Honing My Skills

[3 Dawg Night]

I think that one of the great things about this hobby is that it gives you a lot of time to think and analyze between batches. I'm working with a single fermentor right now, and I don't use a secondary. Therefore, I have three weeks (minimum) between brew days to think about what went well, what went not so well, and where I want to go next with my brewing. Without that break, I probably would have brewed 15 different crazy styles in the past two months, and I probably would have poured half of it down the drain.

When I decided to pick up brewing two months ago, I had a huge list of beer styles that I wanted to try to brew. As I've waited for my first three batches to ferment in succession, I've whittled that list down to a handful of styles that 1) are pretty basic and 2) I really enjoy drinking. I think this will allow me to really hone my brewing skills before I start branching out. I've settled on an American Amber Ale and an American Pale Ale as the two beers to focus on for now. I think I can just swap back and forth on those two for a year or so, tweaking my process and my recipes before branching out into more "exotic" styles.

How did you start your homebrewing journey? Did you jump around and try lots of different styles, or did you focus on one or two recipes until you mastered them? Pros/cons? Would you do things differently if you could go back?

 

[RM-MN]

I'm working with a single fermentor right now, and I don't use a secondary. Therefore, I have three weeks (minimum) between brew days to think about what went well, what went not so well, and where I want to go next with my brewing.

Unless I was short on bottles I would have shortened that to 10 days. I get a little more sediment in my bottles but not a huge amount and I get to practice every 10 days (not really, I have 5 fermenters )

 

[3 Dawg Night]

Unless I was short on bottles I would have shortened that to 10 days. I get a little more sediment in my bottles but not a huge amount and I get to practice every 10 days (not really, I have 5 fermenters )

I'm trying to do one week in primary and two weeks in secondary (which is also my primary). I'm hoping that will give my yeast plenty of time to clean things up.

I'm also the only beer drinker in my house, so every three weeks keeps on a good pace with my drinking!

 

[rburrelli]

Like a lot of us, I started with kits. Probably did that for a bit trying pale ales mostly. Then did some partial mash kits which included the White House honey porter kit. Then jumped to all grain and started exploring styles. Hefeweizen, wheat beer, amber ales, Irish stout, etcetera. A mix of some kits early but mostly doing my own recipes as my skills developed.
I tend to choose styles rather than just throwing things together. Not big in adjuncts until I get my skills honed. I certainly spend a lot of time researching and working on process improvement still after 5 years.

 

[Transamguy77]

I jumped around and didn’t brew the same style or recipe for at least a year. I also bought 4 fermenters over the first couple of months so there were points where I had 20 gallons fermenting. I also had a recycling center near me and went and got several cases of bottles so I didn’t have to buy them and just clean and delable.

I was someone who enjoyed a good beer but didn’t want to pay for it, I mostly drank yellow fizzy beer and when I started home brewing I made all kinds of styles to see what I liked. Over the course of 10 years I’ve only made the same recipe a handful of times. I try to have a few different beers on tap and I usually don’t drink the same beer all night.

I would change anything in my home brewing journey, I’m glad the way things progressed.

 

[davidabcd]

It doesn't hurt to make the same few recipes again and again since the focus will then be on a limited number of variables (yeast, room temp, procedure, etc.) and can isolate any errors.
Personally, I'm happy with brewing two or three different styles from here on out--Tripel, Quad and an Old English Ale. I don't need to improve much on them but with just the few styles, I can spot any outpoints.

 

[jrgtr42]

I personally give my beers 3 weeks in primary (I don't secondary unless I'm aging on wood, or souring, or some other type of bulk aging.) I found that it gives me better results than if I try to rush it.
I've stretched to 4 weeks on occasion, if it's not finished or if I don't have time with no issues.
I'd recommend sticking with one or two styles to start, and tweak one or two things each batch, getting those as good as you can, and work on your process. Don't go overboard too soon with a million different brews and styles - someone has to drink all that beer, you know.

 

[Immocles]

I also do 3 weeks, but mostly because it is convenient with my schedule. When the pipeline gets flowing, its a lot easier to be patient.

I think its only natural to try and brew every style at once in the beginning. I struggled when I was doing extract kits because having 2 cases was an overwhelming amount to me. I always wanted to brew sooner than I was able. I was regularly giving away 12-18 packs to get my inventory down. Settling into 2.5-3G batches really made a difference for me. I enjoy having a really solid variety, myself, but after about 6-9 months I settled into having the same 4 or so styles on hand. Something low abv and easy drinking like blonde ale, cream ale, pale lager. Then something hoppy, an amber lager, and a kolsch. Theres always a handful of small 1Gal batches that I brew about monthly. Those are generally more creative and "special" (vanilla porter, coffee stout, IPA). Occasionally those brews get promoted to a larger volume (see: dunkelweizen) Now I'm focused on nailing a couple of house brews. For the summer, that goal is a kolsch and a pale ale. When the temps drop this fall, I'm going back into lager mode for Vienna lagers and dunkel.

One thing I would have done differently is buy my mill earlier. I was buying milled grain and was constantly frustrated. Probably would have bought less 1oz bags of different hops, too.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

One thing I would have done differently is buy my mill earlier. I was buying milled grain and was constantly frustrated. Probably would have bought less 1oz bags of different hops, too.

A grain mill is #2 on my shopping list, right behind a fermentation chamber. The spring weather has been perfect for holding my first three brews at proper fermentation temperature in my garage. However, the weather is heating up, so I'll be trying a swamp cooler when I brew this week. If that goes well, I'll probably bump the grain mill up to #1. If the swamp cooler is a struggle, I'll be buying a mini fridge and a temperature controller before the next brew!

 

[Redpappy]

When I first started a few years ago, I tried several different styles since then, I have 3 fermentors (buckets), but really only brew 4 types, may end up being 5. ( trying to keep down the different hops I have on hand, from memory I think I have 6, as well as keeping down my grains that I have on hand) I tend to ferment for 2 weeks, the. Either bottle or keg, I do both.