I want to make a recipe.

What is the best way to go about this. I have a list of malts, grains, hops, and yeast I would like to use but proportions I am not sure about. Any program I can toy with and try to find good caculations? Would love to get started on it!
cheers
Gary

I use www.beercalculus.com , as my friend has beersmith. The calculations are comparable and good to start with. If you really like making your own recipes buy beersmith.

There are a few ways I start with making my recipes. If you want to make a specific style then you will have to do some research to decide if what you have fits that style. OR you can take a recipe that is already made and modify it. This helps to ensure you have a good base and you can taste what your modification did easily.

And lastly, you can just take your ingredients and throw them all together. I've done this a few times and all but one have turned out great. This is not a preferred method, just something I do when I notice I've got a few straggling ingredients lying around that need to be used.

I am still a novice at this, but if you post your ingredients and what type of beer you like you will get some good recipe recommendations from others on the forum. They are all very helpful with this type of thing.

what are your ingredients? give us a break down and im sure there will be many people willing to help

I am looking to make a Pale Ale that has some caramel overtones with a nice balance of hops.

I was looking at either Caramel 40 L or Crystal 40 L
Hops a combination or maybe just one type of either: Chinook, Fuggle or Wilamette
DME: Muntons dry light
Yeast: Wyeast 1056 or 1087

Am I heading in the right directions and thanks in advance.
Also on beer calculus great site!
thanks again

Try something like this....

6 lbs Dry light malt
1/2 lb Crystal 40L

5-6 ounces of some Willamette and Chinook spaced throughout.

I made an APA similar to this with some Victory malt and Crystal 20L. Added first hops at 40 min and then every ten mins after that. It made a great beer with hoppy flavor.

I have made IPA's with a full pound of crystal malt and to me it did not taste right. The caramel and hoppy flavor don't go together to me. So I do not go over half a pound of crystal malt in pale ale anymore.

The great thing about the hobby is that you can make it however you like though. And there is no harm in experimenting. I don't think you will make something that is undrinkable if you simply follow sanitization and let it ferment well. I'm sure someone else will have better advice than me though lol. Wait to hear from some other, more seasoned brewers before following my advice haha.

If you think Beer calculus is nice, you should try beersmith...

Yea i will d/l beersmith tonight when i get home from work. I am toying around with a recipe right now. I am thinking of adding Dextrin (CaraPils) Malt to the mix also. I was reading this gives it a nice boost of richness without adding color.
6 lb Dry light malt
1 lb Crystal 40L
1/2 lb Dextrin Malt

Hops
not a clue yet with Bittering. Maybe Chinook, Galena, or Perle.
Aroma + Finishing with Fuggles or Wilamette

That should be good for malt. The Chinook should do nice for bittering and I am a fan of wilamette for flavor/aroma. So I'd say go for it. If you don't want it too bitter don't add much more than an ounce of Chinook at the start.

Thanks for the help I posted in a couple different parts of the forum to get other ideas. I appreciate your direction! What kind of odd flavors did you get with the 1lb Crystal?

It wasn't necessarily an odd flavor. It was just too much caramel to blend well with the hoppiness. I like the caramel flavor that crystal gives. But to me, too much caramel is not for this style.

I've made a pale ale with 2 lbs crystal and it was FAR too much. Toned it down to 1 lb and still felt it a bit much. I've since settled on 1/2 lb and it gives a nice caramel hint without overpowering. Ray Daniels book states something like no more than 5% crystal should be in a pale ale, which is only if you are following the style guidelines. But like I said, to each his own. You might find you like it. Try 1 lb and you can go from there for the next batch. It will be a drinkable brew regardless haha.

hey man you may also consider working in some pale 2-row grains during your steeping process...

Yea I was just reading a description about that. How much would you recommend?

well what is your initial boil going to be? as far as gallons?

It was going to be 5gal

I am sorry I was thinking over all. Initial was going to be 4

hit the wrong number it is going to be 3.. i am getting to excited

I would up your light dme keep it around 6 lbs, keep your dextrin low somewhere in the 6oz range and prolly around 12oz of crystal 40L then shoot up to like 12oz. to 1lb of pale 2-rows. run your hops in and out if you have the patience like .25oz at a time time minutes in and change ide prolly go with chinook for bittering and williamette for aroma and finishing... just dont shoot much over 1oz. of the chinooks

I don't think you get much out of steeping 2 row. You would have to mash it to get any useful sugars out of it. If you decided to do that it wouldn't hurt your beer at all, I think it would be better

TheMan said:

I don't think you get much out of steeping 2 row. You would have to mash it to get any useful sugars out of it. If you decided to do that it wouldn't hurt your beer at all, I think it would be better

Click to expand...

right assuming he was doing a partial mash

Partial Mash it is. I am upgrading myself by the second here.. I have basically done this on all my brews so far.. so i don't see why not doing it a little bit longer and taking the proper steps to doing it on my own. i was reading the ratio should 1.5/1 qt/lb does that sound right? so assuming so.. I would need just over 3 gallons of water to mash 6 oz dextrin, 12 oz Crystal and 1 lb pale 2-rows.. Does this sound reasonable?

Most recommend a 1.25 - 1.3 qt water per lb of grain ratio, but you can use 1.5 also. Assuming this....

1 lb pale (16 oz.)
12 oz crystal
6 oz dextrin
----------------
34 oz. or 2.125 lbs. (2.125 * 1.5) = 3.187 quarts (.80 gallons) of water for your mash.

This is what I use.

If anyone sees anything wrong with my math please interject here....

Alright I was way off.. I guess I mis-read the calculations. What would be the amount of sparging water? Then add the rest of the water to make up a 3 gal boil?

wow my math was way off lol my bad...

I changed it a bit and came up with this but a partial mash was suggested.
.8 gal of water for the grains 30-45 mins @ 154 degrees then add water to make a 3 gallon boil.

6 lb Dry light Muntons
1 lb American 2-row pale
12 oz Crystal 40 L
8 oz Carapils

Hops:
1 oz Galena <60 min>
1 oz Willamette <20 min>
1 oz Willamette <5 min>

Wyeast 1056

I sparge with an amount equal to the mash water, in your case I would use .8 gal. And I do that twice. I like the results. I don't measure efficiency though. Another method is just sparging once with 50% more water than the mash...so 1.2 gal for this method.

I then add enough water to complete my boil. I recommend doing a full boil if possible. If not, do as much as you can. If you have a 5 gallon pot you can easily do a 4 gallon boil, used to do it regularly.

My method is not at all how it is "supposed" to be done. But I think everyone does things differently based on their equipment.