Ever have a run of sub-par brews?

2013 sucked for me. I tried about 6 times to get a patersbier with brett and was not satisfied. I also kept trying new recipes that ended up like yours. I spent 2014 being super happy doing almost all tried and true(by me) recipes that turned out great and locked down 2 others even with a 3 month layoff to study for a test. 2015 has been all tried and true and is going great. I might do a few 1-offs this week and next, then back to the good ones.

 

Nothing you say makes me think you brewed any of these beers poorly. It just sounds like you are scrambling to do things a little differently to see if you like them and you have run into things that aren't your favorites.

#1 and #4 sounds like you liked these. #4 sounds especially good to me.
#2, 3, and 5 sounds like you know why you don't especially love these.
#6 I used that yeast once and hated it. Blah blah bland. You probably have too much dark malt in there for the style (I'm assuming a 5 gallon batch) .

You branched out and learned about some things you realize you don't like. Success!

 

I had a really bad run in 2011 and 2012. Took me a long time to recover. In mid-2013 I finally caught the brewing bug again and started to make kickbutt beers again. It happens. My problem really was that I got too lazy so I was experiencing contamination and autolysis. Also I had problems with every beer going sour due to scratches in my plastic buckets. I switched over to glass and no problems anymore.

 

Not a bad run year wise. But style wise. I've tried an ESB and have been "bitterly" dissapointed.... sorry for the bad pun. Until my last batch I've had 3 failures. It's all a learning experience. I'd say a bad run now leads to better beer in the future. Hold your head up!!

 

I'm experiencing one as we speak, stretching back to when I moved to this apartment a year and a half ago.
1. Water here sucks. Very hard. I need to start buying RO and building, but that's another expense and another step to think about in brewing. Works well for stouts, at least.
2. Apartment stays hot in all seasons. In previous apartments, I would do the bulk of my brewing in the fall, winter, and early spring, and just do a few saisons once it got hot. Utilities are included in the rent, so it doesn't matter where I have the thermostat, everybody else is cranking theirs, keeping my apartment in the upper 60s. I use a swamp cooler year round, but I know that everything is fermenting at the upper end of its range, at best.

One day, I'll have a house with an RO system and real fermentation chambers and whatnot, but in the meantime, this kinda sucks.

 

There was a time that I had 4 out of 6 corneys that I didnt' want to drink in my keezer. I suppose that counts. I threw a couple of parties and had to brew 5 more beers in 6 weeks. Problem solved.

 

For #4, you should try dropping the 2 row and just use the GP as base malt
For #5, before you decide you don't like Cascade, I would try a different base malt. May I suggest GP You might also try Cascade from a different harvest year.

 

This happens to me sometimes. Sometimes if I'm brewing in the summertime, I get lazy about fermentation temp control. Sometimes I try brewing new styles or with new ingredients and discover that I don't like them much even though my process was sound.

When that happens, I go back to a reliable recipe of a style that I know I will enjoy, like an oatmeal stout or a pale ale heavy on the cascades.

 

Since a run implies 2 or more sub-par batches in a row, my answer is no. It's never happened.

When I make a flawed beer, it's generally easy enough to fix by blending it with a pro beer. I'm currently enjoying a botched batch of rough boozy homebrew with Great Lakes Commodore Perry blended 50/50. It's even better than the same homebrew blended with Shock Top which was surprisingly decent.

 

Currently having a bad run in my brew closet with mash and brew house efficiency.
The only process change has been a new source for malted grains.
Wondering whether there might be 50 shades of grain.

Do some LHBS sell their grains @low ... low ... low prices b/c they're purveyors of lower grade malts?

 

Turn around goes only so far with hops because of the annual harvest. Are you aware of commercial beers that you love that are all or predominantly cascade. If not, you simply do not love this hop. No big deal. Move on to the next latest and greatest hop. Seems like maybe you did with your mosaic citra galaxy #4 beer. Frankly, I like the idea of cascade beer to recalibrate my understanding of hops and brewing. From time to time, I'll buy a commercial example for this purpose.

 

Worst run of beers I ever had were all from some brewery in St. Louis.

Everybody has a bad run at some point. At one point I had a string of infected batches. Threw some equipment out, thoroughly sanitized the rest. Problem solved.

When trying to nail down a recipe, one is bound to miss on an attempt or two. Fortunately there are a lot of rather indiscriminate palates out there...

 

The best part about St. Louis having a macrobrewery is that it forces some of the microbreweries to make some great stuff. Urban Chestnut, Perennial, 4 Hands, and Schlafly all make some great beers. You have to go to Schlafly for theirs, and you have to get seasonal Chestnut.

 

My first few beers after a hiatus were pretty terrible.

 

Generally my beers are pretty average to below when I either freelance or rush to bottle/keg. A sound process goes a long way

 

Try a sixpack of SNPA to reset your palette.

 

I agree that there is no reason for problems due to process (typically), but sometimes a combination of ingredients just doesn't work out. I tried making a "chocolate-orange" wit once. All chocolate and no orange. And the chocolate clashed with the yeast. Oh well. That brew was so far from what I was hoping for, I basically gave up on trying to improve it. Now on to a "chocolate-mint" wit...