How do you know?

[rsizemore]

This may seem a foolish question....but...

When one develops a recipe from thin air using ingredients appealing to him/her, how does that person know that he/she did not have inadvertently copy (plagerize) another's recipe?

in other words, If i create an IPA recipe from my tiny little brain, how do I know it isn't a duplicate of someone elses? Were I then to enter my IPA in a contest can I truly call it mine? Does anyone check? Does anyone care?

Who's running this ship?

 

[Cheesefood]

First off, it's near impossible to duplicate anyone's complete recipe and procedures in a homebrew setting. It's like having a box of clock parts and shaking it until you get a working clock.

Secondly, in the food and beverage industry there are no copyrights or patents on recipes. This is because both copyrights and patents expire, and are then public knowledge. Most producers (like coke, pepsi, budwaster) simply hide the recipe.

So, to answer your question, you're not at risk unless you blatantly duplicate it as your own.

 

[skou]

Cheese, I wouldn't quite agree with that statement;

I had a customer come in, (who is also a Forum member here) that wanted a recipe of his filled. It was almost a dead copy of one of our recipes, except for his hop scedule, and the addition of one pound of honey. Hop amounts were identical, and all the other ingredients were, as well. He spent 3 hours designing it, using one of the computer programs.

Yes, it wasn't exact, but it was close.

steve

 

[Evan!]

Rightie-o. What Cheez said. It's not copying or plagiarism if two people come up with the same thing independently. It's called coincidence. Most plagiarism cases are built around the idea of statistical probability. Most often, there's no direct evidence (e.g., video footage or eyewitnesses) that prove said plagiarism took place. But the statistical probability that two people came up with the same term paper independently is so small that it's reasonable to conclude that it was consciously and purposefully copied/plagiarized.

This is relatively easy to prove when you're talking about books, term papers, etc., because they're so complex that similarities stand out. When you're talking about beer recipes, they aren't really all that complex, and you have a LOT of people making them up. If I made a recipe with 8 pounds of 2-row, 1 pound of crystal 40L, and 2oz of Cascade hops, there's a good chance I'm "duplicating" another recipe somewhere out there. Statistical probability says that it's not improbable that two people came up with the same rather simple recipe independently. The more complex a recipe gets, though, the lower the statistical probability of independent duplication becomes.

 

[sirsloop]

give two people the same recipe and you will without a doubt get two different beers....

 

[homebrewer_99]

give two people the same recipe and you will without a doubt get two different beers....

I agree.

Fermenting temp, time in primary/secondary as well as the mineral content of the water alone would make them all a different brew.

 

[ajf]

If you're worried about it, then add a grain of salt to the recipe.

-a.

 

[david_42]

On the other hand, you can have a radically different recipe and still get the same flavor. Either way it isn't a problem.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

If you're worried about it, then add a grain of salt to the recipe.

-a.

He means that metaphorically speaking... I hope...

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

That's why my boils are all 61 minutes and 18 seconds long. It really cuts down on the number of people who I might be plagiarizing from.

 

[Grimsawyer]

That's why my boils are all 61 minutes and 18 seconds long. It really cuts down on the number of people who I might be plagiarizing from.

awww, CRAP!!! That's exactly how long my boils are!!! Now I'm going to have to change it to..... 61 min 19 seconds. There, that should do.