With 13 daze left in the year, I've been thinking about and going over notes from the past year's brews. I've come upon a trend that simple uncluttered recipes are the best for me. IOW, of the 19 beers I brewed in 2016 to date, the best beers had the fewest ingredients. The recipes where I have a laundry list of malts measured down to the 1/4 oz and two or three hop varieties were just "OK" beers. Nothing special. According to my notes, those beers had no distinct character or style.
This follows Drew Beechum's Brewing On the One's talk at AHA and on BeerSmith Podcast a while back. This idea that breweries cannot stock a huge variety of malts due to economics but yet they brew award winning beers from a select few ingredients makes sense to me. I have the ingredients for Seymour's Citra Gold that may be my last for 2016 which is a very simple recipe of two malts and two hops that I am looking forward to. I may add orange peel but I may let the Citra Hops take care of the citrus effect for me.
Edit: As I re-read my copy of Brewing Classic Styles, I stumbled upon this quote that I overlooked before; "My early recipes, like those of many homebrewers, were overly complex. Overly complex recipes are often overwhelming, and the flavors are muddy. I learned over time to simplify many of my recipes, and they are much better for it." D. Jamil Zainasheff
So... my Brew Years Resolution is to thoughtfully consider my recipe ingredient choices in 2017 in an effort to make great tasting beer.
What is your Brew Years Resolution?