First time 'from scratch' recipes?

[Buckley]

Hey everyone,

I'm brand new to the DIY beer hobby. I have made a brown ale and a pale ale from kit and my next mission is to brew a stout.

After this third batch I would really like to make something from scratch with individual ingredients. As much as I enjoy the brews I've made I still feel as though they aren't 'mine'.

I wondered if anyone had some beginner recipes or books to point me to. What books I have found seem overwhelming and a bit too large-scale for my tiny operation.

What was everyones first 'from scratch' experience, what style of beer is the safest bet for a noobie and what ingredients/processes are best?

Thanks in advance for your advice!
Ryan

 

[brian_g]

Hey everyone,

I'm brand new to the DIY beer hobby. I have made a brown ale and a pale ale from kit and my next mission is to brew a stout.

After this third batch I would really like to make something from scratch with individual ingredients. As much as I enjoy the brews I've made I still feel as though they aren't 'mine'.

I wondered if anyone had some beginner recipes or books to point me to. What books I have found seem overwhelming and a bit too large-scale for my tiny operation.

What was everyones first 'from scratch' experience, what style of beer is the safest bet for a noobie and what ingredients/processes are best?

Thanks in advance for your advice!
Ryan

By from scratch, do you mean all grain where you mash the grains yourself or do you want to do extract with steeping grains?

For styles, I'd say stick with ales and yeast-only fermentation (no Lambics or Belgium sours). Other then that I don't think it matters much.

 

[Buckley]

Brian,

Yes I mean grain mashing. I want to have as much of a hand in the process as I can.

 

[ChshreCat]

Brian,

Yes I mean grain mashing. I want to have as much of a hand in the process as I can.

Were your first batches all grain? If not, I'd suggest getting into it with established recipes or AG kits so you can nail down your process first. You don't want to be drinking your beer and knowing something was off but not knowing if it was your recipe or your process.

As for first recipes, my first one was a brown ale. It's a very easy style to come up with a recipe for.

 

[brian_g]

Brian,

Yes I mean grain mashing. I want to have as much of a hand in the process as I can.

There are different ways to do it. But basically it works like this:

1) The mash: The grains are soaked in hot water (150F-155F) for 60 to 90 minutes. People usually use 1.25-2 qt for every lb of grain. (You'll need between 7-11 lbs for a 5 gallon batch.)

2) The sparge: The grains are rinced (sparged) with water at 170F

3) The boil: Hops are boiled. 60 min for bittering hops, 10-15 for flavor, 5 minutes for aroma.

4) The wort is cooled.

5) Yeast is added.


To do all this you'll need a way to keep the mash at a constant temperature for 60 to 90 minutes. Temperature is critical here. The enzymes need the proper temperature to work. Too cold they wont be activated, too hot and you'll destroy them. You also need a container that can hold the 8-11 lbs of grain plus the water. You need a way of straining the grains so they don't end up in the brew pot. A lot of people use a cooler and build a straining system into it. But it is possible to do in on the stove in a large mesh bag.

You also need a way to boil 6.5 to 7 gallons of wort. Either with one large pot or you can split between several pots.

The bottom line is that there are a lot of ways to do this, but this is the basic overview. If you have follow up questions, we'll try to answer them.

 

[Malticulous]

At first I would examine many recipes for the style you want to make, taking note of the common ingredients and the percentage in the grain bill. Read the BJCP guidelines. Brew it then adjust the grain bill and brew again. Make it your's and perfect it to your taste. Books can help but there is nothing like personal experience.

 

[snailsongs]

Do yourself a favor and get these two books and read them cover to cover once, I did when I first started and between these books and this forum site, I had a trifecta of knowledge, recipes and information that helped make me into a competent all-grain brewer in about 6 months. I wanted it and was very eager to learn too, so that helped, but get these books, seriously.

John Palmer's 'How to Brew' ....the definitive text on modern homebrewing; it will give you the quick knowledge to brew good beer immediately and it will also give you a solid understanding of the science of brewing.

Palmer's and Jamil Zainasheff's 'Brewing Classic Styles'. The recipes in this book are pretty much all proven, and they are usually great representations of their respective styles, so you can use them as a point of reference in creating your own or just brew them straight up. my copy of this is dog-eared in so many places that they don't even mean anything anymore.....

If you have your process down ok and you only want one book, get the latter.

 

[jsullivan02130]

This is the correct answer.

Do yourself a favor and get these two books and read them cover to cover once, I did when I first started and between these books and this forum site, I had a trifecta of knowledge, recipes and information that helped make me into a competent all-grain brewer in about 6 months. I wanted it and was very eager to learn too, so that helped, but get these books, seriously.

John Palmer's 'How to Brew' ....the definitive text on modern homebrewing; it will give you the quick knowledge to brew good beer immediately and it will also give you a solid understanding of the science of brewing.

Palmer's and Jamil Zainasheff's 'Brewing Classic Styles'. The recipes in this book are pretty much all proven, and they are usually great representations of their respective styles, so you can use them as a point of reference in creating your own or just brew them straight up. my copy of this is dog-eared in so many places that they don't even mean anything anymore.....

If you have your process down ok and you only want one book, get the latter.

 

[jescholler]

The books that snailsongs recommends are very good (How to Brew is a must for ANY brewer). The book that I use that is similar to Brewing Classic Styles is Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. He doesn't necessarily give recipes, but he lays the groundwork for you to do that on your own.

