Creating my own extract recipes

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s2cmpugh

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Good day everyone. I'd like to start creating my own recipes using extracts (can't afford the AG equipment nor do I have the time), but I have no idea where to begin. I've done about 5 pre-selected kits, but really want to start creating new and different beers. All of the kits I've used so far have included specialty grains along with both LME and DME, so I feel comfortable using those aspects.

Should I download and use a software tool? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Cris P.
 
I personally like Beersmith because it does all of the calculations, gives me a baseline of where I want to be, and displays everything on one convenient screen. However if you didn't want to pay for one, you could use Beercalculus.hopville.com which is a free online tool.
 
Beersmith and if your used to steeping specialty grains, your only a grain bag away from doing partial mashing which opens up more possibilities and will lower your costs. read Deathbrewers How to.

EDIT: If you have an Apple, Beer Alchemy is supposed to be good. Brew Pal is a great app for iphones.
 
Brewr for the Android is good for recipe creation too, or you can also use brewmasterswearhouse.com who has a brewbuilder app. Besides that, just keep reading here, and you'll pick up those little things like how crystal malt is not very fermentable.
 
I would highly recommend reading up on it too. Charlie Papazian's Complete Joy of Homebrewing and Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels would be a HUGE help.
 
Also Brewing Classic Styles has dozens of recipes that are extract + steeping grains.
 
You should be able to make a great beer with 2 cans of malt extract,
yeast and hops. All the fancy recipes won't do you any good if your
technique is no good, and the way to learn how the ingredients affect
the taste of your beer is to change one variable at a time. If I were
running a class I would have everyone make a yeast starter with
a liquid yeast, use 2 cans of malt extract and 25 IBU's of bittering
hops (your choice) and 5 IBU's of flavor hops (your choice) and
see how the result tastes. I would have them use american ale
yeast for one batch and do another exactly the same with say,
Wyeast London Ale III. Then use the same base recipe and try
different specialty malts, one at a time, and different hops, but
not changing both at once. I assume you know how to calculate
IBU's, if not get the Papazian book or one of the others recommended
here, you only need a simple calculator and pencil and paper but
if you want a computer version this one does all I need:

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator

and there are other free calculators online.

Ray
 
To create your own recipes, you do just that. If you take the recipes from a book, or software, or web site, then its really someone else's recipe. Like rayg said, all you need it malt extract, water, and hops as a starting point. You can out whatever you want in the beer, its yours to experiment with.
 
boostsr20 said:
...if your used to steeping specialty grains, your only a grain bag away from doing partial mashing which opens up more possibilities and will lower your costs. read Deathbrewers How to.
Click to expand...

Great advice. Partial mash will also help expand your knowledge and provide a little bit more of flexibility.
 
rayg said:
You should be able to make a great beer with 2 cans of malt extract,
yeast and hops. All the fancy recipes won't do you any good if your
technique is no good, and the way to learn how the ingredients affect
the taste of your beer is to change one variable at a time. If I were
running a class I would have everyone make a yeast starter with
a liquid yeast, use 2 cans of malt extract and 25 IBU's of bittering
hops (your choice) and 5 IBU's of flavor hops (your choice) and
see how the result tastes. I would have them use american ale
yeast for one batch and do another exactly the same with say,
Wyeast London Ale III. Then use the same base recipe and try
different specialty malts, one at a time, and different hops, but
not changing both at once. I assume you know how to calculate
IBU's, if not get the Papazian book or one of the others recommended
here, you only need a simple calculator and pencil and paper but
if you want a computer version this one does all I need:

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator

and there are other free calculators online.

Ray
Click to expand...

thats exactly how im starting out. i looked at recipes and certain styles and am just experimenting along with learning along the way which grains are not fermentable for steeping. if your gonna use someone elses recipe your still not using your own. chances are that the recipe they posted is probably good since they posted it though. but then again you could be learning by mistake. i would try to stay within the stlye guidlines somewhat.
I made an amber and i think i had the ibu's to high with willamette hops and am getting this fruity appely smell/taste thats too big still after 3 weeks in the bottle.dont know if it will mellow out or i just added too many hops.i liked ipa's and thought ill just add more hops, well now i have apples.ha
 
When I started brewing my own recipes I'd read the BJCP guidelines for the style and read as many good recipes as I could find. From there I got an idea of why and how much the different ingredients were used. After hundreds of brews now I have gained a much better understanding of my ingredients.

Even when I follow someone's recipe I still have to make it my own. I stock my own brewery with different ingredients and have to make some substitutions. I end up doing that even with my own recipes.
 
Making your own recipes is the way to go. Like RayG said start off basic and only make one change at a time. When you are at your LHBS taste a grain or two, so you can get a better feel for each kind of grain.

The most rewarding aspect is when you hit your target style with something you made all on your own.
 
Also an extract brewer here, and I've begun concocting my own beers. How I eased into it was to first start with brewing software (Beersmith for me), and then a bit of revisiting those recipes that I've already brewed. It helped me to recall hops & flavors. From there I just went incredibly basic to start.

Example:

Using the brewing software I selected American Pale Ale as my "template". I then went with a Pale LME & Amber DME in certain amounts that would result in an OG and color that I was looking to create. From there, (on my first batch) I simply added one specialty grain, a Caramel 40L, for a little added color and flavor. After that it was all about using certain hops I'd enjoyed from previous beers, in a combination that would yield the IBUs I was looking. In this case it was Centennial, Perle, and Cascade. Picked a yeast I liked, and just threw caution to the wind and went with it. I was certainly going to make beer regardless of anything else.

