How do you know?

[cheezemm]

Ok, I'm new to the hobby, but I have a big question!

I bought the cooper's homebrew kit and love it, but how do you guys know what to add as "extras" to the kits w/o screwing something up?

For example, I have everything I need to make a cooper's stout as instructed, but how do I know whether to add some brown sugar, lic. extract, coffee, more dextrose etc. w/o overdoing it?

How do you know when to use 500mg of lme vs. 1lb dme and all that good stuff? Is this where the expermentation comes in?

 

[robertvrabel]

Most people use brewing software like beersmith to calculate what you will need and/or just look at other recipes and see how much it calls for.

 

[BendBrewer]

Well I am probably just as new to this as you, but I am getting most of this information from reading AND understanding different recipes.

Seeing what they do to the O.G. and IBU's. I bought my equipment on the 16th of January. On my 3rd batch, I learned how to calculate an approximate O.G. based on the ingredients that I used. I calculated that it should come out at 1.051 and it came out exactly 1.051 @ 60 degrees.

HUGE learning experience. I haven't bottled a batch yet but feel comfortable that I can design a recipe based on the Malts and extracts I have used and come pretty close to hitting a desired O.G.

Determining expected IBU was a similar learning process.

But I am thinking balance is going to be the next learing process that I go through in terms of designing something I would actually tell anyone about.

 

[maida7]

I suggest getting kits with all the extras included. Morebeer.com, Austin Homebrew, Northern Brewer, etc... All sell fantastic kits with all the extras included. No guessing and they make freaking awesome beer!

 

[ShortSnoutBrewing]

I suggest getting the process down first, then start tweaking. Take the time that you are using to get the process down to start learning what these adjuncts or "extras" do to beer. Educate yourself.

 

[david_42]

Experience, reading recipes, experimentation. I never mess with a kit the first time. Once you know how a kit should taste, you can make changes. One of the biggest problems I see here is the old "if some is good, more will have to be better". Not true, everything in brewing can be overdone. Even hopping (unless you are really fond of grapefruit juice).

 

[wyzazz]

+1 to what david_42 said.

Also getting a book like Brewing Classic Styles, and some brewing software (I use BeerSmith) will help out tremendously.

 

[ChshreCat]

IMHO... stick to the kits as they are until you've got your process down, then when you're wanting to experiment go ahead and put together your own recipes! It'd be really easy to put together all the ingredients of the kit and play with it as you please. As said, Beersmith really helps this.