how do you decide what to brew?

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Leadpencil

Leadpencil

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I just finished brewing 7th batch. I like to experiment with recipes when I cook and now I find myself doing it with brewing.
How do you all figure out what to make?
Do you find one style and stay with it, do you modify others recipes?
Create your own? Sample a beer and want to recreate it?

I am wanting to find something new. I typically drink triples and wheat beers.
 
Sometimes i do repeats of the best beers i brew, often i repeat good recipe with modification with aim to improve and then i brew something very new that sounds good or taste good if i came across new beer (i would say 25%, 25% and 50% of completly new beers). I also take season of the year in to consideration when deciding what to brew
 
I buy beers that I have never tried before. If I like them I try to find a clone recipe and brew it. Otherwise I look up recipes and see what catches my eye. I just found the recipe for imperial honey porter on this site. It sounded good and had good reviews, so I brewed it this morning.
 
Ill rebrew something that I did and came out great as well as browse northern brewer or morebeer. You can dl pdf's of recipe sheets and buy your grains mash um and drink um. I will also go on beeradvocate and browse through their top 250 beers, pick something out and look up a clone recipe.

Or I will try and make my own recipe.

Goto your local liquor store, try different craft beers and try and brew something you like.
 
+1 on season of the year. That is one drawback to making the big porter I did today. It will be ready about the same time the temp hits 100 outside. Not many people looking to chug porters in the heat.
 
I have tried the craft brew route and it is either hit or miss with it being good and drinkable.
I will check out beer advocate.
I don't want to be a one trick pony when it comes to my new hobby. Trying to figure out what each grain and hop adds to the beer seems to be the biggest challenge.
 
Join a beer club. Tons of great ideas and fantastic beers to be had. Also great feedback on your beers too. I tasted a couple great bourbon porters and totally want to explore that style now.
 
If you really want to learn what different grains and hops taste like try a SMaSH recipe. There is a sticky on it.
 
I do some of all of the above. Sometimes I buy a new beer and try to recreate it or modify it as I go. Other times I think of interesting combinations of things and try to achieve that. What I really enjoy doing is trying to think of a moment in my life I enjoyed or thinking of the seasons and certain moments in those seasons that are memorable and try to create a beer that fits it well.

For instance, I am about to bottle a test run for an Autumn Oak Wee Heavy. The flavours of vanilla and slight maltiness mixed with the notes of scotch and maple combine well with the smell of the autumn air and the feel of the cool breeze while you watch the leaves fall.
 
I take the experimental approach. Change one thing on your old favorites. If you like triples, split your next wort in three parts and use three different yeasts. Or ferment a little lower or higher. Change up your hops and do a side-by-side comparison.
 
I have so many beers I want to clone, this could take me a lifetime.
 
I don't usually try and clone other beers, especially if I can just go out and buy them. I usually decide by one of two ways....1) What is the next months style for our local brew clubs monthly competition. 2) What sounds interesting? Like this last beer I brewed is an oatmeal stout with spices and apples.

I occasionally will rebrew something I have done before that came out really well.
 
I look at the season the beer should be ready in and try to brew something appropriate. Then I look at my brewing software and find something I will enjoy.
 
dpatrickv said:
I don't usually try and clone other beers, especially if I can just go out and buy them.
Click to expand...

This is exactly how I feel. I started with clones. Now I talk things over with friends, look at recipes and beer styles and pick something that sounds good.
 
Easy for me. I love American Pale Ale so every other batch is some version of APA....the other batches are seasonal: I will do light wheat beers, cream ale, light blonde ale in spring for the warm season and start brewing my stouts/porter/IPA's in the fall for winter.
 
adiochiro3 said:
This is exactly how I feel. I started with clones. Now I talk things over with friends, look at recipes and beer styles and pick something that sounds good.
Click to expand...

Yep, the last "clone" I did was of Modus Hoperandi, but instead of regular american ale yeast I used Forbidden fruit yeast. That turned out to be a damn tasty beer.
 
I have 2 house beers I like to keep in stock, a blonde and a special bitter. Other than that I look for a style I like and brew something I would like to try.
 
I just go through pages of different recipes online at whatever homebrew supply you use. I have a log of what I have done and what I would do again but there are so many different kits I have not repeated one yet. I figure I'll do a few yearly like my smashing pumpkin ale but I feel there are so many I just love the variety.
 
If I can buy it, usually I don't make it.

One of my baseline beers is an ESB that I've fine-tuned to something I really really like.

I do a lot of historical ales. One of my favorite references is "Old British Beers And How To Make Them" by the Durden Park Beer Circle. (self published, google if you're interested).

I also use "American Handy Book of the Brewing, Malting and Auxiliary Trades" published in 1901 by Robert Wahl and Max Heinus. A collection of pre-prohibition brewing techniques and beer styles. Available on Google Books. Includes a direct description of the elusive Kentucky Common.

There are plenty of other good historical brewing references on Google Books of you're interested.

I use source material as much as possible, rather than following directions from a web side that copied something from some other website that came from a homebrew forum that was copied from rec.craft.brewing (etc...get my drift?).
 
I, like some others have said, go the seasonal route. In winter I'll have a stout and an IPA/ something kinda hoppy. In summer the stout gets switched for something light and session-y. The exact recipes I use vary constantly except for my wife's wheat, which is year-round. I brew what sounds tasty. Kyle
 
Thanks for all the info, this site has proved to be a wealth of information.
I might have to experiment with 1 gallon batches.
 
I look at my pipeline. I then think about about what I feel like drinking. This can change by season. I do a like a good variety of brews in my pipeline, but I always have an IPA around. I have a big pipeline of Belgians, but because they age so well I keep brewing more of them. I like Saisons, especially in the summer so I have been brewing them a lot lately to stock up for the summer. In the winter I always have some stout for my nitro tap, but also often put an Irish Red on nitro. I often will have a wheat beer in the pipeline and also aa good Amber ale. There are a lot of beers I like so I just brew them when I know I will run low on them.
 
SagamoreAle said:
If I can buy it, usually I don't make it.

One of my baseline beers is an ESB that I've fine-tuned to something I really really like.

I do a lot of historical ales. One of my favorite references is "Old British Beers And How To Make Them" by the Durden Park Beer Circle. (self published, google if you're interested).

I also use "American Handy Book of the Brewing, Malting and Auxiliary Trades" published in 1901 by Robert Wahl and Max Heinus. A collection of pre-prohibition brewing techniques and beer styles. Available on Google Books. Includes a direct description of the elusive Kentucky Common.

There are plenty of other good historical brewing references on Google Books of you're interested.

I use source material as much as possible, rather than following directions from a web side that copied something from some other website that came from a homebrew forum that was copied from rec.craft.brewing (etc...get my drift?).
Click to expand...

Where were you in my what to brew for 1920's themed party thread? :p

But to answer the OP's question. I tend to brew mostly new recipes I've made myself from the bases of rock solid recipes I've found on the internet and made previously. Sometimes I try to emulate a beer I love, or to focus in on a flavor I'm craving. This winter was focused on heavy, imperial beers, this summer is looking to be a focus on lighter session ales and lagers.

I always try to add a new technique to each session or to just work with a ingredient I've never used before. I think it helps me grow.
 

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