Know thyself, know thy ingredients

[JeffStewart]

So after taking a second look at my boil kettle and getting my numbers more consistent, getting 'in tune' with the boil, I was thinking about how I could go about getting more 'in tune' with my ingredients.
As far as grain goes, I was thinking about maybe tasting it in the raw, possibly making a small infusion or decotion and tasting that. Yeast I'm lost on besides trying hundreds of recipes, but all those will turn out different and I'm not sure I wan't to drink a starter.
Any suggestions about learning more about how the grains and yeast available will synergize when you brew them? How to guestimate textures, flavors and aromas in the resulting batch?

I know it takes experience, but there has to be a method to all the madness.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

You nailed it right on the head......experience......there's no magic formula for estimating the effect of any one ingredient or yeast or combination thereof. You just have to brew with it....learn what happens IN YOUR SYSTEM......and go from there. Same ingredients, same yeast, dif system and dif tap water will all make dif beer. It's easy for one person to be consistent.....it's hard for all of us to replicate the beers others have produced. Probably not what you wanted to hear.......

Cheers

 

[JeffStewart]

Well, it's the answer I was expecting. But to me it seems like how would you know how to make spaghetti sauce and what it will taste like if you don't know what tomatoes taste like. I know everyone's setup is different, just trying to achieve the flavors I want in my beer with my equipment. IMO seems kind of like taking the long way if I make a batch of beer just to see what X grain or X hops impart in the end. I know there's tons of variables that go into resulting flavors and aromas and whatnot, but just seems like you'd be able to get into the ballpark.

Of course, I could just be naive.

 

[coypoo]

Biggest thing I would say is to brew a recipe more than once. The second time, change only 1 factor. Mash temp, yeast, more or less of a single grain, etc. That way, you can taste the difference of one thing.

The best way (fastest) to learn yeasts is to brew split batches. Use 2 different yeasts or same yeast and diff temps.

 

[JeffStewart]

I understand what you're saying. But say I make a recipe that I really like. How do I know what to do to make it even better?

 

[millsware]

Brewing single malt batches would work for some of the grains that can work on their own (pale, pilsner, munich, maris otter, etc.) Brew a bunch of small batches using the same hops and yeast. Vice versa, you can brew a bunch of SMASHes and just use different yeast.

 

[JeffStewart]

So, long and short answer: brew, brew, brew ....
Thanks for everyone's help. I'm going to have get more carboys....

 

[coypoo]

I understand what you're saying. But say I make a recipe that I really like. How do I know what to do to make it even better?

Depending on the recipe, you'll know. I guess though, you would have to write the recipe yourself and not make a clone. What styles do you like? Right now I'm working on a house brown and IPA. Starting from scratch you'll have plenty of changes to make. Maybe you want it less malty, more malty. Different bittering, aroma, or dryhops? Diff types of american yeasts or try a British one in the IPA. There are tons of ways to make a good beer slightly different without making it drastically worst. If the base is good, you wont screw it up by slightly deviating. I guess then that would work even if you did start with a clone. Basically the point is, you always have to start with a reference point and change from there. Sorry for the stream of consiousness, but hopefully it helps

 

[JeffStewart]

Well I've already started trying to formulate a few recipes. Got a english premium bitter I'm racking to secondary tomorrow. Next week (hopefully) I'll have my belgian dunkelweizen rollin.
So far I've just tried cross referencing other similar recipes to mine, looking at the style guidelines and doing research into the styles I want to make. Taking all of that into account I've been putting ingrediants together that "look" like they'd go good together. Not the most accurate way obviously. I'll probably start going the SMaSH route soon.