When is it mine to name?

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millhouse46

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I have brewed about a dozen beers and they have all been extract and partial mash kits or using someone else's recipe from a book or magazine. How much modification to a recipe does it take for me to give it my own name?
Its not a huge deal but i have a small problem giving someone else's beer recipe my own name.
 
I have brewed about a dozen beers and they have all been extract and partial mash kits or using someone else's recipe from a book or magazine. How much modification to a recipe does it take for me to give it my own name?
Its not a huge deal but i have a small problem giving someone else's beer recipe my own name.

If you brewed it, it's yours.
 
haha Good question. I'd say use your better judgement. Though you could alter one ingredient and "call it your own", I don't think it would be "right" to post it online as your own with a new name. Example, adding 3 extra ounces of cascade at the 10min mark wouldn't be enough IMO to consider that a different recipe.

If you change two or three things in the recipe, then it starts to become something completely different. If you used different amounts of a couple ingredients, maybe altered the timing a little and possibly used a different yeast.... even though it's very similar, it's quite a bit different.
 
I think it is totally up to you. You brewed the beer no matter anything else. If you want to give it a name then give it a name. Most brews are just little differences of another. As long as you are not selling it as your recipe I have no issue with it. I have created recipes and I have made kits my water is different I do things differently at the end of the day it is my beer.

Just my opinion
 
haha Good question. I'd say use your better judgement. Though you could alter one ingredient and "call it your own", I don't think it would be "right" to post it online as your own with a new name. Example, adding 3 extra ounces of cascade at the 10min mark wouldn't be enough IMO to consider that a different recipe.

If you change two or three things in the recipe, then it starts to become something completely different. If you used different amounts of a couple ingredients, maybe altered the timing a little and possibly used a different yeast.... even though it's very similar, it's quite a bit different.

Oh, I agree. I wouldn't repost it as an original recipe online, but I would still consider it "your" beer. Your techniques and water chemistry make it original.

One funny story is that a couple of years ago a guy asked me for help to convert one of my recipes to extract. I did that. He asked me about slightly different hops as that is what he had. I worked up a nice recipe for him. Then, he posted it on this forum as his, calling it something like, "MY clone". I didn't really care, but it was my recipe completely and I even reworked it for him! It made me laugh.
 
If you alter anything to make a change for your tastes I would say that it is now your recipe. \

If that bothers your conscience you could add an * and give the originator some credit.
 
I think you can label the beer you make what ever pleases you no matter where the recipe comes from. Not sure it is gong to matter to most people. I have a brown ale and a centennial IPA recipe on the database called Brown Ale and Centennial IPA., if you make either and want to label it millhouse46 Deer Droppings ale I do not care, just as long as it pleases you and you enjoy making and drinking it. I don't even care if you call it your recipe, its about enjoying and sharing great beer that you brewed yourself! So brew on and enjoy. :mug:
 
Totally up to you. I like to give the originator credit, especially if I'm making a label, even if I made a change or two. Then I get people asking "Why Deception Cream Stout?", or "What's a Yooper?" Makes for some fun conversations.
 
Billy Mays used to have a TV show where they would take inventors ideas and help develop and sell them to the public. On one show, they had a problem with a patent already existing on a wrench device that a little boy invented that worked like a swiss army knife (multiple wrenches, single handle). The patent search on it discovered there was another patent filed for such a device.

They got around it by making three unique changes to the design. I guess that patent law states it has to be different from the original patent in three distinct ways in order to be considered a new patent.

If it bothers your conscience, you can make three changes to the recipe and feel secure in the knowledge that it's really "your" recipe. :)
 
I agree with most of what's above. If you brewed it, call it whatever you like. Label it whatever you like, give it to your friends with whatever name you like emblazoned on the bottles. But, if you've started with someone else's recipe and made some minor adjustments, it's good to let people know what you started with, what you did, and what changes that made to the flavour profile. That being said, I'm sure that alot of us have independently come up with very similar recipes from time to time, without ever having looked at the ones that were about the same.
 
Change your recipe to mash higher or lower, miss temperature and end up at original the original mash temperature. Problem solved!
 
I find it easier if I start with what particular type and style of beer I want to make. You can start with what is required to meet that style's standard and change from there. At that point, you're starting with something completely generic (other than the person who may be credited with creating that style of beer) and adding your own twist, thus making it your own brew.
 
I brewed two batches of beer about a year apart using the same recipe and as best as I can, the same mash temperature and yeast. They turned out so different they could have been totally different recipes. Now you worry about what it takes to make a recipe "your own".
 