That beer turned out to be a very "plain" tasting homebrew. Although, don't confuse plain with bad. It was incredibly drinkable and also weighed in at 5.6, so it had a bit of a kick. So when I say plain, I mean muted in terms of any bold flavors. It's something that my BMC friends liked to drink, as well as one that was enjoyed by my more sophisticated friends as a beer that understand it was an unrefined recipe.

Knowing I had a good "base" to go with, and one that was pleasing across the board, I now use it as a very general starting point for new twists on pale ales, reds, or ambers. Switching up the hops, specialty grains, etc., to try new taste combos and ideas.

I'll do them in 2.5 gallon batches, and when I find one I really like, I'll stash it in a certain folder in my brewing software & scale it up to 5 gallons.

Really, it all boils down to the old Nike slogan: just do it.
 
jonmohno said:
I made an amber and i think i had the ibu's to high with willamette hops and am getting this fruity appely smell/taste thats too big still after 3 weeks in the bottle.dont know if it will mellow out or i just added too many hops.i liked ipa's and thought ill just add more hops, well now i have apples.ha
Click to expand...

Any late hop or dry hop additions with the Willamette?

I know the standard line on this is that the beer is "green" and it the apple
taste goes away with aging, but I think the reason for this sometimes is
that some hops (like Willamette) are high in farnesene, which has a green
apple aroma. So basically when you age you are just waiting for the hop
aroma to dissipate. It would be interesting to make the same beer but
use a low farnesene hop (like Goldings and Northern Brewer) and see if
the same aroma results. I use Goldings and NB a lot and drink the beer
young (real young) and I don't ever detect anything I would call green
apple.

Ray
 
GetLooseontheGoose said:
Making your own recipes is the way to go. Like RayG said start off basic and only make one change at a time. When you are at your LHBS taste a grain or two, so you can get a better feel for each kind of grain.

The most rewarding aspect is when you hit your target style with something you made all on your own.
Click to expand...

I guess I should just pick a style of beer I like (stout, porter, scottish ale, brown ale, hefe) and start to tweek things around a bit on my own?

PolishLogic said:
Also an extract brewer here, and I've begun concocting my own beers. How I eased into it was to first start with brewing software (Beersmith for me), and then a bit of revisiting those recipes that I've already brewed. It helped me to recall hops & flavors. From there I just went incredibly basic to start.

Example:

Using the brewing software I selected American Pale Ale as my "template". I then went with a Pale LME & Amber DME in certain amounts that would result in an OG and color that I was looking to create. From there, (on my first batch) I simply added one specialty grain, a Caramel 40L, for a little added color and flavor. After that it was all about using certain hops I'd enjoyed from previous beers, in a combination that would yield the IBUs I was looking. In this case it was Centennial, Perle, and Cascade. Picked a yeast I liked, and just threw caution to the wind and went with it. I was certainly going to make beer regardless of anything else.

That beer turned out to be a very "plain" tasting homebrew. Although, don't confuse plain with bad. It was incredibly drinkable and also weighed in at 5.6, so it had a bit of a kick. So when I say plain, I mean muted in terms of any bold flavors. It's something that my BMC friends liked to drink, as well as one that was enjoyed by my more sophisticated friends as a beer that understand it was an unrefined recipe.

Knowing I had a good "base" to go with, and one that was pleasing across the board, I now use it as a very general starting point for new twists on pale ales, reds, or ambers. Switching up the hops, specialty grains, etc., to try new taste combos and ideas.

I'll do them in 2.5 gallon batches, and when I find one I really like, I'll stash it in a certain folder in my brewing software & scale it up to 5 gallons.

Really, it all boils down to the old Nike slogan: just do it.
Click to expand...

I guess my huge concern is creating something that is absolute crap and wasting the $30-$40 on ingredients. For example, I start with a basic stout, then up the dark DME to raise the OG and up the ABV, leave the hops amount the same, and then maybe add a touch of coffee.

Basically, pick a style of beer I like and adjust it for what I want to do and make it my own?

Thanks!
Cris P.
 
yeah actually i did. did a one gallon batch and i added maybe 4-5 pellots last 5 miniutes and i think im discovering when i drank a test bottle 3 weeks in and that it was the smell was so overwhelming that i think im tasting it.i didnt think hops could be that potent. i ended up using 1/3 of an ounce (1 gallon batch) and should not have done the late addition doing a 20 min extract boil.now i know. i think. im gonna wait a couple more weeks to see how it gets. it was nice and clear carbonated head stayed on all the way to the bottom of the glass.though just not an all beer, kinda almost like some of the belgian beers that are bigger on the fruity floral. actually it was comparabe to the 6 blonde6.wasnt my favorate, then again i havent had a amber i really enjoy yet and i accidently ended up brewing an amber for this
 
s2cmpugh said:
I guess my huge concern is creating something that is absolute crap and wasting the $30-$40 on ingredients.
Click to expand...

If you keep it simple at first, and then continue to evolve your recipe by making some adjustments here and there, I'd imagine you'd be pretty hard pressed to make absolute crap. Besides, there's always the option of grabbing a 3 gallon carboy and doing 1/2 batches. That way, if for some strange reason you do make a bad batch, you're out $15-$20. Confidence is also the key.

s2cmpugh said:
For example, I start with a basic stout, then up the dark DME to raise the OG and up the ABV, leave the hops amount the same, and then maybe add a touch of coffee.

Basically, pick a style of beer I like and adjust it for what I want to do and make it my own?

Thanks!
Cris P.
Click to expand...


Above all, just remember to keep good notes. Even when doing kits. My tasting notes from my kits (along with hours upon hours of reading random threads here about various recipes/styles) really helped a lot when I made the jump into formulating recipes.

Taking an existing recipe and toying with it is a good jumping-off point too. Especially if you're worried about making a horrible Frankenstein creation.
 

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