Experimenting with recipes..

[Bulls Beers]

I was reading in another thread about not making the same recipe twice. Where some of you are changing them around. I'm still a fairly new brewer and only do extract batches.When I'm brewing them, I follow the directions to a T..Can you give me some instances on how and/or why you change a recipe?

 

[eschatz]

well, first of all, i'm an extract brewer also. i did the same thing as you for a long time. i just moved from one kit to the next. I knew that I could change things in the beers that I had made. Furthermore, I knew the kits that i brewed needed to be altered to fit the taste that i was REALLY looking for. So i went searching. Finally i found a book titled, Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. This book REALLY helped me to learn how to CRAFT a beer to fit within stylistic guidelines. So if i wanted to brew a Brown Ale it gave me the information to create my own beer within the confines of that style. This is a HUGE resourse. You need to understand the mechanics of brewing first though. However, through the beers that you have on tap and the ones you've bottled, it looks like you understand what you're doing. We change the beers because we're tweeking the beer until it fits the taste that we're looking for. How to tweek the beer will be inside that book. And, there's nothing wrong with letting a good thing rest and not messing with it. I'm just too curious to do that though.

 

[david_42]

Most of the time, I'll change one of the specialty grains; either increasing or decreasing it. I like sweeter porters and drier stouts than most people. Hop substitutions are driven by what's in the freezer.

In a recent porter, I used Special B to replace C90L. It has an interesting flavor that worked out extremely well.

I think the main concern in making changes is to not overdo it. There are many homebrewers who have found out that lots more isn't a good idea. Black Patent and Smoked Peat are two grains that cross the line quickly.

 

[LS_Grimmy]

I also usually change one thing at a time (different Hops, Grains). I never really make the same beer twice but they usually come out almost the same as per the one change thing

Best of luck,
Grimmy

 

[FishinDave07]

+1 on "Designing Great Beers" by Ray Daniels. It gives you a scientific part to brewing in the first part and in the second part he breaks down every style and its key ingrediants.

 

[TexLaw]

Here's another vote for Daniels. That is one of the best books ever published on recipe formulation.

I tend to make small changes in recipes from time to time, and I usually make those changes one at a time. Otherwise, it is hard to know how each change affects the final product. In time and with experience, you get a feel for how to deal with recipes, and you can make more and greater changes.


TL

 

[FishinDave07]

I tend to make small changes in recipes from time to time, and I usually make those changes one at a time. Otherwise, it is hard to know how each change affects the final product.

Absolutely. It depends to what extent you want to experiment. Always make sure to have ONE variable and everything else as a constant.

You could simply split up a batch into separate fermenters and use different yeast ($$), use different hop varieties for dry hopping, or go as far as brewing multiple batch with different grain bills ($$$$).

It's nice to experiment and perfect a recipe, but its something you shouldn't break your back (or wallet) over.

 

[Bulls Beers]

Ordered the book today...Cheers guys..

 

[skeeordye11]

You talk about following a kits recipe to a T. Even keeping the ingredients the same, you can vary thing a bit to achieve different results. A lot of kits will tell you to bring the kettle to a boil then take it off the heat and add your extract, where a lot of us out there still brewing with extract will use a late addition and add a litle bit of extract at the beginning of the boil and add the rest with 15 minute or so to go. You can also try a first wort hopping or an all late addition hopping schedule. Just do a little more searching on here and you'll find all kinds of things to do. Cheers!