I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to try to patent a recipe unless it was truly unique.
Considering most of the same ingredients go into all beers, that would be very tough.
http://store.inventorprise.com/content_articles.php?id=1049

That said, I think you *know* how much effort you put into something.
I know I personally question the posts of: "hey lookit my recipe of 9# of pale malt, 2# crystal, 3oz of Cascade hops and S-04" - wondering why am I looking at this? It looks like every other recipe.

Do what you think is right.
 
Here's not how to do it:

Ask someone for their recipe: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f77/cherry-beech-smokebeer-157818/#post2894047

Then repost it (with very minor changes) as your own recipe with no reference to the guy who gave it to you: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f77/joerogers-its-got-f-ing-bacon-261962/
Threads merged.

In the privacy of your own home, it's yours to name no matter the circumstances. In a public setting or when marketing a product, you should be a little more careful.
 
If Gordon Ramsay cooks salmon using a recipe he learned in his travels to Italy, is it not his "salmon"? Chefs do this all the time. Take a recipe they think sounds good and add, subtract or substitute various ingredients and cooking techniques to get the dish they imagine. I think if you've sat down and really thought about how you want this beer to taste and which ingredients and techniques you will use to get that flavor, then the beer is your creation. You can always give credit to the recipe or beer that inspired it. But it is yours. And if you want to name it, name it.
 
There is an Apricot Blonde recipe here that someone tried to post as theirs. It is the exact recipe as the Dry Dock Brewing Co. sold next door at The Brew Hut.
 
Pretty sure most competitions don't care what you call it or where you got the recipe from. The judges for most comps never see the recipe, and sometimes the bottles are de-labeled anyways. Just an entry number and the product itself.
 
Since process has such a big effect on the taste of the beer, I'd say anything you brew is yours regardless of where you got the recipe. There's no ethical issue with this IMO.

I agree, but it is kind of lame to swing a recipe around online that you know you got from someone else. I think the beer you make is individual, but the recipe should give props.
 
I agree, but it is kind of lame to swing a recipe around online that you know you got from someone else. I think the beer you make is individual, but the recipe should give props.

Well yea, I agree, I was referring to submitting it to comps; see my previous post in this thread. In fact, I have a recipe for a smoke beer that was a spinoff of Jamil Zainascheff's smoke beer, and I give him props. A member here, DubbelDach, used that recipe and won a gold medal with it, and he mentioned the recipe I posted as the source, both in that thread and in his own blog. That is being a dude.
 
Personally, if I'm making someone else's recipe, I use their name. Even if I make hop/yeast substitutions. Once the grain build changes, it's mine. People on the board win prizes brewing other people's recipes, but as pointed out, you made it, it's your beer.

I don't do competitions, but if I did use another person's recipe, I would say so. It's still my beer and my craft.
 
Recipes have copyrights, beers do not. I think you're fine naming the beer you brewed. It's your beer. When it comes to claiming ownership of someone else's recipe, it's not cool to plagiarize. If you made changes to an existing recipe to end up with something novel, cite the recipe you started with.
 
You can make someone else's recipe and give it your own name. It's called re-branding.
 
DaveGEsq said:
If Gordon Ramsay cooks salmon using a recipe he learned in his travels to Italy, is it not his "salmon"? Chefs do this all the time. Take a recipe they think sounds good and add, subtract or substitute various ingredients and cooking techniques to get the dish they imagine. I think if you've sat down and really thought about how you want this beer to taste and which ingredients and techniques you will use to get that flavor, then the beer is your creation. You can always give credit to the recipe or beer that inspired it. But it is yours. And if you want to name it, name it.

Not to mention that musicians do it constantly as well.... you can play a crap ton of well known rock songs if you know the main guitar riff to smoke on the water...
 
Let's say you came across the recipe of Budweiser, brewed and bottled it. I think you would more likely feel the wrath of Inbev by calling it Budweiser than if you called it Zippity Do Da. But then you would have to deal with Disney. :)
 
understated plagiarism can be a very valuable thing- for example, I recently read a ripped copy of catcher in the rye, the only difference being that the protagonist was named CAUlden HOfield, and the book was surprisingly like a ten times better read. My father once said "you only get to name it if comes from your wife's VJ," but take that with a grain of salt, since that guy my not actually be my dad...
 
understated plagiarism can be a very valuable thing- for example, I recently read a ripped copy of catcher in the rye, the only difference being that the protagonist was named CAUlden HOfield, and the book was surprisingly like a ten times better read. My father once said "you only get to name it if comes from your wife's VJ," but take that with a grain of salt, since that guy my not actually be my dad...

heh heh.
 
It is yours as soon as you brew it. If you feel you must give your source some credit, then go ahead, but you get top billing.
 

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