How many of you quit experimenting after you found "it."

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Ol' Grog

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I was curious. After you've played with kits, went to your own recipes or found a particular brew that you just absolutely love, do you continue to experiment with other brews or is that it? I mean, do you continously brew the same brew time after time because to you, this is the holy grail and no need to continue on? Or keep your favorite as the stock and still continue to experiment or try different brews and/or brew techniques???
 
I very rarely repeat a brew: variety is the spice of life, IMHO.

A lot of my batches are very similar, of course: I'd say about 50% of my batches are something from the bitters/pale ale/IPA sphere.

I only brew a little more than once a month, on average, so I don't mind taking the time to formulate new recipes and try new things.
 
There is no 'perfect' beer much like there is no 'perfect' food. You have a taste for different things at different times.
 
My plan for the year is to develop a "house" pale ale that I'll always have around, but I'm sure it'll take a lot of tweaks to get right, and frankly I doubt I'll ever stop playing around with it. Besides that, though, I'm always in the mood for something different, so I can't ever see myself brewing something and not wanting anything else. It's not like "I'm a Bud man, so all I drink it Bud" - sometimes I want an IPA, sometimes I want a smoked porter, sometimes a little wheat beer is refreshing.

Once I get *good*, I'll probably play around with other things that I usually wouldn't buy, like barleywines and some Belgians. That's the fun, learning to do new things, searching for new ideas and techniques. There's no "end point."
 
I brew for the season usually. Sometimes just out of curiosity, others out of desires. I never brew the same twice, or haven't yet. There are a couple I would like to try again, but there are too many styles to brew that I get caught up in the whole lifestyle. Someday, maybe someday!!!

- WW
 
Ol' Grog said:
I was curious. After you've played with kits, went to your own recipes or found a particular brew that you just absolutely love, do you continue to experiment with other brews or is that it? I mean, do you continously brew the same brew time after time because to you, this is the holy grail and no need to continue on? Or keep your favorite as the stock and still continue to experiment or try different brews and/or brew techniques???
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I'm a veteran beer connoisseur, but I'm relatively new to this hobby. As such, I want to try all of my favorite styles, and also to try some new stuff that I can't get anywhere else. As such, I've only repeated one recipe, a basil pale ale. After 24 batches, I think I am ready to do another repeat, because I love, love, love my Chocolate-Coffee stout so much, and I know it's not gonna last forever. Along with the Winter Warmer and Steffiweizen, that's about as close as I've gotten to "it"...and those are the three that I'm scheming on repeating someday. Otherwise...I love trying new stuff.
 
I'm actually trying to avoid doing a recipe duplicate for as long as possible. I want to try to make a bit of everything before I go back to try anything again. I like too many beer styles for there to be an "it" for me (although I do have some preferences).
 
ayrton said:
I'm actually trying to avoid doing a recipe duplicate for as long as possible. I want to try to make a bit of everything before I go back to try anything again. I like too many beer styles for there to be an "it" for me (although I do have some preferences).
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Hehe, once you make something that blows your mind, and you run out of it...then you'll sing a different tune. :)
 
The only IT recipe I have is for Rogue Mocha Porter. And I don't even do that every year. I buy kits for variety and tweak recipes every time I make them.

Shoot, I'll buy the sampler at brewpubs I've been going to for years. I can't remember the last time I drank two glasses of the same brew in one day. Maybe the perfect beer for me is out there, but in 35 years, I haven't found it.
 
My process has changed as I progress with this hobby so I haven't found "IT" yet. It seems each brew tastes better than the last. I am partial to APAs and IPAs, but have been trying some other styles and want to brew them as well.

I am thinking along the lines of finding my "house" ale to be sure I have a keg of something I know I love.
 
I brew several Hefe's and as they run out I'll brew some more.

