How do you decide what to brew?

[sgt. slaughter]

Personally, I brew a lot of Belgian style beers. Lately though I have been getting a little restless with that style. However, I'm not sure where to got from here. That's why I am curious as to how others decide what they brew. Do you have a schedule planned in advance? Always brew the same stuff no matter what? Just wanted to pick everyone's brain about their brewing schedules I guess. Cheers!

[numsquat]

I go with what yeast I'm repitching. I tend to run two strains at once, so I swich back and forth, until I get 6-10 repitches. Will go through several similar styles and mix some things up until I finish a yeast run.

[numsquat]

Forgot to add it does change from season to season though I tend to run the Wyeast 1056 or WLP 001 year around. The yeast is my factor, will switch my grains and hops up.

[TheDarkSide]

I will brew certain recipes throughout the year ( Pliny clone, Janet's Brown, etc. ), but I like to try a few different things too. I do try to make a schedule, maybe 6 months out. Since August, I've had a schedule all the way through late February as I brew stuff for the 1st round of NHC ( assuming I can get entries in with their new system this year ).

Thumbing through the BJCP guidelines and Brewing Classic Styles may trigger something that says "I want to brew that".

I never wake up one morning and brew something on a whim...I tend to plan things out way in advance so I have time to make sure I have the ingredients, make a yeast starter, and it doesn't conflict with the family schedule.

[ziggy]

I have gone through several phases in my homebrewing experience. I went through a Belgian phase, an IPA phase, a high gravity phase, low gravity phase, now I am in a German lager phase. I like to buy a sack of grain and a yeast and make 3-5 batches of something where I will tweak things but it remains basically the same. For example when I went through my IPA phase I got a sack of rahr 2-row, a pound of centennial, a pound of cascade, and some wyeast 1056 and just started making IPAs varying the OG, IBUs hop schedule, etc. I also like the seasonality of brewing and seasonal beers so that guides me as well.

How long have you been brewing? Do you do all grain or extract? Do you have fermentation temperature control? Do you want to do something challenging? Do you enjoy brew day the most or the end product the most?
These are all things you could ask yourself when considering what "phase" you want to try next. Maybe you want to try low gravity or high gravity or explore different hops, malts, or yeasts. The possibilities are endless.

[sgt. slaughter]

How long have you been brewing? Do you do all grain or extract? Do you have fermentation temperature control? Do you want to do something challenging? Do you enjoy brew day the most or the end product the most?
These are all things you could ask yourself when considering what "phase" you want to try next. Maybe you want to try low gravity or high gravity or explore different hops, malts, or yeasts. The possibilities are endless.

I have been brewing for a little over five years and do all grain, and I do have temperature control. However, it only fits one 6 gallon fermenter. I think the main reason I brew Belgians is because I have so much Belgian yeast on hand I just end up doing that specific type. I've definitely wanted to brew all German beers for a year. Maybe that should be my new year's resolution. I just want to make sure I keep my favorite Belgian yeasts on hand for when I get back on that bandwagon.

[ziggy]

That sounds like an excellent new year's resolution to me. I have found most of the German styles easy to make but hard to make really good.

[Ozwald]

I brew on a rotating schedule too. I used to plan out way ahead, but I inevitably run into a recipe that I want to tweak on which means brewing it 5-10 times in a row. Then I'll get back to the rotation until another one comes up. I've done a lot of styles, but now I just do about a dozen recipes or so that I stick to.