I can't control myself!

I have my ingrediants for my next 6-7 brews. Yet I am constantly looking over different recipes and thinking, "hmm, I could make that," even though I don't have half the ingrediants. Or, "Oooh, what if I made an all Amarillo IPA?" (even though my Amarillo hops are set aside for my next DFH). Maybe I'll just buy hops I don't need, for a recipe I don't have, just in case.
I need to get myself under control, strap in, and make what I've got. No point in buying more when I already have what I need.
Right? Right?

On this note... do you guys find yourselves rethinking your brew plans? Does anyone have brew plans, or do you all just go brew by the seat of your pants (ie, decide what to make the day of)?

I wish I felt the same. After re-evaluating my inventories it appears I have nearly achieved a hoarding staus. Even tho I would only get an ounce or two each time I was at the LHBS.

Right now, I have more hops than I have grain to brew with and little time even if I had the grain.

Edit: I used to plan it all out but over time I found that come brew day my "taste" had changed and I would re-formulate a recipe that day or the night before. Now a days I try to keep a little bit of everything I like to use and just fly by the seat of my inventory pants.

I usually start planning a brewday a couple of weeks in advance. I do find though that the earlier I start the more I start to second guess what I want to make. Like right now, I am planning on brewing in the next few days and I am settled on making an IPA as one batch but I keep going back and forth on my second batch. I've been wanting to make a Moose Drool Clone but I also really want to do a Red Rocket Clone. Dammit! Too many damn chooses. On the bright side either way I'm going to have some great beer in the near future. It's tough being a homebrewer

I like to plan out my brews well in advance. Sometimes I'll tinker with a recipe for weeks until I come up with something I have to try. I hear what you're saying, though. There are so many great brews to be made that it can be hard to discern those which must be made right now.

I just bought around 60lbs of grain from AHB, hopefully enough to hold me for the winter.
I tend to rethink my recipes too, I play anagram games with my grain/hops bills to see if I cant somehow squeeze an extra brew out of the grains I have. I also tend to change my mind a lot about which yeast strain to use on a particular brew, ever since my first hefeweissen I've fallen in love with the variety of yeast strains and all the amazing flavors they can create.

Glad to hear I'm not alone. I'm also trying to keep a balance between bottled brews (like the stought which will be put aside for a few months), and beers for tap. Trying to keep a good mix of light and dark brews. My upcoming list (in no particular order) is:
oatmeal stout, porter, summit smash, DFH clone, scottish 80/-, and dunkelweizen. I've got 35 lb of us 2-row, 15 lb of mo, a plethora of adjuncts and specialties ("Hefe, do you know what a plethora is?"), and 2+ lb of various hops. I love to brew. If it just weren't for this pesky full-time job...

k1v1116 said:

I just bought around 60lbs of grain from AHB, hopefully enough to hold me for the winter.

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I have 25 pounds of Vienna, enough for...life? A long time anyway.

I meant to order 5 pounds to have on hand, so I added a 5 pound bag to my cart. When checking my cart I changed the quantity from 1 to 5 (because I'm thinking...I need 5 pounds...never shop drunk) and boy was I surprised when I received five 5 pound bags of Vienna.

I'm not a smart man. But I've got me some Vienna.

jacksonbrown said:

Does anyone have brew plans, or do you all just go brew by the seat of your pants

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Are you kidding me?
I once changed entire styles of beer 3 times between the mash and the bottle!

Started out shooting for a lager, then decided cream ale, and before it was all said and done, I had made a nice APA!

Plans are for pussies! and those with more willpower than I have...cause I'm just not going to stick to it anyway.

("Hefe, do you know what a plethora is?")

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LOL

BigKahuna said:

Are you kidding me?
I once changed entire styles of beer 3 times between the mash and the bottle!

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LOL, that's encouraging and inspiring. But ****, I'm still making an oatmeal stout tomorrow. I've been putting this off for 3 weeks. Ach!

Sometimes I think I know what my pipeline is, but it changes plenty. Sometimes I have a commercial brew I really like and want a similar one, or see a recipe that I would love to try and all my plans change

Last week I realized that I have the entire ingredients to make 30 gallons of beer; four 5 gallon recipes and one 10 gallon recipe. Regardless, I have still been pondering what to make next.

Did I mention I have a dining room half full of bottles? Full bottles?

I wonder if there's an AA analogue for brewing.

*stands up* "Hello, my name is EvilTOJ, and I am addicted to brewing"

Sometimes it's all planned ahead and when I get to the supply house they don't have this or that so I make it up on the fly. To me brewing is like cooking - I have an idea of what I want to make and then add my own personal variation to it. It may not end up as what I intended when I started, but it's always good.