How do you pick recipes?

I have only done one AG brew so I am not able to just look at a recipe and tell if it's good or not. What makes it even more difficult is that there are tens of thousands of recipes out there by every Tom, Dick and Harry that has access to the Internet. I'm sure that some are great, but I am equally sure that some are going to be bad too. So what's the best way for a beginner to go about choosing recipes?

Start with the ones in the DB with high ratings. The more stars, generally, the better received by others who have taken the plunge and tried the formula.

GRHunter said:

I have only done one AG brew so I am not able to just look at a recipe and tell if it's good or not. What makes it even more difficult is that there are tens of thousands of recipes out there by every Tom, Dick and Harry that has access to the Internet. I'm sure that some are great, but I am equally sure that some are going to be bad too. So what's the best way for a beginner to go about choosing recipes?

Click to expand...

I look through 5-10 recipes for the kind of beer I'm interested in, then figure out which ones are particularly off-kilter. I'll usually toss the outliers (unless one of them sounds really appealing to me), then pick one of the others that seems to align well with what I'm looking for.

If it's a style I've never had and am looking to try, "what I'm looking for" might mean "near the middle of the style guidelines". Usually, "what I'm looking for" is more likely to just mean something where the ingredients align well with what my tastes are.

I try to stay away from complicated recipes. I think a lot of homebrewers have the luxury of/ability to indulge in wildly complicated recipes.

The best steak I've had was seasoned with salt and pepper. While I've had fantastic IPA's made with several hops (Racer 5 is a favorite)... the one's I've loved the most are often single hop.

For me, the simple recipe also facilitates learning. If I make a simple recipe, chances are, I can tell what is doing what... or at least they're greater than with some overly-complicated recipe.

I think there's a reason we see more and more people in food looking towards simple recipes, quality ingredients, and informed technique.

Anyway. Two cents. Feel free to toss them out!

Buy some books.

I second the database suggestion. We only allow recipes that are successful, and have tasting notes in the later entries. There are other brewers who give their opinions, too, so usually the recipe has several others who have brewed it and shared their notes.

Otherwise, it would be very hard to just pick a recipe off of the internet. To be honest, I've seen some very bad ones. Only with experience can you separate the bad ones out.

Another good place is in a book like Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff. That book is great for seeing solid recipes in each beer style, along with great hints for making it yourself.

I also like Jamil's podcasts on the Brewing Network. "Can you brew it?" takes a notable commercial beer and attempts to clone it. If you see one you like, you can listen to the podcast and see how they did it.

+1 on the books.

Assuming you've read How to Brew.

Designing great beers by Ray Daniels. Classic. Helps understand what you're looking at.

Brewing Classic Styles. Gives a jumping off point for any style.

Farmhouse Ales.

Brew Like a Monk.

Clone Brews.

Happy Brewing!

Jamil's recipes I have done have all been great.

I started with doing clone recipes from known sources, like BYO. While it is rare to nail a clone exactly, you can judge your brewing by buying a bottle of commercial beer and see just how close you got. If you really want to hone your skills you can then do your own tweaks to try and get the beer as close as possible. Burnt myself out on a few beers doing this, 40 gallons of I2PA from Rogue is more than a guy needs to brew.

Brewing Classic Styles. JZ. Just get yer fingers off the keyboard and go buy the book. They are all winners.

Oh, and my recipes are great of course.

Look up BierMuncher's recipes here on this forum. He's got some really good ones. Some of his recipes are very easy to make. look for a beer that you like and brew it.

I use recipes with high starts in the recipe section on this site. I also like to brew the clone recipes from BYO, and have been very successfull brewing clones from JZs podcast "Can You Brew It" Well except for the Arrogant Bastard clone, i am still waiting for them to atempt that one again.

I'd second the simple recipes idea. Lately the most basic of my brews have been best. Also, to help you choose...brew Jamil's Evil Twin!!! It's awesome! Everyone that has tried my batch says it's their favorite I've made. Recipe is here:

http://www.mrmalty.com/late_hopping.htm

Just scroll to the bottom.

Also, I tend to favor making my own recipe. I then try to find similar recipes to make sure I'm on the right track. If I cannot find anything similar to what I was planning then I can either be a pioneer...or assume there is a reason no one makes a beer like I planned lol.

My latest brew, an American Wheat. I was trying to come up with a Gumballhead type brew. I created my recipe and then searched for a clone. Turns out I was near spot on what most people used as a clone brew. So I brewed my recipe and it turned out great.

I'm not into making my own stuff....yet. I have been ordering kits for the Brew stores and no disappointments yet. I am starting to look at different recipes now and figuring out what they will be.

You can trust Freds award winning recipe page

http://beerdujour.com/AwardWinningRecipes.htm

OLDBREW said:

You can trust Freds award winning recipe page

Click to expand...

I use this page a lot when building recipes. If you are like me and don't generally follow recipes to the letter, this site is great as it provides a lot of info on what ingredients some of the best recipes out there are using and in what percentages.

In my humble opinion, the HBT recipe database is "ok," though it worries me that so many posted recipes seem to contain the kitchen sink or be novelty attempts, and still have 5 stars and pages of praise. Not that there aren't great recipes posted, there are obviously, its just that as taste is very subjective (some people like Arby's believe it or not), I tend to either make my own recipes or stick with ones from the pro's.

passedpawn said:

Brewing Classic Styles. JZ. Just get yer fingers off the keyboard and go buy the book. They are all winners.

Oh, and my recipes are great of course.

Click to expand...

What he said. Brewing Classic Styles is hands down the best book of recipes I've ever come across. You can't go wrong. Go buy it.

If I'm looking for a new recipe, I look at clones of brews I can't get locally and/or people have talked about.

Look at every recipe you can. Consider their sources and remember what they are using and the % of which, not the actual amount in weight. Once you have an idea of what/how much to use, learn the hard way and make your own. You'll come in to it and will have more confidence and pride in the end. I used a recipe by someone else for the first time last weekend...it was a smash . It was my first smash and i have an abundance of MO and am in bad need of an APA.

When I was starting AG, I looked for recipes that lots of people on here have brewed and given feedback on. Then I would look at those authors other recipes for inspiration. This https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/recommended-recipe-locator-updated-31494/ is a great link to take a look at. There are a lot of well respected recipes and HBT members on this list. I have brewed a number of these and they have turned out great. Remember that the recipe is only part of the equation. The brewer and technique play a huge roll in how well a beer turns out. Cheers!

skeeordye11 said:

When I was starting AG, I looked for recipes that lots of people on here have brewed and given feedback on. Then I would look at those authors other recipes for inspiration. This https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/recommended-recipe-locator-updated-31494/ is a great link to take a look at. There are a lot of well respected recipes and HBT members on this list. I have brewed a number of these and they have turned out great. Remember that the recipe is only part of the equation. The brewer and technique play a huge roll in how well a beer turns out. Cheers!

Click to expand...

Thanks, that recipe locator site rocks!