Relatively new to brewing, starting campus homebrew

[ReptileHouse]

Basic introductions:
I'm Julius and I'm from Austin, going to school at Southwestern University in nearby Georgetown. I'm about to move into a new house with two guys who are interested in brewing (the so-called "reptile house"). I also have a few friends down the street who have brewed. So we're thinking of pooling our time, money, and drinking habits together into a home-brewery. My goal for this coming year is to always be working on at least two brews at any given time.

I'm pretty new to brewing (I'm on my fourth batch and just about to start my fifth). I've been using recipes from Austin Homebrew so far all of my batches have turned out ok. I have three primaries (two of which I got at a garage sale and need to get new lids for) and two carboys.

What I want to do now is start looking into making my own recipes. Any suggestions on how I should go about that?

-Julius

 

[IvanTheTerribrew]

Julius congrats on this new project, if you don't have them I would suggest these two things for resources:

Ray Daniels "Designing Great Beers" book
Brad Smiths "Beersmith" homebrewing software.

Those two things will really give you what you need. Daniels' book will give you the history and rundown of a style as well as what things generally go into it and that will help you have an idea of what a particular style calls for and Beersmith you will be able to pick a style and pretty much add things to it and just see what effects what aspect of the beer (color, bitterness, ABV, gravity, etc.)

 

[billl]

The recipe section here is full of good ideas too.

Definitely work on some inexpensive recipes for your friends to gobble down - "light hybrid" or any of the lower alcohol belgian recipes are usually cheap crowd pleasers.

 

[Homercidal]

The books already mentioned are great resources. I'd also STUDY the flavor and character impacts that the different malts and hops and yeast give a beer. STUDY the ingredients in recipes you find everywhere and read the tasting notes.

It's also very important to read up on judging beer, so check out the bjcp website and PRACTICE tasting beer. I mean, really focus on what you can pick out for flavors! It's very interesting how you can simply drink a beer and enjoy it, and then another time really taste it carefully. I bet you never really understood how much is going on until you really try.

Randy Mosher's "Tasting Beer" and "Radical Brewing" are both great books to read and might also help you understand what goes into a recipe and what different ingredients can bring to the brew. His writing style is so readable, I'd recommend anyone in homebrewing or beer in general to give them a shot.

Finally some of the basics to keep in mind are:

Sanitation
fermentation temperature control
yeast pitching rates

Make those priority right from the start you will do very well. And remember, even a simple beer, like a SMaSH can taste great if brewed well!

 

[ReptileHouse]

Thanks for the tips/suggestions!