Traditionalist to the core, or do you like to make your own and experiment?

[OpenSights]

While I do strive to make traditional, I also like to try and come up with my own brew based on traditional just with my own twist....

I have friends who are purists, and friends who like me who like the adventure.

Which are you, and what’s your best off the wall recipe you’ve come up with?

This is my doppelbock stout. Extra mash time (more like steep) of extra grains in a bag from firebrew. Tastes good! Bottle beer, let it age.

Edit: the doppelbock came in with OG 1.079, my added grains brought it up to 1.081

 

[deadwolfbones]

I tend to make stuff up more than I do true-to-style, but I enjoy both.

For example: I recently developed an obsession with German light lagers and pilsners and decided to try to nail a traditional Munich helles. My very next brew was something I threw together with pilsner, rye, wheat, Cashmere hops, Meyer lemon zest, lemon verbena, and a combo of Belgian and saison yeasts.

 

[Gravitysucks]

I've not brewed anything in a while since, while I have a decent electric 3v herms system, I currently have no place to set it up. (The joys of living in a 175 year old house that keeps insisting it wants to fall down.) When I was brewing I wasn't adventurous at all. I only brewed what I knew I liked, British pales, ESBs, and IPAs and only with traditional British ingredients. When I start brewing again I see no reason to change. I like what I like and it seems kind of pointless to spend money experimenting to produce something I may not enjoy. When I feel adventurous I go visit one the over 100 craft breweries in my small state but to be honest I've found they rank from over rated to pretty terrible and I've found nothing I'd consider worth trying to duplicate at home.

 

[z-bob]

I use traditional styles as a general guide for making up my own recipes, and I stick pretty close most of the time but I don't care if it's a little too high ABV, or the color is off, or I used the wrong kind of yeast.

 

[OpenSights]

I've not brewed anything in a while since, while I have a decent electric 3v herms system, I currently have no place to set it up. (The joys of living in a 175 year old house that keeps insisting it wants to fall down.) When I was brewing I wasn't adventurous at all. I only brewed what I knew I liked, British pales, ESBs, and IPAs and only with traditional British ingredients. When I start brewing again I see no reason to change. I like what I like and it seems kind of pointless to spend money experimenting to produce something I may not enjoy. When I feel adventurous I go visit one the over 100 craft breweries in my small state but to be honest I've found they rank from over rated to pretty terrible and I've found nothing I'd consider worth trying to duplicate at home.

I completely understand! But can I ask, have you ever tasted a beer, and said to yourself “this is good, but if I tweak it this way...”?

 

[Gravitysucks]

I completely understand! But can I ask, have you ever tasted a beer, and said to yourself “this is good, but if I tweak it this way...”?

Actually Yes. Most of the recipes I started out with came from Dave Lines book "Brewing Beers Like Those You Buy" which I bought about 30 years ago. Over the years I did try varying ingredient ratios to get closer to what I thought the commercial versions tasted like with limited success but it wasn't until years later when I started reading up on, and using, water additions that I felt like I was really getting close. Unfortunately I was terrible about documenting things that I did and largely went by memory while brewing so I suppose in a sense every brew was an adventure.

Edit: Your post brings to mind something I've never really considered since I decided to get back into brewing. Previously I was using a pretty crude propane fired 3 tier system and it took a long time to go from Ok beer to good/great in spite of always brewing the same basic things. I've never even had the chance to fire up my herms system, and while it will allow me to brew year round inside, I wonder how much I learned from past brewing is going to be relevant. I feel like I'm basically going to be starting from scratch. No pressure there.

 

[bluedaisy0627]

I love finding a traditional recipe for a basic grain bill, then adding something unique or changing the hops. I brew 2.5 gallons at a time, so I typically end up with leftover ingredients. For example, today I brewed an imperial stout. I had an idea of where I wanted the IBUs to end up and what hops I wanted to use from the freezer. I ran out of one and was able to substitute another similar hop. I then added the last bit of Fuggles, rather than save it. All of my hop choices were different than the original recipe, but we needed to use up the hops we have open already. We don't have anymore room in our vacuum jar (well, we do now, since I used 4 leftover bags).

All but one of my beers has turned out drinkable, and most have turned out pretty well, in my opinion. I'll never win any competitions, but I enjoy what I brew.

 

[kh54s10]

I would say that most of my beers are based on recipes, but I rarely brew one exactly as written. Even when I make my own recipes from scratch I stay pretty close in amounts of each ingredient as proven recipes, No off the wall, I am going to try a beer with 5 pounds of base grain and 5 pounds of smoked malt, etc.

The nicest surprise was when I wanted to do something I had never heard of. I thought "Pumpkin beer, I have done one and it was good, how can I change it up?" I substituted Spaghetti Squash for the pumpkin and fermented with T-58. The spaghetti squash has a peppery flavor and the yeast also has that flavor. It turned out awesome.