How did you start making your own recipes?

[garcia]

When, why, how did you first make your own recipe? I've made about 12 different brews, and always follow recipes from AHS or NB. I would like to jump into making my own, just not sure where to start.

What's the best/worst that can happen?

 

[ianw58]

I decide what I want to brew. Then, I go to BevMo and Total Wine & Beer to pick up representative samples of the style. That helps me understand what I like in the flavor profile, body, hopping, etc.

Consulting the BJCP Style Guidelines gives me the numerical values to shoot for. Consulting my tasting notes and ingredient notes helps me pick what will go into my beer. Using a program, such as Brewer's Friend, helps me dial in the grain bill and the hop bill and schedule.

Then, I look at how I want the beer to come across in the glass; thick or thin, sweet and malty or dry and hoppy. That helps me determine things like mashing temperature and boil length.

Finally, I brew it. Then comes the tasting. What do I want/need to change to make it better? How well does it meet my goals. I make notes to help me with my next brew day using this recipe.

And that pretty much sums up my development process.

So far, I have a Scottish Ale, a Brown Porter, a Rye Porter, a light summer Blond Ale, and a Brown Ale that are my own recipes. The Scottish Ale took first in the first round of the AHA in 1996. I just submitted the Porters for a local competition.

 

[max384]

When, why, how did you first make your own recipe? I've made about 12 different brews, and always follow recipes from AHS or NB. I would like to jump into making my own, just not sure where to start.

What's the best/worst that can happen?

The problem I had with making my own recipe is that I don't really know the flavors of the individual grains and hops very well. So, I figured trying to design my own recipe would be a real shot in the dark for me. However, I really wanted to design my own recipe.

For my first recipe, I did a SMaSH so that I could get the taste of the individual grains and hops. I used Marris Otter with Cascade hops, and made it in an IPA style. I figured it's probably pretty hard to screw up a SMaSH recipe! And it turned out pretty good... Not spectacular, but plenty drinkable. I plan to make several more SMaSH beers using a different grain and hop for each one. Then once I'm satisfied with that, I'll probably start adding specialty grains to some of my previous SMaSH recipes. Then I'll probably feel pretty confident about designing a good recipe.

I made a five gallon batch for the first one. I think for my next few SMaSH batches, I'm going to scale down to a 1 gallon size.

SMaSH brewing.

 

[pumpkinman2012]

First and foremost, I'd start by reading books such as "Designing Great beers" and browsing websites such as this one (HBT) and Beersmith, lots of free info to give you a base knowledge of designing your own recipes.
I still follow a bunch of recipes, if it isn't broken, why fix it, and others I will substitute grains or hops, or move a percentage of the bittering hops to the flavoring hops to create a brew that is tailored to my tastes, just recently, I had my first stuck fermentation, I learned a valuable lesson on mash temps, even though I had brewed a particular beer a few times without issue, the brew Ghods threw me a curve ball.
As with Ianw58, I go to the local beer mecca here and I'll buy bottle or two of a particular style or a beer that has been talked up here on the forums and I'll try it, if I like it, I'll try to fine a clone recipe and tweak it to my tastes.
I usually stick to about 12 different beers that I really like and have made a bunch of times and have made an adjustment here or there to improve it.
Once you get a base understanding, you can start to manipulate recipes, and move on to designing your own.
I'm sure that others with much more experience than me will chime in, but this is what has worked for me.

 

[Zoidberg]

I've looked up clone recipes of beers I had on hand and tried to taste for grains or hops based on descriptions I've read or pre ious experience with this to decide what I like about or don't like about diff ingredients.

For example, I love victory malt in any brown or amber and my favorite IPAs or Pales used cascade so I made an all cascade pale and loved it.

 

[BigFloyd]

Just look around the recipe section here to get ideas - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f82/

 

[DanH]

I just bought Beersmith and went to town. I use a fairly simple process...

