Do you need a recipe?

[SnickASaurusRex]

So what do you think?

I took a big step off the deep end yesterday and just put ingredients together, like I do when making dinner. Sans recipe and all. I just coasted on my experience and intuition. So far the thing looks great and smells amazing. I mean I took notes so I can repeat it, or not. But I think I am going to try to have a few more brew days like this from now on.

So, recipe or sans-recipe?

 

[jdp]

Well, when you taste it, if its good, then you are a heck of a lot better (or luckier) than I am. I would like to hear the results in a few weeks.

 

[homebrewer_99]

A recipe is basically notes of what your ingredients were and the process.

IMO a recipe is definitely needed if you want to replicate a brew.

 

[Yooper]

I'm not yet a good enough brewer to fly by the seat of my pants. I will make some subs at the last minute, like decide to use 1/2 maris otter malt instead of the US two-row, or sub to a darker crystal. I always start with a solid recipe, though.

 

[TheMan]

I create most of my recipes on my own. I don't get as much joy out of brewing a recipe that is proven to be good. Unless I have a really good beer and feel the need to clone it I would rather be able to say, "Wow, I created this." I've only been truly disappointed in 2 brews so far.

I'm a relatively new brewer, just over a year into it. But I think it's pretty cool that some of the guys or gals on here have their own recipes and they are even sold at places like BMW. I would like to create something that everyone wants to brew.

Anywho, that's my take on the hobby. There is nothing wrong with using a pre-existing recipe, as the act of actually BREWING it is a major portion of creating the beer.

And like you probably have, I've made some fantastic dinners by just throwing some things together. There is no reason the same process can't be followed in brewing

 

[moosetav]

I brewed pretty strictly to clone recipes for the first 5-6. Then next 5-6 brews I altered the recipes somewhat to just see what happened. Nothing big, but it made the beers somewhat my own. When I brew now, I think of a general style I want to do and look it up in Desiging Great Beers to refresh my memory as to what is traditionally in that style. From there, I start creating. Sometimes I stay close to tradition, sometimes I just go and mix it up. It's fun. By keeping with a few fundamentals (temps, diastatics, hop calculations, etc.) I haven't had a bad batch yet. Yes, I like some more than others, but each one is something I'm proud of producing. I do keep track of my ingrediants and processes along the way so when I do stumble upon a great beer, I can brew it again.

 

[homebrewer_99]

One tip I can give you is you should be learning the properties of each of your ingredients to know exactly what each one does and how it contributes to the whole process.

 

[brewagentjay]

I hope that some day I can just throw it together. I doubt it since I do have little OCD. I like the plan in place. Right now I find something I like then I alter it take out what I don't like......... Change hops, Color, etc.

I call it creating my own but I haven't done anything from basic scratch yet.

 

[Buffman]

I start with a solid recipe (like any from Brewing Classic Styles), make it as directed the first time, then tweak it to my tastes next time. It is a great way to experiment. Also, I use Beersmith. With that program, you can select the style you want to make and it gives you the ranges on gravity, color, and IBU. You can add ingredients and it will show you how each addition affects everything. Starting with a good recipe and using Beersmith to keep me in the ballpark of the style has allowed me to create some good brews.

 

[timOD]

Did you have fun? Did you make beer? Sounds like a good day of brewing to me.

 

[BlueSunshine]

What I usually do for recipes is look right here on HBT. I usually find a recipe thread with alot of replies (more tasting notes the better) and then I research similar recipes in the same style. From there I pick and choose what I like from each one and tweak it to my own tastes. Sometimes there's alot of experimentation, other times I only make very small changes.

Hopville is a great resource for recipes too, but there's no reviews/tasting notes there.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

I hope that some day I can just throw it together. I doubt it since I do have little OCD. I like the plan in place. Right now I find something I like then I alter it take out what I don't like......... Change hops, Color, etc.

I call it creating my own but I haven't done anything from basic scratch yet.

That's me in a nutshell. I am so OCD. I have to have a plan in place. Two brews ago I took existing recipes and tweaked them to suit my taste. The last two I brewed were completely from scratch. That being said, I spent 2 weeks creating the recipe. Looking online, reading books, etc..learning more about what different ingredients do and how they taste and work together. I had a general idea of the styles I wanted to brew as a starting point. there was no way I could have done without a "plan" though. I racked them both to secondary last weekend and will probably bottle them this weekend. At racking they both tasted pretty good. I am more excited about these 2 than any others I have brewed because I created them from scratch. It has been a long 3 weeks while fermenting. It was also a lot of fun to create the recipes.

 

[McKBrew]

I rarely use a recipe when I cook food. Turns out great and just about everyone except my picky 7yr old likes it.

I've tried the same thing with beer, but have not had the same success. Sure I could probably pull off a simple recipe from my head, but try getting crazy with hops, tea bags, agave nectar, etc... and the results aren't all that pretty.

 

[Sedge]

Those notes you took = your recipe imo.

Each time you make a decision it affects your next decision, so its kind of like you're creating a recipe on the fly. I think its very possible to make a great beer this way as long as you think about each step. Kitchen sink meals (throw everything in the fridge) rarely work out well unless you pause to taste and adjust, and I think improvised beer is the same.

 

[TheMan]

The last two I brewed were completely from scratch. That being said, I spent 2 weeks creating the recipe. Looking online, reading books, etc..learning more about what different ingredients do and how they taste and work together. I had a general idea of the styles I wanted to brew as a starting point.

That's exactly what I do. I research the hell out of the beer and find other peoples recipes and what they did. Then I create mine. I thought that's what you had meant. I have only done the "throw it all together" method once, it's still fermenting lol.

But when I decide what type of beer I want, if it's not something I've brewed before, I find out what types of ingredients go in it and typical IBU, Gravity, etc. Then formulate. The book, Designing Great Beers, has been great for this. But I find this site and the homebrew wiki much more useful.

 

[SnickASaurusRex]

So this is what I did. I have and industrial kitchen shelf, you know the wire rack kind. It is stacked with all my grains in various air tight containers. I also have quiet a bit of vacuum packed hops in deep freeze.

It was the first spring like day around here and I was itchin' to brew. I just started hauling out grains and weighing them. I ended up with...

9.25 lb pale
1 lb C40L
1 lb wheat malt (Thought about using rye, but went with wheat)
.25 chocolate malt.

Then I decided on Amarillo hops, because I like them. and a bag of US-05.

Oh yeah. I did decide to through in .5 lb sugar mid boil.

I didn't even blink twice at it. Just did a quick calculation for my strike water and went from there.

It was really nice to brew after the winter, and very freeing to just not worry over the recipe.