Stuck in Homebrewing Rut

[Clint]

Do you ever find yourself stuck in the same old homebrewing ruts?
Doing the same thing over and over, and getting stale.

How do you get yourself unstuck?

 

[Auger]

If I find myself getting bored because for whatever reason I've been brewing the same styles or recipes mutiple times, I'll start doing some research on a brewing method or beer style that I've never tried before. I was brewing a bunch of pale ales for a while and wanted something different so I tried a Kolsch. Got tired of doing standard infusion mashes so tried a parti-gyle. Got tired of doing tried and true recipes, so did a bunch of research and developed a recipe for a Kentucky Common. Soon I'll be trying a gruit to do something different. There are so many styles and methods and ways to brew and create recipes there's really no excuse to avoid boredom, you just have to push yourself out of your comfort zone once in a while.

 

[cubalz]

I have never once gotten even after home brewing for over 29 years. My secret even though I brew the same "house" brews time after time is to change up the method or scale the recipe to a different size just to keep things a little different while maintaining the same flavor and consistency. I can't say this works for everyone, but even now I still look forward to brew days.....

 

[Morrey]

Many beers (Pilsners for example) have a dozen different yeast strains between the major yeast labs that are all variations on your standard Pilsner yeast strains. Try different yeasts and see if you can determine the differences. Keep notes.

There seems to be no shortage of interesting new hops entering the scene all the time. I haven't come close to trying them all, much less the infinite number of combinations you can pair to compliment each other.

Keep things moving forward and keep it fresh.

 

[madscientist451]

Doing the same thing over and over, and getting stale.

How do you get yourself unstuck?

Its simple:
Just dump your wife/GF, significant other, SWMBO, whaterver....
You'll have more time for brewing and/or going out to bars/breweries and trying new beers. You'll be inspired after you try all the creative brews being made these days. Eventually you'll get a new G/F, wife etc. and she will probably like different things than the current one does.....

OK, sorry I'm sarcastic and not very funny, but the point is, if your brewing is stuck in a rut maybe you should change some things in your life. Get out more, do some traveling, maybe get involved in a local homebrew club. Go on the brewing network website and listen to all the Can you brew it and Brewing with style shows. Go on beeradvocate, look for the top rated beers in styles you like and try to find clone recipes. Make some mead, wine or cider. Maybe give drinking a break for a while and go on a heath kick. Just throwing ideas out there, hope it helps.....

 

[day_trippr]

Woof.

Anyway...in between the times of mass raging that follows the emergence of a "new" style (eg: WCIPA, NEIPA, for a couple) and which beg a try or two, during the quieter spells I just look for styles I haven't dabbled in before and go for one.

I had my first Saison a couple of years ago, and it may have just been a very good example, but I immediately wanted to brew one.
And then another, thus expanding my repertoire.
Before that I had a Trappist I really enjoyed. I've had a recipe in rotation for that ever since...

Cheers!

 

[beernutz]

I have experimented quite a bit for a very long time with DIY recipes, sometimes successfully sometimes not, but lately I've been going back to basics and brewing almost exclusively recipes from Brewing Classic Styles or well-known recipes like Vinnie's Pliny clone.

My point is you need to shake things up if you are in a rut. You've gotten some good advice already about interacting with other brewers, different brew clubs, heck maybe even different homebrewing web forums. Take it.

 

[applescrap]

I'm in a perpetual rut, I don't like Brewing. I love drinking beer, i dont like cooking much either at times but I do it too.

What do you mean doing the same things over and over, process, recipe?

 

[NoIguanaForZ]

Do you ever find yourself stuck in the same old homebrewing ruts?
Doing the same thing over and over, and getting stale.

How do you get yourself unstuck?

With brewing?

Not really, no.

Of course, I'm actively trying to cultivate a "repertoire" of dialed in recipes as well as experiment. "Being stuck" might actually be nice; I have insufficient space, fermenters, and bottles, it turns out. >.>

 

[jwalk4]

Do you ever find yourself stuck in the same old homebrewing ruts?
Doing the same thing over and over, and getting stale.

How do you get yourself unstuck?

Sounds like you need a vacation.

Walk away for a while, and you'll find inspiration again.

For me, its always the changing of the seasons. Right now im looking forward to the fall: leaves changing, crisp mornings, football, etc. Thats the time for ambers, browns and stout porters.

 

[seatazzz]

Mmmmmm fall brewing...can't wait. And winter too. I'd much rather worry about keeping my fermenters warm enough than trying to keep the darn things cool. Also warming up cold hands over a happily boiling keggle, then smelling that sweet sweet aroma...sigh.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

I haven't gotten into a rut with this hobby (yet), but have with others. Normally I take a break and don't force myself to do it for a while. Usually after a few days/weeks/months I'll get back into it wondering how I was ever in a rut in the first place. YMMV.

 

[corkybstewart]

After 22 years of solid homebrewing I was kind of forced by circumstances to drastically cut back brewing, from about 150 gallons per year to 30. Now I'm trying to get back into it but the passion is lacking. It's become something I've just always done, and my creativity is faltering. I'm going to go back to experimenting again, keep a few standard beers on tap but also do some one offs that may re-kindle the fire. Or I'm going to quit and sell all my equipment.

 

[Jim311]

Try making wines or meads. Start secondarying with fruit on some of your standard recipes. Brew something that's totally stylistically incorrect. Try a bunch of other commercial microbrews in styles maybe you didn't care for a couple of years ago and see if there are any that you like. Tastes change.

 

[Weezy]

I've been brewing more off then on for twenty years. Still never bored. I have to keep myself from writing more recipes all the time. I don't have the time to brew them all, let alone drink them.

