How many of you brew "to style?"

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ModernDayNord

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Almost every beer I've brewed can fit neatly into one of the BJCP categories, but I'm beginning to feel shackled by it. If everyone were to always brew to style no new ones will ever exist.

I think Sam Adams Boston Lager is a good example. American 2-row, caramel 60, German noble hops and lager yeast does not fit into any BJCP category and IMO is a great beer.

I was thinking, what about a "German Pale Ale," German malt base (pilsner with a bit of munich or wheat) with substantial hop bittering (Magnum/Northern Brewer?), lots of noble flavor/aroma additions, and fermentation with a German Ale yeast (or Kolsch yeast). Basically an APA using all German ingredients.

Or perhaps re-define the American Pilsener. Why should ALL American lager styles be flavorless and full of adjunct? Use American 2-row, NO corn/rice, with American (Cascade?) hopping and lager yeast. Brew as a German Pils with all American ingredients.

Penny for your thoughts?
Cheers.
 
Or perhaps re-define the American Pilsener. Why should ALL American lager styles be flavorless and full of adjunct? Use American 2-row, NO corn/rice, with American (Cascade?) hopping and lager yeast. Brew as a German Pils with all American ingredients.

Penny for your thoughts?
Cheers.

Well, what about "premium American lager" which is frequently all malt. That is a great beer, and I like it every bit as much as a German pilsner.

I brew to style often, but I have several recipes that fit in no known style- a too-hoppy American amber, a Fat Tire-ish beer with German malt, etc.

I brew what I like. I love IPAs, but with less harsh and strong bitterness than some commercial IPAs (but with more flavor and aroma hops), so I brew that about every third beer in some way or another!
 
it depends on what I want to brew. sometimes I want to brew an APA, sometimes I want to brew a Belgian Strong with Horehound candy, and I think next brew will be a Saison with rose hips.
 
I brew what I like as well but I have several beers that are to style and more than a few that are not.

I enjoy them all. Sometimes it's fun to try and nail a style and since i do the occasional comp it's a challenge to nail it and place well!
 
It's not like it is a binary choice. You can brew whatever you want. If I am doing a brew as part of a demonstration for new brewers, I typically brew to style so that people can more easily understand what I'm making. Sometimes I will just get in the mood for a particular style and brew it. Other times, I get an idea for a beer and create a recipe for it. Sometimes that fits into the style guidelines, but usually it does not unless you count the various "specialty" categories.
 
I think next brew will be a Saison with rose hips.

Things like this also kind of spurred my curiosity. A lot of breweries are beginning to add unconventional ingredients to beer (fruits, spices, etc) and while not normally a fan, someone enticed me with a cherry Saison.

I guess the existence of styles is necessary for competition so that beers are compared "apples to apples" and also for marketing (so we know what kind of beer we're buying). I just feel like I've restricted myself for the last 6 years, call it stifled creativity...
 
Things like this also kind of spurred my curiosity. A lot of breweries are beginning to add unconventional ingredients to beer (fruits, spices, etc) and while not normally a fan, someone enticed me with a cherry Saison.

I guess the existence of styles is necessary for competition so that beers are compared "apples to apples" and also for marketing (so we know what kind of beer we're buying). I just feel like I've restricted myself for the last 6 years, call it stifled creativity...
I was exactly the opposite. I jumped the gate trying all sorts of stuff before I really tried to nail a style.
 
I brew to the style that I like and enjoy drinking. Can I brew to style yes have I yes but I really like playing and drinking great beer.
Besides at one time the only thing to style was sour's thank god for open fermentation. Was able to go to a tasting and Skype with the brew master of New Belgian he said 200 years ago a signal yeast strain beer was unheard of.
 
I use some of the style guidelines as a rough guide when formulating my recipe. Its a starting point for me, not something that I let limit what I want to ultimately end up with.
 
I was constrained (self constrained) by brewing to style for the first year or so. Belgians had to be just so and bottled, IPA's had to be like a Double Jack, etc. Been stepping out of the boundries the last couple of years and never looked back. Though I still derive a lot of pleasure and brew a lot of great beer playing close to the vest at times....
 
I use some of the style guidelines as a rough guide when formulating my recipe. Its a starting point for me, not something that I let limit what I want to ultimately end up with.

This is what I do. All my new recipes fit a style guideline then get tweaked after I taste until I have what I was looking for.
 
I rarely brew to a style.

When I start formulating a recipe, I start from the flavor I want and work backwards to the grains and hops I need. Then I start thinking about styles when it comes to yeast selection. Then I start refining hops and grains based upon the yeast and base style I selected. I iterate that a few times until I think I have something that both meets the flavor profile I want and makes sense with with a style. But rarely is what I end up with strictly within style guidelines.
 