I also listen to The Jamil Show on thebrewingnetwork.com. He devotes an entire show to each style and gives a recipe for you to brew. I don't have Brewing Classic Styles, but I believe the recipes from the podcast are mostly from the book. Either way, after reading the BJCP style guidelines, listening to The Jamil Show, and reading Designing Great Beers, I usually feel like I can develop my own recipe. I also browse recipe databases (HBT, Recipator, etc.) and look for common themes.

My first recipe that I developed was an American Amber Ale. I think it was a good choice. An APA would probably be good as well.

 

[r2eng]

+1 on the "Brewing Classic Styles" book. That, and Zymurgy/BYO magazines give insight as to the grains, hops and yeasts used to brew any style that might interest you.

Once you have the basics of brewing to a style, you can come up with any recipe you need. However, get a program like promash/beersmith to check IBU/OG of your recipe. It'll help!

 

[Buckley]

This is great information. So I should be on the market for a 5gal pot to use for boiling.

 

[EricCSU]

This is great information. So I should be on the market for a 5gal pot to use for boiling.

A 5 gallon pot will not be big enough. A typical boil in a 5 gallon batch will be 6.5-7 gallons. I would go with a minimum of an 8 gallon pot, but 10 gallon is worth the extra money to have more wiggle room.

Eric

 

[IrregularPulse]

Find your local college and grab an abandoned keg. Cut the top off. Mount a ball valve. Now you have a 15G pot. Trust me within 6 months you'll think, "wish this was bigger".

 

[JLem]

My first "by scratch" recipe was the second one I ever brewed and I have not used a kit since. I do partial mashes and use BeerSmith to help craft my recipes (with a lot of help from folks here and elsewhere online - Google is your friend). My first "by scratch" was an Oatmeal Stout (can be found in my recipe pull-down). I highly recommend downloading BeerSmith (free trial).

I personally am very happy with the partial mashing. I only do a 3-gallon boil and don't foresee myself moving up to all-grain anytime soon. However, I am looking into limiting my extract use even more by doing a split boil (I'm not sure my electric stovetop could handle a 6 or 7 gallon boil).

 

[Buckley]

My first "by scratch" recipe was the second one I ever brewed and I have not used a kit since. I do partial mashes and use BeerSmith to help craft my recipes (with a lot of help from folks here and elsewhere online - Google is your friend). My first "by scratch" was an Oatmeal Stout (can be found in my recipe pull-down). I highly recommend downloading BeerSmith (free trial).

I personally am very happy with the partial mashing. I only do a 3-gallon boil and don't foresee myself moving up to all-grain anytime soon. However, I am looking into limiting my extract use even more by doing a split boil (I'm not sure my electric stovetop could handle a 6 or 7 gallon boil).

I never thought of that, but of course I could just make smaller batch sizes could I not? I mean, I would love to do smaller volume if that is possible. It is only myself who I brew for, and I am more eager now to branch out, so I find myself waiting a long time between batches.

 

[jescholler]

I never thought of that, but of course I could just make smaller batch sizes could I not? I mean, I would love to do smaller volume if that is possible. It is only myself who I brew for, and I am more eager now to branch out, so I find myself waiting a long time between batches.

Absolutely. I've been seriously considering stepping into all grain with 3 gallon batches. If I were to do all grain with 5 gallon batches, I would need a larger brew kettle and something to get that brew kettle boiling. I realize that these aren't Earth shattering problems, just not something I'm up for at this point.

With 3 gallon batches, I can use my current 5.5 gallon brew kettle and boil down to 3.5 gallons. I can also use my 3 gallon water cooler as my MLT, which perfectly fills my 5.5 gallon brew kettle for a normal mash size. With this setup, I don't need to add top off water, which makes higher quality brews. I can also eliminate the need to use extract, which (in most cases) makes higher quality beers.

I can also use my current 5 gallon better bottle as a primary and purchase a 3 gallon better bottle for my secondary (no talk about the need for a secondary please).

With 3 gallon batches of normal gravity, a yeast starter becomes almost unnecessary. I did some preliminary calculations on mrmalty.com, and I would need something like 1.1-1.3 liquid yeast packs for a sufficient pitching rate. One pack sounds like it would be close enough.

While I know that there are full batch solutions to the things I presented, all grain 3 gallon batches just sound like a good idea to me. Plus, I would be able to brew more often and brew more styles (although, the per beer cost would be slightly higher).

 

[nebben]

Hey everyone,

I'm brand new to the DIY beer hobby. I have made a brown ale and a pale ale from kit and my next mission is to brew a stout.
....

What was everyones first 'from scratch' experience, what style of beer is the safest bet for a noobie and what ingredients/processes are best?
....

Welcome Ryan!

If I don't count missing gravity targets and adding honey to the primary (just because I thought it needed more alcohol: it was a bad move in hindsight), I did my first "from scratch" at the same time I did my first AG.

I had screwed up the mash, and ended up only sparging a teeny bit. I had filled my brewpot and still had a significant amount of sugars left in the MLT. So, instead of tossing the contents, I sparged some more and collected the runnings into my stovetop brewpot. I added some extract to increase the OG (lesson learned: it is good to have extra ingredients on hand). I also had 1/2oz hops leftover, so I went ahead and started boiling this 2nd batch of the day. I put everything into beersmith during the boil, and I gave up trying to figure out if the bastard would fall into any particular category. It would be beer though. I figured if it worked out well, it would be almost impossible to reproduce since I had collected 1.025 wort from the mash, and added the rest as extract.

It turned out so-so, but not horrible.

Sugars from malt + hops + water + yeast = beer. Simple rules.