benko
Well-Known Member
This question has its roots in a little bit of brewing self-doubt, which I know goes against the whole RDWHAHB philosophy, but I wanted to ask it anyway.
How frequently are you brewing what you consider an "awesome" beer? By this, I mean if you thought of your top few favorite beers, this would be one of them. I've brewed about fifteen batches now, and I'd say that only one (a hefeweizen) has been the type of beer that I would order several of at a bar. None of my beers have been bad. They've all tasted like decent beer, with no major problems, but they didn't blow my socks off, either. I don't want to kid myself and say that every beer I brew is the greatest I've ever had.
For example, consider the commercial craft beers out there. Out of every 10 new beers I try, probably 2 or 3 I don't care for at all, 5 to 6 are pretty average, and 1 or 2 will be beers that I really like and would order again and again. How many of your brews turn out to be that 1 or 2?
On a somewhat related note: What's your preferred approach to making that killer beer. Do you brew completely different recipes, and occasionally you hit one out of the park? Or do you find one that's promising, and then brew that same recipe over and over, making minor tweaks, until you reach your goal? If you do the latter, how often would you say it takes you to "dial in" your recipe?
Thanks for any thoughts. I'm really curious as to how you guys go about it.
How frequently are you brewing what you consider an "awesome" beer? By this, I mean if you thought of your top few favorite beers, this would be one of them. I've brewed about fifteen batches now, and I'd say that only one (a hefeweizen) has been the type of beer that I would order several of at a bar. None of my beers have been bad. They've all tasted like decent beer, with no major problems, but they didn't blow my socks off, either. I don't want to kid myself and say that every beer I brew is the greatest I've ever had.
For example, consider the commercial craft beers out there. Out of every 10 new beers I try, probably 2 or 3 I don't care for at all, 5 to 6 are pretty average, and 1 or 2 will be beers that I really like and would order again and again. How many of your brews turn out to be that 1 or 2?
On a somewhat related note: What's your preferred approach to making that killer beer. Do you brew completely different recipes, and occasionally you hit one out of the park? Or do you find one that's promising, and then brew that same recipe over and over, making minor tweaks, until you reach your goal? If you do the latter, how often would you say it takes you to "dial in" your recipe?
Thanks for any thoughts. I'm really curious as to how you guys go about it.