Recipe Help!!!!!

Greetings all!!!!! I have a few recipes that need to be reviewed by some one that knows what they are doing. I will put all of my recipes in with there names and I will live it all up to you. This is what I am looking for: dose the recipe fit the BJCP Guidelines, is there any thing that I need to add or subtract, or is there any thing else that I need to change with out total change of the recipes.

Old Man Porter
4 Ounce Continental Hops @ 30
3 Pound Black Patent Malt
3 Pounds Vienna Malt
4 Pounds Amber Malt Extract
1 Pound Coffee Beans
2 Pounds Raisins
1 Ounce Licorice Stick
1 WLP830 German Lager Yeast


The Enchanted ESB
3 Pounds Gambrinus ESB 2.5L
1 Pound Gambrinus Wheat 1.8L
2 Pounds Amber Malt Extract
2 Pounds Wheat Malt Extract
2 Pounds Raisins
2 oz Chinook @ 60
2 oz Centennial @ 30
2 oz Saaz @ 15
1 WLP-2 English Ale



The Tripper Lager
2 Ounce Continental Hops @ 30
2 Pounds Caramel Malt
3 Pounds Vienna Malt
4 Pounds Light Malt Extract
1 WLP830 German Lager Yeast



Thank you all for you help.

Well, things like raisins and licorice take it completely out of the BJCP guidelines, except as specialty beer, or spiced beer. So the first two are nothing close to style guidelines, if you care about that. The 4 ounces of hops at 30 minutes is very odd for a porter, as porters don't have hop flavor/aroma and just bittering hops. There are other things, too, but you asked about the guidelines.


I'm not sure what kind of lager you want to make, but 2 pounds of crystal/caramel malt is too much for any of the ones that I can think of in the BJCP style guidelines. 30 minute hops are odd there, too.

No offense, but these look like you just threw a bunch of stuff together. Yooper mentioned a few things about style. Besides that, 3 lbs of black patent would be a lot for an RIS, I would never use that much in a porter.

American hops wouldn't be traditional in an ESB though you could do it. I haven't plugged it into software but I'm pretty sure those 60 and 30 minute additions would make it too bitter even for an ESB - more like DIPA range I think. I also agree that just in general the hops additions are odd.

If you're really wanting to brew to BJCP guidelines (nevermind making a drinkable beer!) I think you need to do a little more research or start with some tried and true recipes. "Brewing Classic Styles" is a great resource if it's style you're interested in.

Alright. Thank you for the information. It is hard for me to take but I had asked for this feed back so it is my problem. Now I have to ask what I need to do for each beer. Would you each please tell me for each beer individually tell me how I can improve them to be in the correct style of beer according to the BJCP Guidelines?

Sorry if my previous post sounded harsh. It's just that this is kind of a big question.

You need to start by specifying which category you are aiming for with the porter and the lager. As Yoop said you'll need to dump the coffee, raisins, and licorice unless you pick a specialty or spiced category.

Do you have software or are you using an online calculator? Since your question is about style I think this would help greatly as you can run the numbers and at least see if the IBU's, color, gravity are in range. This obviously isn't all there is to formulating a recipe but it at least provides a guide.

You also want to think about things like fermentation temp and other processes as these can have big effects on final product and whether or not you hit the style. It looks like you are doing partial mash recipes, so things like mash temp should be specified.

I am not using anything to help calculate my beer. I am completely taking a chance on how much to use. What I am using for the ingredient is the BJCP Guideline for some of the ingredients because I have downloaded a document that they produce them self in order to get some the ingredients. This link http://www.bjcp.org/docs/2008_Guidelines.pdf is for the document that I had just mentioned.

I will do as you suggested about the additional information that you had said that I need to think about.

stout6336 said:

I am not using anything to help calculate my beer. I am completely taking a chance on how much to use.

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I think you hit on the problem. You could list for me all the ingredients for an award-winning cake, but but the chance of me making something edible would be slim, because I know next to nothing about baking and would have no idea what ratios to use or when to add things.

I do think you'd get a lot out of the book that I mentioned, or something similar (I've heard Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels is also excellent). There's plenty of help on here but these resources might be a better bet for an overall background on styles.

Good luck!

Thank you for the suggestion and I will gladly read these books.