Advice on designing recipes from scratch

[yourlastchance89]

So I'm coming up on 2 years since I got into this hobby. I've done 43 batches as of last week, 4 extract, 1 partial, and the rest all-grain BIAB. I've won a few medals out of some of these and hope to win more with a bos at least some time in the future. So far everything I've done has been based off pre-written recipes (most from "Brewing Classic Styles) with typically some slight alterations. I really want to start designing and doing my own recipes and I'm curious of the best route to go about this. I was going to start with buying and reading "Designing Great Beers". Any other advice is appreciated.

 

[JimRausch]

Ray Daniel's 'Designing Great Beers' is a great place to start. What I do is try different commercial beers and when I find one I like and want to try to replicate, I do my research. If it's local, I pick the brains of the brewer. If it's regional or national, I do as much research on their website as possible. I reference Ray's book, check out this forum and others, and start experimenting with an online recipe creator (I use brewtoad, but there are dozens). It may take several attempts, but if you take copious notes, get opinions from others, and yes submit to competitions to get feedback from judges, then your recipe gets better and better. I really love the creative process. It's the best combination of cooking, along with biology and chemistry. Brings out the nerd in me. Good luck, you're going to love it!

 

[JimRausch]

Oh, and don't be afraid to take someone else's recipe and tweak it a little. My 1st competition win was with Denny's 'Waldo Lake Amber' as done by Northern Brewer. I did change up a few things, but still felt guilty about calling the recipe 'mine'. I actually asked both NB and Denny after I won because part of the win was brewing it on a pro system, and they were both gracious. Basically said something to the effect that each time a recipe is brewed it changes. What Denny might do and what I might do, even with the same recipe, isn't necessarily the same. And I got a free NB shirt out of it!

 

[yourlastchance89]

Oh, and don't be afraid to take someone else's recipe and tweak it a little. My 1st competition win was with Denny's 'Waldo Lake Amber' as done by Northern Brewer. I did change up a few things, but still felt guilty about calling the recipe 'mine'. I actually asked both NB and Denny after I won because part of the win was brewing it on a pro system, and they were both gracious. Basically said something to the effect that each time a recipe is brewed it changes. What Denny might do and what I might do, even with the same recipe, isn't necessarily the same. And I got a free NB shirt out of it!

Thanks! I just bought Ray Daniel's book and started into that sucker. As for copying recipes that's basically what I do now with slight tweeting. I've done three comps and won at least one award each time with my best being a gold for a very simple SMASH cream ale I did completely by myself. The rest were copied recipes of which I couldn't help feeling a little guilty about since I only slightly modified them.

 

[JLeuck64]

I would echo what's been said, and add one more thing. Tying to harvest yeast from bottles of those commercial beers that you like. Nothing beats tasting your own recipe(s) as they get close to what you taste off the store shelf! ( ;

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks! I just bought Ray Daniel's book and started into that sucker. As for copying recipes that's basically what I do now with slight tweeting. I've done three comps and won at least one award each time with my best being a gold for a very simple SMASH cream ale I did completely by myself. The rest were copied recipes of which I couldn't help feeling a little guilty about since I only slightly modified them.

A recipe is a record of what someone else did. If you follow it exactly with grains weighed right to the ounce and from the same batch of malt from the same maltster, use the same water profile and hit the exact temperatures, use the same hops from the same farm and the same harvest, and use the same yeast at exactly the same temperature as the original brewer you have copied the recipe. Any changes makes it a whole new recipe. That makes your recipe unique in that you modified someone else's recipe.

 

[thehaze]

I would like to pitch in, if I may. I'm also homebrewing and have brewed 50 batches until now. I started January 2017. I am now 34 and plan on brewing even more, maybe starting my own brewery at some point.

I have never brewed a recipe I found on the Internet or from books. Actually, I have not read any books, but did and still do research on the Internet and talk with other brewers ( also commercial ones, once in a while ). All my recipes have been original recipes I've designed myself, starting from general and specific recipes for the styles I was brewing and from reading guidelines, experiences and much more, related to these styles. I've never experienced any infections, gushers, bottle bombs, etc. I was probably lucky. I however brewed beers that did quite turn out how I expected, but I've learnt from these and then tried better next time. But at the same time, I've brewed really good beers, which others have tried and gave very positive feedback.

