Is homebrewing that creative?

[troub]

Another aspect of being creative is simply taking an established recipe (one of your own/one from here/one from a known kit) and adding something to it to change it. Although you didn't create the whole thing from scratch, you took something you liked and modified it to suit your needs... A good example is taking a cream ale or american wheat and adding fruit to it...

Yep, this too. Someone gave me a Brewer's Best Russian Imperial Stout kit for Christmas. I brewed it up and then put it secondary for a couple of months with some bourbon I had infused with a vanilla bean. Now it'll age in bottles for at least a few more months and I'll probably be drinking a lot of it this fall. What I've had of it so far (gravity samples and bottling leftovers) was really tasty.

 

[unionrdr]

I think extracts can be creative too. One aspect that seems to be overlooked the most,imo,is where the DME/LME comes from. The malts made in Australia aren't going to taste just like the ones from England,or Europe,Or America. They all have different flavor qualities depending on what styles the folks in that country like.
So I figured,why not put that to good use? LME from Australia,DME from England,hops that came to the Willamette valley from England in the 1830's. Or maybe English LME with German LME with German noble hops. Or all American LME,DME,& hops. Then maybe breisse sugar & Belgian yeast.
That's what creative means to me at this point.

 

[arnoldk2]

I think brewing is really creative. I do all grain and the majority of my brews are recipes that I made up. I hand calc everything and to double check my work I put it in beersmith. With creating a beer comes dissapointment. I've brewed beers that were absolutly disgusting. Creating comes with success too. I've brewed batches where in a week it was almost gone because the wife couldn't keep out of them. You're right about buying kits and following directions... really just someone elses recipe that you are following and if you don't know any better that is what you get. The addictiveness of brewing comes when you've brewed something better than what you can get at a store. Not a clone, but your own beer that you created with no input from any other recipe.

 

[passedpawn]

I've never bought a kit (I sure wish I knew about them when I got started!). I think I use a LOT of creativity when making each brew. Usually I start with a known recipe and tweak a lot (for better or for worse).

Here's some of my beers that were a little out of the norm. There are thousands of unique beers on this site (i.e., I just saw a cucumber and coriander beer someone is brewing ). There are a ton of things you can do that are outside the standard kit beers.

Tepache
Honey-Chamomile Wheat
Joie De Vivre Christmas Beer
Cherry Beech Smokebeer


Heres my grain closet. There's no kits in here. You can get pretty creative with these ingredients.

 

[BaldManBrew]

Anything you know how to do is easy. You purchased an extract kit which has it's own complexity, but if you feel it's not creative enough, move on to AG (All Grain). You can get as creative as you would like. I hope you enjoy your new hobby.

 

[ayoungrad]

Just to reiterate all of the above. It can be a creative process or not depending on the person.

My first batch was a kit and I even tweaked that. I started designing my own recipes on batch 2. But, because I didn't know much, I used Daniels book and also read about which grains create which flavors. Arguably too early and before I knew enough but this has really kept my interest.

And two people making the same recipe will end up with different beers. It's not just a matter of choosing ingredients but also how you brew it. And again, this can be creative or not depending on how you do it.

BTW, I'm very jealous of passedpawn's closet.

 

[941MxVet]

I think the creativity part of brewing is in the equipment. Always trying to come up with something that will help out or save time.

Us too, we homebrew, and rarely play around with the recipies. However, we love trying to invent gadgets from the hardware store to help out our process.

 

[drathbone]

It's like buying a Jiffy Cornbread box at the store. You follow the instructions, add the appropriate ingredients and put it in the oven. Is that creative? No. Not really. But, I like to add sour cream, whole sweet corn and jalepenos that I pickled myself. The base isn't creative, but what I added to it gives it some flair and becomes my creation.

This is similar to extract kits. It gives you a good base to learn off of. Once you have a solid base beer you know works and taste good, you can research some ingredients to add to make it different and your own.

