Planning the Pipeline! (Long non drunk ramble)

[Pyg]

How does one plan out their pipeline? I have found that entering my 2nd year of brewing I am trying stay focused and not impulsive as the last year.
Previously I would brew when I realized I was starting to run low. I would then scramble to find some recipe. I usually have a few I want to try, but they tend to get bumped when I read something on HBT and I get compulsive, thereby bumping everything else. Hence my winter of 3 stouts (breakfast clone, oatmeal stout and my train wreck version of the deception stout).

I currently have nothing fermenting, in 3 weeks I will be out of town, which I figure is the perfect time to to brew a week before I leave and this way upon my return I can bottle. But when I return I need to get fermenting for summer.
I have 2 issues (SWMBO would say I have many, many more):
1-What to make?
2- When to make it?

Now the first I think is getting easier, at first I was just making what I wanted, or thought I wanted, which was either cream ale, stout or pale ales.
The issue If any one of my few friends came over, none of which like PA or IPA, there was nothing for them to drink. Now with the discovery of Biermunchers Blonde, I can make and batch for the general beer drinker and then a batch for me.
Guess I can plan on alternating blonde-IPA/pale ale

Now the issue I have is what to make for me. I have found at 3 recipes (a citra IPA, hoppy thing from Tree House Brewing Company or a flower power clone)
All 3 will cost me a my monthly beer fund in hops & malt, which I understand is part of the game. But being on a limited budget I try to be cost effective and $60 for a batch of ingredients is only doable once a month, which is 2 paychecks.

So do you make an old standby that you know you will like or take a risk and make something flashy and hoppy, which in the end you end up drinking any way?
(my fear is that I will spend all this time, effort and money on something that is too bitter and undrinkable).

For the record I have never fermented 2 batches at the same time. While I have a slew of carboys, I tend to only use my bucket as I have a single cooler that I can provide a warm water bath.
Therefore my process is to ferment, bottle and cook the day after bottle day.

So I am curious how others plan their pipeline. How do you decide what you are brewing next?
Do you stick with clones?
Do you make random recipes you find on HBT?

I am just looking for any guidance on how to get regimented and planned, so I am not making this up week to week.

And as you can see from above, you get an idea why SWMBO will not discuss these matters with me.

 

[Psylocide]

I just keep brewing until my beer output can keep up with or exceed my intake. No planning as to styles, that kind of happens organically.

 

[day_trippr]

I have 5 regular faucets and one Stout faucet on nitro, about a dozen well-worn recipes all over the map, with a few that HAVE to be on tap lest the natives get restless.

So, four taps will always have a wheat, a hoppy pale, a wicked hoppy ipa, and a chocolate stout, while the last two rotate the other brews as well as the occasional new or experimental batch.

My pipeline is 12 kegs deep so there's almost always a half dozen kegs ready to go in the keezer - and available to a picnic tap sample if needed...

Cheers!

 

[Rhetorik]

I plan via what my natural progression of beer drinking dictates. I start the night with a lighter beer such as a blonde or pale ale, then I have an IPA, then an ESB/brown ale, and finish with a stout or porter. AKA, I always go from light to dark as the night moves on. So my aim is to keep some of each of these styles (within an acceptable measure of variability) on hand.

 

[Homercidal]

No planning. I brew what I think I want to drink next, and if my pipeline is good, then I brew what sounds interesting to try.

We just kicked off a "Homebrew League" in West Michigan (Grand Rapids area) and we are to brew a particular style every month. So I have a list of 7-8 beers that must be brewed to compete. (Not all members on a team have to brew, but ideally SOMEONE on the team will brew that month!)

Besides those, I'm thinking about an Oaked Bourbon IIPA. I've had a few over the years and just love them. Generally it's pretty random. Last week I brewed an IPA, because I haven't had an IPA on tap for long time.