I use beertools and I noticed sometimes beers I love best are in the 60% range for conformity. Do you guys usually try to go for 100% or mix it up? Just curious what others do w/ this?

I am a random brewer myself. My beers tend to be a little higher than the color & sometimes a bit hppier than the recipe.
I dont think i have followed a recipe exactly for about a year & a half at least. I am tweaking a pale ale now that before became an amber.
But i have toned it back down to a slight redish pale.

One thing i have learned about tweaking.( they are always tasty)
Me & a buddy just did a scotch ale. We upped the hops, the malt. & tossed in some oats & brown sugar for good measure(sounds like a good breakfast).
Its gonna be a 9-10% but kicker.

I made a brown once & forgot to put in 2/3's of my hops(at 15 & 1 minutes). I just let it be & alot of people liked it alot. I have made 2 more batches of it since.
I used to just use whatever i had at the time if i was low in materials.(dont have to worry about that these days though!!
Share some recipes!!

i use beersmith to help formulate my recipes, and hardly ever hit one according to style. i brewed my house ale for about two years with little changes in hops, yeasts, temps. and adjuncts until i finally found the combination that me and my friends really like. now i keep a keg of it on tap all the time. still like to try other stuff too for different occasions.
gary

I'm thinking of putting some orange zest and corriander with a cheap Toohey's kit I got free with a fermenter and never used. Hoegarden apparently uses Orange and Corriander, though this will turn out nothing like it because its not a Wheat beer I'm making, I'm just experimenting for fun. Does anyone know if its best to use Corriander seeds or leaves for this sort of thing? I was just going to get some seeds and treat them as you would bittering hops.

Oh, and does anyone know about adding extra finishing hops after it has started fermenting? I heard you can taste test it after a week and, if you want, put some (more) finishing hops in as you rack it (move it to another fermenter.) I bought this random package a guy at the brew store compiled (I was "umming" and "arghing" over what ale to get and he said "try this") and it has so much to it I might not want the extra hops. It allready has two seperate hoped sugar/malt blends, a 1kg and 500g bag, a can of Muntons draught, and a tiny pack of crushed grains (about 100g I'm guessing) as well as goldings finishing hops.

I love cooking and brewing and they are a lot alike in my opinion. If you are just brewing for yourself and friends have fun with it, try new things. If you are brewing for compititions well then you probably want to stick a little closer. I love the anticipation of trying a new idea and waiting to see how it turns out. I have made some pretty good beers that way. I am actually getting ready to try a prickly pear ale. Not really sure on how to do the fruit yet but working on it.

In truth, I usually make a beer based on what I think will taste good, and then try to apply a beer style to it afterwards. My last batch of beer, which I made for my wife, ended up being within the guidelines (just barely) of an Irish Red ale. You wouldnt think so just to look at it, and it surely doesnt TASTE like most of the Red's i've tried. But hey....I didnt make the 'rules'.

Cheers
Dave