I am looking for some opinions on the fastest way to test recipes. I have lots of recipes I want to try for a potential microbrewery setup so I’m looking at the fastest way to test them. I currently have a 20 gal HERMS system but that is too big to start refining recipes. Was looking at the PicoBrew Zymatic system as a potential way to bag out nearly a recipe a day just for flavor profile. The small volumes make it easy to handle, hit ferm temps and crash. Once a get a few finalists, I scale up to the 20 gal. Any thoughts on this? Thanks!
Quickest way to test recipes
- Thread starter dionbill
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Sure, any automated system would do that, or do small 1 or 2 gallon batches on your stove top.
When you say any, are the others besides the zymatic system that are automated? I’m curious if there are other options in that space. Thanks.
Now that I think about it, the Picobrew Zymatic might not be a good system to test out recipes for a commercial brewery, since I think you don't have the control you would have in a regular brewery, right?
I'd do small batch BIAB on the stove. Do 1-2G batches and get some of those small torpedo kegs. You can fit a number of them in a fridge. Do up multiple recipes and invite friends/family over to sample a half dozen at a time.
I'm taking a different approach. I plan on opening a nano as a retirement gig in a few years. I'm using the time between now and then to refine my portfolio of recipes. I'm fortunate, though in that I don't need to make money on this endeavor. I've got $50-75K I can invest without needing a much ROI. That being said, I have a large craft beer group that is pretty serious about beer (travel around the country to go to breweries, brew fests, trade extensively and host share, etc.) and they're pushing me to do it now. Several have offered up $10K each to get it going. For that reason, this year I'm not necessarily brewing what I want to drink, I'm brewing recipes that are candidates for the nano (stuff like a blonde ale, a pilsner, an entry level pale ale, kettle sour, etc.).
I seem to have a knack for recipes. Since going all grain, I've only done one beer that wasn't my recipe and it was the most lackluster of the bunch (still scored a 41 at a local comp though). Most of my recipes come from researching recipes for the style and using elements from them that seem like a good idea...a hybrid if you will. I have a few tenets that I apply to get certain elements for each beer (a nice mouthfeel for stouts, for example....I hate thin, watery stouts).
I'm taking a different approach. I plan on opening a nano as a retirement gig in a few years. I'm using the time between now and then to refine my portfolio of recipes. I'm fortunate, though in that I don't need to make money on this endeavor. I've got $50-75K I can invest without needing a much ROI. That being said, I have a large craft beer group that is pretty serious about beer (travel around the country to go to breweries, brew fests, trade extensively and host share, etc.) and they're pushing me to do it now. Several have offered up $10K each to get it going. For that reason, this year I'm not necessarily brewing what I want to drink, I'm brewing recipes that are candidates for the nano (stuff like a blonde ale, a pilsner, an entry level pale ale, kettle sour, etc.).
I seem to have a knack for recipes. Since going all grain, I've only done one beer that wasn't my recipe and it was the most lackluster of the bunch (still scored a 41 at a local comp though). Most of my recipes come from researching recipes for the style and using elements from them that seem like a good idea...a hybrid if you will. I have a few tenets that I apply to get certain elements for each beer (a nice mouthfeel for stouts, for example....I hate thin, watery stouts).
MadHomebrewer
Well-Known Member
I started out doing 1 gallon BIAB batches on the stove. It is a great way to test a recipe. 2 gallon pot and a 5gallons paint strainer bag worked perfect. I did find using a second pot holding your sparge water, then dipping your bag in it to be more efficient than the traditional biab method of mash water and sparge water all in your one pot.
Northern_Brewer
British - apparently some US company stole my name
Depends what aspects of a recipe you want to test - it's quite easy to do a single big batch in the copper, chill it, and then add different dry hops or yeast to aliquots of the wort. Changing things in the copper gets more fiddly - but think in terms of boiling up hop teas and then adding different amounts to either finished beer (for initial dialling in) and then at pitching (closer to reality) before brewing a final recipe based on the results. Ditto with speciality grains - you can add varying amounts of a speciality grain mash to a plain wort.
It's not perfect, but it helps you get somewhere close before brewwing small batches of a "whole" recipe, and then bigger test batches.
I also say small batch BIAB. You can't get any quicker really, and I would trust the flavor profiles to be an accurate version of larger scale batches (unlike PicoBrew and the likes).
chickypad
lupulin shift victim
As I understand it there are limits to the Pico brew customizable recipes - i.e. you start with one of their base styles and there are only 12 grains and 8 hops to select from to make modifications. I think they also limit how high you can go on O.G. Seems like a very pricey option for very limted recipe making. If you're going to be brewing 20 gal batches I assume you'll be buying in bulk eventually. Seems like it would be a lot cheaper and more flexible to just pull out ingredients for a 1-2 gal stovetop batch.
