What Is Your Brewing Philosophy?

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TheMadKing

TheMadKing

Western Yankee Southerner and Brew Science Nerd
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I'm curious what rules other homebrewers have to live by, and how your brewing philosophy has evolved over time.

My few simple rules are:

-Brew for quality over quantity
-Brew things that are easy drinking so that I can brew more often. Barleywines and Fig Mocha Chocolate Vanilla Bourbon Quads are fun and all, but I don't like tying up a keg for the entire year it takes me to drink big/heavy/exotic beers. (Case in point, I brewed my current Barleywine almost a year ago and I'm ready to bottle it to free up the keg)
-Never stop learning about every aspect of the process and continually strive to improve my beer
-You gotta drink beer to make beer

I used to brew exclusively the "hard to find beers" Pliny, Barleywines, crazy extreme beers that I couldn't get more than 1 or 2 of commercially. Then I realized that I love the act of brewing, and that I was only brewing a batch every 3-4 months when I brewed those types of beers since you can't drink as many in a sitting. Since then I've focused on easy drinking, usually German style beers that allow me to improve my craft while brewing more often. Plus its easier on my waistline!

I don't expect a long winded answer like this from everyone, but I'm curious to see your rules!

:mug:
 
Brew beers you want to drink! Push the boundries and screw BJCP guidelines. The best part of homebrewing is not being confined or limited. Be creative, and brew beers that are uniquely yours.
 
DarthBrewer1 said:
Brew beers you want to drink! Push the boundries and screw BJCP guidelines. The best part of homebrewing is not being confined or limited. Be creative, and brew beers that are uniquely yours.
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I like to brew to BJCP guidelines just to have something to aim for, but at the same time, I can't brew a clone without tweaking it enough to make it feel like "mine." Agreed on making your own unique brews!
 
If you look at the new up and coming breweries, everyone is pushing boundries and classifications. For me the best part of Homebrewing is recipe design. Grains, Hop Schedule, Water Profile each brew you can make a one of a kind beer that cant be found anywhere else in the world.
 
ChelisHubby said:
I tend to brew what I and family like which is cheap blonde and pale ales I. don't like the idea of spending 15 dollars for the hop bill when I can spend 3. I guess that makes me a old tightwad. lol:mug:
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Not at all!

I prefer brewing lighter German styles because of their traditions and "refinement" I find them much more difficult to brew successfully than your average IPA, or stout. Plus they are easy to drink and don't hit you too hard with the alcohol or the hop bill.
 
My only "rule" it that I really try to have only 1-2 beers before I pitch my yeast as I've made that mistake before and the brew was - well, not good.
I prefer to brew with company, but there is nothing wrong with solitude.
I also try to brew seasonally so I try to get my wits and IPAs in the spring so they're reading for summer. Then, in August I'll do an Aletoberfest, cider and pumpkin so they're ready for the leaves to turn, then around Halloween I'll do a stout as I like those for winter. I don't brew in the winter anymore and I don't miss it.
 
My philosophy for brewing beer is EXACTLY the same as my philosophy for cooking food: I enjoy eating food. Therefore, I enjoy cooking.


It's rather simple, but says a lot behind the words. I would wager that every person living enjoys food, to an extent. When you cook for yourself, you're taking into your own hands the wildly various outcomes that that imparts. While you can effectively **** it up twelve days from Sunday, you can also produce something BETTER than you can possibly purchase. This is what got me into cooking and, eventually, brewing beer. The resulting pride that generates from such endeavors is a favorable side-effect :)
 
eadavis80 said:
My only "rule" it that I really try to have only 1-2 beers before I pitch my yeast as I've made that mistake before and the brew was - well, not good.
I prefer to brew with company, but there is nothing wrong with solitude.
I also try to brew seasonally so I try to get my wits and IPAs in the spring so they're reading for summer. Then, in August I'll do an Aletoberfest, cider and pumpkin so they're ready for the leaves to turn, then around Halloween I'll do a stout as I like those for winter. I don't brew in the winter anymore and I don't miss it.
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I definitely brew seasonally as well, and I'm finally getting better and brewing for the season ahead not for the season I'm in. Every summer I think "man a pilsner sounds good." So I brew a pilsner and it's ready in the fall when I think a dunkel or a brown ale sounds good... It took time to make the leap to "I'm going to think a pilsner sounds good next summer", in January.
 
