does style matter??

[jabberwalkie]

I officially have brewed a handful of times and am now looking to put together my next batch. I have saved several recipes that i was interested in, but I really want to experiment and play around with different ingredients. Most, that I have talked to, have said brew something you like drinking. Research the history, common ingredients, style guidelines and try out a couple commercial examples of that particular style. This makes lots of sense but if Im really doing this for my own enjoyment does brewing a particular style really matter, would it be ok to pick a base malt/extract add a specialty grain or two and have at it?

I understand that brewing recipes gives the noob a better idea of what certain grains can bring to the table as well as broadening the world of beer to those that have been limited. Honesty, I find the BJCP over whelming and enjoy so many different kinds of beer that i really cant commit to just one style or even a recipe for that matter. Am I setting myself up for failure?

 

[jerbrew]

Nope. There's a reason why style guidelines change. They're a way for us to describe and judge beers based on certain desired qualities. For example, Black IPA wasn't always a part of me the BJCP guidelines.

Brewing what you like and designing recipes to taste is an excellent way to brew in my opinion. Just don't get out of control. Experimenting is great but you can't change too many things or you won't know the cause of something you like or dislike. Starting off by SMaSH brewing and adding different specialty grains is an excellent way to develop a grain bill and understand ingredients. Honestly, I think playing with hops or yeast is the easy part the grain bills are where you make and break a recipe.

 

[GPP33]

Don't listen to him. Style guidelines must be strictly adhered to. Creativity outside of the established boundaries is shunned upon in this sub culture. All good things that can come from beer have already been discovered.

I think what people are saying is start somewhere you know you'll enjoy (thus the styles) and let your creative juices run from there. If you start with a totally blank slate you'll probably end up wasting time reinventing the wheel. If you have a pretty good idea of what works then have at it.

 

[BarkingSpider]

I would say that style gives you some rails to learn on but there's no reason you have to stick to them. Some people might like having the definition that it brings, others may feel that it confines them. I would say do what you are comfortable with. One of my first and favorite books is Randy Mosher's "Radical Brewing", and I suspect it may be up your alley.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Some people want to make a lot of cheap beer, which is a valid pursuit. Some want to make the best beer in the world based on an arbitrary set of standards or if you enter your beer in a contest, a less arbitrary set of standards.

It sounds like you like to experiment. Great have at it, but do yourself a favor and at least consider what you are trying to accomplish. That way you can grow and learn as you brew. Whatever you want, you should try to do it better next time or why try at all? Of course you are in the drivers seat and can change your focus whenever you want, but for me personally, I have had the most fun doing it my own way.

Here are a list of motivators. Consistency, quality, recognition, personal satisfaction, innovation. Do some soul searching and find your muse. For me it is doing something not everyone does and that goes for the way I brew as well as homebrewing itself. I also want to accomplish what I set out to do. If I make a brown ale, I want it to resemble a brown ale. I'm not too hard on myself if everything doesn't go as planned, but I love learning new things and have really enjoyed the process of making my own beer. Whatever you do, have fun. That is the greatest motivator of all for my money.

+1 On BarkingSpiders recommendation for Radical Brewing, with the caveat that his brew/aging times are ridiculously long.

 

[55x11]

I officially have brewed a handful of times and am now looking to put together my next batch. I have saved several recipes that i was interested in, but I really want to experiment and play around with different ingredients. Most, that I have talked to, have said brew something you like drinking. Research the history, common ingredients, style guidelines and try out a couple commercial examples of that particular style. This makes lots of sense but if Im really doing this for my own enjoyment does brewing a particular style really matter, would it be ok to pick a base malt/extract add a specialty grain or two and have at it?

I understand that brewing recipes gives the noob a better idea of what certain grains can bring to the table as well as broadening the world of beer to those that have been limited. Honesty, I find the BJCP over whelming and enjoy so many different kinds of beer that i really cant commit to just one style or even a recipe for that matter. Am I setting myself up for failure?

Everyone should experiment beyond guidelines, i do it all the time.
But the BJCP guidelines have some meaning and I will defend them.

Just like with cooking - you can overcook your steak, and over-salt it and over-season it, and thats why we have recipes.

