Designing a Beer

[Ninjabeer]

I'm fairly new to the beer brewing world but just made my first cream ale and it was awesome and am about to make a honey wheat beer which i am very excited about. I'm probably jumping the gun a little bit but i really cant wait to start experimenting with recipes and truly making my own beer. My plan right now is to still make beer from recipes i find until i get more comfortable but if anyone has any suggestions on how to design my own recipe or things i should keep in mind it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[kh54s10]

I generally start from a known recipe. Northern Brewer lists the ingredients of their kits online. I then use a recipe builder and make some substitutions based on what I have on hand or what I think I would like to achieve. I am also still learning recipe making so I don't do anything too extravagant.

I searched for malt, hop and yeast substitute guides to help with making changes then I bookmarked the pages (and printed some).

I use Beersmith 2 for making my recipes. It takes a bit of learning and fine tuning but I am now hitting my numbers fairly consistently.

Enjoy the process, it is very satisfying to make your own recipe and have it turn out great. My best was one that I made form leftovers. A brown ale.

 

[duboman]

"Brewing Classic Styles" by Jamil Zanisheif and "Designing Great recipes" by Ray Daniels are two books I highly recommend for learning how to create recipes.

Also "Radical Brewing" by Randy Mosher is a fun read for using not so common ingredients.

 

[Cyclman]

+1 on both of those books, great reads.