How much to add?

[f00lintherain08]

Newbie here... I'd like to start making my own recipes. I wanted to start with an american pale ale and have an idea of what ingredients I want to use but no idea how much to put in?

I'm brewing small batches so it would be 1 gallons worth.

I was thinking

Light malt extract
munich malt
crystal malt 20L
for hops i wanted to use citra and centenial
yeast is undecided.

my question is how do i know how much to use of each ingredients especially hops? Also would this be semi decent tasting I was looking for a more citrusy flavor.

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

I would strongly recommend using some sort of brewing software for recipe formulation. You can add the ingredients and play with the quantities to get a beer within style guidelines if that's what your aiming for. As well as see what amounts of hops at which times will give you the desired IBU's for the recipe your making. I use beer alchemy on my IPhone a lot of other brewers on here use beersmith also. I am sure a google search for beer recipe generator will land some results for free ones to play with and see. as a matter of fact here is the first result google gave me. http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator so I would play around with these or purchase one of the proven apps and have at it.

 

[brewkinger]

I would strongly recommend using some sort of brewing software for recipe formulation. You can add the ingredients and play with the quantities to get a beer within style guidelines if that's what your aiming for. As well as see what amounts of hops at which times will give you the desired IBU's for the recipe your making. I use beer alchemy on my IPhone a lot of other brewers on here use beersmith also. I am sure a google search for beer recipe generator will land some results for free ones to play with and see. as a matter of fact here is the first result google gave me. http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator so I would play around with these or purchase one of the proven apps and have at it.

+1 to this ^

As a new-ish brewer, it is difficult (almost impossible) to just randomly throw a bunch of ingredients into a recipe and get out a desirable product.

Think of it this way:

I wanna bake a cake.

Need some flour, eggs, sugar, baking powder, etc...
(I will just guess how much of each)

How do you think that cake is gonna turn out?

In addition to brewing software, check out Ray Daniels Designing Great Beers

This book is extremely helpful to get a handle on ratios of base malts, crystal malts and adjuncts to design a beer that "fits" into a specific style category.

 

[BeerLoverHere]

If you do your homework and look at other recipes, you'll be alright, especially if you aren't afraid to take a risk. Some people need their hand held through everything and fear making a mistake. After awhile you will pick up that a "safe" recipe is to have 85-90% base malt and then 10-15% specialty malts. The lighter the beer/less gravity and alcohol/less specialty malts/the less time it takes from grain to glass, especially wheat beers as they are better sooner than later.

If you do this awhile you will learn that it is NOT the recipe that makes the beer, it's the process of holding mash and fermentation temps consistently. There is a BIG difference when mashing between the high 140s and mid 150s: HUGE difference in the final taste/mouthfeel of your beer. Also, a big difference in your yeast and what temps you ferment at. My wheel house is American Ale yeast 1056 @ low 60s. I prefer the cooler fermentation temps and the profile I get from that. It is way different than if I can't control fermentation temps, especially in the summer when it can easily get to over 70 degrees. OH YEAH, ALWAYS CLEAN AND SANITIZE THOROUGHLY. DON'T SKIP THIS PROCESS.

As for the hops, I rarely do a 60 minute hop addition because I don't like the "harsh" bitter that comes from the longer hop addition boils. I like to do 45 min bitter additions and many more late hops to get my desired IBUs. I would definitely recommend dry-hopping with an American style hop to get the citrus flavor/aroma that you described you wanted.

I use BrewToad as my free software when building a recipe. I know there are better alternatives like BeerSmith, but BrewToad is free and I am happy with the results.

It might not always be perfect, but as long as you make drinkable beer along the way, you should learn quickly from your mistakes. Hopefully you've got a LHBS nearby that can sample your brews too.

Good luck and welcome to the club!