Myself for example, wanted to make a coffee porter. First, I made a porter from a recipe, which was originally going to be a bock but I didn't have equipment to lager. After switching to an ale yeast it already deviated from the original recipe. Either way, it was pretty damn good. Second, I made the porter recipe again, but tweaked it to my liking (after significant research) where I thought some improvement was needed. Lastly, I made the porter for the 3rd time, after knowing pretty much how the base was going to taste and added a 1/4 gallon of espresso strength coffee to the bottling bucket and racked on top of it. It is simply amazing, better than the commercial coffee beers I've tasted IMO. Granted, my first three beers ever were not porters. I've made several other batches in addition to the porter, so I have a general idea of the process and how the ingredients work together.

 

[Yooper]

I think it's insulting for someone who has used Mr. Beer (yuck) and Brewer's Best (better) feeling it's ok to slam homebrewing.

It'd be like me buying a cake mix and going to a Cordon Bleu website and slamming baking.

Mr Beer = Jiffy baking mix if you compare brewing and cooking.

Brewer's Best = Betty Crocker mix (better, but still not all that good).

Nothing really wrong with cake mixes, if that's what you like because it's cheap, convenient, and easy. But saying that a pasty chef isn't creative because baking is so easy really isn't the way to learn new tips.

 

[ayoungrad]

I can't cook to save my life. Before I met my wife, I lived off of frozen pizzas and cereal.

I guess we are being a little over-defensive...

This hobby is probably just not a good fit for the OP.

 

[mhenry41h]

You are incorrectly correct. As you learn more about the possibilities in homebrewing, you will discover that many of us make our own recipes and many of us even brew from scratch (All-Grain). If you are brewing straight kits then no, you aren't doing anything creative.

coming soon...to a fridge near you!

 

[BrewThruYou]

I think it's insulting for someone who has used Mr. Beer (yuck) and Brewer's Best (better) feeling it's ok to slam homebrewing.

+1.

I'm 50/50 on whether OP is a troll or not.

 

[jfrank85]

Some of the beer I buy? That's 2 sixpacks. I was trying to learn about Bocks this winter with the goal of coming up with my own recipe. So I tried several different commercial versions. Several of the dopplebocks, were 15.00 per a sixer.

Or a single 4 pk of KBS

 

[jfrank85]

I consider home brewing to be creative chemistry. Think about it, we are gods to these little yeasty creatures, controlling temp, fermentables, ect. Of course its creative. There are millions of different combos you can do that will end up with different results. For example, do a recipe with two different yeast strains and you wil have a totally different taste.

 

[rambler]

Well i have to admit that when i read the OP, i cringed a little, ok a lot. I cringed because thats the first time i have ever heard someone say that, and also because i wasnt sure what kind of reaction you would get.

I must say that the every post I read was absolutely the way I would have said it. I think if one were to read half the posts than he would have a well rounded view of why people enjoy it.

Me, I was hooked right off the bat, I also lean more to the mechanical side of things so enjoy building all of my own equipment. To me that makes the hobby even more satisfying.

I think that if you stick around this site long enough and submerse yourself in the "hobby" deep enough, you will find a truly satisfying and fulfilling (literally) way to recreate. And you will find brewers to be some of the most genuine, intelligent, generous and creative people on the planet.

 

[rambler]

+1.

I'm 50/50 on whether OP is a troll or not.

Or a very bitter SWMBO...jk

 

[SilentAutumn]

So the problem I have is it seems like making beer isn't that creative. It's kind of like going to the store and buying a model car. When you put it together, either you made it right and it looks like the car on the box, or you did something wrong and it's not right. I could've bought that model car already assembled in the toy isle, but instead I chose to buy it disassembled and I'm putting it together now.

Did you build the car to look like the picture on the box? Did that make you happy? Was building the car to look like the picture on the box your goal? Or did you give the car a custom paint job with racing stripes and chrome paint? Did you chop the roof or make a low rider?

Just because you buy a beer kit doesn't mean you have to brew it according to the directions. How creative do you want to be?

 

[redcoat_or_rebel]

if you don't really have a passion about beer then it won't be that fun of a hobby.

the best part is figuring out what falvors, etc you really like about beer and how to replicate them and even improve comercial beer recipes to your own tastes.

the perfect beer, that is what we are after.