How did you veterans "practice" brewing?

I think I've been through all of those phases, still in some...

1. I brewed one style over and over Did this with PA's and IPA's for close to 3 years back in the 90's. We are miuch luckier now with so many hops available to homebrewers.
2. I brewed a different beer every time I do this now
3. I let the seasons guide me I do this now
4. I brew what I want when I want I do this now
5. I read every single book on brewing before I brewed my first beer There weren't many books available back in the day. Joy of Homebrewing and Noonan's Lager book, and a few others. But yeah I read them before brewing. But I've never stopped reading, I read every brewing book that comes out.

IMO Best way to improve your brewing is to brew a lot.

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I would agree with this. Combined with research/reading and paying attention to the results you're getting and making corrections/improvements based on what you (and others, like judges) are tasting.

 

Well I will start with the recipe I rebrewed. It is a simple hefeweizen recipe - 6lbs wheat DME and 1 ounce noble hops (hallertua the first time, spalt the second) @60 min. I used wyeast 3068 and wlp 300, which I believe are equivalent strains. My system change was mainly pot size ~ 3 gallon to 7.5 gallon, which allows full boils, I also added a wort chiller (not a huge difference but made the brew day go faster), and my heat source was induction versus my stove (again, not that this will effect the outcome, but does effect the brew day). I also had a little better handle on pitching temps and fermentation temps. I double pitched the first batch, but not the second. In all I guess they weren't as exactly the same as I thought.

I also had carbonation problems with the first batch, but if I ignore that, the biggest difference between the beers was the color, the full boil version is much lighter. On the flavor side, the are definitely similar, but the first beer had a stronger banana flavor, as well as seeming more boozy. The second batch (I have only had two of these so far) in general seems smoother with a vanilla flavor I didn't pick up the first time around. Both beers have a bitter off flavor I suspect is from knocking hop material in the kreusen ring into the beer at bottling. In all the beers are not as different as I imagined, but I would definitely pick the second batch over the first.

 

This is great information for a new brewer. Brew, brew, and brew some more!!! I am starting with the kits and taking notes on every thing I do before I jump into anything more advanced. Plus money is limited right now, so kits work good for me!!!

 

I think most of us agree that we're best at brewing when we are brewing once a month or more. Any longer than that and a lot of us have to sharpen the cleats.

 

A month feels like forever.

The only way to "practice" brewing is by...just going ahead and brewing.

I started off brewing extract kits.Then I experimented with my own malt extract and hops balances and checked recipes with an online recipe calculator to check how close I came to the definition of the style. Sometimes I adjust recipes when I am outside of parameters, sometimes I don't.

After several batches like this, and deciding that I really liked doing it, I built a larger system that worked for me, and started designing all grain recipes. I usually brew with the seasons, but sometimes have something that doesn't quite match up. With my favorite styles, (bitters, pale ales) I brew recipes over and over again, adjusting them so I like it more and more.

 

This is an excellent point, I've been brewing for a very long time but one of the biggest hurdles to improving for me has been sloppy note taking and just winging it far too much. The more you know about exactly what went into a beer, the better you will be able to tweak and improve it.

 

Not only are kits a good way to go (why try and shop for individual ingredients when you're starting out?), there have been one or two posts recently by all-grain guys who have gone back to extract kits just because they're pressed for time or whatever. For me, I'm perfectly happy doing kits for a while. I recently kegged my first beer and now my second. I feel like I should perfect/hone my processes a little more before I attempt all-grain.

 

I would strongly suggest getting a relationship going with a good homebrew shop and a homebrew club, and then brew as much as you can. Those guys will be able to identify and help you correct the flaws in your beer much easier than you posting your description of an off flavor on any internet forum.

