Question about recipe design...

In How to brew Palmer talks about using a Malt Analysis Sheet to determine how much you can expect to be extracting from a certain malt. So if i were to design my own recipe I assume Id need to acquire these numbers the supplier first before estimating the amounts of each grain that i would need, right?

Ok, so assuming that the above is true then why is it beer recipes never specifiy anything but the amount of grain needed by weight. In other words it doesnt say 4lbs Munich Malt with an FGAI 78.7. Wont moisture variations in the grain change the outcome of a recipe? or is the difference not that drastic?

I think i may be overthinking this. any guidance would be appreciated.

newB_newyorker said:

In How to brew Palmer talks about using a Malt Analysis Sheet to determine how much you can expect to be extracting from a certain malt. So if i were to design my own recipe I assume Id need to acquire these numbers the supplier first before estimating the amounts of each grain that i would need, right?

Ok, so assuming that the above is true then why is it beer recipes never specifiy anything but the amount of grain needed by weight. In other words it doesnt say 4lbs Munich Malt with an FGAI 78.7. Wont moisture variations in the grain change the outcome of a recipe? or is the difference not that drastic?

I think i may be overthinking this. any guidance would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

You have asked a bunch of very good quetions here.

1. >> So if i were to design my own recipe I assume Id need to acquire these numbers the supplier first before estimating the amounts of each grain that i would need, right?<<

Not really. For all practical purposes, a generic malt chart is good enough. 1lb of malt mashed in 1 gallon of water in a laboratory, will produce some x amount of specific gravity. i.e. pale ale malt mashes out at 1.038. The last 2 digits are the Saccrificaion points for that malt. Pale ale: 38 points. See? The charts show the sacc points for about any malt you could think of. Multipy the lbs of malt by its sacc. points and you get the total points for that malt. Do that for every malt in the recipe, add the points together, then divide by the number of gallons. Now you have the theoretical max SG of the recipe. But we don't brew so good, maybe 80%. So now multiply the points from above by .8 and you have the expected OG for your recipe. You can turn this thing around and start with an OG and find out how much malt to use etc.

2 >> Wont moisture variations in the grain change the outcome of a recipe? or is the difference not that drastic?<<

Not really. But many brewers measure their malt by volume instead of weight, just because of the moisture issue.

Hope this helps...... cheers

Some thoughts:

I would add to Oldfarmer, so much depends on your system... how you mash, how you sparge, the chemistry of your water... etc. The best thing (humble opinion here) is to try a few recipies, take careful notes, get some benchmarks for yourself. And adjust from there.

There's this idea out there currently that homebrewing is easy... I've never been comfortable with that. It's an enormously complex process- one that requires reading, experimentation, and no small amount of time and patience.

I brewed my first batch in 1991, and I'm still tweaking my recipies and system, and always trying new stuff. That's what makes it fun for me. I try to hit a specific gravity on the money, and do most of the time, but if I don't I'm happy with the notion that I've created something a bit different.

In regard to Palmer, there's a lot of great stuff in that book, but it seems to me it's main intent is to get more people into brewing. That's great. We all benefit. But I think that in some cases, he over-simplifies the process, leaving us with an entire generation of brewers who are trying to brew fabulous beer and are frustrated when their mash temps don't work out in the cooler, or the beer tastes funny because it got some infection from a scratch in the plastic fermenter....

Anyway, hope this doesn't sound like a rant... I'm fairly new to this site, gotten a ton of great advice and info, and I think it's great that folks are asking hard questions like newbnewyorker's up there. cheers, -p

now where might i get one of those malt charts? there are some resources in Palmer's book that i was using previoulsy but info there is limited and now im wondering if they would be too outdated as well. Is there is a more reliable source for that kind of information possibly an online source or is that something I'd need to get from a supplier?

i found a ton of stuff online. thanks guys!!