After most of us have a few brew days behind us, and possibly a few beers in our belly, we get the bright idea that we can make a stellar recipe...on our first try. As I like to say, "Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile." However, chances are that squirrel is not you!
First Recipe Failures
I remember my first recipe - a southern English brown ale. I looked at the BJCP guidelines for 11B and saw there was a large emphasis on the "sweetness" in this style. I proceed to throw over 2-lbs of crystal 60L malt in that five gallon recipe and used very little hops which contributed to a low bitterness. A few weeks later my taste buds received a thorough lesson on the definition of a cloyingly sweet beer.
I believe I am like many other homebrewers who enjoy researching issues from previous batches and finding a way to fix them. I wasn't going to let a little recipe mishap get me down. I went back to the drawing board with a new goal in mind; figure out how to design recipes that won't suck.
Luckily, Christmas was right around the corner and I was able to add a few books to my wishlist. Santa must hate cloying Southern English Brown ales, too! I received Designing Great Beers and Brewing Classic Styles in my stocking.
I chose to read Brewing Classic Styles first and decided to stick with recipes straight from the book until I felt comfortable with getting back in the 'recipe development saddle.' Still to this day when trying a new style I will most likely reference this book. In the meantime I read Designing Great Beers and started formulating my first recipe, an English mild. That recipe went on to place in two homebrew competitions I entered that year.
Make Your First Recipe a Success with the 3-2-1 Framework
While learning from my aforementioned mistakes I would like to provide a framework to help new all-grain recipe developers. I call it 3-2-1.
While I am sure you have heard of SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) beers, which are designed to isolate and learn about individual ingredients, the 3-2-1 framework allows for some creativity without being too one-dimensional.
How Does it Work?
3-2-1 recipes comprise of three malts, two hop varieties and one yeast. You can use the table below to jump start your malt selection.
Three Malts
Pick one from each category. Make the majority of your grist from the Base malt category as this will be the backbone of your beer. Use smaller percentages from the Specialty Malt category and the Crystal/Roast Malt category. While this is not a hard-fast rule - its ok to pick two from category Specialty or Crystal/Roast - it is general concept that works quite well.
Two Hops
With so many hop varieties the possibilities here are truly endless. Just give a quick search on the forum for hop combinations and you will come up with some killer combos. For example I'm a big fan of cascade and simcoe in my hoppy beers.
One Yeast
Okay, I know most of us don't mix yeasts often in our brewing practices. But you have a ton of options with yeast. Depending on the style of beer you are going for your yeast selection will have a large impact on how the malt and hops are portrayed.
Example
My Wrong Coast IPA recipe is essentially a 3-2-1:
3 - Pale Ale, Munich and Carapils malts
2 - Simcoe and Cascade hops*
1 - Safale S-05 yeast
Or how about a dry stout:
3 - Maris Otter Pale malt, Flaked barley and Roasted barley
2 - East Kent Goldings and Fuggles
1 - Irish Ale Yeast
Final Thoughts
Use discretion on malts from the Specialty and Crystal/Roast. Research the specialty malts you are considering using to prevent issues like I had with my southern english brown ale. Taste grains if possible at the brew store to see what flavors different malts contribute. Take good tasting notes and then brew the recipe again switching ingredients you think would enhance the recipe.
If you haven't designed your own recipe yet I encourage you to try it right now. 3-2-1 go!
* - I use a clean bittering hop as my bittering addition in almost every beer. I buy it in bulk and allow it to not count as part of your 2 hops #creativeLicense
** Extract brewers don't be intimidated either! Replace the base malts in column 1 with Dry or Liquid malt extracts and count it it as 1 of your malts.
First Recipe Failures
I remember my first recipe - a southern English brown ale. I looked at the BJCP guidelines for 11B and saw there was a large emphasis on the "sweetness" in this style. I proceed to throw over 2-lbs of crystal 60L malt in that five gallon recipe and used very little hops which contributed to a low bitterness. A few weeks later my taste buds received a thorough lesson on the definition of a cloyingly sweet beer.
I believe I am like many other homebrewers who enjoy researching issues from previous batches and finding a way to fix them. I wasn't going to let a little recipe mishap get me down. I went back to the drawing board with a new goal in mind; figure out how to design recipes that won't suck.
Luckily, Christmas was right around the corner and I was able to add a few books to my wishlist. Santa must hate cloying Southern English Brown ales, too! I received Designing Great Beers and Brewing Classic Styles in my stocking.
I chose to read Brewing Classic Styles first and decided to stick with recipes straight from the book until I felt comfortable with getting back in the 'recipe development saddle.' Still to this day when trying a new style I will most likely reference this book. In the meantime I read Designing Great Beers and started formulating my first recipe, an English mild. That recipe went on to place in two homebrew competitions I entered that year.
Make Your First Recipe a Success with the 3-2-1 Framework
While learning from my aforementioned mistakes I would like to provide a framework to help new all-grain recipe developers. I call it 3-2-1.
While I am sure you have heard of SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) beers, which are designed to isolate and learn about individual ingredients, the 3-2-1 framework allows for some creativity without being too one-dimensional.
How Does it Work?
3-2-1 recipes comprise of three malts, two hop varieties and one yeast. You can use the table below to jump start your malt selection.
Three Malts
Pick one from each category. Make the majority of your grist from the Base malt category as this will be the backbone of your beer. Use smaller percentages from the Specialty Malt category and the Crystal/Roast Malt category. While this is not a hard-fast rule - its ok to pick two from category Specialty or Crystal/Roast - it is general concept that works quite well.
Two Hops
With so many hop varieties the possibilities here are truly endless. Just give a quick search on the forum for hop combinations and you will come up with some killer combos. For example I'm a big fan of cascade and simcoe in my hoppy beers.
One Yeast
Okay, I know most of us don't mix yeasts often in our brewing practices. But you have a ton of options with yeast. Depending on the style of beer you are going for your yeast selection will have a large impact on how the malt and hops are portrayed.
Example
My Wrong Coast IPA recipe is essentially a 3-2-1:
3 - Pale Ale, Munich and Carapils malts
2 - Simcoe and Cascade hops*
1 - Safale S-05 yeast
Or how about a dry stout:
3 - Maris Otter Pale malt, Flaked barley and Roasted barley
2 - East Kent Goldings and Fuggles
1 - Irish Ale Yeast
Final Thoughts
Use discretion on malts from the Specialty and Crystal/Roast. Research the specialty malts you are considering using to prevent issues like I had with my southern english brown ale. Taste grains if possible at the brew store to see what flavors different malts contribute. Take good tasting notes and then brew the recipe again switching ingredients you think would enhance the recipe.
If you haven't designed your own recipe yet I encourage you to try it right now. 3-2-1 go!
* - I use a clean bittering hop as my bittering addition in almost every beer. I buy it in bulk and allow it to not count as part of your 2 hops #creativeLicense
** Extract brewers don't be intimidated either! Replace the base malts in column 1 with Dry or Liquid malt extracts and count it it as 1 of your malts.
