I have been brewing now for just over a year. And I look back and realize that only once have I repeated a beer. Is it reasonable to say that I am considering the idea of picking a few beers that I like and only brewing them, but making small changes each time to find perfection? Anyone do that? Or am I in good company being a person who brews something different every time?
I repeat recipes often. For my Rye IPA recipe, I probably went through more than a dozen test batches before I nailed it. I find rebrewing a recipe to be one of the best ways to home your skill as a brewer.
For over the last year or so I’ve been concentrating on 3 beers only, Bo Pils, Dunkel and Oktoberfest. Pretty much got the last two down but not yet satisfied with my Bo Pils.
While I am still getting the hang of things, my plan is to soon go to smaller (i.e. 1 to 3 gal) batches to test recipes, try new things, and hone my skills a little more. If I find a recipe or two (or more) that I seem to really like, I’ll re-read my notes and bump it to 5-10 gallons so I can have plenty on hand.
I assume it’s probably easier to manage a one gallon failure versus a five gallon failure 
I brew my Brew Cat IPA the most, I tweaked it a little from the first recipe but not much. I trade beer for discounts and favors and that one is the most asked for. I have a ryePA I repeat and a saison, also a session. I also have a bunch I plan on repeating some need tweaking some not so much. To answer your question I will try a new recipe about every third brew. Sometimes I do a ten gallon batch and 5gal for tried 5gal for something new.
Oh, I focus my brewing all the time. This year it’s German lagers. That’s what I like to drink and I can’t get fresh examples around here (Iowa City, IA), so that’s what I brew. I used to brew a lot of IPAs and hoppy styles but there are a ridiculous amount of IPAs available to us at all times or nearly any location. I don’t need to be wasting my time and resources on that.
I’ve been focusing on brewing:
Helles
Bo Pils
Schwarzbier
Vienna lager
German Pils
Dunkel
With a few different styles mixed in like black IPA, an IPL, hefe.
Like Denny said, focusing on something or a couple styles is how you really get your skills fine tuned.
Yep. I’ve brewed Denny’s Waldo Lake Amber at least a dozen times. And like Beersk I’ve been focused on Lagers for the last 6 months or so. Just brewed 10 gals of munich dunkel and 10 of Vienna lager. I’ll be brewing my attempt at czech pils for the second time very soon. That’s a tough one and may take a few more iterations to get it where I want it. My house IPA is an all centennial that i’ve brewed 7-8 times as well.
Practice hasn’t made em perfect…yet but I’m sure enjoying the practice and the product!
That being said, if you’re enjoying them keep expanding your range until you find some you really want to focus on.
I started out like the OP, brewing something different for maybe my first 15 attempts before I did a repeat. But at one point I decided I would learn to better control my process by brewing the same beer multiple times in a row. It really did help, though I was kind of sick of Wit by the time I drained the last keg.
These days I’ll brew something new about 1/3 the time; I’ve got a stock of great recipes that just need to get repeated every couple of years. And I will go through fazes where I’ll do a lot of German lagers, or British ales, or historical beers or whatever over the course of a year or two.
So many beers , so little time. I like to explore.
Perfection isn’t an option for me.
[quote=“simple”]So many beers , so little time. I like to explore.
Perfection isn’t an option for me.[/quote]
When I first decided I wanted to brew my own I figured I’d master three or four of the beers I like and just brew those. Well you can imagine how that went. :cheers:
First years was everything under the sun. Last 5-6 I narrowed down to maybe a doz. I think now I like 6-8 beers, and also I’ve been trying hard to improve all aspects of my process. But I can get sidetracked when every once in a while I hear someone say, “Hey, have you tried a whats-ya-call it!” Next thing ya know I’m off to the races. What other hobby can you change in mid stream at the drop of a hat. DAMN I LOVE BREWING!!
I like variety to it’s hard for me to brew the same thing over and over, or drink the same thing alone for months. I know I need to and want to narrow it down to maybe 12 monthly beers to fine tune and a few new/test fillers to keep the pipes flowing and experiment. My biggest problem is having to drink all 5 gallons alone. :twisted:
Oh yes, when I started I enjoyed new castle, a lot! Then off onto, in our area, summit EPA. Well next to IPA’s then, well you get the point. Like most others, I was all over too! Now I have centered up and have 5 types of brews I can repeat with confidence. I am looking ahead to a few more and not to follow an exact style, just great trying and :cheers: repeating. I won’t enter a competion as I believe I don’t need to have an award to be happy, just friends show up looking for a good brew to quaff!! Sneezles61
I just added it up. Of my 52 batches over the past 3+ years, I did 29 different varieties. I do like to try new things out. But I am finetuning my favorite 10 or so that will probably turn into my ‘standards’.
