Designing you own beer

[Sulfuriois]

So I have a couple of extract kits under my belt and I'm pretty hooked on the hobby. After I do a few more kits I'm probably going to start accumulating the equipment to begin all-grain brewing. Ultimately my goal is to design and perfect brews that I can call my own. But my question for those of you that have done this already is how did you first go about experimenting with your own brews? I want to start developing my basic brewing knowledge but I need a good starting point I guess.

I'm sure theres no substitute for experience so I'm hoping you guys can pass along some of yours.

 

[Tiber_Brew]

At first, it was mostly trial and error for me. I used brewing software to get a ballpark color, gravity, and IBU estimate. I took note of which malts imparted what characteristics, and in some cases purposely over-did the use of some specialty malts knowing that it wouldn't be a great beer, just to see what that malt contributed. Then you start to notice trends, and you can use that data to formulate your own recipes. It didn't take long before I was comfortable with taking an inventory of what I had on hand, and writing a recipe for a good beer. You could take a look at some recipe kits and take note of what they use and in what quantity, also browse through the recipe database for some proven recipes to get more of an idea of what ingredients work in what ratios.

Is there anything in specific you're wondering about?

 

[krispy3d]

You're definitely right about experience, as ultimately that will be how you get what you want. Every brewer I've talked to, read, listened to, etc. all end up saying things about their own designed beers like, "Next time I'll mash higher," or, "I think I'll reduce the bittering addition next time," or, "Next time I'll use a less attenuating yeast," and so on. My first venture into real recipe design was starting with clone recipes. That allowed me to know what I was getting into in the first place, then I could tweak it or make large substitutions based on my limited experience to see how it'd work out.

 

[DocScott]

As a start, I highly recommend that you Pick up "designing great beers" by Ray Daniels. Great resource to increase knowledge about beer ingredients but even better to teach you certain styles. In addition to trying different ingredients (taste/eat different malts, smell hops, taste yeast types in commercial/home brew beers) reading through the recipe pages here and others' critiques of those recipes is very helpful I think.

I'd also recommend trying several proven recipes to improve your techniques with all grain before experimenting too much with new recipes. This will help ensure you're tasting the ingredients that work/don't work together, rather than a flaw in your process. Good luck!

 

[Sulfuriois]

Not really anything specific really. I just want to get to a point where I know what I can expect when I add a particular hops at a certain time during the boil or which malts will get certain flavors and colors. That sort of thing.

I'm a fan of IPA so that will eventually be my first project. The next one will be one that the wife will enjoy.

 

[enkamania]

I have Beersmith, read a lot online and the book brewing classic styles.

 

[Tiber_Brew]

Not really anything specific really. I just want to get to a point where I know what I can expect when I add a particular hops at a certain time during the boil or which malts will get certain flavors and colors. That sort of thing.

I'm a fan of IPA so that will eventually be my first project. The next one will be one that the wife will enjoy.

Do a lot of reading. Some prior knowledge is essential before you start experimenting. Your experiments will be more educated and productive to your learning experience. That's one thing I forgot to mention; I did a LOT of reading before getting started.

 

[jammin]

I think the SMaSH concept is something to keep in mind when you are craving knowledge. While you don't need to stick to single malt/single hop; you can keep your recipes simple and experiment with 1 specialty grain and 1 aroma hop to really understand it's flavor contribution better.

Perhaps brew a series of APA's or IPA's with a general bill of 85% 2-row, 5% crystal and use the last 10% to play with interesting malt additions like Munich, Vienna, Biscuit... etc. You could find yourself a clean bittering hop like Magnum as your base, and use good amounts of different aroma hops to see what you like and how they taste by themselves.

 

[Sulfuriois]

Thanks for the responses. Exactly what I am looking for.

 

[Captain Damage]

Read a lot. (+1 to Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels - it's my Bible) There's 10,000 years of brewing history and experimentation for you to benefit from. Certainly experiment, but keep careful track of your targets, variables and results. What is your goal, what are you changing, what is the effect?