Honing your recipes by limiting your brews

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Zymurgrafi

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So, I am thinking about focusing on say only two beers that I make and alternating between the 2 and just brewing only those for a while. I guess to see what subtle changes in ingredients and technique will do and also to "perfect" the recipes. It is a hard decision because there are so many styles I still want to make and many I would like to try and make again that did not turn out before. I think it is the right thing to do though as I have also been having a rather hit or miss brewing year (missing more than hitting) and I think this will help my brewing. Plus the two are already favorites recipes of mine, an APA and a scottish 80/- that I would love to have on hand all the time. Maybe I'll thrown in a third depending on frequency of brewing. I am really itching to brew but I have no kitchen at the moment. I can brew outside but I am a little paranoid about bottling outside. :(

Anyone else limit themselves to a couple of styles and recipes? Especially folks who feel compelled to brew EVERYTHING possible? Well, okay, I do not want to brew every style, but most... :drunk:
 
I think it's a great idea for troubleshooting and fine tuning.

So far, I have been having too much fun trying different recipes, and they have been turning out pretty tasty, so I have only repeated 2 batches. Of course, when those kegs run out again I will probably make more. That's one of the reasons I have been accumulating kegs - I can keep brewing my favorites, while trying new stuff too!
 
That's what I do.

I love a certain style. British Ales so pretty much stick to them. I brew 3 or 4 beers regularly and maybe every 4th one try something different but still something I know I like.
Maybe once a year I'll experiment.
 
So Orfy, do you brew them the same way each time?

I guess I also want to see how much they differ batch to batch even if I attempt to be consistent. I realize there will always be a lot of variables but I want to taste some together and see just how different. Actually, my latest batch of each that got me thinking about this are so good, I am afraid I won't be able to duplicate them!
 
I tend to brew a recipe twice to see how it comes out and if it comes out the same each time. Then if I think I can in improve I'll tweak one or two things a smallish amount.
I'll try to adjust the colour a little and improve/adjust the taste to match what I'm triying to brew. I'll also try and address clarity and head retiontion issues.
I may also keep exactly the same ingriedients but adjust the mash temperature or time.

I'm lucky that I love one style so much that I never get fed up with it.:ban:

I loves me beer.
 
I think I'm going to do the same thing - focus on two brews for a good while to work on my technique. I just started AG brewing and I need some practice with my setup. I also need a better sense of how small changes in ingredients and temps can effect the final result.

I've chosen an english pale ale and an american amber ale, since these are my favorite ale styles. These beers will probably become my house beers. I might even make one of them an extract + steeped grain recipe rather than AG since extract brewing is so quick and easy.

However, SWMBO likes variety and has recently become enamored of the high (over?) hopped IPAs that are in vogue now, so I'll need to work an IPA into the rotation too.
 
I am starting to do this, too. After my initial leap into PM and AG brewing, I went a bit wild brewing all sorts of different styles (generally only once each). Now I have settled down and want to try to brew some really good beer.

I am thinking I might actually go back to small (3 gallon) batches for the purposes of experimentation and tweaking. 5 gallons takes a while to drink (unless the family comes over), whereas smaller batches give you the opportunity to brew more frequently (which I enjoy).

This is the really fun part of the hobby. I used to brew just so I would have good, inexpensive beer on hand. Now I am more interested in the challenge of brewing quality and interesting beer. Lotsa fun!
 
I just started doing the same thing, focusing on one style of beer. Along the lines of what's already been said I wanted to refine one recipe so that I could call it my house beer and always have some available. My style of choice was a hefeweizen. The first batch of it that I did was extract with grains but I just converted the recipe to PM and will be trying it out for the first time this weekend. It will be my first ever PM so I'm very much looking forward to it.

I'm considering going with two styles though just for variety and I figure if I make one a quicker style of beer, my hefe, I can make the other something that will need time to condition, perhaps a nice stout.
 
FlyGuy said:
This is the really fun part of the hobby. I used to brew just so I would have good, inexpensive beer on hand. Now I am more interested in the challenge of brewing quality and interesting beer. Lotsa fun!