I also brew seasonals several months out so they are ready when the season arrives. Then again, some brews take 12 plus months before they are ready so you can brew them anytime and just wait. Same with meads.:D
 
I've only done 8 brews, but I'm looking for my IT that would become my regular brew on tap when I get the keg system done.
Like others, I get into beer moods. I brewed a Saison, and then went testing some commercial Saisons just to keep the mood, now it's my #1 beer of choice. That will change when I try something else that's good and get on a kick to do it to.

I'd like to have a Saison and an IPA on tap as permanent house brews, I just haven't found the IPA (only did one) that I'm ready to call house brew yet.
 
jezter6 said:
I've only done 8 brews, but I'm looking for my IT that would become my regular brew on tap when I get the keg system done.
Like others, I get into beer moods. I brewed a Saison, and then went testing some commercial Saisons just to keep the mood, now it's my #1 beer of choice. That will change when I try something else that's good and get on a kick to do it to.

I'd like to have a Saison and an IPA on tap as permanent house brews, I just haven't found the IPA (only did one) that I'm ready to call house brew yet.
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I'm also a big Saison fan. Depending on your fermenting conditions, you may have trouble brewing a good saison year-round, though, as I think you need a temp that consistently stays in the upper 60s or higher.
 
I'm constantly tweaking. I'm searching for that, elusive, "house brew", too. My last batch was a partial grain IPA, around 55 IBU. I'm a hophead, and the missus ain't. I usually brew for my tatses; but the next batch will be my first real repeat. It will be of first brew I made. ( that was 14 years ago!!!) A single infusion of hops winding up at about 12 IBUs. She loved it...So did I.
 
Never really brew the same thing twice here... That would defeat the fun of the hobby for me.

I might brew something very similar (I tried to keep a light american 'cream ale' available at all times for example) to something I've already brewed, but I would probably play with hop additions or type of hops used. If not I may use a little different crystal malt or some other specialty grain to see and compare the results with the prior, all the while keeping with the general 'style' I'm shooting for...

And more often than that I brew things that I've never done before at all or do something totally different.
 
Once you get into this hobby, I can't see many people settling for doing the same recipe every time. I too am trying to "perfect" my APA recipe to have as my house brew always on tap, but I'll try a different recipe almost every time. Part of the fun is figuring out what different ingredients & techniques will do to the end result.
 
I like to play too. I try to do something different with every batch and I'm sure I'll eventually find one that I will make as a "house" beer, but that will have to wait until I get a keg system setup which is future plan.

Hey Evan, chocolate coffee stout sounds good. Care to post the recipe?
 
What about pefection of one type? Not saying do it over and over and over. But what about going back and doing something different to make it better? Perfecting your recipe. Learning to be consistant and perfection of what your looking for should be a priority, along with experimentation of the new. I am not an experienced brewer, but it would seem that this would be how some of the biggger brewing companies got the commecial brews that we drink.
 
I'm still looking for my "house Brew" for the kegerator when it's done. I want something easy drinking for a Sunday of Football/ Nascar/ BBQ'ing. My kegerator (when completed) will hold three kegs so one for the house brew and two others to rotate.
That is the plan, we'll see if it happens.
 
I've been doing kits and recipes for years now but I think my brother and Ize (sorry for the ripoff ize, but it works!) are making efforts to lump recipe-development into our current, and ongoing, transition to all-grain brewing. There are so many more variables with all-grain that we feel the best way to fully understand the process is to repeat a few basic recipes a number of times and to develop them into "house" brews (a basic Plae Ale and a few German/Bohemian Pilsners are the beginning focal point). I feel that one of the steps for us to climb is the ability to make a really good beer consistently. Without repeating the recipe and process, how do we know how consistent we are?

That being said, doing dozens and dozens of different kits and recipes (like Cheese's CCA) has exposed us to a lot of beer types and lots of varied knowledge of different brewing processes. For a long time I was perfectly happy doing kits as my then-current beer desires lead me but now I feel like I want consistency more than variety.
 
Yes, variety is a wonderful thing, plus you get to learn an awful lot from your mistakes and successes.

