my brewing future

[Spencecore24]

I think what i would like to do is take 5 styles (Red, Brown, IPA, Stout, and Porter) and create a unique recipe for all of them. What do you guys do? Select various recipes and just recreate them? Or attempt to create a unique beer all your own?

 

[BryceL]

What I do is look at commercial beers that I like and see if I can find any information on them such as what type of grain and hops. I then might look at some recipies on here as well as the BJCP style guidelines and any past recipies that I might have brewed. I then think about it all for a while and sit down with beersmith and start plugging in what I want. I might play with it for a few days, brew it, taste it, then make any adjustments and brew it again...Doing this I've got a stout and an IPA that I really enjoy and I am working on a APA now.

 

[daveooph131]

I brew whatever I think sounds good. Once I have a style look at other recipes and try to pick out things I like in commercial examples. Then start tweaking the recipe to my custom Tatar and what I want out of it.

 

[bkorver]

I like to take existing recipes (beerrecipes.org, byo.com, or beersmith.com) and tweak them based on my taste. I usually darken the lighter ones by adding a half pound of crystal 60 or at least add to the grain bill to give it a little extra kick. I have also been known to add some DME to get my OG around 1.065 - 1.070. Then I double the aroma hopps. I usually end up pleased with the result. I plug everything into beersmith2 and it gives me a pretty good idea of things like how much water to use, target temps, and ballparks my gravity readings so I know I can stay on track. I can't say enough about beersmith if you are going to experiment. You pick your style and put your recipe in. It gives you an idea what the color will be, IBU's, ABV, all the good stuff you will need if you want to stay in a style and it will warn you if you are getting too out of control. (Is there such a thing?)

 

[SouthBay]

I like to start with some existing recipes, and get an idea of whats in the style. Then I re read designing great beers, and then adjust the existing recipe to fall within the dgb guidelines (or reasonably close to them), but include ingredients I know I want to use.

 

[ajbram]

I like to look at several recipes that are close to what I think I want to brew, then think of how I would adjust the flavour profile to make it exactly what I want to put in my mouth. I usually end up with a recipe that looks like 60% of what I read and 40% my own creation. So far, everything I have brewed has come out exactly how I imagined it would. My wife gets a laugh out of how excited I get about this. I don't know why, but I am still surprised every time I make up a recipe and it turns out that way. The last 2 were the best, not just exactly what I had in mind, but even better than I expected.

I figure in the long run, I would like to have a go-to recipe for a lighter beer (Maybe a blonde), a dark beer (thinking porter), and an IPA. If I could have these constantly on hand and then brew more experimental things, I think that's a good way to go

 

[BigRob90]

Though I've only been brewing for a short time, I see brewing as my creative outlet so I like messing with unique beers. Recently I brewed a chocolate milk stout and about 9/10 people gave me a funny look when i told them thats what I was doing next. The recipie is from Northern Brewer but I hope to tweak it to my liking and call it my own one of these days. I also hear it's a good dessert topping

Beer floats anyone!?

 

[P_A]

Is there any resource I can use that will correlate certain ingredients (or amount of ingredients) with certain flavors or characteristics? I can tell what characteristics I want in my beer but I'm not sure what to add or subtract to reach those goals.

 

[RM-MN]

I have a different idea for you to try. Brew the same recipe 5 times and see if you can make any 2 of them taste exactly the same.