I couldn't agree more. I'm at the point where I've got the basics down, but now I need to nail down the fine points. Working on one or two beers at a time will help with that.
 
I'm looking to move in this direction as well. You can only really fine tune your procedures when you limit the other variables, and brewing a different type of beer each batch makes comparisons much less effective.
 
I love so many different styles of beer and I really enjoy trying different beers so I have not considered trying to perfect one or two beers. The only recipe I am considering repeating is the one my wife likes and requested that I make more.
After a few more batches I may consider rebrewing a beer with small variations but for now chaos reigns.
Craig
 
I like this idea a lot and will probably be in this camp after I get more (a lot more) experience. With say a 3 gal batch, I could probably go AG and do full boils on the stovetop even!
I'm also interested in doing some yeast comparisons, where I split a 5 gal batch and pitch two different yeasts - like 1056 in one and 1028 in the other. Just to get a good controlled comparison.
Any reccomendations for smaller sized fermentation vessels?
 
While this sounds like a good idea in theory, I couldn't really do it. First, I'd tire of the same style quickly. Second, and most important, unless I lived at the equator, getting a beer to turn out the same each time would be hard for me to accomplish because I don't have a dedicated ferment chamber where I could exactly replicate the same temps every time. The ferment temp is probably the sole important aspect of getting a recipe to taste the same every time, because it is the hardest thing to do.

I like the idea of wanting to get a consistent recipe though.
 
well, it would be more of an experiment I suppose to see how "consistent" things turn out. Being even farther north of the equator than you Dude, I have even wilder temp fluctuations I believe. :eek: I do not have a fancy ferment chamber either. Just a water bath and aquarium heater for the winter time...

I think more so this is to eliminate having many variables until I can at least be consistent in brewing good beer. I have been having "issues". One of which is in part due to evolving techniques and equipment over the last year. I am fairly locked in to my "system" now and finally set with my AG setup. Now its working the bugs out so to speak. Literally and figuratively I suppose :cross: out out you nasty critters!!
 
I have far too short an attention span to just brew the same couple of beers over and over again. For me, this is all about experimentation, trying new things, exploration... it's an art, not a science where I feel I need to get each and every variable exactly right. Now, were I to start a microbrewery or a brewpub, you would have to cut back on the stuff you brewed to truly perfect them, but in the homebrewing context... nah, I'm going to keep trying as many new and different things as I can.
 
I'm resurrecting this thread because the idea of focusing on a handful of recipes is starting to appeal to me again.

I have yet to brew a recipe twice, but I've now found a few I think are worth repeating. Plus, my hophead of a wife wants more IPAs so we'll be doing an IPA (or APA) every other brew.

In 2008 I'm going to work on my Ordinary Bitter, IPA, and an APA (prolly Ed's Haus). I'll likely brew at least 20 times in 2008, so even if I repeat each of these 4 times I'll still have 8 brews that are different.

Anyone else thinking the same thing?

For those of you who originally responded to this thread in July - Did you stick to your plans to limit your brews to just a few or were you like me and forgot about it completely?
 
I like the idea of brewing a batch and splitting it to vary one or more aspects of it. I plan to brew a blonde and split it to ferment as an ale and lager. I hope to just hone my pallet to recognize the different characteristic a bit more. Another idea is to ferment the same exact brew at two different temps(or more), say 5 degrees different to be able to note the flavor differences. Hmm, I need to get like 6 one gallon jugs.
 
For a while, just about every other or every third batch was the same recipe, varied a bit from the last according to what I wanted out of it. It actually started as an AIPA and has now morphed into something of an American Brown. In the end, it was just tweaking a bit. Finally, after about 10 years, I got it where I wanted it and haven't varied it since.

However, I got a bit of an itch, so I might start playing with it again.

Do what interests you. It's a hobby. You're not writing a grant application. :)


TL
 
I've got one recipe that I'm going to be brewing for the fourth time in a few days because I was trying to make a clone recipe and I plan to keep at it till I've got it down perfect. A long the way I stumbled upon a couple other attempts that I really liked the results, so I'll definitely be repeating them since they turned out too good not to.

