Question for Yooper and other experienced brewers / wine makers

[HenryEvery]

I was wondering if you would be willing to share your top favorite beer/wine recipes for a newbie.

Thanks for all of the info you have shared on the forum. I consider your knowledge and wisdom on this topic invaluable.

 

[Jag75]

Have you checked out the recipes forums? Tons of good stuff in those.

 

[JimRausch]

Jack Keller.com. Hundreds of proven recipes. I may not follow them religiously, but that's where I get most of my ideas.

 

[camonick]

I was wondering if you would be willing to share your top favorite beer/wine recipes for a newbie.

Like @Jag75 said above, check out the recipe forums. Yooper has many recipes posted as well as many other members. If a member has taken the time to post a recipe, you can bet they are proud of it. Many of the recipes have pages of comments that critique, modify and compliment them. If you have a favorite style, search those recipes for one you’d like to try and read what other people think of it.

 

[HenryEvery]

Thanks for the reply's.

Embarrassingly, somehow I did not notice the recipe forum. I have been studying it hard the last few days. When it comes to making beer, I am at the deep end of the pool. I am just sticking to easy recipes right now.

At the moment I have 6 gallon batch's of the following bubbling away:

Ed Wort's Apfelwein - ec 1118
Ed Wort's Apfelwein -Premier Blanc
Pap's Pub cider (with only 4 lbs sugar) - ec 1118
Skeeter Pee with lime juice (plan on putting mint leaves in secondary) on Ed Worts yeast cake


If you could only make one beer/wine/cider, do you have a favorite that you lean towards?

 

[Bent-Brewer]

Old article, but The HomeBrewTalk Top 100 Recipes - 24 - 1

 

[Kent88]

@Yooper you have another fan.

I've been pretty pleased with SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) beers. Keep things simple, start figuring out what ingredients contribute to what flavors you already like.

But that works for me because I like pretty simple beer styles. My favorite SMaSH beer just uses munich malt and hallertau hops, lager yeast, about 20IBUs, around 1.050OG.

If you like different styles, like stouts, porters, etc, etc, that could become tricky, because most of those require a few different types of malts. My advice is just start looking at the styles you like, and find recipes for that style that have a simple ingredient list, and just a few hop additions. All the better if the styles you like are ales that aren't very strong. Strong beers take a little effort, and lagering takes a little investment in different equipment.

 

[HenryEvery]

Old article, but The HomeBrewTalk Top 100 Recipes - 24 - 1

Thank you. I will be studying it carefully.

 

[HenryEvery]

@Yooper you have another fan.

I've been pretty pleased with SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) beers. Keep things simple, start figuring out what ingredients contribute to what flavors you already like.

But that works for me because I like pretty simple beer styles. My favorite SMaSH beer just uses munich malt and hallertau hops, lager yeast, about 20IBUs, around 1.050OG.

If you like different styles, like stouts, porters, etc, etc, that could become tricky, because most of those require a few different types of malts. My advice is just start looking at the styles you like, and find recipes for that style that have a simple ingredient list, and just a few hop additions. All the better if the styles you like are ales that aren't very strong. Strong beers take a little effort, and lagering takes a little investment in different equipment.

Kent,

Thanks for the advice. I will start figuring out what ingredients contribute to what flavors. I am pretty new at this so I have much to learn.

 

[_BullDog_]

I started last year doing a series of smash beers and focusing on different styles. Think that really helped my brewing advance, even though I had been brewing for years before.

there are also some very simple mead recipes around as well. Here is one of my favorites

Blueberry cyser
5 gal Costco apple juice
5 lbs Costco honey
10 lbs Costco frozen blueberries (2 5lb bags)
2 packs 71B yeast

pour 1/2 gallon juice in fermenter (I use a 7gal fermonster)
Pour some honey in remaining half gallon a shake hard
Pour half gallon of juice in empty gallon jug
Pour honey in both gallon jugs and shake
Continue until all honey and juice is in fermenter
Add 1 bag 5 gallon berries
Add 2 packs yeast
Add nutrients (I used the Stagered NYU trident additions in the Bomm thread)

aerate daily - I use a wine whip with a drill for a couple minutes twice daily for the first few days

continue nutrient additions- I’m lazy so I just do it every other day - 2 additions

after 2 weeks and FG stable, cold crash several days and stabilize transfer to another fermenter (I go to a 6 gallon fermonster)
Add 2nd bag of blueberries

in 2 weeks, cold crash a few days. transfer
again

in another couple weeks it should be clear, cold crash again

bottle. At this point it is a very clear purple color.

good to drink but gets better with time.

back sweeten if desired but the 2nd bag of blueberries adds just a touch of sweetness.

