Cheat sheet or basic guidelines to crafting your own beer.

[AMillyInAir]

Hi all,
I am still very much new to home brewing and just successfully finished my first brew which was an American Ale from MoreBeer and the results were great! Looking ahead I would love to eventually try to play around with ingredients to make something uniquely mine or at least not from a recipe kit. I would love to hear people's input from their experience on how to craft your own beer (general tips, guidelines etc.). Any additional resources readily available on the internet would be much appreciated!
Additionally, I would be more focusing on brewing an IPA style beer.

 

[seatazzz]

Your best bet is to read How to Brew by Jon Palmer. 1st edition is available for free on the internet, but keep in mind it's up to at least the 6th edition in print (it's what I have); many changes have been made. Lots of recipes in there, and great tips for homebrewers.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

For recipe creation check out Ray Daniels' Designing Great Beers. Even for those who don't plan on creating their own recipes, Ray gives great descriptions of various beer styles and what makes each unique/great.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Any additional resources readily available on the internet would be much appreciated!

What professionally trained doctorate-level scientist would be so crazy as to spend months and YEARS brewing and pouring through scientific literature to publish articles online providing in-depth information for a huge spectrum of brewing topics at absolutely no cost to the reader? No one so far, but I'm working on exactly that and there may come a day when I finish my website.

Until then I suggest taking a look at the variety of recipes shared in the HBT recipe database(s) and just researching each style (and yeast strain) before you brew it.
I have found that the brewing process matters more than the recipe. As far as that goes, there's a huge amount of misinformation published online and in home brewing books, so it's not quite so easy to decipher the truth. In any event, you'll be making great beer in no time if you're dedicated to learning!

Cheers!

/Mildly intoxicated

 

[bracconiere]

hmm, a 10 gallon batch lasts me a little over a week....so i just throw what sounds good at the time in a pot....in fact, i'm brewing today....thinking, 20lb's pale malt....8oz's crystal 40...call it a day....hmmm, now i'm thinking maybe 2oz's of black patent also, just for subtlety.....or if i'm out of patent, chocolate rye.....


that's my style of recipie design anyway, i'm sure you get it....

edit: sparging looking at the color....think i should have gone with half oz of chocolate rye......but should be good none the less.....

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Any additional resources readily available on the internet would be much appreciated!

How to Brew Beer | Homebrewers Association has a good balance of free (and member only) content.

https://beerandbrewing.com/ (which is the web site for the magazine of the same name).

Skip the 1st edition of How To Brew. It was written in 1999 and a lot has changed since then. The current (4th) edition is a good book.

There are other books as well. If you have money for a couple of books, let me know and I'll make some suggestions.