Simple is best? Or at least as good?

[Aggie10]

I'm finding that as the brews get made and drained, the ones that are super simple are as good on average as the ones where I add .003 oz of this and that, boil for 37.9 minutes while hopping on one leg and chanting holy verses etc.

Anyone else's finding same or not?

 

[gunhaus]

 

[Steveruch]

I'm finding that as the brews get made and drained, the ones that are super simple are as good on average as the ones where I add .003 oz of this and that, boil for 37.9 minutes while hopping on one leg and chanting holy verses etc.

Anyone else's finding same or not?

This article was inspired by Annie Johnson winning 2013 homebrewer of the year with a two grain one hop beer.

 

[OnePlate]

I'm of the opinion that when we're talking about most beers, there are diminishing returns with the complexity of a recipe. Homebrewing is not an exact science. All of my favorite beers I've made use only one hop and usually two or three malts.

 

[bracconiere]

keep it simple stupid?

 

[dwhite60]

At most...

Three grains, two hops, three hop additions.

The older I get the more I like simple.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[day_trippr]

This article was inspired by Annie Johnson winning 2013 homebrewer of the year with a two grain one hop beer.

Irony. Waaaay too many words given the notion

 

[wiggybrewer]

A simple pils./lager, as effective as a three chord rock song , loved by the masses. [emoji6]

 

[brewbama]

Good article Steve.

Rarely do recipes I brew have more than three grains (most have two). Likewise, few have more than three hop varieties and I often limit to one or two.

Palmer’s basic recipe formula in How to Brew follows a similar line of minimalist thinking though does get a bit more involved as the beers get darker. He describes these as crude a jumping off point but surprisingly many recipes fall into this framework rather nicely:

* Pale: base malt (many use a base malt blend) plus a half-pound of caramel malt
* Amber: pale plus a half-pound of dark caramel malt
* Brown: pale plus a half-pound of chocolate malt
* Porter: amber plus a half-pound of chocolate malt
* Stout: porter plus a half-pound of roasted barley

Drew Beechum’s talk at The AHA conf a few years back discussed a similar streamline he dubbed ‘On the Ones’:

 

[Steveruch]

Good article Steve.

Rarely do recipes I brew have more than three grains (most have two). Likewise, few have more than three hop varieties and I often limit to one or two.

Palmer’s basic recipe formula in How to Brew follows a similar line of minimalist thinking though does get a bit more involved as the beers get darker. He describes these as crude a jumping off point but surprisingly many recipes fall into this framework rather nicely:

* Pale: base malt (many use a base malt blend) plus a half-pound of caramel malt
* Amber: pale plus a half-pound of dark caramel malt
* Brown: pale plus a half-pound of chocolate malt
* Porter: amber plus a half-pound of chocolate malt
* Stout: porter plus a half-pound of roasted barley

Drew Beechum’s talk at The AHA conf a few years back discussed a similar streamline he dubbed ‘On the Ones’:

Thanks. Drew and Denny gave a talk at last year's con about keeping things simple.

 

[bracconiere]

A simple pils./lager, as effective as a three chord rock song , loved by the masses. [emoji6]

LOL, at the risk of repeating myself....

 

[RM-MN]

if you can't taste the difference between a simple beer and a more complex one with more than 2 malts you may not be giving the beer time to mature. Some flavors take time to come through. I'll do a mix of simple beers and some complex beers and find that I like both but the complex ones will not be opened for 3 to 6 months or more and those I'm more likely to sip instead of just drink so I can enjoy the complexity and try to discover with my tongue just what grains I used.

 

[eric19312]

Keeping the recipe simple makes it easier to focus on the process. I think the AHA recipe publications are really ingredient lists and it is entirely possible to brew anything from fantastic to mediocre beer following these recipes exactly as written depending on individual brewers process and technique. That’s not even including contaminated failures but I’m assuming basic level of competence.

My guess is that at the finalist tables at the NHC judges are facing a panel of mostly very good to great beers. The winner is likely to be that perfect brew that captured some “it” factor and let it shine unmistakably through. A complex recipe is more likely to muddle the background and make it harder to appreciate that flavor, aroma or other star characteristic the beer is intended to show.

 

[mongoose33]

I'm of the opinion that Process > Recipe, in that an excellent process with a simple recipe will beat a complicated recipe with a poor process.

Come to think of it, a poor process is just that no matter the recipe.

******

I don't generally have more than 3 or 4 malts or adjuncts in a brew, but I've got one with 6 such ingredients which sounds like too many. Problem is, that beer is so good that I'm loathe to fiddle with some of the lesser ingredients to see how much difference they make.

Reminds me of the guy who'd stand on his back porch every morning and howl at the top of his lungs. His new neighbor, after 3 or 4 days of this, asked him why he was doing that. "To keep the lions away." His neighbor said "But there are no lions around here," to which he replied "See? It works!"

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Palmer’s basic recipe formula in How to Brew follows a similar line of minimalist thinking though does get a bit more involved as the beers get darker. He describes these as crude a jumping off point but surprisingly many recipes fall into this framework rather nicely:

* Pale: base malt (many use a base malt blend) plus a half-pound of caramel malt
* Amber: pale plus a half-pound of dark caramel malt
* Brown: pale plus a half-pound of chocolate malt
* Porter: amber plus a half-pound of chocolate malt
* Stout: porter plus a half-pound of roasted barley

Agreed, surprisingly many recipes fall into this framework.

Adding "one color malt" (for example, black patient malt) to the "brewing on the ones" framework covers even more recipes. With amber and brown ales, I'm not a fan of using darker crystal / caramel (80L or greater) for color as they can come across as harsh, so a little black malt for color works for me.