Selfish Question

[Iceman6409]

Hello all. I am an all grain brewer. However I only use other peoples recipes. I have not tried to create or alternate anyones recipes because I just don't get it. I am wondering if any of you would be so kind as to slowly walk me through the process. I have flavor in mind and it should be fairly simple but I would like to learn to do it from scratch. In other words how much of this grain and why, how much of this hop and when and why, yeast, etc. I would guess there will be tons of questions so someone with a lot of patience would be helpful. I can do it in small chunks of time, over email, over Skype or whatever works best. I know some of you will say read a book or postings. For me personally that is not a way I learn very well. We all have our own ways of learning. So if anyone would be so kind as to step up I would be most grateful. Also I live in Rochester NY so if anyone local would be willing to help I would be open to that as well. Thank you all in advance.

Ice

 

[paperairplane]

If you have a style in mind, I start with looking at BJCP for that style. This will give you a range for ABV, OG, FG, SRM, IBU etc.

You can then go look at recipes within that style.

If you know those numbers (or the range you should be in) that will dictate how much grain, what specialty malts and how much hops you need.

From there it is really a matter of personal preference and experience.

Do some SMASH beers - it's an easy way to work on recipe development while keeping ingredients simple.

 

[d3track]

I'd look for a brew club in your area, in all honesty.

 

[iijakii]

Honestly it's just an experience thing.

What helps me the most is looking at clone recipes of commercial beers I've had. Compare two commercial IPAs or stouts and look at the recipe. Was one too sweet for you? Look at how much crystal they use versus the one you prefer, etc.

Then if you brew a proven recipe here, take tasting notes and try to fumble your way through an alteration. Would you prefer it a little more roasty? Up the roasted barley a couple percent and try again. Even if it's not the same recipe, you might learn something like "Hey, for my tastes I prefer my stouts to have around 10% roasted barley"

You'll probably wind up making some mediocre beer here and there but so be it. A few years ago I had a great idea that I wanted to make a porter that was very dark and with the classic roast flavors - chocolate, coffee etc... but that I didn't want any harsh roastiness. I read online that many people use chocolate malt instead of roasted barley to achieve that. I used a healthy percentage of chocolate malt in my beer and it was the worst one I've brewed to date. I learned I hate chocolate malt. A lot of people feel the same way, and a lot really like it. From then on I just focused on tweaking the percentage of roasted barley to good results.

Cheers and good luck!

 

[NatureOfTheYeast]

If you haven't already, get your hands on some brewing software, it doesn't have to be expensive or even cost anything. Being able to see the grains and hops and how they affect the numbers in real time really helps when formulating your recipe. The first time you do it is daunting, so keep it simple, and like paperairplane said SMaSH beers are great for exploring different malts and hops.

Another incredibly valuable asset is a homebrew shop where you can go in and taste grains. Take a pinch of a couple of grains and chew them up. You can get a really good idea of the character they impart and avoid malts that you might not like.

Once you have an idea of what malts you like and what flavors you might want, go and look at recipes with the same malts and take note of the amounts used. Work in percentages rather than weights, since 0.5lb of roast barley in an 8 pound grain bill imparts a significantly different character than the same amount of roast barley in a 20 pound grain bill. Use similar percentages as what are used in your favorite recipes.

Small batches will also help. 2 gallons of bad beer is a lot easier on the wallet to dump or stomach than 5 gallons. Once you find a recipe you really like, it's a snap to scale up to full size when you've got your percentages and software, too. You don't necessarily need a smaller fermenter to do half batches, either, as long as you're not doing a secondary.

And finally, experience is the best teacher, so jump right in!

 

[kh54s10]

I started by using an online recipe builder. It is now Brewtoad. I liked it better before they bought it and changed it. I started by taking proven recipes and making small changes to something I thought I would like. For instance taking a pale ale and substituting rye for some crystal malt, etc. I then started taking bigger steps. I now use Beersmith and design, maybe, 40% of my recipes from scratch, the rest are alterations of recipes.

I did read How to Brew and Designing Great Beers. You need to know what the different ingredients do and how they work together. If you can get someone to teach you all the better, but I don't think you will get what you need piecemeal through little snippets here or in email.

Look for a local club. Or someone who is near you that you can brew with.

Good luck.

 

[Natdavis777]

I second looking at BJCP styles, as it will guide you to what base malts, secondary flavors, and IBUs you desire. Some sort of brewing software is also beneficial when it comes to percentages.

When I come up with Pale recipes, I know I want to keep my crystal malts in the 5% or less. Good rule of thumb. For my Hefes, I like a 50/50 combo of Pils to wheat. I adjust my IBUs to style. I gather this from others experiences from HBT and the internet, as well as BJCP.

