Making my first recipe, but I'm kind of lost.

[kjr24]

So guys i have made a couple different brews, now all extract kits but none of them which i have left to just using the instruction have made a lot of them into my own concoctions mango habanero, a smoke cherry pale ale and a couple others. I have begun to read a couple books on home brewing and there is a lot of information to take in. So i thought i might start a little simpler but i want to try and get away from the extracts a little more and start making my own in a sense but what I'm coming across is i don't really know how to figure out how much hops to use or grain for that matter. i was thinking about doing just a classic blonde ale a summer beer in my opinion. what i was looking for was something more in a citrus kind of fruit area so i was looking to use Citra, Cascade, and maybe el dorado or galaxy depending on what i could get a hold of. Now this being said is it just knowledge that comes in handy here knowing recipes and how they work with each other, or is there something bigger I'm missing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated Thank You.

 

[Jhu1321]

I couldn't do it without brewing software which calculates expected gravity (original & final), IBU's, Color & ABV% etc..... Use 90% +- 2 row brewers malt and add in a few specialty malts for color & mouthfeel depending on style. I use iBrewmaster 2 for my iPhone to calculate recipes.

 

[dcbw]

Check out Biermunchers Centennial Blonde recipe in the recipe section (or just google for it). It's a great place to start and you can slightly change amounts and hop schedules and still get a great summer beer.

I also find brewing software very helpful, in my case Brewers Friend. Software makes it easy to play around and get an idea of the outcome before you sink the time into a brew.

 

[ThufirHawat]

I've found Brewers Friend to be very useful in putting recipies together. That, paired with a good book read front to back on the subject, say "Designing Great Beers" by Ray Daniels will give you an excellent foundation. I'm currently working my way through that one.

Another good source of info, I've found, are podcasts like Basic Brewing , specifically the Jan 7 Michael Tonsmeire episode, and Dr Homebrew. I learn a lot driving around.

The very best info of all, imho, are reading through the posts on this forum discussing what makes a good beer, what tastes good together and what doesn't.

Two months of study, and listening, and reading posts by other folks that are mildly obsessed with it gave me a good start down the road toward what I think you're looking for. I discovered I was just gonna have to take myself back to school for a bit. It's just like learning how to cook good food.

 

[kjr24]

WOW thank you all for the much needed feed back i will start right away and see how thing come out thank you all again.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Definitely get some brewing software. I use BeerSmith but the others mentioned here are fine, too. To dip your toe into mashing instead of just extract, you might try doing a partial mash recipe. To do this, you start with a couple of pounds of 2-row pale malt and add in some specialty grains for the style you want. You can then do a true temperature controlled mash (instead of just steeping specialty grains) in a couple of gallons of water. Once you have mashed, you put this wort in your pot, add some more water and then supplement with some extract to reach your full gravity. Then you boil and ferment just as you did with your extract brews. The software will tell you how much grain and extract you need and what your hops schedule should be to get the desired IBUs.

Partial mashing allows you to get a handle on the mashing process without investing too much in a full all grain mashing setup. It helps give you an idea of what different grains do for your brew. Brew in a bag (BIAB) is a pretty easy and inexpensive way to get into partial and AG mashing. Do some searches and check it out. There is a BIAB forum on here that has a good tutorial in the "sticky" section. Good luck.

 

[mattdee1]

Some suggestions to consider, from the perspective of somebody who is still fairly new, but not completely green (11 batches):

Restrain your creative urges at first. Start with a few "tried and true" recipes rather than just slapping together random ingredients that sound good. This virtually ensures a good result, assuming your process is sound, and it gives you experience that you can then adapt to your own creations later.

Several months ago there was a 4-part article series here on HBT about the "Top 100 recipes" on the forums. All of my first several brews were taken from that list and they were all awesome. Check it out:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/homebrewtalk-top-homebrew-recipes-24-1.html

As mentioned, brewing software is immensely useful in designing recipes. Beersmith isn't free, but it will pay for itself very quickly by facilitating your success, thereby extracting enhanced value from the ingredients and materials you buy.

This last thing is just IMHO, but I'd say start with just core beer ingredients (water, barley, hops, yeast). Save the Imperial Roasted Watermelon Dingleberry Cucumber Stout for a future time when you've got better instincts. If you insist on starting with something like that, do it as a small side batch that you can afford to dump if it sucks. And it probably will; quirky beers are like cell phone ring tones--everybody likes to express themselves with "different" stuff but the novelty is fleeting.

 

[Redlantern]

This last thing is just IMHO, but I'd say start with just core beer ingredients (water, barley, hops, yeast). Save the Imperial Roasted Watermelon Dingleberry Cucumber Stout for a future time when you've got better instincts. If you insist on starting with something like that, do it as a small side batch that you can afford to dump if it sucks. And it probably will; quirky beers are like cell phone ring tones--everybody likes to express themselves with "different" stuff but the novelty is fleeting.

Best advice right there for sure. Get good at simple first. Then grow.

 

[kjr24]

Biermunchers Centennial Blonde recipe
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.57 gal
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount
7.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
0.75 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
0.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (55 min)
0.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (35 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [7.80%] (20 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [7.80%] (5 min)
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) (Hydrated)

so i did end up looking at this recipe just to see how it was constructed, as i look these over, i am wondering is this anything like a normal extract kit or am i making a mash here with all the grains first? i Have not done a all grain kit before so this is a little different for me and i would imagine i would need a little more equipment for this if i do need to make a mash.

 

[mattdee1]

Biermunchers Centennial Blonde recipe
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.57 gal
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount
7.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
0.75 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
0.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (55 min)
0.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (35 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [7.80%] (20 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [7.80%] (5 min)
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) (Hydrated)

so i did end up looking at this recipe just to see how it was constructed, as i look these over, i am wondering is this anything like a normal extract kit or am i making a mash here with all the grains first? i Have not done a all grain kit before so this is a little different for me and i would imagine i would need a little more equipment for this if i do need to make a mash.

^^ great recipe. I made it as my 2nd batch and everybody loved it.

That is a so-called "all grain" recipe. To brew it as written, yes, you will need to do a mash.

 

[chickypad]

If you look at post #10 in Biermuncher's thread it gives an extract version. You lose the Vienna though, as that needs to be mashed. A third option that you should be able to do with your current equipment and a paint strainer bag would be a partial mash. You could mash 2 lbs of pale malt with the rest of the grains and then at flameout add about 3 lbs light DME then top off with water.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

See my previous post (#6) about partial mashing. It is a way of trying out mashing without a big equipment expense. Using the Centennial Blonde as an example, you could do a smaller mash with 3 lbs of Pale Malt (instead of 7) along with the other grains and then add 3 or 4 lbs of light extract in the boil to reach you gravity. I used to do partial mashes with a grain bag in a 3 gal beverage cooler I already had. Then I sparged through a colander resting in the top of my BK. Poke around the forum and you'll find lots of tips and options for partial mash (sometimes called mini-mash).