Making Your Own Recipes

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inkman15

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I've got my first two batches under my belt (one extract, one all-grain) and I'm interested in the art of making your own recipes. To me, that's probably one of the most interesting parts of brewing. What I'd like to get a better understanding of is what different types of malts/grains/hops contribute to the beer. For instance, is there some kind of guide that tells you what Maris Otter tastes like vs. Cara-Pils? I just don't have a grasp of what your dominant grains should be vs ones that add subtle flavors etc.

Any idea where I should begin?
 
You can check the malting companies webpages, like

http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Products/Default.htm

or

http://www.weyermann.de/eng/produkte_neu.asp?go=brauerei&umenue=yes&idmenue=37&sprache=2

They have some description for each malt and what flavors they impart to the beer.

I agree, building your recipe is one of the fun parts of brewing.
There isn't much secrets though, specially when you are trying to brew to style. You can make few changes to fit your taste but the final numbers (OG,FG,IBU,SRM) should stay within the given range.
Other than that, basic things like:
-Base malt to give you the sugars to build your ABV%
-Toasted malts to give you color & taste
-Crystal malts to give you flavor and residual sweetness
-Carapills to give you head retention
-Vienna and other specitaly malts for flavor and fermentable sugars
-Lactose for creamy finish
-Adjunts for crispness, like rice flakes or thickness like oat flakes.

Hope this helps a bit
 
nilo said:
You can check the malting companies webpages, like

http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Products/Default.htm

or

http://www.weyermann.de/eng/produkte_neu.asp?go=brauerei&umenue=yes&idmenue=37&sprache=2

They have some description for each malt and what flavors they impart to the beer.

I agree, building your recipe is one of the fun parts of brewing.
There isn't much secrets though, specially when you are trying to brew to style. You can make few changes to fit your taste but the final numbers (OG,FG,IBU,SRM) should stay within the given range.
Other than that, basic things like:
-Base malt to give you the sugars to build your ABV%
-Toasted malts to give you color & taste
-Crystal malts to give you flavor and residual sweetness
-Carapills to give you head retention
-Vienna and other specitaly malts for flavor and fermentable sugars
-Lactose for creamy finish
-Adjunts for crispness, like rice flakes or thickness like oat flakes.

Hope this helps a bit
Click to expand...

Very helpful - thanks for the info!
 
I actually just jumped into without doing a whole lot of reading. I found the easiest route to be scouring these forums and just checking out what people have done to create beers of certain styles, and then experimenting from that jumping-off point. I always make it a point to taste every grain that goes into my beers as well - it gives you a good idea of the sort of flavor to expect from a grain.

Just experiment with it! The base grains are pretty standard - 2-Row, 6-Row (sometimes), Maris Otter, then your Wheats and other more "specialty" bases. Try a SMaSH beer (single malt, single hop) to really get a good idea of the sort of flavors you can work with and expect from base grains, and build from there.
 
The two books I have found most helpful for recipe building are Brewing Classic Styles and Designing Great Beers.

Brewing Classic styles:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0937381926/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Designing Great Beers:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0937381500/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Brewing Classic Styles is a simpler book, but it goes into the characteristics of most of the big styles, tells you what ingredients cause those characteristics and gives you sample recipes with suggestions for how to get desired flavor effects.

Designing Great Beers is a lot more in depth and scientific, and to me I consider it more of an advanced manual, but a wealth of information as well.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jason_Merritt said:
Try reading Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. It has a wealth of information.
Click to expand...

This is a great starting point. I think it will give you the historical perspective on many styles, typical grain, hop, and yeast profiles, etc. While not perfect, it is pretty comprehensive (although it doesn't cover all currently available grain, hop and yeast options)

The biggest thing you need, IMO, is just experience. Brew with different styles, base grains, adjuncts, specialty grains, hops, yeasts etc and take good notes. Find what you like, what works for you, etc.
 
Honestly I've never been a good person to sit and read a book. I learn way more by playing around. So I've been looking for a recipe I'm interested in, looking up recipies. Then I start looking up all of the ingredients, find out what flavors they impart, and finally re-combine the parts I liked from each recipe into my own version.
 
Just get a recipe book and read on HBT. Check out my signature link for a bunch of recipes. Try some out and experiment a little. Once you find one you really like, make that your specialty brew.
 
looking at recipes kits styles gets you more familar with what usually goes with it.Along with how much then you kind of see what may be too much of something.It takes some time looking through these but it will become second nature over time.Sometimes you can find out what your favorite craft brews are made up of.then you really know which grains/hops to use.
 
Another thing to do is check out the websites of your favorite brews. They often give away a lot of good info... OG, SRM. ABV. Grains and hops used.

I figured out some good recipes that way.
 

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