I feel as though the nextweek brewery has gotten tired and stagnant. A conservatism about beer and brewing has set in. When I open the recipe book to brew, it feels as though the question is whether the only question is: English or American, and how dark? While I think that this is a great question, it's not the only question. Brewing is--or at least should be--as much about discovery as success. I've spent too much time trying to brew outstanding paradigmatic beers and not enough trying to make something new. Innovation is not to be valued for it's sake, but for the sake of discovering something good.

It's time to make four beers unlike the beers I've made before, in hope of discovering something good.

Here are the four beers that I'm going to make, probably interspersed with some more traditional beers:

Cedar Amber Ale: an amber ale on the malty side of balance, probably actually without significant hop aroma or flavor, moderate bitterness (25 IBU) and a blend of crystal malt. Racked to secondary with 3 oz. of cedar chips. Hence, cedar amber ale. Cedar is poisonous. I'm not really sure how poisonous. On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is non-toxic and 1 is as toxic as ethyl alcohol, I don't want anything that's a 2 or higher in my beer.

A sour ale. I don't want it to be too sour, but I'm thinking some sourness for the balance will be fun. I haven't decided what kind of sour ale I'm going to do, but I'm going to do one. I'll mash and sparge and then chill the wort to around 100 degrees. To that I will add half a pound of crushed grain and let it rest over night. I'll boil and pitch the next day. Papazian and some others I like have recommended this for making sour ale.

A fruit beer. Probably, raspberry and wheat.

Industrial Revolution porter. 1/3 base malt, 1/3 amber malt, 1/3 brown malt. O.G. 60. 40-50 I.B.U. (maybe and ounce of German Northern Brewer), but not much hop aroma or flavor.