew the with these changes they get named the same with a V2.0 etc. after the name so I know it is a modified version and very detailed notes as to changes I have made and thoughts both goood and bad on what I may change if brewed again.

The other has the finished recipe with no changes to be made and detailed notes so I can reproduce them at will.

These are kept on the computer in two seperate file locations and also references my hand notes according to file number.
Sounds a little anal but it works for me.

I'm pretty ADD in my beer brewing, but I have managed to "repeat" a few.

1) Tripel - first was awesome, 2nd was okay and now the third caught the sour beer bug.
2) APA - My own recipe, I've been working on it for a while. Each one gets better than the last.
3) ESB - My own recipe again, this is in stage two of recipe try-outs. The first was pretty great though, so hopefully I can improve on it.
4) Lambic - 2+ year mission to create a Geueze.

Everything else is random and/or sour.

So far I've just made new recipes, but my APA came out amazing, so I'll be rebrewing that one and tweaking the recipe a bit.

I have brewed these twice...
EdWort's Kolsch
KingBrianI's World's Best Oktoberfest
Dude's Lake walk Pale Ale

these 4 times...
BierMuncher's Centennial Blonde
EdWort's Bee Cave Brewery IPA

and these 6 times...
Saccharomyces' Irish Red (twice as lagers)
EdWort's Haus Pale Ale

I brew a lot for friends. I've also brewed a Pilsner 11 times with the same grain bill but with different hops and yeasts.

Denny said:

By brewing a recipe repeatedly and changing only one thing each time, you can learn a lot about ingredients and recipe formulation.

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This. I often get ahead of myself and change a few things at a time, but I love rebrewing with minor tweaks.

Gameface said:

I feel like I can't move on until I get my ESB absolutely perfect. Still trying.

However, I feel that focusing on a single recipe and trying to adjust it to get it where I want it has been very valuable in my learning process. If I always made something different I wouldn't know for sure what effect different techniques and ingredients made on my beer. Since most my beer is a repeat with minor adjustments I can identify what works and what doesn't as well as what I can do (and how much I should do) to change the beer in the way that I want. So for me once I am ready to call my ESB "done" I'll move on to the porter and obsess over it for a few years.

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This, I am starting this endeavor as a way of fine tuning my process and all the other variables in brewing.

I repeat things to tune them. I try to make sure I have at least one tasty beer ready to drink in kegs - then the rest of my capacity normally goes to experimentation.

I know I can buy excellent beer - brewing is a way to get more excellent beer into my house - but also a way to learn about beer and ingredients. I'll often do minor variations or split batches to try multiple yeasts etc.

The only thing I repeat is NewBeerGuy's Orange American Wheat.
I can't keep that stuff around, everyone loves it.

Now I brew an IPA to keep in a keg...while it might not be the same recipe every time, it a pretty close generic, maybe with different hops or something.

i have a couple i would like to brew again, maybe with minor tweaks.. but there are a couple styles i haven't made yet which i want to do first.. carbonating right now is actually the first beer i did for a 2nd time, using some suggestions from a competition a little while back..

I've never made a kit beer.

Denny said:

IMO, brewing the same recipe over and over is the best way to improve your brewing skills or perfect a recipe. If you can make the same beer every time you brew it, you know you have consistency conquered. By brewing a recipe repeatedly and changing only one thing each time, you can learn a lot about ingredients and recipe formulation. I think I brewed my Rye IPA recipe maybe 8-10 times to get the recipe down, and then another 3-4 tines without changing anything to be sure it was repeatable. Now I brew it often, but I don't change a thing.

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I Agee 100%. I have enjoyed brewing different styles but started by brewing the same recipes several consecutive times to learn my equipment and processes. Now I have 3 "house" beers that I have brewed dozens of times before tweaking them to perfection. I am very confident with my equipment and processes and my beers are identical from keg to keg. I don't think I would have learned so much as quickly by brewing different recipes every time. Just my two cents.

I tend to alternate. I'll brew a new recipe/style one week, then go back to one of my standards (either to tweak or make sure I can be consistent with it) the following. I want to try different things, but I agree totally with repeat brewing being a great way to learn some of the little subtleties and how minor changes alter a beer.