what's the deal?

I have been brewing for only ,well almost a year now. But as soon as I started the first chance I got, I was experimenting with my own recipies. Why is everybody so infatuated with mimicking all the old world styles? I can understand learning from years of brewing practices and appreciate the knowledge that is available. But to me the the whole fun of cooking or brewing is making your own recipe. And when are we going to start attaching Americana to todays brews that we are thinking up every day? I just know there is a wealth of expierience in home craft brews that came from imagination and are damn good. It's time you marked your place in brewing history. Let's make competitions that are of exsclusivly Americana! After all we make damn good beer here!:rockin:

I'm still a huge fan of making classic styles of beer, but I've done a few strange ones as well.

My reason is that it takes a fair amount of skill to have your beer turn out exactly how you want it to. All of my beers have been good, but many of them were not what I intended to make. Brewing the classics helps me get a feel for what ingredients and processes results in what characteristics in the final beer, because I have something to reference it with.

Either way, I guess the answer to your question is that, for me, making a classic beer is just fun, often more so than making some unique brew.

My appreciation of fine beers coincided with learning to brew. So as I was discovering these wonderful brews I couldn't help but want to try my hand at copying them. I feel it's part of the learning curve. You taste the real thing, you brew it. This would give a much better understanding of what impact an ingredient has in varying proportions. To go directly to making my own recipes is to stab blindly in the dark as far as I'm concerned.

Basically, just about everything has been done already, so even if a recipe is new to you, it's out there somewhere. I know how to brew good beer, I know how to make a good recipe. The beers I make on a regular basis are my own recipes, but all of them are derivative. By brewing a known recipe, you demonstrate that you can brew properly. Only then can you accurately evaluate changes.

I also like to clone brews I can't get locally. There are hundreds of variations out there and it's fun to see how other people approach a style.

I understand and agree with everything your all saying. I just think it would be nice to see more American styles based on local water chemistry, hop varieties, grain etc. recognized as just that"American". And included in competitions and kits. I think we would be stupid to ignore all the knowledge that comes from old world styles. And I know it's a challenge to replicate them. But even if everything has been done. Everything certainly hasn't been recognized.:rockin:

thndrdad said:

I understand and agree with everything your all saying. I just think it would be nice to see more American styles based on local water chemistry, hop varieties, grain etc. recognized as just that"American". And included in competitions and kits. I think we would be stupid to ignore all the knowledge that comes from old world styles. And I know it's a challenge to replicate them. But even if everything has been done. Everything certainly hasn't been recognized.:rockin:

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Since you threw down the gauntlet, lets see your "new tradition" regional chicory and saffron ale.

I don't know about the saffron.... But I have considerd a sasafrass and mimosa root brew. The possibilities are endless!

I'd beg to differ with the original post. How many styles in the BJCP have "American" next to them? Since craft brew and homebrew took off in the late 70's we've been making our beers with our own interpretation. Replications of old styles but with the american versions of the ingredients.

And I'd go as far to say that we are starting to see differentiations in style across the country. If someone brews something that is a "West Coast" version of a style, you expect it to be big and in your face. How many Pacific NW breweries use ingredients that are local?

I think part of the problem is that there are only so many suppliers for ingredients and even then the differences between them are small. I can expect the same ingredients in New York or Los Angeles. With the exception of adding other ingredients such as fruit, chiles, vegetables, spices, etc. theres not much variation in ingredients.

It's a personal choice...we make what we like, think we would like, etc.

I lived in German for 9 years so I am very partial to their brews. And if I can brew it cheaper than purchasing it here I'm ahead of the game.

Except for Blue Moon (when it was Coors) I haven't had a Bud, Miller, Coors (BMC) procuct since 1975. Also, if I had to give up HB'ing for some unforeseen reason I wouldn't revert back to either of them.

BTW, the majority of, if not all, those "Americana" brews came from Europe...

I count twelve. I didn't mean for this to be a big deal or offend anybody. Like I said I applaud all styles of brewing, and or brewing pursuits. Now lets make some apple pie ale and get it in the books!

Some around here (Arizona) has to have tried a prickly pear lambic or something, right? That's something I want to try.

thndrdad said:

And when are we going to start attaching Americana to todays brews that we are thinking up every day? I just know there is a wealth of expierience in home craft brews that came from imagination and are damn good. It's time you marked your place in brewing history. Let's make competitions that are of exsclusivly Americana! After all we make damn good beer here!:rockin:

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From the OP, it sounds like they're asking for competitions that are exclusively for american style beers. I'm not very familiar with competitions but I would imagine limiting them to just American styles would be simpler in terms of judging. I think it would be a great idea.

Great Beer spans the world, not just America.

What's the point of this thread?

There are plenty of really good "American" beers, and in fact the craft beer industry in this country is arguable overrun with over-the-top hoppy PNW-type ales. But, there's plenty of room for brewing very traditional styles. I personally enjoy the challenge of creating an authetic example of a classic style, be it a hefe or a bock or whatever. Don't always hit the mark, but I learn something in the process.

When I started out, I wanted to make all kinds of crazy things, but what I found quickly was that I was getting too far away from making good beer and too far towards making stuff that was weird just to be weird.

But, to each his own.

Styles came into existance because ingredients, people, and beers were essentially geographically isolated. The more that ingredients and beers can be exported and people travel, the less and less a style has meant. In this day and age, the "style" listed on your beer has as much to do with the marketing of the beer as the ingredients that went into it.

My 2 cents: "Styles" exist because they work and they are good. So "styles" are always a good place to start. But a "style" doesn't always have to be where you end up.