5th batch, too early to come up with my own recipe?

[K-Bizzle]

I've read a few books and brewed 4 batches. (none of which I've even tasted yet)

I was thinking I'd do a Wheat beer next, and was thinking, why not just throw together my own recipe?

I mean sure I don't really know what I'm doing, but theres software that can help with ABV and IBU. I mean as long as I had things in order and the ingredients somewhat reasonable (and probably loosely based on other recipes) whats the worst that could happen?

It tastes bad? I doubt it'd be undrinkably bad as long as I was conservative.

What do you guys think?


PS
This would be an extract, I'm not ready to move up to AG quite yet.

 

[llazy_llama]

It's your beer. Toss in a brick of ramen noodles if you want, I won't stop you.

That being said, if you haven't even tasted the batches that you've brewed, I would wonder how well you know your ingredients and their relationship. If I was you, I wouldn't do it.

 

[K-Bizzle]

It's your beer. Toss in a brick of ramen noodles if you want, I won't stop you.

That being said, if you haven't even tasted the batches that you've brewed, I would wonder how well you know your ingredients and their relationship. If I was you, I wouldn't do it.

lol @ ramen

My only understanding of ingredients comes from books, which means I don't know crap.

You're probably right.
Honestly though it'd be loosely based off some recipes I found already.

 

[llazy_llama]

Well, knowledge from books might be less useful than knowledge from personal experience, but it's still better than nothing. If you've at least done your homework, studied popular recipes, and you know what you like in a beer, it probably wouldn't kill you to try it. Wost case scenario, you end up with 5 gallons of something that doesn't taste very good, but is still technically beer. You could end up with Natural Light if you're not careful.

 

[mosyslack]

That's all I have done for creating my own recipes...take a bit of what I like from other beers and tweak on the next brew. You need to know how the ingredients actually work and contribute to flavors, bitterness, body, etc... The book smarts is great, but a little patience and hands on experience goes a long way in homebrewing. Wait til you taste some of what you've previously brewed and then look back at any notes you may have taken and tweak away.

 

[hcarter]

I look at it like this: I would have to be willing to lose a batch to a bad recipe. So, maybe don't do a whole 5 gallon batch, maybe 2.5. But even then, I have tried recipes in cooking that did not work out well. I tossed them and chalked it up to a learning experience. Don't let anyone tell you not to try your own recipes, you may make something you really like. Don't forget to write it down, or better use Beersmith.

 

[kryolla]

with wheat extract it will be hard to mess it up as the wheat extract contains wheat and pale malt and as you said being conservative add your favorite hop(s) and your good to go. Check out the yeast profile you like. Also check out the IBU chart and beersmith and you cant mess it up. WHen you start messing with specialty grains and mixing some of this and some of that and going overboard with the quantities is when you start making bad beer.

 

[blakey971]

Go for it!

It'll be more fun to make, and you will be that much
more proud of the finished product.

Good luck.

 

[K-Bizzle]

Well I think I'm gonna end up buying beersmith.
I've poked around the free trial and it seems like it'll be a GREAT tool.

I'll probably work something up and post it after to see what you guys think, I don't want to have any obvious conflicts going on.

And yeah I'm definitely not saying doing my book homework is any sort of replacement for experience, but its better than flying blind haha.

 

[jds]

+1 to Going for it. What's the worst that can happen? Weird beer.

Personally, I LIKE weird beer.

For me, a big part of the fun of brewing is making something that nobody else has made before. Taking somebody's recipe as a base and tweaking it to suit your tastes, or whims, or whatever, is a great way to start developing your own palette of flavors for making beer. You can read up on technique and recipes all you like, but nothing is the equal of learning by doing.

 

[android]

It's your beer. Toss in a brick of ramen noodles if you want, I won't stop you.

there was an incident during one of my spring breaks in college where the "beer flavored meat cookie" was invented. it involved a dried brick of ramen noodles. i would, however, not recommend using the ingredients we used to create beer. :cross:

software can help a lot, if you want to, go for it. wheat beers aren't all that complicated, so I think that would be a good start for your own recipe. just make the yeast happy and it should turn out OK.

 

[K-Bizzle]

The plan is to loosely base it off this recipe BTW: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f70/gumballhead-inspired-wpa-92976/

 

[JPicasso]

+1 on throwing your own recipes together.

I usually copy recipes with a little tweaking and then after 4 or 5 brews I'll
have some leftover steeping grains or some to do a partial mash with,
so I make my own concoction.

With any brewing, I think it's important to write down, or log into some software
what ingredients, quantity, temps and whatnot, so you can refer back and
pick up on what works for you and what doesn't.

 

[mmb]

Kits are fine but I get a kick out of building recipes.

As long as you don't go crazy and put 5 pounds of Black Patent in your Pilsner I'd say have at it!

 

[gator_brewer]

As long as you don't go crazy and put 5 pounds of Black Patent in your Pilsner I'd say have at it!

Better yet, go crazy and do add the 5lbs of black patent to a pilsner... see if your beer snob wanna-be friends can guess the style.

It's your beer, who cares, as long as you like it (and the SWMBO if applicable)

 

[mmb]

Better yet, go crazy and do add the 5lbs of black patent to a pilsner... see if your beer snob wanna-be friends can guess the style.

It's your beer, who cares, as long as you like it (and the SWMBO if applicable)

I wonder what style the flavor profile "charcoal" would fall under.

 

[SkewedBrewing]

+2 Go for it.

I've always, technically, used original recipes, as in I've tweaked other recipes, etc.

Just my .02...

 

[ACo]

i recommend goat scrotum ale, if you have ever looked at Chuck P's book. It's basically whatever you want....

 

[K-Bizzle]

Threw my idea into the Beer Calculus site and heres what I got:

Original Gravity - 1.073 - (1.066 to 1.077)
Final Gravity - 1.019 - (1.017 to 1.020)
Color 4° SRM (Yellow)

Bitterness - 30.4 HBU - 32.5 IBU
BU:GU - 0.44

Alcohol - 7.2% A.B.V. - 5.6% A.B.W.
Calories - 241 per 12 oz.

I'm thinking the gravity is a bit high for a wheat, think I should maybe cut back on the malts a bit?

 

[K-Bizzle]

no opinions?

 

[homebrewer_99]

If you followed a recipe and used .25 oz of hops more than recommended then you already have...

 

[user 30639]

Go for it!

My fourth batch was my own recipe. I just did what other people have said. Looked at books and other recipes, found something that looked like what I wanted, and tweaked it.