I also do not repeat the same recipes. I like to experiment and brew as much as I can. For me, it's also practice before - possibly - taking the leap to commercial brewing.

I will say, that designing your own recipes and brewing those beers, is a lot of fun. It's also challenging and will probably get you even more pumped-up for the results. At least this is how I feel every time I brew and wait for the beer to be ready.

 

[JohnSand]

Like others, I've altered existing recipes, even changing the style. I've also done batches to test a single ingredient like a new hop or specialty malt. Those actually resulted in good batches without further change.

 

[Zuljin]

Be familiar with adjunct ingredients. A little goes a long way with some of them. I've overdone it with ginger and cloves, in separate brews.

 

[yourlastchance89]

Be familiar with adjunct ingredients. A little goes a long way with some of them. I've overdone it with ginger and cloves, in separate brews.

Since starting one of the most critical things I've learned is the simpler the better. My simplest and easiest recipes have most often produced my best beers.

 

[Lefou]

I learned a lot through playing with online recipe calculators and researching grain ratios of classic styles.
Deciding to go all grain forced me learn the various malts and this led to HOURS of reading about yeast, hops, and adjuncts, what works and doesn't, and who to follow and read on the brewing forums here and on AHA.
A few days ago I was working up a mental concept of a unique specialty brew, pretty much a black ale or black lager unlike the German schwarzbier, but heavier and geared toward the holidays without being too strong ABV-wise.
Found out my "unique" brew wasn't original at all. Someone else had the same idea, and the "unique" brew done in concept was identical to a classic style - ingredient for ingredient, hop for hop - some 150 years earlier that's a big cultural favorite in the Czech Republic.

So go with the classic styles. Tweaked and modified somewhat they will still be your own.

 

[thehaze]

Lefou has pointed out a very true observation: no matter how original your own recipe is, even if you do not find it on the Internet, etc., the probability is that someone has already brewed that once. But you will probably not know that, and that's OK. Your own recipes are yours and you ( along with friends, family or whoever you share the beer with ) will enjoy it for what it actually is: your own/personal designed recipe that turned into a beer, you can enjoy and hopefully, learn/grow from there for the next brews.

 

[Rodent]

I also included the use of software as part of my recipe creation tools. using tools like Beersmith/BrewersFriend/etc ... can really assist you when working a concept into the actual recipe quantities

Say I wanted to work a new recipe with 95% 2-row pale malt + 5% Crystal 20L with 75 IBUs and an ABV of 6.5%. The right software can ease my workload in developing the recipe to suit my efficiency and equipment workflows, and also assist when swapping out one grain/hop for another based on yield/AA potential. This allows me to drink a brew I enjoy, do some research on it's ingredients and properties, and then begin to imagine how I could make something of my own that includes the properties I like best. I can also then utilize this new recipe as the foundation for an endless number of derivatives that massage the ingredients/workflows to suit my taste and/or objectives.

IME I'd have not grown past using other people's recipes without such software tools. For me, they threw open the doors for controlled experimentations that are repeatable and/or knowingly modded to suit my intentions for the next brew day

 

[rhys333]

I started by finding recipes for a few commercial beers I liked, and learning how the grain amounts contributed to the flavor profile. From there I studied many recipes on homebrew websites like Northern Brewer to understand more about this, and read articles on Beersmith and BYO about how to create different styles. This gave me a solid foundation for understanding which grains to use for a particular style, and importantly how much to use. I also like to build my recipes in the online Brewers Friend recipe calculator, which I find easy to use and very accurate.

Now one of the most important things for anyone who wants to design recipes, in my opinion. Design your recipes using percentages, not weights, and know your desired OG or abv (e.g.: a 1.050, 5% abv amber ale with 7% C80, rather than 1 lb). It allows you to clearly understand how the parts work individually and collectively to make the whole. It also allows you to zero in on areas for improvement. Maybe the dark crystal in that amber ale was nice but you want more of that flavor. Not quite twice as much, but perhaps half as much again. You can modify your recipe to include 10 or 11% C80 with a high degree or confidence that it'll turn out exacty the way you want it.