One thing I want to start doing is trying to do two batches at once, especially if its a recipe that I really like. 5 gallons is gone far to quickly. I'm thinking maybe either step up to 10 gallon batches or possibly 2 5 gallon batches at the same time so maybe I can stick to the recipe on one and take a bit of liberty and experiment with the other.
 
TexLaw said:
For a while, just about every other or every third batch was the same recipe, varied a bit from the last according to what I wanted out of it. It actually started as an AIPA and has now morphed into something of an American Brown. In the end, it was just tweaking a bit. Finally, after about 10 years, I got it where I wanted it and haven't varied it since.

However, I got a bit of an itch, so I might start playing with it again.

Do what interests you. It's a hobby. :)

That's what I'm talking about. Taking a recipe you like and working with it. I've learned a lot from brewing different styles, but I think I can also learn a lot from repeating or slightly modifying a handful of recipes.

TexLaw said:
You're not writing a grant application.

Actually, I am writing a beer-related grant application, but that's another story. :)
 
I have several recipes that I make over and over. A SNPA clone, a Wit and an IPA. I've found that these recipes are easy drinking and styles that I enjoy so I like to keep a keg of at least one of them on tap all the time.

It's interesting to see how a small change in the process can change the character of the beer. My recent changes have been to use more water modifiers to clone other water sources. I can also tell when I screwed something up easily.
 
I keep telling myself that I'm going to do this, but I always seem to end up buying ingredients to brew a style that I haven't done before. I've probably only reproduced 3 or 4 recipes.
 
Mutilated1 said:
One thing I want to start doing is trying to do two batches at once, especially if its a recipe that I really like. 5 gallons is gone far to quickly. I'm thinking maybe either step up to 10 gallon batches or possibly 2 5 gallon batches at the same time so maybe I can stick to the recipe on one and take a bit of liberty and experiment with the other.

I brew with my brother, we have been doing 2 10gal batches each brewday. Our plan is to perfect a Porter and an APA, We brew one of those every time, our second batch is for fun & exploring... We are about to do the third round for the pale, just kegged the second Porter. Its clear that getting a consistant product is going to be a challenge.
 
I too think this would be fun to do. Start with some american two row and a pound of L40 crystal and 05 dry yeast. Maybe 3 gallon batches and bottle so you could do multiple taste tests. Then vary the hops, yeast. Then move to different specialty grains through pale,amber, brown, porter and stout styles. Could take a lifetime. I'd better get started.
 
I've brewed my Witbier a number of times with only minor changes, mostly because its my most popular beer (probably the most accessible too). Otherwise, I've never brewed the same beer twice, although I'd like to go back and try some of the ones I did when I first started brewing and see if I can make them better.

-D
 
I have 2 brews I like a lot....

Amber Ale
Pale Ale

I hate to run out but I only have so much room and equipment so tend to keep making the same brews with little changes and that works for me. Having several kegs of beers I don't care for does nothing for me. I do like to keep at least 1 of my brews a new recipe so I can at least not limit it to 2 beers in the fridge. Who knows what might be my next favorite brew.
 
I did it, feel good about, ready to move on. I made three different batches of EdWorts Haus Pale, using a different hop each time. I now have 15 gallons of Pale Ale aging in the closet, but Xmas is coming.

I am glad I did it, but I am not ready to settle for a single house brew. My friends will either get over it or bring their own BMC.

I did find myself relaxing and getting confident repeating the same recipe, that part was cool.
 
Poindexter said:
I did it, feel good about, ready to move on. I made three different batches of EdWorts Haus Pale, using a different hop each time. I now have 15 gallons of Pale Ale aging in the closet, but Xmas is coming.

I am glad I did it, but I am not ready to settle for a single house brew. My friends will either get over it or bring their own BMC.

I did find myself relaxing and getting confident repeating the same recipe, that part was cool.

That's what I was saying in other words. You perfect brews by making small changes and then adjust for the next batch. Hops make a BIG difference... it is entirly another beer/ale.
 
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