At what point did you go rogue?

Just curious. I'm already feeling a bit itchy to experiment but don't really know how, where, with what, &c.

I'm curious, did everyone start with kits? After which batch did you go rogue and try your own first non-kit recipe? Or, at least, at which point did you throw in something additional to a kit (which wasn't in the instructions/kit) just to try it out?

Cheers,
JWiC

Well...I never did a kit. I started by observing a good friend make his own batch and went from there. I did start extract first before diving into full grain (which I won't go back to extract any more).

What style of beer were you thinking of making? I started with ales, which seemed to be the easiest for me to make and still get a reasonably good batch.

What ever you try, good luck and have fun...

TripHops

When I started to understand what the grains/yeast/hops in the kits meant/added to theose kits and what goes into styles and such... though I make most of my recipes now I will occasionally do a kit or look at the recipe for a kit of a beer I havent made yet

Right from brew #1... I was modifying the kits when I used them (for all of three batches)... After that I either made my own recipe, or would alter even a clone recipe to better match my thoughts.

So I've been 'rogue' from the very beginning of home brewing... Same goes for my mead batches. :rockin:

Defiantly started out with kits, but it didn't take long until yeast were being changed and then hops are being added. After that I found the free recipe maker Brewmate and that got me interested in ingredients. So I looked at some recipes for a style I was considering and got grain ideas from there. I typically Steep grains and use extract. For hops I try and find profile sheets and decide from there... props to the LHBS for pointing me towards those, their great.

In short, do it... you can always let somebody check out your recipes before you brew

When I started out I didn't know of a lot of resources for homebrewing. So after I did two successful kits, I figured I was ready to go on my own. It was a disaster. I had to get my grain from a local brewery, and the guy I bought my grain/extract from, I could tell was laughing at me on the inside when I told him my recipe. But I can laugh about it now.

I went "rogue" on my fourth batch. Didn't come out so well. But I learned. And now some of my early recipes are turning into something decent. Experiment, it's what makes the hobby fun!

The batch before I went all grain I fell off the recipe wagon and haven't been back except for inspiration.

It took a few batches before i did. My new brew partnew went waaay rogue from the word go. His first brew was an irish stout that he added elderberries to and dryhopped with elder flowers, and bottled with oak essence. so the sky is the limit have fun. and btw that stout is way kicka$$

Second batch. I just did the kit so everything I'd read and studied up to that point would come together and I wasn't flying blind.

First batch was a kit.

Second batch was a recipe from the recipe sectionof the forum...

Third batch was a recipe I made up.

The next. four batches were recipes i either made up or tweaked some.

Im on my 15th or so batch, and the past 4 have all been kits that were "souped up" for better or for worse. (Hopefully) this weekend I will be trying my first actual recipe from scratch.

1st batch was a kit, after that I got the bug REALLY bad. I started reading a ton and figured I could come up with my own recipes. Plus hopville.com and beersmith really helped me figure out how everything goes together. I am still very much a beginner though. I only started brewing in January and i'm still doing extract with specialty grains. I hope to make the jump to all grain as soon as it doesn't confuse the hell out of me and I get a bit more equipment.

I admit that I am so cheap I just didn't want to pay someone the little bit extra for putting things together in a neat package. So, I trolled for a recipe and bought what I needed. I didn't like my first beer (an extract) so went the AG route on my second beer. This forum has been invaluable.

1st batch was a kit and I added corn sugar to get more abv (only 3oz) and did not use makeup water per instructions so I only had 4 gallons making it much more robust (and higher abv).

Self-designed recipes (usually variations on something found here) from that point on.

I did it on my first batch. It was the Williams Brown Ale. It is listed at 4% ABV. I wanted a more potent brew. Since I didn't want to use cane sugar and I didn't have any corn sugar, I found a pint bottle of Karo Corn Syrup, which is corn sugar syrup. Into the fermentor it went. Best beer I've ever made. And
I've made it twice.

NRS

Very, very interesting...

When it comes to kits, I rather feel like I'm playing with a 6-piece jigsaw puzzles rather than the 1500-piece ones.

Thanks for the suggestions on sites like brewmate.net, hopville.com and beersmith. If I did indeed have some sort of guide to ingredients, I think it would make things a lot easier. I just didn't really know how - as I think I had mentioned - to start experimenting on my own or, at least, expanding on kits.

I did a lager first then an IPA. Both kits.

Let me ask, is the process *more-or-less* still the same even when you get off kits (or even to AG) i.e., steeping grain(s), boiling, adding bittering hops, adding aroma/finishing hops, cooling, fermenting?

all-grain will add a few hours to your process. the steeping of grains and mixing of extract becomes the milling of grains, the heating of mash water, mashing the grains, then sparging. Once you have the wort, however, your process is pretty much the same. bittering hops, finishing hops, finings, cooling, pitching, waiting, packaging, drinking.

I've gone rogue, but i still go back to a kits if i get the itch to just brew something out of the blue and don't have time to formulate a recipe. In fact i'm going to grab a couple kits from Austin Homebrew's 20th anniversary sale just to have on hand.

One thing about going rogue is that buying in bulk is the smart thing to do. Buying a few pounds here and there of malts or extracts, and small amounts of hops starts to add up. It may end up costing 10-15 more than a kit of similar style might be.