I brewed 59 kits my first year. Pretty much on schedule to do the same this year. Like many said, I was everywhere. I have brewed about everything I want to brew from Midwest Supplies and now I am about halfway through Northern Brewer. For the most part, I am done with trying new brews. I love Belgians and my new favorite summer/session beer is the Extra Pale Ale. I have really hated beers that I didn’t like. I have about 8-10 now that I really enjoy and when I build my draft system, they will be house beers. May try a few new ones here and there.
I don’t think I have ever brewed that exact same beer twice but have brewed versions of a beer a few times. I like to mess with dry hoping or adding a different hop or maybe a different malt. I brew APA and IPA most of the time and feel confident with them. I think I’m gonna really focus on APA and get a house recipe down. I’d love to always have APA on tap then leave the other 2 taps for other styles.
I tend to rotate: malty, yeasty, hoppy… I have an Irish Red conditioning, a dubbel in the fermenter, and an IPA waiting to be brewed. Within those classes I have my favorite recipies, but I will do variants to keep from getting bored.
For the OP brewing for just over a year, I thought my first beer was pretty good, but I had no desire to make that kit again. When I realized I had been brewing for a year I forced myself to re-buy that same kit. The difference was astounding. I’d definitely recommend revisiting some of your earlier brews, just to see how far you’ve come.
This is awesome feedback. So I think that what I am going to do is to pick the 5 that I like the best and just work on making them the best that I can for the next year.
That being said, I have started to realize that I am tired of living the life of the daily grind. Going to work and trying to make ends meet. I thought, how cool would it be to buy a chunk of property with a large house on it in the middle of nowhere and become sort of monk-ish. I am not a religious man so I would not really be a monk, but I am a man of nature. So I would sort of be a nature monk. And I would focus the rest of my life on making awesome beer. And my “monastery” would welcome any other brewers who want the serenity and silence of nature without the stress of the daily grind.
Who’s in!Oh, and there would be sections of every area of the property where speaking is forbidden so if you don’t want to have to listen to anyone you can spend most of your time in the silent zones. Areas where you can just be one with the beer.
[quote=“in_the_basement”]This is awesome feedback. So I think that what I am going to do is to pick the 5 that I like the best and just work on making them the best that I can for the next year.
That being said, I have started to realize that I am tired of living the life of the daily grind. Going to work and trying to make ends meet. I thought, how cool would it be to buy a chunk of property with a large house on it in the middle of nowhere and become sort of monk-ish. I am not a religious man so I would not really be a monk, but I am a man of nature. So I would sort of be a nature monk. And I would focus the rest of my life on making awesome beer. And my “monastery” would welcome any other brewers who want the serenity and silence of nature without the stress of the daily grind.
Who’s in!Oh, and there would be sections of every area of the property where speaking is forbidden so if you don’t want to have to listen to anyone you can spend most of your time in the silent zones. Areas where you can just be one with the beer.[/quote]
You’ve kinda described my life since I retired! Just add in writing under a deadline and travelling to talk about beer…
[quote=“in_the_basement”]This is awesome feedback. So I think that what I am going to do is to pick the 5 that I like the best and just work on making them the best that I can for the next year.
That being said, I have started to realize that I am tired of living the life of the daily grind. Going to work and trying to make ends meet. I thought, how cool would it be to buy a chunk of property with a large house on it in the middle of nowhere and become sort of monk-ish. I am not a religious man so I would not really be a monk, but I am a man of nature. So I would sort of be a nature monk. And I would focus the rest of my life on making awesome beer. And my “monastery” would welcome any other brewers who want the serenity and silence of nature without the stress of the daily grind.
Who’s in!Oh, and there would be sections of every area of the property where speaking is forbidden so if you don’t want to have to listen to anyone you can spend most of your time in the silent zones. Areas where you can just be one with the beer.[/quote]
You must be really having a bad day, sorry about that. You do know monks are celebate.