I brew differently when I'm brewing what I drink and what I might enter. If I might enter it, I'll brew to style and do something special (like add a couple ounces of smoked malt, or lemon zest). When I'm brewing what I want to drink, I'll usually jump out of the style guidelines in one aspect (Irish Red with lots of American Hops), or have a weird ingredient in an otherwise standard beer (heavily black peppered wit).
 
I have use brewing to style as a tool to help me learn malts and hops and yeasts. I still do brew to styles, although not to the BJCP style guidelines specifically. I usually have some sort of romantic ideal of what a style would represent to the people who were/are drinking/brewing it and go from there.

Then I go crazy and brew sour saisons with rosehips and hibiscus. Or hoppy red ales that really don't fit anywhere. But brewing the classics helped me learn how to manipulate what the ingredients give me and arrive at the creations I have come up with.
 
Most of my beers are either to style or to style but... Meaning its an amber ale but too hoppy, a saision but session strength, a Porter but with 30% rauchmalt.
 
The beers I design for work have all been to style except one.
The beers I design for myself vary, many are to style but others start as a style and veer off from there.


Edit: Forgot to include sessions, so maybe 6 for work have been "outside style"
 
Not usually.

I mean I have brewed a coconut black ipa, a smoked maple oktoberfest, a imperial kiwi saison, a hopped black saison, Belgo american pale ale etc.


I think I may have brewed two or maybe 3 beers to an actual style.
 
I personally like to take base styles and add to them. One beer that I've been making for 5 years now is my Apple-Honey Pale Ale, pale ale base (on the high edge of the IBU scale to balance) with 8 pounds of apples and 4 pounds of honey. When non-homebrewers ask me why I homebrew I always tell them its because of how dynamic beer can be... It's only limited by your imagination and patience.

That said, I am now starting to get into comps and find it a fun challenge to brew to style.
 
No, not me. I have yet to follow a recipe to the letter. Way back when I was learning to make wine and cider from my grandfather, he always said - make it how you like it and them what you share with.
I read Charlie Papazian's book and took to heart; RDWHAHB and figured I couldn't make myself conform to styles, recipes or anything else. So that's what I do, I relax, don't worry and ferment my drinkables the way I want to.
 
I brew to style often.... I mean, let's be honest, there are A LOT of "styles." The reason they are styles is that they are tried and true beers that people like, a lot. 9 times out of 10 if you think you are going to invent a "new" style - it is going to be bad. If it was good, it would become a new style......

That being said... I am not a slave to style, and I don't think anyone else should be, nor would I ever pretend that others should have to brew to style. One of my favorite beers I brew is an "Oatmeal Amber Ale" that goes about 50 IBU's and uses 30% munich Malt..... not really to "style" by any means.

To be honest, I am not a big fan of the "so, I found this stuff and I put it in my beer because it might be good" philosophy. Like I said - there are brew "styles" because they are good, and people like them. I think if you want to brew good beer, you should learn to brew to style first, and then modify from there. If you can't brew to style, the odds that you are going to "invent" something good is about zero. On the off chance you do invent something good, the odds of you repeating it are about zero as well (if you are not able to brew to style).

No one should feel as if they are not "allowed" to experiment or put their own stamp on something, but the styles are a very worthwhile starting point for any experiment you might want to do (IMO).
 
Almost every beer I've brewed can fit neatly into one of the BJCP categories, but I'm beginning to feel shackled by it. If everyone were to always brew to style no new ones will ever exist.

I think Sam Adams Boston Lager is a good example. American 2-row, caramel 60, German noble hops and lager yeast does not fit into any BJCP category and IMO is a great beer.

I was thinking, what about a "German Pale Ale," German malt base (pilsner with a bit of munich or wheat) with substantial hop bittering (Magnum/Northern Brewer?), lots of noble flavor/aroma additions, and fermentation with a German Ale yeast (or Kolsch yeast). Basically an APA using all German ingredients.

Or perhaps re-define the American Pilsener. Why should ALL American lager styles be flavorless and full of adjunct? Use American 2-row, NO corn/rice, with American (Cascade?) hopping and lager yeast. Brew as a German Pils with all American ingredients.

Penny for your thoughts?
Cheers.
I think YOU are too constrained by reading too deeply into BJCP guidelines. Nowhere does it say an APA has to use American 2-row Pale Ale malt. Similarly, no judge out there is saying to himself, "Man, tastes like this Sam Adams uses American malt instead of German, can't put it in a German style category." Doesn't Surly use a ton of Golden Promise, and doesn't Firestone use a bunch of Maris Otter?