That said, I still have a Pale ale that is my signature brew. I never want to run out of it, so there's always at least two batches in the bottles at any given time. While those are conditioning or being peed out, I experiment with the new hop combinations and the PM adjuncts.

We can never learn too much about beer!:cross:
 
I have a friend that just makes the same lager extract kit (out a tin). Been making the same one for about six years. His secret (he only just told me this!) is that he puts a dash of coke into each bottle before filling.
Seems to like it - he has a rolling stock of 5-6 hundred bottles. Likes a drop he does :D
 
I, like just about everyone else on here, have never made the same beer twice.

Half of the joy of brewing is watching the expressions of your guest's face when they take that first drink and eventually cause me to restrain them to keep them from draining an entire keg. I take style suggestions from friends/family, and do a fair bit of research :tank: on my own.

I've produced the same overall "style" before, but I've never replicated a recipe.
 
I made an IPA that I was incredibly proud of. I got lots of positive feedback on it. I could make it again, but I've been doing variants of the same recipe. I want it hoppier, lighter colored, etc. So I like to do some variations on a theme, but never the same recipe twice.
 
I have four taps on my kegerator I dedicate three of them to a red ale, american premium lager and a pilsner. and I try keeping one on tap, one in the keg conditioning and one brewing. The other tap is for variety again one on tap one in the keg and one brewing. I have an other co2 set up and try to keep the variety backed up.
 
the_bird said:
Would that be Coca-Cola, or, uh.....
Click to expand...

Sorry, the jobbie brown foul smelling putrid liquid that so many people seem to have been abled to have been told that they will enjoy drinking it. ...the same people that have to be stopped from being run over by cars by introducing a jay-walking law.


I cannot make this sentence make sense! I am posting anyho.
:mug:

..wheres the pub?
 
beer4breakfast said:
LOL. That's pretty funny dibby. I know exactly where you're coming from, even if I don't have the vaguest idea what you mean. Now, time for another homebrew! :mug:
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...nearly beer o'clock time here - 3pm on a Friday. Have already been to the cash point for beer tokens and the taxi fare home! This forum makes me thirsty - not that I normally need much encouragement ;)
 
I've only started my brewing career, but I already know I want to find one "good ol' standby" that I can keep on hand. The fun part is finding that "good ol' standby"!
 
MariaAZ said:
I've only started my brewing career, but I already know I want to find one "good ol' standby" that I can keep on hand. The fun part is finding that "good ol' standby"!
Click to expand...

I've found several that could be "good ol' standbys." Problem is, I get sick of them after awhile, and my ADHD impulses me to brew something else. .

"Now for something completely different. . ."
 
Biermann said:
I've found several that could be "good ol' standbys." Problem is, I get sick of them after awhile, and my ADHD impulses me to brew something else. .

"Now for something completely different. . ."
Click to expand...

Ah, but the beauty of brewing your own is that you can have more than the "good ol' standby" at any given time ;)
 
I love stouts I have brewed a couple more then once, but will also change hops or add extra grain to see how it compares just to see if it will be better.:ban:
 
dibby33 said:
...nearly beer o'clock time here - 3pm on a Friday. Have already been to the cash point for beer tokens and the taxi fare home! This forum makes me thirsty - not that I normally need much encouragement ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah me too! one of my favorite things is cracking one of my beers on a friday tea-time and browsing this forum. :mug: Cheers!
 
Ol' Grog said:
I was curious. After you've played with kits, went to your own recipes or found a particular brew that you just absolutely love, do you continue to experiment with other brews or is that it? I mean, do you continously brew the same brew time after time because to you, this is the holy grail and no need to continue on?
Click to expand...

Oddly enough, I call my porter "Holy Grail" because I have been trying to get "it" right for years now.

However, the wait is over. My current incarnation of the recipe is exactly what I want. The hard part is that it needs to age for a while before it's ready.

1 week primary.
2 weeks secondary.
6 weeks cold conditioning.
 

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