Do you as a “Homebrewer”, “Advocate of great beer”, “Professor to educate the masses against BMC”, “Masterbrewer of your domain” brew what you want or do you brew for others?
I have gotten into the rut of always having Cream Ale, or Spotted cow clone on tap for people that show up at my door with an empty glass. After making the same recipe 3 or 4 times I get bored. I would like to explore Belgians, heritage recipes and interesting ingrediants.
PS I have a two tapper that fits my schedule of brewing every other weekend with having two on tap, two on deck, and 3-6 cases of big beers aging.
What do you do?
Bottled: Barley Wine, Hearthwarmer Red Ale, Pumpkin Spice.
On tap: Kolsch, Southern English Brown Ale
Keg priming: Toasted Oatmeal Raison Cookie, Spotted Cow.
Secondary: Coffee Stout for bottling ready 12/22/12 Dang Mayans.
Primary: Cream Ale.
I stopped doing that; I used to try to make beers I think other people would enjoy… where “other people” generally meant the non-beer-connoisseurs from my family. That got too stressful, trying to guess what beers would go over well with that kind of crowd.
Now, I just make beers I want to make. The way I see it, I figure that I can at least do them a favor and give them exposure to good beers they may think they won’t like. If they’re right and they don’t like it, so be it. People don’t need to like my beer for it to still be good; not everyone’s tastes are the same, even for beer connoisseurs.
I’m lucky enough to have 6 taps, so I can keep a range of beers. Usually out of a blonde, American wheat and wit, two are on tap. Then usually an amber and pale ale and a stout. The last tap is usually a specialty. Right now it’s pumpkin, but soon to be spiced winter ale.
I try and encourage people to drink outside of their normal range. They are often surprised that they like something they never thought they would.
For those of you who have many beers on tap. How often do you go through a keg? I find myself brewing twice a month, but just getting no more than two kegs on tap at any one time. Once I had 3, but that is because I brewed a 10 gallon batch.
[quote=“brans041”]For those of you who have many beers on tap. How often do you go through a keg? I find myself brewing twice a month, but just getting no more than two kegs on tap at any one time. Once I had 3, but that is because I brewed a 10 gallon batch.
How do you guys do it?[/quote]
I brew a lot!
I try and keep 6 kegs on tap, with 3 others carbing and cooling in the kegerator, minimum. I started doing 10 gallon batches which make it a lot easier. I’m busy stockpiling for the holidays right now, so I have all 8 fermentors full. As I keg, I’ll brew again to fill the fermentor. After mid December, I probably won’t brew for close to a month.
Luckily for me, I do enjoy the occasional Blonde Ale, Czech Pils, American Wheat, etc. so I do typically have something lighter on tap. What surprises me is that I sometimes have “beer mortals” pick a beer that I have that I DID NOT expect them to go for but they do. So you just never know. My tastebuds are very much in line with my friends, family and neighbors. I have 4 taps through the back wall of my bar and I can keep another 4 kegs cold. I brew a lot and usually have those 8 kegs full and then another 5-6 secondaries ready for duty when one of the kegs blows. Cheers.