The palate defines taste, and taste defines style. Brew to the palate, ignoring country of origin, and you'll start brewing some great, traditional beer.
 
You have to admit, though, an IPA with Pilsner or Munich malt and Merkur, Perle, Spalt, and/or Strisselspalt hops sounds really interesting. I may have to think about this some more.
 
I think YOU are too constrained by reading too deeply into BJCP guidelines. Nowhere does it say an APA has to use American 2-row Pale Ale malt. Similarly, no judge out there is saying to himself, "Man, tastes like this Sam Adams uses American malt instead of German, can't put it in a German style category." Doesn't Surly use a ton of Golden Promise, and doesn't Firestone use a bunch of Maris Otter?

The palate defines taste, and taste defines style. Brew to the palate, ignoring country of origin, and you'll start brewing some great, traditional beer.

+1

How many "american" IPA's use various "English" ale yeasts??? I put munich in almost every beer I brew.... maybe just a pound or two, but it adds malt backbone. I put flaked oats in 50-75% of the beers I brew..... Wheat too.... Maybe just a half pound of each - but it adds mouthfeel, complexity. ....To me, that is NOT out of style, it is simply enhancing a style that is already very popular.
 
I will try to brew to style nine times out of ten. Most of the beer I drink is homebrew, and I want to be able to keep drinking those styles. I also tend to think that until I can completely NAIL a traditional style, how can I possibly start going off on my own? It's like jazz - behind a great improvised solo are years of scales and exercises.
 
I also tend to think that until I can completely NAIL a traditional style, how can I possibly start going off on my own? It's like jazz - behind a great improvised solo are years of scales and exercises.

Yep - "before one can break the rules, one needs to learn to follow the rules."
 
I recently brewed a Vienna/Cascade SMaSH with s04 at 70 IBU's and dry hopped. Very tasty!

I say brew what you like and don't worry about what "box" it fits in to...
 
Most of mine are like my clothes. NO STYLE!

Even if I get a kit every now and then, I mess with it. I'd rather not stick to the "rules" I like to make stuff up. Sometimes, I'll try "cooking" styles when making beer. I've posted before, I'll caramelize honey before I put it in my beer. Sometimes I even rush to the cupboard to see what we have. Or go to the Asian market and try new stuff I've never heard of. I've even gotten grains sold for cooking at the middle eastern store.

It's supposed to be fun, right?!?
If it's drinkable, you win! (I have a 92%success rate)
 
While I have never brewed to a style on purpose I suppose some of my beers might fit a style. I just have not cared enough to look it up and try to fit any of my beers into a style.

And the beauty of home brewing is that those who brew to a style are not wrong and nor am I. I think it is great that some people can brew to a style and enjoy doing so but it is just not for me :D
 
Remember, brewing beer is an evolution, not a finite science. Push the limits! Remember what beer was like 100 years ago, and think what will be brewed in 100 years. You just might create the next big ...
 
My second brew was a bit of a disaster because I made up a recipe badly, so these days I tend to have at least a cursory look at the style guidelines for a bit of a "sense check" when I'm putting something together. It's for inspiration as much as anything else, in the same way as I look at recipes on here and elsewhere.

But I don't really follow them to the letter, unless that happens to be what I want to brew.
 
But here's the rub: competitions can be a great source of (relatively) unbiased feedback on our beers. So there's value in brewing to style in order to get feedback from judges. Otherwise -- if you're me -- you end up needing to enter all of your beers in the 'Specialty Beer' category.
 
I almost never brew to style. Beers are often inspired by a couple of styles but probably less than 1/3 of the beers I make are able to be entered into a competition. However, even with things that are not to style I often reference style guidelines to help me get an idea about the type of balance I'm trying to achieve.
 
SoupNazi said:
Remember, brewing beer is an evolution, not a finite science. Push the limits! Remember what beer was like 100 years ago, and think what will be brewed in 100 years. You just might create the next big ...

Haha!
I was talking to one of the 'old timers' at one of the LHSB, he was asking what I was brewing. He laughed at me and said "son, putting lemons and zest in at 20 min will kill your yeast!" I explained that I had always done it. Next visit, I took him a bottle, he said " this is damn good beer. I thought it would be too bitter, or just kill the yeast."

I explained to him how I've been playing with the recipe for a couple of years and yes, it would be too bitter if you did a huge 60 min hop addition.

He said "that's what's good a out some people not knowing the rules, you kids are crazy."
(I'm not a kid anymore, I'm 40, but took both as a complement.)
 
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