House Recipe Home Brewing

So I have been brewing other recipes- either kits from the local store or recipes found online.

I am still more of an extract brewer, slowly branching out. I would like to start making my own "house beer" and playing with making my own recipes. The problem is- where do you start!? There is so much to learn about specialty grains, different extracts, hops, yeast, etc. I really don't know where to start.

Brewing all of these other recipes I have gotten a small, very basic idea about some of those things but hardly enough to feel confident in making my own recipe.

So I guess I am asking, where do I start? Where can I find out more about these things so that I don't waste a good chunk of money, valuable beer, and time.

Thanks!

I am by no means an expert on this subject, but I have done a good bit of reading and listened to several of The Brewing Network's podcasts (Mostly "The Jamil Show"/"Can You Brew It?") and what I have been able to gather is this:

Before you start tinkering with recipes or try making up your own, you should really be able to brew several beers "to style" and be able to replicate them. If you can replicate a beer a few times, then you can be more confident that your process/technique is solid. If you brew the same kit/recipe two or three times and it's significantly different each time, then there is a flaw in your brewing process.

Granted, a certain amount of it will be experimentation and learning from trial/error what works and what doesn't, but without a really solid understanding of the basics and what each ingredient does and what flavors it will produce, you're just shooting blind trying to make your own recipe. As far as "where to start" is concerned, I would say this: Find a recipe for a style you really like and brew it a couple times. If you can get it the same each time, then change one thing about it (a different variety/amount of specialty grain, different variety/amount hops, different variety of yeast, etc...) and see what changes in the final product. If it's still not what you want, change something else. I would imagine that coming up with a recipe all of your own imagining (especially your first one) can take a lot of time, patience, and experimentation. But above all, make sure you have fun with it.

Hi Hoot. A couple of thoughts (as always, ill-conceived and best ignored):

1. Getting BeerSmith or some other brewing software helps a lot - putting together recipes is a lot easier if you can see right away what the expected Original Gravity is, or what the IBU (international bittering units) will be.

2. Lot of people like the book "Designing Great Beers" or something like that, which sounds on target for you. I've never read it, but found that Randy Mosher's book "Radical Brewing" helped me think about a whole variety of ingredients and processes.

3. Rather than starting from scratch, find a recipe you like and build on or from it. Really, there are no/few truly new recipes - there's only so many ways to combine grains, hops and yeast. Most are variants.

4. Pick out a style or type of beer, you'd like to make, take a shot at a recipe, and then share it here for thoughts and comments (of course, be ready for all sorts of comments that may or may not be helpful).

5. Working from a theme can be fun - for example, I have been brewing a lot using Munich as the base malt, so I'm taking styles where Munich wouldn't normally be used.

I agree with stjackson and pappers. I have a book "brewing classic styles" and I usually brew a recipes once and then start playing with ingredients. I'm still an extract brewer, so we're in the same boat there. I have BrewAlchemy, and I've found this to be a great help, and it will tell me if I'm going outside a style. But remember, some rules are made to be broken, and half the fun is deciding what you like. use online resources and books to find out what different hops and grains taste like and craft your own recipe. the people at my LHBS are also a great resource, they let me know when I'm stepping too far out of line...

Designing Great Beers. Awesome book and a great starting point for your recipes. The first half focuses on the basics of how ingredients / techniques define the final qualities of your beers. There is lots of info on ingredients, how to hit your target gravities / IBUs / colors, and well as some fairly technical information about hop and water chemistry. The second half is dedicated to a chapter by chapter breakdown of what ingredients / techniques have been used to brew particular styles of beer. The only thing I find lacking is the lack on information about Belgian beers.

I find also brewing up a beer and then drinking it with the recipe / brew log sitting in front of your amazingly helpful. It gives you immediate feedback on what a particular ingredient tastes like. Homebrew clubs can really aide you in the discovery of finding what particular ingredients taste like.

Designing Great Beers and brewing software are both great ideas.
The next step is to pick a beer style that you really like, find a recipe, and brew it.
If it isn't perfect, then take copious notes about what is wrong, and try making small changes to the recipe (or your procedures) in order to improve the brew. Don't try making too many changes at once, more than one change at a time is too many.
It's a very slow process, but is also very enjoyable.

-a.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. Exactly what I was looking for! Gives me a great place to start!

what I did was found a clone recipe of a beer I realy like. I took that and brewed it. I noted what I liked and what I didn't. Now instead of trying to hone in on the orginal beer I just used it as an opportunity to hone in on what I wanted out of it. Now I just change maybe 1 ingredient or hop addition time everytime i brew it. Note the difference. I've brewed it 4 times. Once i do it 10 or so I might do the same thing with a different recipe.