 

When I started my "LHBS" owner recommended no boil, pre-hopped kits with 1 can of extract and 1.5 pounds of table sugar. Ferment at room temp so it gets done faster, and use the yeast pack taped to the extract can. After 2 of his kits I realized he didn't have a clue. I spent 10 years brewing alone with little or no input from anybody but my drunk friends who loved my beer. But when I went to Belgium on my first drinking tour I realized just how bad my beer really was and at that point I really started my quest for great homebew. You new brewers have a much steeper learning curve with all the resources out there to help you. One last word of advice, (and this is kind of ironic): not all internet advice is very good , especially on sites like this. Try to figure out if the poster is just repeating something he/she has read or heard from his sister in laws' cousins' husband or if they are using their personal experiences. There are people here who are very knowledgeable and people who are excellent repeaters, be sure you figure out how good the advice is before you run with it.

 

Read, brew, read, brew, tweak, brew, tweak, brew, read, brew, read, brew, brew, brew, brew....
Over the last 10 yrs I have brewed 95% IPA's with only US-05 which helped me focus on malt and hop combinations. My biggest challange now is just obtaining impeccable quality hops and finding the time to brew.

 

I had a couple homebrew batches under my belt when I went in for an interview at a brewery for an assistant brewer's (aka janitor) job available. After talking beer and saying that I could come on for a brew day to see if I still wanted the job, he hand me a copy of the Homebrewer's Companion and told me I needed it finished before stepping foot in the brewery. Was a huge help to get me to understand nuances of the 'magic' behind the curtain. So my first piece of advice would be to read a book front to back if you really want to hit the ground running.
There is definitely no golden ticket, but reading, practicing and experimenting are fundamentals.

 

Read and study a lot to gain a thorough understanding of the brewing process and theory, then put that knowledge to use and often reference literature prior to brew day and even during brew day. To understand why you are doing certain things & executing those interventions (ie. salt additions to water, mash pH, pitching rates, etc) is where you really start to see your beers jump from ok, to good, to outstanding.

Also, you have to adapt to your system. Every brew house, whether commercial or home, is unique and will affect the finished product a certain way. Anything from water source, kettle dimensions, fermenter dimensions, sanitation practices, transfer methods, etc all have an impact on the beer. You have to find what works best with your brew house.

Mostly, this is an art and science of trial and error, you learn more by prepared action than anything.

 

As a relative newcomer to the hobby, I brewed regularly with a more experienced home brewing friend. Those group brew sessions took the mystery and intimidation away from the shift to all-grain.

 

Brew as much as you can, read everything you can, go to homebrew club meetings, enter competitions. Don't fool yourself into thinking you really know what your doing until you've been at it for at least a few years or a hundred or so batches. And even then, remember that there is always more to learn.

 

You've hit it here. You can brew your ass off and learn from every batch but you're likely to forget some details. Do what the big guys do and keep a log of both process and results (not just a recipe sheet). Most people are pretty good about the process part but skimp on making detailed descriptions over time of the results. This will change your learning curve drastically.

 

I do what I want.

 

Although I'd love to perfect beers, the reason I got into homebrewing is to brew beers that I like or wanted to drink that were not commercially available or cost much more than I would want to spend. I brew a 4.5% hoppy pale as my main brew and a blackened version with brett as well as a pumpkin porter, peanut butter porter, and hoppy saison. A small amount of experimentation is good and I try to tailor my beers to my tastes.

 

There is alot of good advice here and it seems like the general consensus is brew, brew, brew...to make better beer, but that is only partial true and it is that combination of everything mentioned here that will take your brewing to the next level. After brewing for over 4 years, I realized that attention to detail and technique are at the top of importance. Started out taking a basic homebrew class and brewing a basic hefeweizen extract recipe, to slowly upgrading and adding equipment in order to brew more advanced recipies. I tryed to brew as many styles as I could, and go back to favorites to consistently reproduce or tweek to make better. I started taking more accurate notes and trying to hit exact temps with mashing and fermenting. Early on I would follow recipies exactly, to slowly making changes, and now making completely new recipies. New recipies could be a big hit or a complete failure, but after reading many books and understanding the nuances of grains, hops, and propagating yeast......its really the best way to learn. Nobody wants to spend a whole day brewing, let alone the cost of the ingredients, just to make a mediocre beer....but thats how you get better! In the great words of Vince Lombardi, practice dosen't make perfect.....perfect practice makes perfect.