TheMadKing said:
I definitely brew seasonally as well, and I'm finally getting better and brewing for the season ahead not for the season I'm in. Every summer I think "man a pilsner sounds good." So I brew a pilsner and it's ready in the fall when I think a dunkel or a brown ale sounds good... It took time to make the leap to "I'm going to think a pilsner sounds good next summer", in January.
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I know what you mean it is time to brew a porter!:mug:
 
I can definitely relate to the seasonal brewers. I tend to brew a lot in the winter for spring/summer, I don't really brew much May/June, then start getting the fall/winter brews in the carboys in July/August.
 
I’ve brewed for a long time so I can’t remember all of them but in the beginning, I was a mad scientist brewing every week and giving allot away just to brew more, it took me many years to refine my process to brewing the same beer over and over while discovering all the things you shouldn't do so for me it was the engineering and the fine tuning that intrigued me, why this tasted this way and why that way, and building my monster rig. once I started enjoying my beer and I couldn't keep my kegs full I slowed down and only brewed what I like, not what’s popular and that is where I am today so for instance I just brewed 20 gallons of a light low alcohol blond just because that’s what I like in the summer, that will change in the fall to an amber bock then in the winter the higher alcohol beers. I will brew an Oktoberfest beer too, love the stuff myself
 
Ozarks_Mountain_Brew said:
I’ve brewed for a long time so I can’t remember all of them but in the beginning, I was a mad scientist brewing every week and giving allot away just to brew more, it took me many years to refine my process to brewing the same beer over and over while discovering all the things you shouldn't do so for me it was the engineering and the fine tuning that intrigued me, why this tasted this way and why that way, and building my monster rig. once I started enjoying my beer and I couldn't keep my kegs full I slowed down and only brewed what I like, not what’s popular and that is where I am today so for instance I just brewed 20 gallons of a light low alcohol blond just because that’s what I like in the summer, that will change in the fall to an amber bock then in the winter the higher alcohol beers. I will brew an Oktoberfest beer too, love the stuff myself
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You said it better than I tried to in my OP. That's exactly why I enjoy the act of brewing so much: tinkering with recipes, refining my process, tweaking variable, taking notes, learning where to focus my attention, where to relax, etc. The only way to do that is to brew a LOT of batches, which is problematic when you can only brew every few months. I would brew every weekend if I could afford it and it wouldn't constitute a drinking problem :tank:
 
Mine is to not waste my money or time.

Why make a pale ale when I can buy one in every gas station in town? I'll make a brett saison that I can't find locally, or would cost triple than it would be to make it myself.

Not to screw around. No monkeying around and ruining a beer. Not taking chances with my sanitation. I'm spending my free time on this, I'm going to give it my all.
 
My philosophy is the same no matter what I am doing/making, beer, food, gardening, work etc. Everything I do/make is done/made with (what I call) LOVE. I make every effort to put as much care (LOVE) into everything that I do as possible. I don't take shortcuts. I use the best possible ingredients. All time, temperatures and protocols are carefully monitored.

If you are at my place, everything that you are drinking or eating is fit for a king... Unless I effed something up and I'm just trying to get rid of it!!!
 
I really just try to do something that I cannot get somewhere else. I have zero interest in trying to replicate what someone else already did...I'll just buy theirs if I like it. I would rather invent something that someone else hasn't.

As someone else noted, for me it is the same with food. I don't look at a restaurant menu and pick out something that I know how to make myself. I am never pleased with the result because I hate paying for something that I can just as well do myself (this is mainly just food related because I'll buy anything else that I can otherwise make myself) for cheaper.
 
Beerswimmer said:
Mine is to not waste my money or time.

Why make a pale ale when I can buy one in every gas station in town? I'll make a brett saison that I can't find locally, or would cost triple than it would be to make it myself.

Not to screw around. No monkeying around and ruining a beer. Not taking chances with my sanitation. I'm spending my free time on this, I'm going to give it my all.
Click to expand...


I completely understand that line of thinking! I gave up on it for only one reason: I never usually want more than a bottle or two of rare beers so I'd rather spend the $20 for two bombers that I'll really enjoy rather than $50 for 5 gallons I'll get sick of.. It's amazing how similar the two lines of thinking really are while having opposite results!

Now I brew the gas station pale because it's fun to make and even more fun to drink all of it!
 
Brew with passion bordering on obsession.

Brewing is me time where I don't have to deal with any other stresses, just focus on the brew.

Brew what you love rather than pleasing others. I try to stay off the grid and brew and drink beers that I fell in love with living in England and Germany but can't get here.

Most importantly, keep a growth mindset and learn from each brew and learn and keep learning new techniques.
 
