June 1, 2011

Settling Down


I'm the sort of brewer who rarely makes the same thing twice. I've been hopping around from style to style, recipe to recipe, technique to technique ever since I started brewing. That's been great, I feel like I've covered a lot of ground, learned a lot of basics, had a good time. I'm also the sort of brewer who often measures things in handfuls, tosses whatever is lying around into the mash or into the boil, and takes a cavalier approach to using wild yeasts. Also fun, and less work.


But my brewing wanderlust is starting to wind down. After a crazy tea beer, a couple dozen 1 gallon experimental mead batches, a coffee porter, and a very lackluster IPA I've taken stock of my booze supplies and am somewhat dismayed. Where is the stuff that I actually want to drink a bunch of? My cellar probably has a few hundred bottles of homebrewed beer, wine, and mead and there's only a handful of stuff that I'd say I'm actually proud of, or that I think is the best it could be.

But rather than despair I've decided to buckle down and brew some seriously good beer. I have challenged myself to brew a single recipe for however long it takes until I feel it is the best that it can be. For that recipe I've selected a simple one that shouldn't be too hard to get right and I won't get tired of drinking: the all-grain version of Dead Ringer Ale. No fiddling with addition times, malt bill, or yeast, just working on technique. Avoiding aeration, pitching ideal yeast cell counts, dialing in mash temperatures, all the good basics of real brewing. I will post with results as I go. To better beer!

5 comments:

  1. I hear ya. I've spent a lot of time experimenting since I started brewing, and I have a lot of experimenting to go, but I try and keep one of my fermenters full of something tried and true. Right now I actually have 3 fermenter's full of re-brews. I'm thinking the next beer will have to be a batch of experimental chai porter brews.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ahhh the test of a true brewer! Good luck!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I totally understand. I don't get to brew very often, and there are so many ideas I have. Then there is always the, "what do I want to drink in 3 weeks, not right now" question. For my next beer I've changed my mind from tripel, patersbier, hoppy american wheat, Nukey Brown, Mild, Stout with 3% soured & bretted. Still haven't decided. Leaning towards perfecting JZ's Mild recipe. Bring it to work in my "coffee" cup. haha

    ReplyDelete
  4. I did something very similar, brewed a whole bunch of experimental stuff. Last beer I brewed was the dead ringer beer. Grabbed the recipe from the website and bought the ingredients locally.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I like the idea. I think that actually the single most effective way to learn about yeast and hop differences is by splitting a single boiled wort 2-5 ways and try one thing different in each split. Quickest route to a perfect recipe. Splitting the mash/boil is a little bit tougher...

    ReplyDelete