 

[italarican]

It's honestly hard for me to imagine getting in a rut. There are so many malts, hops, and yeast out there that I don't feel like I'd ever get to the point I couldn't learn something cool about an ingredient or ingredient combo. This doesn't even get into changes in brewing techniques.

Do you have a brewing friend or a local club? What if you went and helped someone else brew? I imagine they'd do a few things differently than you're accustomed to or like certain ingredients than can get you out of your own mind and perhaps get some other ideas to check out.

Also, doing some smaller batches could let you experiment more. Example: if I love my tried and true Citra/Mosaic pale ale, I could split the next batch into 5 1-gallon jugs and try a different dry hop with each one: maybe (1) my usual 1:1 Citra/Mosaic, (2) 2:1 Citra/Mosaic, (3) 2:1 Mosaic/Citra, (4) replace Citra with Galaxy, (5) replace Mosaic with Galaxy.

 

[corkybstewart]

Try making wines or meads. Start secondarying with fruit on some of your standard recipes. Brew something that's totally stylistically incorrect. Try a bunch of other commercial microbrews in styles maybe you didn't care for a couple of years ago and see if there are any that you like. Tastes change.

I do meads, ciders, but no wine. My wife is from a small wine making village in France, we have a house there so that's where I do 90% of my wine drinking and there's no way I could ever compete with that wine! I have never felt constrained by styles, I brew whatever I want with whatever I want, and 90% of what I brew is good. And I never pass up a chance to drink something I've never seen before, whether it's a new brew from an old favorite or a completely new style.
3 years ago my drunk brother had a wreck that killed our mother, then he was kind enough to drink himself to death last year so alcohol is less a part of my life. My beer drinking neighbors moved away so I don't really have close friends to share with, and we live in the country so going into town to bars is out of the question. And I'm just getting too damn old.

But I do still love the act of brewing, the smells of the mash, the boil kettle, and creating the recipes. I just don't enjoy the drinking part as much as I did just a few years ago.

 

[catdaddy66]

So sorry to hear about your family. My ex, mother to my son, died two years ago from liver failure. Most of the damage was done after she injured her back at work and wasn't able to find lasting relief. She had always enjoyed a night out but she began having a night out EVERY night as a way to self medicate.

Regarding your brewing rut, I say have odd batches of ingredients made and see what comes from it... Kind of like those competitive cooking shows.

 

[StewMakesBrew]

So, I have been brewing now close to 20 years, and about 8 years ago, got sick of the hobby - went a full year without brewing a batch. I had been doing extract brewing, I was doing a combo of bottling and kegging into 5L party kegs (I had yet to make the jump to a kegerator) and just wasn't going anywhere.

I went and met with the brewer from one of our local brewpub/microbreweries (Tighthead Brewing, Mundelein, IL) and chose them because their roots were in home brewing. His advice: Do everything I could to simply and get back to what I enjoyed, and if I was bored, then take things to the next level. I was doing stuff like secondary fermenters and what not because I was reading it was something I should do. His answer to that was "look around - do you see any secondaries here? Yes, we use stainless conicals that are huge, but that's because we brew on a commercial scale. But their beer "sat on the yeast" just the same way as mine does in the fermenter. Ok, one less hassle. His next suggestion was for me to upgrade my gear a bit - I had been brewing with a 5 gallon pot - he said for me to upgrade to a 10 gallon so I could do full-boil batches which work better. So I did that for a few batches, and he was right - it just all went smoother and better and I liked it more. Then I went back to talk to him some more and his advice was to go to all-grain. I already had the most expensive part of the gear - a 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler that I used to haul Gatorade in to my son's baseball and soccer games, so I repurposed that into a mash tun and was in the all-grain biz. Then about a year ago right now I upgraded to having a kegerator. Now I have brewed 8 batches in less than six months! And can't stop. It's a blast.

My new obsession right now is consistency. We are going through my beer so fast now (twin 22 year old sons, plus their friends and ours) that a 5 gallon batch really only last 3-4 weeks in the kegerator. So I've made multiple batches of my two favorite beers this summer, and am continuing to work on that consistency - it sounds boring - brewing the same beer over and over, but I'm really getting into nailing the consistency thing.

So figure out what is a hassle that you can change, and figure out what might jazz you up to try, and head that way.

Brew on, brew on. Stay thirsty my firends.

 

[shoengine]

Share everything that you make with friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors. Ask them what they'd like to try, find or make a recipe and brew it.

 

[PADave]

I haven't gotten into a rut with this hobby (yet), but have with others. Normally I take a break and don't force myself to do it for a while. Usually after a few days/weeks/months I'll get back into it wondering how I was ever in a rut in the first place. YMMV.

Same here. Or I'll change up something with my process or equipment.

 

[corkybstewart]

The last time I got stuck and began getting bored with brewing my wife and I spent 10 days in Belgium. When we got back I evaluated everything I had ever brewed, and then got serious. That's when I started doing 10 gallon batches, experimenting with bacteria, brett, fruit, etc and my beer improved 100% within 6 months. It may be time to take another serious beercation.

 

[filthyastronaut]

Just try styles you've never attempted, even if you think you're not a fan of them. When you go to the liquor store, do the same and you may be inspired.

 

[Steveruch]

My ex, mother to my son, died two years ago from liver failure. Most of the damage was done after she injured her back at work and wasn't able to find lasting relief. She had always enjoyed a night out but she began having a night out EVERY night as a way to self medicate.

Many, if not most, of the general public and a very large percentage of doctors have very little sympathy for true chronic pain sufferers. The small number of pain pill abusers give society a good excuse to "crackdown" on the availability of medicine for those who truly need it. True chronic pain sufferers who are NOT using pain medication to get high. Whatever effect it has is all used up numbing pain; there's nothing left to get high on.