Time to start developing our own brews!

[masterjw]

My friend and I have been brewing for about a year and a half now. We've got about 20 batches under out belt so far and all have turned out great. We've tried quite a few different styles. Nothing but extract brews so far, and it's all been pre-assembled kits. We have 'tweaked' the kits from time to time with different additions, but so far nothing we can truely call our own.

Anyway, we're pretty comfortable with the process at this point, and we'd like to start branching out and dabbling with our own receipes a bit. Trouble is we don't have the slightest idea where to start!

So, does anyone have any pointers or tips on how to get started into making your own brews from scratch? What did you start out with? What did you use as your inspiration for a first 'original' brew?

I don't have any kind of brewing software currently, but I've considered picking up a version of BeerSmith. Any others I should consider?

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 

[libeerty]

BeerSmith is an ideal first step. Another is Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels.

 

[Spintab]

Yeah Designing Great Beers is fantastic. Be prepped for some math right out of the gate. I love it, not all do.

The best thing you can really do is start tasting as many different types of grain, hops, and yeast as possible. Buy some "research" beers that have well known ingredients to get a feel for what's in what. When I started brewing, my LHBS had people grind and bag their own grain and hops. I'd take my time and crunch on a bunch of different types and sniff the hops before settling on recipe decisions. Start simple. Make a smash (single malt and single hop). Heck, make a few or make gallon batches and make a bunch. Really the first step, even before the glimmer of brewing software enters your mind, is to get to know your ingredients. Get to know how each react in certain environments and how each play against each other. Thumb through the BHCP styles and see what ingredients tend to be in which beers. There is always a reason why. Try making a beer that plays on the reason certain things are in certain beers or make a contradictory beer like a black ipa. Feel free to experiment, no one's stopping you but yourself. The better you know what Legos you have, the better and more efficiently you can build your beer.

If you want to ease in to the software market, Brewmate is free and does all the basic tasks that a beer software should.

 

[millsware]

I tend to look at a variety of recipes in the style I'm trying to make to get an idea of what works. I also check the BJCP guidelines for the style, as they tend to give advice as to the malt and hop content. Then I start throwing things into Brewtarget (it's free) until I get what I'm looking for.

I second the advice on the SMaSH's although I haven't done as many as I would like to because of time/space constraints.

 

[Jayhem]

I always start with a tried and true homebrew recipe that has had quite a few people successfully brew it. There are quite a few in the recipe database on this forum!

Once I find a base recipe that sounds good I clone it to http://beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe And tweak it to suit my liking and available ingredients I have or can get.

I think BeerSmith is awesome but it's overkill for new brewers who won't understand how to use all the tools it offers. Hopville does everything you need for basic brews.

 

[Stocktonbrew]

Jayhem, I do the exact same thing. It has really helped me learn what grains I like, and others i don't care for as much(black patent).

 

[bds3]

I was in the same boat as you about six months ago. I recommend Beersmith. It may be overkill for people like us as others have said, but it's around 20 bucks, so considering how expensive the hobby can get, I think it's a very reasonable investment. And it's easy to use.

By doing 20 extracts (presumably with steeping specialty grains) you've hopefully learned what flavors a lot of types of grains and additions impart. Combine that by looking up ingredients of beers you like (like spintab said), and it's easier than you may think. You'll learn more with each brew.