Besides, if you want to call your beer IPA instead of Pale Ale, or Porter instead of Pilsner, perhaps you need some guidance on this. Nobody stops you from making some random beer, but if you want to call it X, someone should have a reference to what X is, or at least what people generally refer to X as.

 

[RM-MN]

There are some good reasons for guidelines but pushing the boundaries is what homebrewing is about for you. However, I would caution you to push the boundaries gently at first as there is a basis for those boundaries. Although you might like Crystal malts in your beer, too much can make it pretty bad. Same goes for roasted malts. When the majority of recipes call for 4 ounces of roasted barley, putting in 12 might not be a good idea. On the other hand, I took a pale ale recipe that called for Crystal 20 and substituted Crystal 80. I liked the results, you may or may not. The beer I got would not fit the guidelines for a pale ale.

 

[Norselord]

 

[kh54s10]

Like said, if you don't know what the ingredients will impart, you are likely to make something awful. If you do have some idea, experimentation is great fun. I usually start from something I know, recipe or brew I have previously done. Then I make changes to something I would like to achieve. I try not to go too far outside the box.

 

[ericbw]

I don't think styles matter so much, after all that's how styles developed. They made a certain kind of beer in an area, and that became the style. Usually, it was because of limitations like the water available, the temperatures, the yeast, etc. So you can make your own style and it might be good.

But it could take time to experiment to get it good, whereas people have done that work for you over thousands of years.

So while you don't need recipes, you do need formulas or ratios. Start with the alcohol level you want, and that determines your base grain amount. Then learn how much of a specialty grain gives a certain quality. A little roasted barley (half an ounce per gallon) makes it red and gives it a little roasty flavor. More (a couple of ounces per gallon) makes it darker and roastier. A little crystal malt gives body; a lot makes it sweeter.

So I think it makes sense to figure out a basic recipe, then experiment with specialty grains, hops, yeast, or even adding fruit or spices. Or try the same recipe with different yeast.

And let's all face it that we're not coming up with some secret thing that's going to revolutionize beer.

 

[mongoose33]

I've been brewing for almost a year. I have 23 batches done. Shifted to all-grain after the 3rd batch. Thank you HBT for accelerating my learning curve.

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Early in this journey, I was somehow convinced that I had to brew to style. I had a couple of people try my beers and they were asking what style it was. Nothing about whether it tasted good, they were trying to judge it against a style.

I told them a style, they seemed to think it was a fair representation of that style--and yet, I didn't really know whether the beer represented it or not. About this time, I started to wonder whether I was more interested in producing beer that matched a style or whether I was more interested in producing beer I wanted to drink.

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Since then, I've focused on brewing beers I want to drink. I've done pretty well with styles when I've tried to produce them, but I brewed them only because I wanted to drink them. Some styles I'll likely never brew. I absolutely detest Belgians, for instance. White beers are, IMO, gross. I can choke down wheat beers, but I'd prefer something of my own.

I have done some experimenting, and they've come out well--good enough that people drinking them want another, which IMO is the ultimate endorsement. I've even come in second for "best of show" at my LHBC monthly meeting, which was nice. But I can't figure out whether I'd rather win a medal or have a tasty beer, because sometimes the two are incompatible to me. Usually it's the second, for who wants to have almost 5 gallons of beer that won a medal but isn't a favorite?

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I think there may be some value in trying to brew to a style if you want to drink it, and as a measure of how well your process is able to produce a particular style.

I wholeheartedly agree with others above--take established recipes, deviate from them a bit in a direction that sounds delicious to you, see what you get. Maybe make a smash or two. I've made two smashes, both with Maris Otter as my malt and with EKG and Styrian Celeia as the hops. The second, with Styrian Celeia, presents for all the world as if it's a lager, even though it's brewed as an ale. People who like BMC-type lagers like it, which means....experimenting allowed me to discover a beer that mimics a lager without all the hoo-haw involved in making one.

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I'm still new enough to remember how ignorant I was at the beginning of this journey. Some ignorance remains, of course. But the one thing I'd suggest anyone new to do is brew established recipes known to produce good beer. Once you've done such a recipe and it came out delicious, then tweak as you like. But if you adjust too many variables and it doesn't quite work, you'll not be easily able to isolate what it was that went south on you.

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Enjoy!

 

[TheMadKing]

If you want to learn your ingredients, make SMASH beers. IMO there is no better way of learning base malts and hop varieties.