Kits vs Off the Dome

[FelixBrewer]

I won’t get into my experiences and batches of beer that I’ve brewed but all the beer that I have brewed have come from Northern Brewer as 1 gallon kits (I know...lame)

I was just wondering if there is any resources used by you guys and gals to create your own recipes and at what point you feel like your knowledge has expanded to the point where you can bridge that gap and create your own recipes.... reading materials, blogs, websites. feel like you don’t need your hand held....because I like that comfort.

 

[TwistedGray]

First of all there's nothing lame with one gallon batches. I brew 1 to 2 and 2 and a 1/2 gallon batches, definitely not lame.

I use recipes on here and modifying to my liking. I find a lot of the recipes on here are perfectly suitable for starting point. just look for ones that have a lot of feedback and a lot of notes and a lot of replies and read through the entire thread to see how people evolve this recipes overtime.

 

[deadwolfbones]

If you want to brew to a certain style, there are plenty of "Make Your Best" articles from Craft Beer & Brewing magazine that cover the major ones, i.e. https://beerandbrewing.com/make-your-best-saison/

Don't take the contents as gospel, but they're a good jumping off point for figuring out what you like.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I was just wondering if there is any resources used by you guys and gals to create your own recipes .

For books, consider Brewing Classic Styles and Mastering Homebrew.

And here are some other ideas:

Attempt to clone (or research clone recipes for) your favorite beers.

Have you seen this?

To help get your creative juices flowing, here is a rough approximation of the recipes for the common ale styles:
Pale Ale - base malt plus a half pound of caramel malt,
Amber Ale - pale ale plus a half pound of dark caramel malt,
Brown Ale - pale ale plus a half pound of chocolate malt
Porter - amber ale plus a half pound of chocolate malt,
Stout - porter plus a half pound of roast barley.​

-- http://howtobrew.com/book/section-4/experiment/developing-your-own-recipes

Think about how yeast selection would impact each of the styles listed above.

How would you make those styles into an "imperial" or "session" beer?

 

[FelixBrewer]

Yea that progression was kind of what I was thinking. I like the idea of clones, nothing wrong with those, def made because they have been vetted (as I’ve heard from Brewing Classic Styles...currently in route through Amazon) and they consistently taste good, because they are good consistently. Just developing your own sounds like the easiest way to get your own preferences into the beer rather than substituting or adding where you can in other recipes. At the same time as I have come to realize that there’s only one limit and that’s your own creativity.

 

[TwistedGray]

All of these reasons are why I use the recipe threads on Homebrew Talk.

 

[GPP33]

Yea that progression was kind of what I was thinking. I like the idea of clones, nothing wrong with those, def made because they have been vetted (as I’ve heard from Brewing Classic Styles...currently in route through Amazon) and they consistently taste good, because they are good consistently. Just developing your own sounds like the easiest way to get your own preferences into the beer rather than substituting or adding where you can in other recipes. At the same time as I have come to realize that there’s only one limit and that’s your own creativity.

You need to know what you like before being able to put what you like into a recipe. Brew some recipes (not from kits) that you find on HBT and in the publications, tweak em and see what you like. SMASH recipes are a great way to sample different grains and hops.

 

[JohnSand]

Everyone proceeds at their own pace. I generally start with a recipe from HBT or Brewing Classic Styles. I substitute hops for what I have on hand, using the chart in BCS. Then maybe I change the yeast due to temperature or my preference. Sometimes I increase or decrease the ABV, and then sub some grains. Now that I've changed the grist, hops and yeast, it's my own recipe. Or I'll make a SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) to test a new ingredient. Or base malt plus a different specialty grain to test that. Those experiments have yielded good results too. Creating your own recipes isn't hard, just color inside the lines at first. Have fun, brew beer, report your results.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

I did a couple of extract kits, then did an extract brew with my own recipe, then went grain BIAB and started making my own. I have several books but really my recipes have mostly come from info I've gleaned from here and elsewhere on the internet. I've been doing all IPAs so far because that's what I like.

One example, I made a Citra/Galaxy IPA. I chose citra and galaxy because I had read they work well together, and a beer I like uses them(although they don't give out many specifics on their recipe). My grain bill was mostly 2 row and golden promise, because I had never used GP and had read here some people like that combo. The hop schedule, I think I just put together based on recipes I saw here. I use brewersfriend to build recipes, which makes it really easy to calculate all your numbers.

It turned out really good. I've moved on to experimenting with other recipes but I'm going to go back soon and brew it again with some tweaks, maybe throw in a little wheat or something. I think like someone else said you just have to proceed at your own pace which is true, but the more you play around with making your own recipes the more you figure out what you like and become comfortable doing it.

 

[FelixBrewer]

I'll make a SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) to test a new ingredient. Or base malt plus a different specialty grain to test that. Those experiments have yielded good results too. Creating your own recipes isn't hard, just color inside the lines at first. Have fun, brew beer, report your results.

SMaSH Beers would def be a good thing to try, honestly I forget all about that approach after listening to podcast after podcast where the hosts and other brewers get into their brew days that sounds like their throwing everything and the kitchen sink into a kettle.

Words to live by there at the end.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Lots of good advice here already.

Just wanted to add:
If you are making a recipe, it really helps to use a recipe calculator.

Here's what I use: https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator
It may be intimidating at first, but play around with it.

Plenty of people here willing to help
Cheers.

 

[Arbe0]

one of my favorite recipe books is "make some beer" by Erica shea and stephen valand. It has recipes for small batch brews and also 5 gallons ones.

 

[bracconiere]

damn, i've always just looked at what i got and throw a bunch a **** in a pot. i think my next batch i'm going to use between 20-21 pounds of pale malt, and 8 oz of some homemade crystal of unknown darkness...this one was a little darker then i expected but, 'good'....

as long as your not trying to charge $20 bucks for a twelve pack, beer is easy to make!

 

[stieg000]

Check out drew beechum's "brewing on the ones" talk from a past homebrew con.
https://learn.northernbrewer.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003011674-Drew-Beechum-s-Brewing-on-the-Ones
I've brewed a lot of great beers with just 2 malts and 1 hop.