Recipe Creation...

How many of you do it? I am sooo scared of going out there and buying some grains and hops and just trying to create something. I know there are certain guidelines that some beers must fit into in order to be called a Lager, stout, etc... but I don't even know where to begin outside of seeing a recipe. Which is odd for a chef, give me a market basket and I can create anything! My logic says. "Porsh, you're going to waste these beautiful ingredients and come up with some backwoods hooch." My home brew heart says "Porsh, you're going to create the greatest beer on Earth" **Well maybe the greatest beer in my home.**

I love hearing from you guys... this website is the heartbeat of my homebrews

I do it all the time. I like BeerTools for it though there are many other tools out there. It is fun to load a clone recipe or one someone else made then tweak it out to suit your tastes.

Worse case you don't like it but experimenting is half the fun... for me anyway.

You can always start out altering some all grain kits. I add hop additions and a lb or two of grain to kits all the time. I keep a few lbs of honey malt and caramel malt here, and a lb or 2 or hops in the freezer. Just make sure you look and see what grain (type and amount) in the next kit you buy. Pick out flavors when you're tasting them. If you make something bad, save it for company. I do.

pkincaid said:

Which is odd for a chef, give me a market basket and I can create anything!

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Along the same vein, as a chef you know you can create anything because you have an underlying understanding of how different flavors interact. You balance sweet, salty, earthy, etc. Homebrew is no different. So how did you get your culinary knowledge? Self-teaching or formal schooling is required, right? Buy a brewing book like "Brewing Classic Styles" and "How to Brew." These books give great basic recipes as well as explain recipe creation and the various qualities of ingredients. With that basic understanding and tried and true recipes you can start to alter them or at the very least understand the composition.

**Off to buy a new book in about 20 min** I have "The Art of Home Brewing" and "Homebrewing for Dummies." Plus a wealth of information from the internet. I read like a maniac before my first batch. I've yet to do a kit and everything has come out ok so far. I just want to be able to bottle something and when I crack that boy open, say... Mmmmm That's all me! You guys are a huge inspiration though.

The best book on recipe creation specifically is probably "Designing Great Beers" by Daniels

Nateo said:

The best book on recipe creation specifically is probably "Designing Great Beers" by Daniels

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Well that sums it up! lol... But i'd still like the input on how you guys come up with stuff. Btw....just upgraded to Premium Member about 5 min ago! YAY!

I would for sure recommend some brewing software. I use Beer Tools Pro. I like that I can choose a style, and it gives me the acceptable ranges for each characteristic.

strat_thru_marshall said:

I would for sure recommend some brewing software. I use Beer Tools Pro. I like that I can choose a style, and it gives me the acceptable ranges for each characteristic.

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That feature alone has emboldened me to randomly try stuff, lol.

**Pouts** I have a Macbook and was unable to load the one and only brewing software for Mac. I write everything in a notebook and kind of draw from there. Not to mention shuffling through the unholy amount of recipes on the internet.

pkincaid said:

**Pouts** I have a Macbook and was unable to load the one and only brewing software for Mac. I write everything in a notebook and kind of draw from there. Not to mention shuffling through the unholy amount of recipes on the internet.

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Beer Tools is an online tool.

Creating your own recipe isn't too crazy. Just start with a style that you like, get yourself a recipe calculator or use the one at tastybrew.com, and start creating

For example, my first recipe (my second batch ever) was a Belgian dubbel. I knew I was going to do a partial mash, so I started out with some basics of what I was going to need - Belgian 2-row, Belgian Cara / Carabelg, some quantity of LME and DME, hops, and yeast. I stayed with the noble hops used in the style, shooting for as close to the style as possible with my OG, but instead of going with just 1 yeast I decided to blend 2 and see what happens.

I also taste a lot of different craft brews to get an idea of different styles I might like to try, different yeasts to use, etc.

Just keep good notes once you do launch into your brew day, so you know what works and what does not when you go to brew that recipe again.

I usually use hopville.com. I have beersmith but hardly use it.

I tried to make a beer based on Free State's Ad Astra, using brewtarget and the ingredients they say they use on their website. It's nigh undrinkable, but improving. Also, that might have something to do with the 80-85 degree awfulness I had going on in this new apartment. Got a fermentation chamber now


TL;DR; I recommend it, but failed personally.

pkincaid said:

**Pouts** I have a Macbook and was unable to load the one and only brewing software for Mac. I write everything in a notebook and kind of draw from there. Not to mention shuffling through the unholy amount of recipes on the internet.

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I've got a mac too. Check out wine (a windows emulator), I run brewtarget with it perfectly. The install is kind of a pain (use your google-fu), but using it just takes a few keystrokes in the terminal. It's a good tool to have: you will inevitably run into other programs you want to run.

