Do you make the same beer all the time, or something different

[MyQul]

Just wondering whether forumites make something different every time they brew (there's so many styles and recipes within each style, this is entirely feasible)? Do you make the same few beers (or even just the one beer) each time you brew and nothing else? Or do you have a core range of beers that you like to make and sometimes make something different for a change?

I tend to have a handleful of recipes that I repeatedly make and sometimes make something different for a bit of variety (if I really like one of these 'different' recipes I'll add it to the 'handful')

 

[Linalmeemow]

I have 2-3 core beers that I've done a few times and always go back to, but about 90% of the time I brew something new.

 

[Mavroz]

I have 4 core beers, 2 darker, 2 lighter hoppy ipa.
Every now and again, i will try making a recipe up for another.
If it is better than a core brew, i will swap it out until i want a change.

 

[chthon]

Being still relatively new, since 2015, I do have about 40 brews done (probably, I could count them), I have one core recipe that I use as a base to try to change things, but not too much. For the rest, I buy yeasts and tend to make something that fits about them. But since fall 2017 I have also started to grow one yeast from bottle too (2017 Westmalle, 2018 St.-Bernardus). I do brew Belgians, sometimes something English (mostly something published by Ronald Pattinson). I do brew every winter a real bock beer, with real lager yeast at lager temperatures.

But mostly I do like to have a diverse stock of beers (currently, one light Belgian, one saison, something like a Leffe abbey beer, a big scotch ale, an RIS, a bock, a tripel on the basis of St.-Bernardus yeast is now carbonating, and I hope to brew something resembling St.-Bernardus Abt 12 next week, when it gets a little cooler, for conditioning over the summer and bottling in August). Also, my wife also likes to drink what I have brewed, so this also influences my choices for brewing.

 

[GerritT]

No fridge, so ales it is. Emphasis on UK recipes, low-ish ABV and high-ish IBU (about 9 out of 10 times).

 

[matt76]

Something different every time for me.

I started brewing less then a year ago and I'm trying to expand my repertoire. I'm also interested by styles I've never encountered before or maybe revisiting ones I've dismissed previously.

I have recently rebrewed a couple of my early beers (IPA and BIPA), plus a bitter which was heavily revised into an ESB.

But mainly it's something new, often inspired by something I've tried on my travels - although 2-3 months later by the time it's actually ready to drink I've usually forgotten why I brewed it in the first place!

 

[chesters-mild]

I have 4 beers I now brew in rotation, a bitter a saison a white beer ( German or Belgian depending on mood) and a hoppy USA IPA.
I do meddle around with the grain bills, hops & yeasts from time to time

 

[Zephyr259]

After 3 years brewing I'm settling down to try and get a couple of go to beers, I have the base for a nice bitter (GH Yorkshire Bitter), second brew got munich added, the third brew coming soon will about treble the hops based on Foxbat's bitter recipe. Still brewing mostly new beers though, this year is being hoppier than before.

 

[Hoppyland]

Well, not such an easy question to answer as I first thought! I basically have one (AG) recipe that I love, a couple of others that I like a lot, and after that I experiment.
Except........
My "core" beer is a light-bodied, heavily-hopped cross between an American IPA and a very pale English bitter. I love it. But, I see that it morphs slightly from brew to brew. A year ago, I used Ahtanum and Wai-iti flameout hops, with Motueka, NZ Cascade and Mosaic dry hops. This year, one brew had Lemondrop as a flame-out hop & Simcoe as one of the dry hops. The malt was the same, but the yeast also differed. Another replaced a European caramalt with a British pale crystal.
So, these aren't really the same beers. But they are very, very similar.
So, in one sense, I make a couple of beers repeatedly, and experiment on the side.
In another sense, none of my beers are carefully-controlled replicas, so every brew I make is different!

 

[Clint]

Great subject M! I'm nearly there with a house AIPA but get distracted very easily....I just like too many styles! What's not to like with a stout...a nice English bitter...thanks Foxbat,a saison or a wheat?
Hopeless..moi?

 

[Oneflewover]

I brew something different every time. I have 1 recipe that I have done a few times, but even then have tweaked it each time. To be honest, if I found myself brewing the same beers over and over again I reckon I'd have lost a bit of the passion / interest and would consider packing it in

 

[MickDundee]

We need a 4th option - I usually do something different but have a small number of favourite recipes I will remake/tweak occasionally.

 

[Cwrw666]

I regularly return to: Northern Brown, English IPA, Victorian Pales, Honey ale, Black IPA

Have occasional brews of Saison, cider, stouts.

But occasionally have a go at something like a mild, or a witbier or anything else I'm tempted by.

 

[dad_of_jon]

I have a few stock recipes/styles but i always tweak mwah ha ha

wheat beer
ris/quad
triple
galaxy ipa/dipa
fruity cider
abbey

I'll be doing a sour again but my current kit needs to be ready to throw out.
I do have a number of beers I want to repeat exactly but then I get twitchy and think maybe next time, there's still so many things I want to try.
I have given up on doing a decent cherry beer - so I just do a brewferm kriek which is better than any kriek I've done but still not as good as Kasteel Rouge.

 

[Graz]

Even as someone who only brews kits I rarely do the same thing twice. There's so much choice out there now days it seems daft not to try new things each time. I do tend to brew with the seasons, dark malty ales in the winter, light hoppy ales in the summer.

There are one or two that I do come back to from time to time as they're so good, mostly out of the Young's American range, done the Oaked Rum Ale a few times and the IPA.

 

[MyQul]

Great subject M! I'm nearly there with a house AIPA but get distracted very easily....I just like too many styles! What's not to like with a stout...a nice English bitter...thanks Foxbat,a saison or a wheat?
Hopeless..moi?

It's something I often think about. I like the idea of, and slowly seem to be moving towards, brewing only one maybe two different beers all the time and nothing else but those one or two beers

 

[MyQul]

We need a 4th option - I usually do something different but have a small number of favourite recipes I will remake/tweak occasionally.

Your right. As I seem to moving in that direction

 

[Peter Scandlyn]

Your right. As I seem to moving in that direction

Yes, this.

 

[IainM]

I've found recipes for a mild, stout and bitter that I'm pretty happy with and go back to, plus a black IPA recipe I tweaked over 5 re-brews and mix the hops up. Otherwise, it's a new one every time. Probably about 4 new brews to every stock brew.

 

[marshbrewer]

Yes, this.

Yep, me too.