I brew because I love brew day. I love smelling the grains, the hops, and the cooled wart. It's a dance. There's nothing being in the backyard, playing music, and drinking your own homebrew while making homebrew. Enjoy the brew.

My other philosophy is maintaining stability. Try to make beers exactly how you want to. Make a recipe and follow it. It's the best way to perfect a recipe.
 
I enjoy making food: charcuterie, bread, pickles, pizza, BBQ, cooking, etc. Brewing fits nicely. I get satisfaction from eating and drinking what I make.
 
It has morphed from when it started for me. I initially wanted to make good beer, . Now I want consistency with in many styles because I like a lot of beers. I want those beers to be worthy so to speak.
 
After many years of brewing, I could say a lot of things here, but here's one I feel pretty strongly about:

If it isn't good, toss it, brew another, and don't look back. ​

I don't wait for time to fix it, or add stuff, etc. A batch of beer is relatively cheap, my time isn't. I toss with zero remorse. Even good beers that I'm tired of drinking get the heeve ho. Life is short.

When I say life is short, you young guys might grin, but one day you'll know.
 
  1. Brew the best qaulity I can
  2. Brew beer I want to drink
  3. Learn and improve with every batch
  4. Take copious notes to facilitate learning and growth

The bottom line is that I realized I was paying outrageous amounts for the beers I like to drink and some were "unobtanium" beers that are extremely difficult to get. So I figured "If I can't get them, or they're too expensive, I'll brew 'em myself.". So everything I brew is an attempt at a "wow" beer. So far I've impressed myself and my friends (some of whom travel around the country for the sole purpose of obtaining beer).

I've enjoyed making my own recipes and just last night I had an idea for a new beer that is somewhat of a venture away from my philosophy in that I don't know if I'll like it or not, but I'm intrigued enough to give it a shot.
 
passedpawn said:
After many years of brewing, I could say a lot of things here, but here's one I feel pretty strongly about:

If it isn't good, toss it, brew another, and don't look back. ​

I don't wait for time to fix it, or add stuff, etc. A batch of beer is relatively cheap, my time isn't. I toss with zero remorse. Even good beers that I'm tired of drinking get the heeve ho. Life is short.

When I say life is short, you young guys might grin, but one day you'll know.
Click to expand...

This is something I need to work on. I have a really hard time dumping a beer even if it's terrible.. The saison I currently have on tap tastes like burnt rubber because it's a phenol bomb (I fermented too cool for the belgian yeast), and I still keep holding out hope that it will get better with time (and it has to some extent). I should probably just dump it... but maybe one more week
 
brewbama said:
I enjoy making food: charcuterie, bread, pickles, pizza, BBQ, cooking, etc. Brewing fits nicely. I get satisfaction from eating and drinking what I make.
Click to expand...

Same here, I love eating/drinking something that I made that is as good or better than most commercial products I've had. There's a ton of pride involved in my brewing
 
I always want to brew something I can be proud of. Of course that's a moving target. I was proud of my first batch just because it was beer. I was proud of my second batch because I was starting to get a handle on the process. Eventually the target became producing something objectively good. You know how sometimes you'll cook something that you know no one else would probably like, but you eat it just because you cooked it? I had a couple of beers like that. That lead me down the path to temperature control, all grain brewing, and water chemistry considerations.

Every brew won't be better than the last, but I want to at least be taking lessons from previous brews and attempting to fix the flaws I see in them. I suppose my philosophy is constant advancement and refinement. As long as I'm doing it, I want to be getting better at it.
 
I just try to have fun with it while keeping my process as consistent as I can. Brew day for me is like Christmas when I was a kid, I get up super early so I can jump start the day. I keep detailed notes as well. To me there is nothing better than when I tap a keg for the first time and get to taste the final product, and it's a good one.
 
seatazzz said:
I just try to have fun with it while keeping my process as consistent as I can. Brew day for me is like Christmas when I was a kid, I get up super early so I can jump start the day. I keep detailed notes as well. To me there is nothing better than when I tap a keg for the first time and get to taste the final product, and it's a good one.
Click to expand...


And just like Christmas, waiting is the hardest part!
 
I just try to keep a variety of things around to drink. Now that I've got the 4 tap keezer up and running, I have several things on draft and I have sours and bigger/special beers in bottles. I brew for the season I'm in, while trying to keep the pipeline up-to-date. I have my favorite recipes but am always trying new ideas because they could become favorites too.
 
My rules were:
Make time.
Prepare
Remember to make more time next time
Remember to prepare better next time

Now, it's mostly the first two
 

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