Choose base malt
Add specialty grains to get to the target OG and SRM while keeping in mind what you expect them to add taste-wise.
Choose bittering hops
Choose flavor hops
Choose aroma hops
Adjust each hop (quantity and timing), keeping in mind your target IBU and how much/what kind of flavor and aroma you want.

It really is easy. Just go for it. Try to start out simply.


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[Phunhog]

You know if you are making a "classic style" there really is a right way to make most of them, as well as a wrong way. Personally I don't feel the need to reinvent the wheel and use award winning recipes in most cases. Even if you use someone else recipe it is still your beer and you get the credit.

 

[BeastMaster]

Started out by substituting for hops I couldn't find, moved on to playing "what can I brew with the leftover hops in my freezer", now I just like to try hops/yeast I haven't used before and formulate recipes to do so. I haven't really gotten into designing my own grain bills yet, I usually just find a recipe in the style I want to brew and change the hops and yeast to suit my goals.

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[BeastMaster]

The big thing was consistently brewing decent beer, once that happened I was comfortable enough to tinker more and more.

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[BeastMaster]

I'd say out of all the stuff I brew, I can only claim 3 or 4 recipes as completely my own.

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[estricklin]

When, why, how did you first make your own recipe? I've made about 12 different brews, and always follow recipes from AHS or NB. I would like to jump into making my own, just not sure where to start.

What's the best/worst that can happen?

I followed a few dozen before I started making my own. Eventually you can almost imagine the taste of a beer just by looking at a recipe.

It takes practice, so maybe your first time doesn't come out perfect, you make adjustments.

Beersmith will be a big help. Looking at other peoples recipes.

Try to brew beer for your taste, first and foremost.

 

[aryoung1980]

Started out by substituting for hops I couldn't find, moved on to playing "what can I brew with the leftover hops in my freezer"

This was pretty much how I started formulating recipes. I try to always use up my inventory. My LHBS only sells grain by the pound so I generally have extra ounces left after a brew day.

Instead of letting my grain sit around and possibly go stale, I read A LOT of different recipes. I then can decide upon what substitutions could be appropriate with what I have on hand.

Plus, the more I brew the easier it becomes to pick up on particular flavor contributions from different yeasts and grains. I've learned what I like through trial and (a great deal of) error.




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[kh54s10]

I usually take a recipe I find online then make alterations, using Beersmith, that suit: 1)what I think would make something I would like. 2)use ingredients I already have on hand.

I use online charts for grain substitution and hop substitutions.
I have also done a few simple recipes from scratch.
Maybe I have been lucky because all of them have been good. Some I have REALLY liked.

 

[donovanmaxwell]

Like yourself I'm starting out and making my own recipe is a goal I'm working towards. Along the lines of what some of the folks on here do, I've been sampling a couple brews then going to the Brewery's website. Often they'll have listed grains and hops used. I've been taking notes from there that I can refer back to when trying to remember what the flavors were like.

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[fuelish]

I've learned what I like through trial and (a great deal of) error.

^^^ This... ^^^ I started many years ago (guessing like, 16 or more years ago???) basing recipes from Charlie P's books, changing things up, and just trial and error adjustments along the way to my taste (or crazy ideas)....have never made anything undrinkable, have made lots of great beers and meads....got out of the "hobby" for some time, got back into it last year, but am concentrating mostly on mead this go 'round. Beer is great, but mead is amazing (with age, of course )

 

[cheezydemon3]

Never used a kit, didn't use a recipe until my 9th or 10th brew.

It is a lot like cooking. Experimentation is the best way to learn.

 

[Hello]

I started piecing together grain that I wanted to try, grain that I've tried, and whatever was needed to make a beer I was interested in drinking. Some recipes are a failure because I don't have the appropriate amount of grain, but my LHBS is very eager to help me make adjustments without completely bagging the idea of the beer I want to make.

Reading tons of recipes really helps.

 

[plumber_bob]

I did it kinda like Max384 did. Start with SMaSH's and worked from there.

Also just alter some recipes to fit what I have on hand.

Like someone else was sayin', It's just like cooking, only different.

pb