Do you experiment or stick with what you know?

[steinsato]

So I have been brewing about 2-3 5 gallon batches of beer a month for 1 year now. In the past year, I have never repeated a recipe. Hell I've hardly brewed the same style more than 2 times each. Now I'm thinking of fine tuning my Kolsch, Schwarzbier, and my IPA.

Just wondering what others do as far as picking styles to brew. Do you usually stick with a recipe you know and trust and try to perfect it or are you constantly trying new styles and recipes while you look for the next "great" beer?

 

[Malticulous]

I have my perfected proven recipes but I'll add new things to them. Seldom do I rebrew it exactly. When I order specialty malts or new hops both my experimental and old stand by recipes end up with some of them. That way I really get a good idea of what they have to offer and I get more of an idea of how to use them to make even more great recipes.

 

[BuonAnno]

We drink a lot at home and my wife really doesn't like the experimental stuff. This is why every other batch I do is a Cream Ale or Pale Ale. This way we always have something on tap and then tons of other stuff aging.

Personally I would like to upgrade to a 5 or 6 tap system and start brewing 15 gallon batches so I only have to brew my Haus Pale or Haus Cream once every two months and the rest of the taps can be devoted to different styles.

 

[JJL]

My brewing path has been somewhat similar to yours. When I first started, I tried every recipe under the sun. I was like a kid in a candy store. I wanted to try brewing everything. Now, I have gotten to the point where there are a handful of beers I really like, and I brew them regularly, but I tweak them. I still experiment with and without recipes, but I brew a smaller variety of styles now than I used to.

 

[steinsato]

JJL I Don't mean to hijack my own thread but have been to the New Glarus Brewery and tried their Golden Ale yet? I was just there last weekend and that beer is absolutely amazing. Apparently it's only available at the brewery. It has a bit of Brett in it so it's a bit sour but damn it is definitely one of the best beers I have ever had. I'm going to have my parents head up there soon and stock up on it for me.

 

[Bmorebrew]

I tend to stick with what are tried and true recipes. Eventually I'll strike out on my own and develop my own recipes, but I seriously doubt I'll ever make anything like a 22% Black Imperial Blueberry Rye.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I have a long list of beers I want to try brewing or want to have more on hand, and I'm more excited about trying something new. However, I am brewing my first rebrew of my first batch (with an original AG recipe instead of an extract kit) and I have a couple of my recipes I did small batches that I plan on brewing again in bigger batches.

 

[SumnerH]

So I have been brewing about 2-3 5 gallon batches of beer a month for 1 year now. In the past year, I have never repeated a recipe. Hell I've hardly brewed the same style more than 2 times each. Now I'm thinking of fine tuning my Kolsch, Schwarzbier, and my IPA.

Just wondering what others do as far as picking styles to brew. Do you usually stick with a recipe you know and trust and try to perfect it or are you constantly trying new styles and recipes while you look for the next "great" beer?

In my last 32 batches (what I have logs for), I've done 25 different beers. My kristalweizen, Irish stout, Cali common, Centennial IPA, hoppy British IPA, and Amarillo IPA are the repeat offenders.

I have a 3-keg setup. Usually 2 taps are getting some mix of the repeat offenders or something that is pretty normal that I think might enter that rotation. The other may get an experiment or not depending on mood (e.g. my current ginger-bergamot witbier), but nothing crazy big/long-aging goes on tap.

When the pipeline is full (all taps are up and 1-2 backup kegs conditioning), I brew stuff to bottle that I hope will age well and that I won't want to have tying up a keg for months or years--big barleywines, RISes, Belgian strongs, sours, etc. Special occasion stuff. Or something like a bugged saison or all-brett pale ale that can go on tap but will take longer than usual to get there.

 

[curlyfat]

Most of my brews have been impulsive brews, or brewing with the ingredients I have on hand (I usually buy a lot of grain and hops at a time, allowing me to be spontaneous).

This year, however, I decided to start perfecting 3 recipes to keep on tap. A blonde, an IPA, and a stout. Then my fourth tap can be my impulsive rotating beers!

 

[cheezydemon3]

EXPERIMENT!!!!!!!!!!!

Tried and true is great, but I have happened upon serious discoveries in my 5 or 6 years that have led to my best beers.

 

[jessup]

EXPERIMENT!!!!!!!!!!!

^this! how else can you learn. break rules, try new things & trust your tastedubs and imagination over guidelines found in books. i've created plenty of tasty brew by adding too much specialty malt and tossing in adjuncts and yeasts usually not traditionally used in certain styles. DO IT!!

i guess eventually you can weed out what works and tweak recipes until perfect. until then...

 

[Heckle]

I consider myself an experimental extract/pm brewer. I like to get recipes and changing them up some.

 

[JDennis]

I got bored with kits fairly early on, and have been experimenting more with other peoples recipes lately.
I really like to brew with ingredients I get from friends and family. Fresh Blueberries from a friends farm, tart cherries from my parents trees, whole hops from my brothers garden, etc. When I want to use things like that I will look for a fairly basic recipe for whatever style I'm doing ( oatmeal stout for the blueberries, wheat for the cherries, IPA for the hops ) and work my ideas into them. It's worked well for me so far.

 

[cheezydemon3]

^this! how else can you learn. break rules, try new things & trust your tastedubs and imagination over guidelines found in books. i've created plenty of tasty brew by adding too much specialty malt and tossing in adjuncts and yeasts usually not traditionally used in certain styles. DO IT!!

i guess eventually you can weed out what works and tweak recipes until perfect. until then...

 

[KyleWolf]

I have yet to brew the same thing twice. And because of it I have stumbled across beers I never thought I would make. An Oak Stock Ale named "Ent", my Maharaja inspired IPA, and a true pride of mine, made from scratch with no base recipes to look off of, my Honey Rye Saison. Though, I do believe I will rebrew these in the near future, as of this moment, everything has been new to me.

This may also be because I only have room for 4 kegs and afraid I am going to end up just keeping the same old stuff.

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

I have dreams of going pro (have yet to really start the clock on my 5-year plan) so I'm trying to perfect my flagship recipes. The 5 I've identified as flagship have been brewed many, many times, with small tweaks and process changes to figure out what works best. I still find time 3-4 times a year to crank out some real oddballs though. I've got the peanutbutter cup stout in secondary right now

 

[neovox]

Are you guys brewing 5 gallon batches for your exerimentals or smaller batches?

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

Are you guys brewing 5 gallon batches for your exerimentals or smaller batches?

I've never done anything but 5-gallon batches, except for wines and meads...

 

[cheezydemon3]

5 gallons!!!!!


What if it's the best ever?

 

[KyleWolf]

5 gallons, except the port (1 gal), and the porter (3 gal). Only reason we did 3 gal of the porter is because it was the only fermenter open.

 

[Teromous]

I find that even by using a good recipe, it takes a solid brewing process to really get it right. I started out wanting to experiment and try a lot of things, but I've found that I'd rather focus on getting a consistent recipe and do micro-experimentation to improve on flaws. Experimentation doesn't have to be in using crazy adjuncts or wild whizbang fruits. It can be done by amplifying what is good in a recipe, or rectifying what is not. Maybe this time you try fermenting a little lower, or try an open fermentation? Sometimes the things breweries do, we are not told to do in traditional homebrew books.

For me experimentation isn't always going outside the box, but rather trying another approach.