Smash recipes also help with giving you the characteristics of the base malt and hop.

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

Concocting new recipes is really about experience, just like cooking, or honestly most any other skill. A lot of of the time your 'new' idea/fix for something is just you taking a handful of things that you know work and putting them together in a novel way.

That being said, I'd take a look at Ray Daniel's 'Designing Great Beers', it's a fantastic book that takes a very analytical approach to creating recipes. (It is years out of date, so keep in mind that specific styles have drifted as more and different ingredients have become available. However the basic idea is sound, and if you really felt like it you could grab the last few years Zymurgy's with the NHC recipes and run your own analysis).

On a side note I'd really like to see the NHC release the top 3 recipes from each NHC (rather than just the gold in Zymurgy) every year. I'd like to see if it wouldn't be possible to parse that data and build up a generalized 'best in style' description per annum. (similar to what Ray did in his book)

 

[Colorowdy]

If your work commute is long or if there is opportunity at work binge listen to brewing with style and brew strong from the brewing network.

 

[NatureOfTheYeast]

If your work commute is long or if there is opportunity at work binge listen to brewing with style and brew strong from the brewing network.

x1000:rockin:

I just wanna pop back in and say that these shows plus the original run of The Jamil Show should be mandatory listening for all homebrewers. They go into some pretty good detail, and you will get so much confidence in working with your ingredients from those style shows.

 

[drainbamage]

Start browsing around the recipe subforum. If there is a certain style you're interested in, read several recipes, especially the ones that have been around a while and stood the test of time. Eventually, you will start seeing patterns emerge: what grains are/aren't appropriate, certain mash schedules, what hops give what character at what addition time.

I also also Brewtoad, formerly Hopville. Like @kh54s10, I'm not a fan of some of the changes they made within the last couple years, but they at least tie in the BJCP ranges for SG, SRM, IBU and so on once you choose a style, so you'll have a rough idea if you're staying within those style guidelines (even if you can't tell how well your ingredients actually work together).

Sample, sample, sample. Buy or brew SMaSH beers if you aren't sure what character a certain grain or hop adds. Brew one batch of wort, but split the batch and use several different yeast strains to see what effects they have.

 

[SharonaZamboni]

I have not created any recipes, either, and I'm a fairly experienced kitchen cook who can replicate/create food dishes well.

I don't brew very often lately, so no experimentation going on. But I've found that some of the podcasts do give a lot of information about grains and hops that have given me confidence that I could try to make up a recipe.

BeerSmith podcast has "Malt and its Impact on Beer", "Beer Recipe Transformers", "Malt for Beer Brewing", etc. Not sure if those are the exact ones I liked for recipe formulation, but check similar titles.

When I do start to experiment, I think I'll start with 1 or 2 1/2 gallon batches, so that there's less waste.

 

[MaxStout]

Perhaps go back to basics and create a few simple SMaSH (single malt and single hop) beers. It's a great way to really discover the characteristics of individual ingredients.

 

[Oceantendency]

The reasoning behind reading a book is getting to know the grains and what they contribute to a beer. Try checking out this website: http://www.brewunited.com/grain_database.php
Also figure out they styles of beer you like, as with Homebrewing it is all about the experimenting that makes it fun. What I do is browse a few beer recipes for that style to get an idea roughly of the variety of grain bills that make that brew, take a look back at the ones you have done, notate what you liked/ missed/ would like to improve on/ and especially what you didn't like about that beer, even if it is small like first taste to your palate or aroma or a hair bitter or a hair too sweet, everything and anything you can think of, take notes. Now go out and buy a couple different beers similar to what you'd like to build, notate how they're different and the pluses and minuses about each one. Now read up in a book or online about various hops and what they contribute, also look back at your recipes of which hops you enjoyed for aroma or taste, or ???

Use a simple Calculator like : http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator

for example to plug in and build a recipe, does it meet the guidelines, notice that your efficiency/ Hop additions/ and various % of each grain can drastically affect the style, however be more concerned that you get close enough to the style and tweek in small increments down or up to get you in the range. Experiment and have fun. Another easy streak is take a proven recipe, plug it in, and change simple things like one hop style for bittering or end addition for more aroma, maybe even just uping the X oz say 1oz Nugget @ 12 min to 1.5 oz Nugget @12 min; take notes and actually reread your notes. Change a grain, say Caramel 60 to Caramunich on a different batch and notate any change in color/taste/etc. Have fun with it. Any new additions try in very small amounts. I tried Rosemary in a Belgian Blonde, I started with 1 tsp for a 6 gal batch. Or say Vanilla with an Old Ale or Porter, start small and adjust small depending on your palate.