For a simpler recipe, skip the blueberries

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

Without knowing what your setup is, I would recommend starting with Saisons (assuming you like them). I started brewing Saisons because they're delicious but it is also a very versatile style and likes to be hot so I could leave them at room temp and not worry about it before I was able to control fermentation temps. Also, if you're still doing extract brewing keep in mind that there are some conversion calculators out there that can get you pretty close to an all grain recipe using extract.

Go slow, read a lot, ask questions, dont drink on brew day until after your last boil addition and TAKE VERY DETAILED NOTES..Trust me, you may think you're going to remember the small details of the brew day but you wont RDWHAHB (relax, dont worry, have a homebrew). Cheers!

 

[HenryEvery]

"don't drink on brew day until after your last boil addition and TAKE VERY DETAILED NOTES."

This is advice that I failed to heed but will improve on.

 

[Yooper]

I've posted a lot of my favorite old stand-by recipes, and while I make other wines (and beers) often, I still love the recipes I posted in the recipe section ages ago.

 

[bkboiler]

Recipes help a lot to start but its easy to get lost if you are new to the brewing process
are you doing BIAB? do you like IPAs or stouts?
when i first started brewing, stouts were easier for me...
but if you like hoppy pale beers, i'd recommend a pale malt (such as ESB pale malt from Gambrinus) and centennial SMaSH.
Stick with dry yeast until you need a strain you cannot get dry...
BRY-97 would be my choice for ease of working with and keeping the yeast happy for west coast hoppy beers. If you have a cool basement, then a heating pad and simple inkbird should be sufficient. Many (but not all) dry yeasts recommend rehydration in 10x the amount of water.
Buy a decent digital thermometer that is somehow certified to be within a 1F accuracy...If your burner on your stove cannot keep the mash at temp, then buy a hotplate with lower wattage..stir and check the temp at least 3-4 times during the mash until you really understand your system...
Buy a decent refractometer to check the OG (not the FG).
Temp control (both during mash and ferment) was the single biggest thing to help improve my beers. I always had great recipes (often from other people), but sometimes the beers were undrinkable due to my process...

 

[HenryEvery]

I've posted a lot of my favorite old stand-by recipes, and while I make other wines (and beers) often, I still love the recipes I posted in the recipe section ages ago.

I have been studying them last few days and looking forward to making several of them.

 

[HenryEvery]

Recipes help a lot to start but its easy to get lost if you are new to the brewing process
are you doing BIAB? do you like IPAs or stouts?
when i first started brewing, stouts were easier for me...
but if you like hoppy pale beers, i'd recommend a pale malt (such as ESB pale malt from Gambrinus) and centennial SMaSH.
Stick with dry yeast until you need a strain you cannot get dry...
BRY-97 would be my choice for ease of working with and keeping the yeast happy for west coast hoppy beers. If you have a cool basement, then a heating pad and simple inkbird should be sufficient. Many (but not all) dry yeasts recommend rehydration in 10x the amount of water.
Buy a decent digital thermometer that is somehow certified to be within a 1F accuracy...If your burner on your stove cannot keep the mash at temp, then buy a hotplate with lower wattage..stir and check the temp at least 3-4 times during the mash until you really understand your system...
Buy a decent refractometer to check the OG (not the FG).
Temp control (both during mash and ferment) was the single biggest thing to help improve my beers. I always had great recipes (often from other people), but sometimes the beers were undrinkable due to my process...

Thank you for your advice. I am going to be ordering the equipment you recommend. I never had any idea how complicated beer is versus country wine. I am going to be sticking to the most simple brews I can to start.

Again, thanks for the advice.