Can a beer style be determined by recipe/procedure alone?

[TheDyingGiraffe]

By only using the recipe (grains, hops, yeast, etc.) and procedure (hop time additions, fermentation length/temp, secondary fermentation, etc.) can the style of beer be determined?

I know there are many programs which allow a style to be chosen which provides guidelines for meeting that style, but I have not seen anything that will allow the recipe/procedure to be made and the style indentified from that.

 

[Revvy]

Some brewers can glance at a grainbill and know what the style is, it kinda come with practice, but as to a software that can reverse engineer a recipe, where you imput the ingredients you want and it will tell you what style you're closes too? Not yet.

At least once a year someone starts a thread like this, and it sinks like a lead balloon.

 

[VoodooManX]

Brew Lab for IPhone does a pretty good job.

 

[TheDyingGiraffe]

Some brewers can glance at a grainbill and know what the style is, it kinda come with practice, but as to a software that can reverse engineer a recipe, where you imput the ingredients you want and it will tell you what style you're closes too? Not yet.

At least once a year someone starts a thread like this, and it sinks like a lead balloon.

This is what I expected, but needed confirmation. I am thinking about about creating a program to determine style and predict the rating (such as those given out at NHC) using only the recipe and procedure used as my master's thesis.

 

[Homercidal]

I don't see why it won't work. Beersmith does this to a degree (compares a recipe against a chosen style). If you know the recipe and the process, you should be able to determine the outcome.

 

[Veinman]

This is what I expected, but needed confirmation. I am thinking about about creating a program to determine style and predict the rating (such as those given out at NHC) using only the recipe and procedure used as my master's thesis.

The first part would be really nice to have where you input a recipe and the software spits out "American Pale Ale" or "English Pale Ale" or whatever. BrewSmith does do this to a degree but it more requires you to know that you want to make an American Pale Ale and alter ingredients to get all the number boxes not flagged as out of style.

As far as predicting scores I think this is going to be almost impossible for 2 reasons:
1. It's really hard to predict what an individual judge is going to think of a beer.
2. So much of producing a great beer is about execution of the recipe and procedure, usually what separates great from good beers is the brewer and the process, not the recipe.

 

[TheDyingGiraffe]

As far as predicting scores I think this is going to be almost impossible for 2 reasons:
1. It's really hard to predict what an individual judge is going to think of a beer.
2. So much of producing a great beer is about execution of the recipe and procedure, usually what separates great from good beers is the brewer and the process, not the recipe.

I'm hoping that the well-defined guideline for each style will help with that. Also, the great thing about a thesis is that a valid conclusion can be that it's impossible. You say a great beer depends on the brewer, but now it can be proven...with science!