When did you first try your own recipe?

[ShartAttack]

I've been brewing extract kits for about 6-7 months now, I with about 7 batches of beer under my belt. I'm a grad student in biology so fermentation has been the most interesting part of brewing so far but I'm getting curious about making my own recipes. I'm starting to get a little familiar with different yeast strains, different ingredients, but it's still a bit murky. For the experienced brewer, when and how did you come up with your own recipes?

 

[phuff7129]

The first recipe I did was a Belgian pale ale. I had bought a kit from Midwest called Noble Trappist ale. It was a great kit and a very traditional Belgian ale. I wanted to make the same beer but go with American hops instead of noble hops. It came out pretty good.

You can use BJCP guidelines for ingredient and style information. It helps to have a program like beer smith to design your beer. Use google to research the style you are wanting to make. There is a great book called Designing Great Beers by ray Daniels. If you like Belgians definitely get the book Brew Like A Monk. research, research, and research.

Go to your lhbs and taste the various grains you are thinking about using. Try combinations of grains to see what they taste like together.

Research hop combinations of the beers you like.

Go to the yeast websites and learn about all of the different yeast characteristics.

Have fun!

 

[AZBeerNut]

Bro... I used a kit for my very first ever beer....... and that was the ONLY kit I've ever used! The web (and this site) is such a HUGE resource, I see NO reason newbie brewers can't build their own recipes! Just Google insert-a-beer-or-beer-style-you-like-here extract recipe... spend time reading, research, and taking notes (something I'm sure you do well as a grad student)...... build a base recipe...... further tweak to what you think/know your own tastes might be...... and GO FOR IT!

Cheers!

 

[Odin_Brews]

As the BeerNut says. I was unemployed when I started brewing so by my second batch I'd had plenty of time to stare online at recipes and come up with something that fit the style I wanted to brew. THreads on here about 'critique my recipe' can be particularly useful for seeing feedback and discussion on indredients. Then a small fee for beersmith and you can easily play around and see what happens when you change things.

 

[enkamania]

My girlfriend had a citra hop IPA and ordered me to make it. I did a simple recipe using only citra and she loved it. (as did I)

 

[kh54s10]

My 12th brew. It was a brown ale made of leftovers. 6 months 6 days after my first. Still 90% + of my brews are derived from other recipes and altered to my whims.

 

[drainbamage]

I started making recipes about 2 years ago, after a dozen or so batches from kits or recipes written by others. I began looking at recipes on here or in books and making adjustments (taking malt list from recipe A and hop schedule from recipe B, then subbing in some different ingredients to preference) BJCP guidelines and brewtoad.com (where I do my recipe calculations) have also been helpful in narrowing down ingredients, target gravities, and such.

 

[ShartAttack]

Thanks for the advice guys! It looks like I glossed over the obvious one, that is "doing your homework". I've gotten by so far without actually diving into any books, but reading through a few more recipes might be the ticket. I'm presuming it's cheaper to buy the components than to buy the kits.

 

[drainbamage]

Well actually...

Not necessarily. If you go from extract kits to extract recipes, you probably won't see a big savings unless you buy ingredients in bulk. If you transition to partial mash or all-grain, the ingredients will be cheaper, but you'll need more equipment.

 

[uatuba]

My first AG batch was my own recipe. And it was fantastic.

 

[biggmatt]

My first beer was a blueberry pale ale. Used a pale ale recipe and threw in some blueberries.

I have never made the same recipe twice. Lately been lazy, buying kits and dressing them up. Almost like potato salad from the store.

My last beer was a belgian dubbel with maple syrup. My last brew was dandelion wine with raisins, oranges, lemons, and ginger.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I've been brewing my own recipes since day one. I brewed an extract kit beer with my brother in low for his first beer after I was already well into AG brewing, and every once in a while I'll brew someone else's, but in general they're always my own. My first few batches weren't great, but once I started getting the hang of ingredients my beers got a lot better very quickly.

These days, if I'm brewing a style I haven't brewed before, I start with Brewing Classic Styles to get me in the ballpark, and then adjust based on what I know I like (swapping hops, different yeasts, different grains, scaling up or down, etc).

 

[C-Rider]

Jumped from extract kits to BIAB 2 gallon batches after about a year. Got tired of drinking 50 bottles of the same stuff day after day till the next was ready.
Bought Designing Great Beers
Bought BeerSmith software
Looked up BJCP guidelines

And then started building. Haven't had a bad beer other than a few infections. Had a lot of really good ones.