House Recipes or Always Something New?

[Coastarine]

Last night I had a bit of a brewing epiphany, and I think I am going to start changing how I decide what to brew. Until now I have very rarely brewed the same thing twice. There are just so many styles of beer, so many recipes that sound good, new techniques to try, etc, but last night I was drinking a pint of my Winter Brown Ale and I looked back at all that I have brewed. Of course I liked what I saw, but I started to realize that while I enjoy almost every keg, many of them start to grow old by the end of the keg, and I find that the excitement of tapping the next batch starts to outweigh the enjoyment of the dwindling keg, and I start to get impatient for the keg to kick, but this is not true of a handful of recipes which I wished would never end, and I realized that they are worth inviting back. It has started to feel more like gambling with new recipes than trying out new recipes, so I've decided to devote 5 of my 6 taps to "house beers." So far this is what I've got

#1: Cider OR Fruit beer (SWMBO pleaser, SO4 cider was good, I'd serve that again, and I've got a weihestephan cider on the way, so we'll see)
#2: Witbier (I've brewed one that I loved but I'm still willing to tinker a bit till I get it just right, gonna try out the one from BCS next)
#3: BMC crowd pleaser (planning to try out BM's 3crops, Willy-mo smash was also good)
#4: Irish Red Ale OR American Amber (house recipes)
#5: Stout (so far the O'flanny is the pick but I might get a rotation with an oatmeal, choc, etc)
#6: Something new and interesting/experimental

Once I expand with two more taps (maybe next month?) I'll make my Winter Brown a permanent resident. I like this because I'll have reliably good beers on all but one faucet, but at the same time it won't always be the same lineup.

 

[flyangler18]

The one recipe that I brew again and again is my March Brown Mild and it always occupies a tap; it's the closest thing I have to a house standard. I'm so familar with the hops and the malt, I use it to experiment with various English yeasts that tickle my fancy. Lately, so many of the beers that I have brewed have been long-term aging projects - Dubbels, Tripels, sours, etc - that I bottle and squirrel away for when the time is right.

I find I'm very much influenced by the seasons when deciding what is going to occupy my taps. I only have two, so I have to be selective and plan ahead.

 

[Grinder12000]

I have 5 brews that need to be in a rotation so every other batch I go new/old/new/old.

Darn friends keep asking for favorites. One problem is one of the favs is one I dislike. but with $$ given to me to by grain it's a free batch of beer.

 

[Coastarine]

Darn friends keep asking for favorites. One problem is one of the favs is one I dislike. but with $$ given to me to by grain it's a free batch of beer.

Hah, aint that a b***h. Sounds like someone needs to have a "how-to-brew" party.

 

[cubbies]

It is kind of hard to explain actually. I pretty much repeat the same basic recipes over and over, but I typicallly mix them up every time I brew them just to see if they are better/worse. You know, like trying a different hop, or more/less of a hop at different times, etc. I only have a couple that I brew that dont change at all.

 

[Mutilated1]

I brew mostly the same things over and over again. Haven't brewed anything new in a while.

 

[IowaHarry]

I haven't run out of new things to try. The good ones will be repeats.

 

[jacksonbrown]

I've only been brewing for a year and half and I am constantly trying new things. There have been a hanful of recipes I have repeated, and a few since that I will brew again and again. But my biggest restriction is that I only have two taps. If I had 5 or 6 I would definitely keep at least 3-4 consistently on. And don't say bottle, because bottling sucks and you know it. :cross:

 

[humann_brewing]

I haven't run out of new things to try. The good ones will be repeats.

+1 on this

I have not been brewing long enough to have a "house beer" yet, but out of the beers I have brewed thus far, blacklabs orange/cascade APA will be repeated again.

 

[KYB]

I plan to keep brewing my Stouts and perfect them, but also something else every now and then.

 

[bashe]

This is something I thought about in December. I have three taps and I figured the between my roommate and I we could drink 3 kegs every month. I worked it out to us each having about two pints a night, maybe a few more on weekends. So with that I would brew 3 beers per month. One being a nice house ale, one a seasonal brew and one special/experimental beer. But everything did not work out as planned. I started brewing like I planned but we did not drink like I planned. I now have 6 kegs of beer(3 full), one empty keg, three beers that need to be kegged, three beers that are fermenting/aging and I have three bags of grain measured out for brewing more.