Brewed my first. Question about recipes

I finally got around to brewing beer and am loving it. For my first batch I went with Arrogant Bastard. The beer is being moved to secondary on Friday and I can't wait to try it.

My question is, how did you guys learn how to make up your own beer ? How many recipes should I follow until I try my own ?

My issue here is that I just moved to Austin Texas from Michigan 10 months ago. For some damn reason Texas cannot sell Michigan beers. I have been told that the reason has something to do with how Michigan beers are labeled. Sooo....I miss a lot of the beers up there. I want to do Bells Two Hearted Ale next and then see if I can find some recipes for any of the Founders Brewery beers.

I feel like I am cheating by copying other recipes. I kind of figure I will make the Bastard, then do Two Hearted then try to find some of the Founders recipes and THEN do my own. I am just wondering how people learned to do their own.

Thanks for the input.

I messed up trying to jump into making my own recipes before I really knew how. I was bad about pushing the specialty grains and hops too far thinking I would make a more flavorful beer, which didn't work for me at all. I bought the book "Designing great beers" which has a TON of information about recipe building which has been a huge help. If you want to build your own recipe, I would start by studying a lot of the popular recipes in the same style from this board, taking note of hop varieties, grain selections, and yeast varieties. Also pay attention to the "Max in Batch" percentages used for different specialty grains so you don't go over the top like I did, lol. Hopefully some of the more experienced brewers will chime in, I'm not the best source of information on this one, I just wanted to let you know where I messed up so you don't do the same thing, lol.

Wingfan13 said:

My question is, how did you guys learn how to make up your own beer ? How many recipes should I follow until I try my own ?

Click to expand...

Don't feel like you're cheating by following other recipes. That's why they're on the internet. If you want to make something that you really want to call your own, I understand. I went all-grain and started winging things on my third batch. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn't, don't touch your beer for at least a month and then try it.

If you use the recipes you find as starting points, mess with them a bit if you feel like it, and resist the temptation to drink your beer when it is green you will probably be happy. Even colossal fvckvps can pay off. I had an infected roggenbier become one of my favorites of all time.

Thanks for the input guys. My fear is that I will make a batch of beer that is not drinkable and I don't want my wife to see me cry as I am pouring it down the drain.

Maybe I will just start off by tweaking recipes and see how they turn out.