Do you try to nail a recipe by repeating it over and over with tweaks, or do you try different styles and recipes that sound interesting? I've been homebrewing for a little under year and a half, and I've never repeated a recipe or style. I'm on my 12th-ish batch, and I don't compete or participate in any clubs, so I'm sure that plays into your answer. Most of my beers have been pale/IP ales, but I tried a porter around xmas which flopped, big time. Just idly thinking whether I should try to tune in one recipe that I love or bounce from ale style to ale style just for fun. Do you ever try hard recipes to challenge yourself?
I only brew once a month now, and have brewed once a month for the past year or so. Since then, I don't tweak recipes. If I was Brewing once a week, I would tweak recipes and hone in.
I repeat styles that I enjoy but rarely make the same recipe twice. I'm always tweaking recipes to try to improve them. There are a couple though that have been tweaked enough that I'm happy with them. As an example earlier this year I made a basic malty red ale that is my own recipe straight from my head. It was good and it was well received by my fellow home brew club members but it was a touch too dark and needed more bitterness. So notes were made and I will make it again but I will drop the 2oz of debittered black that was there for color and swap out a bit of the crystal 120L for a bit of brown malt to boost the roast bitterness. Maybe that will be great, maybe I will tweak it again.
DO both! You probably have one or two you think are good enough to drink again, and can be made to drink better. Or one's that you may want to rebrew and 'conquer'. Such as that porter recipe. I've sort of moved over to experimenting, and challenging myself on the cold side with splitting batches and blending. That interested started from a homebrew club challenge/contest to brew for a 3 course meal. I got 3 very different but complimentary beers out of 2 batches. It grew out from there to beer I can age, and beer I can drink immediately with my annual holiday beer.
I have a couple recipes that I remake a few times a year. Otherwise I am typically trying all kinds of styles and recipes. I lean slightly more to stouts/porters/scotch as those are my favorite styles. This spring and summer I've been on a big fruit kick. Imperial Mango Blonde is up next! Its always good to have a couple core recipes you remake to make sure your brewing system is solid and repeatable. But I tend to get bored if I'm not experimenting with new ideas and I always feel like I can make a recipe better!
Only once did I create a recipe, and I 'winged' it when I did that by throwing in a bunch of my leftover ingredients from previous batches. It was an extract batch, so I provided the base extract and went from there. All of my other brewing sessions have been style experimentation efforts of mostly clone recipes, but lately I have been brewing clone recipes for beers that I'd probably never get to try unless I brew them myself. One Maibock recipe I liked so well I have brewed it three times.
I tend to come back to the same styles but usually different recipes. I did 2 years of brewing the same beers over and over making tweaks trying to lock onto a recipe and I almost stopped brewing completely since I got so bored.
I always tweak. Partly out of boredom, partly because once I have a recipe I know works, it's an easy way for me to taste what different malts, hops, or techniques can do. I have repeated in the past - oddly, on a standard American lager - but that was brewed for family. Plus, only so much you can change with that style.
Just do whatever ever gives you the most enjoyment. Whether that be brewing a different style every time or trying to perfect a recipe. Remember, it's a hobby, it's suppose to be fun!
+1 to super genius, unless you are the type of Brewer who has to push for perfection. I usually brew run and gun style, but have several request beers I make the same ever year.
In the past I would buy a yeast strain and make around 4 batches out of it. I would often take one style that I like a lot (like English pale ale, hefeweizen, or porter) and brew several batches back to back while tweaking a variable in the grain bill, hop bill, fermentation temp, etc. By doing this I learned over time what generally works for these styles based on my system and my preferences. I now crave variety more than I used to and don't do this anymore for the most part, though I am working on a series of pilsners right now modifying the grain bill only so I guess I am resorting back to form. But then again, pilsner is one of those beer styles I could drink any day any time of year.
It took me my first 3 years of brewing different beers and styles before I really developed an interest in refining one recipe and honing it in. I think there is definitely an "experimental phase" to homebrewing that every brewer goes through in some form or another before settling down to hone skills and really try to do brewhouse consistency in batches- which to me is really a sign of skill. Budweiser while a not-so-good-lager is actually very skillfully crafted if you think about it, every can, bottle, and keg you try of Bud is exactly the same. Brewed on different dates, and different brew houses, they are all consistent(ly average). Consistency in batches takes a lot of skill and a very solid brew process, and something every brewer should aspire to. That said I settled on a simple PA recipe after much experimentation (8# 2 row and 2 oz hops), and tried to make each batch brewed taste the same. Occasionally I'd scale up for a double batch and do a one off for the second half, usually changing the yeast from the norm, or trying different hops. Something small to really help me understand recipe tweaks. My $.02
That's a really relevant factor I hadn't considered. If I only brew every 6-8 weeks, I may get bored with only brewing the same style/recipe and lose some interest...which is probably why I've approached it how I have so far. I like a heavier pale during the winter, but now I've got a gose batch using acidulated malt working in my fermenter because summer seems like the right time to have a lighter beer, and as good a time as any to experiment. Thanks to all for the replies...I guess I was just wondering how recipe selection factored into keeping your creative/craft chord resonating. Cheers!
Agreed! Making the same beer with minor tweaks once every 1-2 months sounds like a boring hobby to me haha
My philosophy: 2 taps must contain PA and Porter...other 2 for seasonal/chile/ strong ale/? Try to keep pipeline at ~ 6 kegs.
Been brewing for around 13 years. Did A LOT of experimentation in the beginning. Like most, I think. Now I just brew what I like to drink. I think that it's worth trying to dial in a technique or a style of beer, but not so much a recipe. Like learning how to make great hoppy beer or how to make great sour beer. Guess I just like the broad strokes over getting super specific.
I have a few recipes I do over and over with minimal tweaking. But, most of the time I tweak recipes to account for the ingredients I actually have on hand, as opposed to the ones called for in the recipe. And I always/sometimes take good notes in case the new recipe is better. My job doesn't allow me to schedule brewdays, I have to brew when I have time and since the nearest LHBS is 280 miles away I make do with what I have on hand. Also I never know what kegs will empty first so it's hard to schedule a day to brew a particular beer in advance. I buy everything in bulk but an IPA recipe for 10 gallons might use a pound of a particular hop, I tend to run out pretty often. But I always have a pound of something else to try, so life is good. I don't get hung up on recipes, technique and execution are much more important.