Welcome to HBT, people here are always willing to help. For brewing I use BeerSmith, I don't know if they have a Mac version of it but the software is great (takes some getting used to at first though). If you need help coming up with a recipe, people here can help you formulate it.

What I like to do when first starting off a recipe is take one that already exists, brew it, figure out what I don't like about it, and change it. It saves a lot of time from re-inventing the wheel.

Teromous said:

Welcome to HBT, people here are always willing to help. For brewing I use BeerSmith, I don't know if they have a Mac version of it but the software is great (takes some getting used to at first though). If you need help coming up with a recipe, people here can help you formulate it.

What I like to do when first starting off a recipe is take one that already exists, brew it, figure out what I don't like about it, and change it. It saves a lot of time from re-inventing the wheel.

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i use beersmith every time. if you change a recipe, make sure you do a mild change early on. i remember my first "self-styled" recipe. it was an english brown attempt i choked down, and cleansed my palate with a double ipa (from recipe) when it was done. i change every recipe now, but i have a little better idea what malt tastes good with what, and what yeasts go with each style. can't say it was a tasty experience every time learning, though...

It's easy. The only beer I've brewed that hasn't been my own recipe from scratch was my first batch. My first real recipe (2nd beer was a Gluten Free extract, I started out All Grain though) received a 43/50 from BJCP judge.

First I decided what I wanted to brew. I then looked at the BJCP guidelines. Then I looked at different recipes of the same style I wanted to brew. I then looked at http://***********/resources for what different effects each grain/hop/yeast had. Then I got BeerSmith and started messing with it and adding the ingredients I wanted until I was satisfied.

The scientific method, aka: guess and test. Doing your research will help you expedite the process, but real skill only comes with experience. Don't expect all your recipes to come out as you expect them to, until you've got a lot of batches under your belt. Eventually you'll get to the point where you can visualize the impact different ingredients will have (the easy part), and how to achieve balance with your overall beer (the hard part!).

There are some styles that are easier than others. Styles where the balance is so far to one end of the spectrum that you can't really mess it up. IPA's, for example - just throw a buttload of hops in and keep the specialty malts restrained, and you're done. Other beers require a lot more finesse to find the right mix of hops, IBU's, malt, caramel, etc.

Beersmith was the one I tried to download. No luck, but i'll give the emulator a try. I've used them for various other things. I grabbed a book called "Home Brew Favorites" today. Just shuffling through the recipes gave me some bright ideas about what i'd like to modify. I'm thinking of moving the lager tomorrow, cleaning out the carboy and going for the next batch.

Oh... and I looked at hopville, I like it! Easy to use and easy to make mods and see the end result.

I saw that you mentioned lager before and now as well. I've been drinking a lot of homebrew so I don't know if this was addressed, the main thing about making lagers is temp. You lager them at a lower temp, and then you store them in a colder location (like lager cellar) for a while. I don't know if you used lager or ale yeast, but there's a popular style of brewing what is called steam beer which is brewing a lager like an ale.

Also I noticed you had up next cider or pumpkin. The best cider in my opinion comes from pressed orchard apples. It's hard to get these apples outside of the sept/oct time frame and sometimes nov. I would get some and brew a cider while you can, or you might get stuck with apple juice or waiting another year. On the flip side...fermentation buckets are cheap could brew both!

Yeah... Lagers, I was fascinated with and so my husband and I converted our second fridge to a Lagering fridge. The temp controls have been changed on it and it currently holds 2 carboys at 40 to 45 degrees. We also have a basement with a wine cellar. **thats where the lagering fridge made its home.** As for the cider....we have an apple tree in our backyard and I was thinking of using the last of what's hanging on out there to make it. If I get too lazy, i'll wait till next season to make the cider.

It sounds like you have everything down pat for the lager! I personally love ciders, and having a tree in your back yard gives you the chance to make some easily. If not, pie eats are in order

Teromous said:

It sounds like you have everything down pat for the lager! I personally love ciders, and having a tree in your back yard gives you the chance to make some easily. If not, pie eats are in order

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Oh yes!! I am the resident pie maker when Turkeyday rolls around. My poor tree used to get raped by the kids in the neighborhood, until I bought a chihuahua

I think I'll grab the trusty ladder and pick what I can from the tree tomorrow and start the cider. I'll grab another carboy this week for the pumpkin ale. I need it ready by October 6th, I think that's doable.

BeerAlchemy is what I use.

I don't think Designing Great Beers is all that up-to-date. I'd suggest listening to The Jamil Show; you can pick a style you want to brew and just listen to that episode, but every show has good info on recipes and technique. The "companion volume" is, of course, Brewing Classic Styles.