This is too funny… Main reason I can’t brew is a backlog of wooddorking stuff. Trust me, you’ll get back to it. Hobbies sorta ebb and flow I think.
Wooddorking? 
Doesn’t that hurt your privates?
Came close once I had a kick back on my table saw and the piece hit me in the hip and then flew right threw the glass in my man door leading to the back yard. Black and blue for a couple weeks. I was lucky!
Maybe plateau is the proper word, so long as it doesn’t imply summit. And it’s not a boredom thing, I still look forward to brewing. I’m actually brewing right now. Its more of a plateau/rut as far as trying to learn new stuff, explore new styles, bla bla bla.
The brew day is fun and relaxing, the beer is good, I just don’t care anymore about science and proving things.
Amen, Jim. Sometimes even just seeing a thread about that stuff turns me off these days. I just like to brew beers I like to drink these days and the investigation/experimentation/research is only fun when it comes natural from my curiosity about a specific thing.
It has to be quite satisfying to be able to brew a beer and know how its going to turn out. Im still not even close to that status. But if you still enjoy the brew day and obviously the fruits of your labor than it’s all good!
Jim please pm me your address- i lost it when you sen tme the hops and I would like to send you something this fall.
Thanks again!
I’m starting to come around to that myself. I try new techniques here and there for one reason - to see if it makes my beer any better. But I don’t need a published paper full of evidence or a double blind study. I’m my own worst critic so if my beer seems to noticeably improve over time (and my brewer friends agree), I’m ok saying it’s better. Past that, I’m good right now.
I’m stealing that, Steve!
Address sent.
As to knowing… on my APA, IPA, Stout, and few different German beers, I’ve got a very repeatable baseline going. Close enough that they seem identical from memory, which is close enough for me. I now scratch my variety itch by switching up hops or some other ingredient. I’m perfectly content with my lager strain for every lager I make. Actually I’ve figured out that I like 1056 for all of my ales. I gave up lately on English ales, but I imagine I’ll come back to that. I have a saisons that I like, and one is enough for me. I don’t go through a lot of Belgian beer. So, all in all, I agree. It is nice to have a few that you can crank out and count on.
The thrill of discovery is part of the fun of brewing and I don’t think it ever disappears, even after the learning curve levels off. Proving stuff is a different kind of fun - more about ego, one-upmanship and attacking sacred cows.
I have no interest in proving anything. But I do constantly tweak the recipes I brew to hopefully make them better. And tweak my process. And add new gadgets. I just want to have good beer that my guests enjoy.
I reckon most brewers enjoy the creative process of honing their own methods and recipes. I do have a few recipes I like to repeat just as they are but trying new ideas is always more exciting, even if the results aren’t as reliable.
I get in a rut a couple of times a year it seems. After I brew a few really good batches consecutively I always get a couple the are kind of ‘meh’ which makes me question if I know anything about what I am doing. Right when I start to gain some confidence in my processes, recipes, etc. something inevitably happens to make me second guess everything…
Jim, I’m in much the same boat, but I think of it as “focused” rather than in a rut. I make the styles of beer that I like, and they’re pretty darned good (says he, throwing his shoulder out while patting himself on the back). There are some styles (sours come to mind) that I enjoy occasionally, but I’m not very interested in brewing; those I drink at one of my local taprooms. I do enjoy IPAs and pales right now, plus some sort of Belgian now and then. I have some “standards” that are pretty much always on tap (because my wife, my friends and I like 'em). When I want to do something a bit different, I’m likely to try something like Denny’s Rye IPA - not a big departure from my “usual”, but I can be pretty sure I’ll enjoy it. I love brewing and my beers, and that’s what it’s all about for me.
You’re doing something right, I’m sure of it.