Making my own personalized beer kit

[aReBeeZy]

I am new to homebrewing and want to create something I can call my own. I don't like the idea of making clones or using other people's shop-made beer kits. 2 questions: what all do I need, and where do I start?

 

[QuercusMax]

Have you brewed anything before? I would recommend at the very least starting with a known solid recipe. Just like you wouldn't start your baking career by inventing your own chocolate cake recipe.

If you really don't want to use anybody else's recipe and start 100% from scratch, I would recommend buying and reading Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. It is very thorough and goes though many different beer styles and how the recipes for them are often composed. It doesn't actually contain any recipes.

Another good place to start would be Brewing Classic Styles by Palmer and Zainasheff.

But really, just start out with a high quality kit from Northern Brewer or MoreBeer. You can even go with Brewer's Best, their quality is OK. Once you've gone through the steps with a quality recipe, you can start making your own. There's nothing magical about extract kits, they just have all the ingredients pre-picked-out for you.

 

[finsfan]

I would also suggest using a known recipe that will produce good beer if you have not made beer before. Check out the recipe section of this forum. Instead of buying a kit that is already put together, go find a recipe and put it together yourself and try it out.

 

[tacks]

All Grain or Extract? For some of my own beers, I have gone to the recipe forum here on HBT and then changing some of the grains or hops or hops schedule. Pretty much any beer you can think of has been done in some capacity, so it's a matter of readjusting proportions or adding adjuncts to make it your own. Also, there's a reason people replicate those recipes, they are proven to be good beers, so you are tweaking a recipe that will give you good results and be true to the style, if you don't know what proportions and or grains/ malt extract and hops you should be using to brew that style. If you want to design one without looking at anyone else's recipes, buy brewsmith and just start building your recipe from nothing, and choose your style so you can adjust your grains and hops to be within the range of the style you are aiming for.

 

[gr8shandini]

I'd second that. If this is your first time out of the gate, you're probably going to have your hands full keeping track of the process. It's not overly complicated, but the first time for anything can be nerve wracking. Also, while brewing is very forgiving, in the rare event that you have a bad result, you won't know if it was a bad recipe or a mistake in the process if you're going on your own. Hopefully, this won't be the last batch you brew, so there's plenty of time to get to your own recipes.

I'd also recommend that you start with How to Brew by John Palmer. The first edition is free online ( http://www.howtobrew.com/ ), but the hardcopy is worth the investment. The other books that were suggested are solid, but assume you're more familiar with the process.