Nobody wants to brew kits forever...well, maybe some do, who am I to judge. Anyway, I'd like to get into experimenting, but I'd like to be able to do it with some direction, even if somewhat vague. I don't have a specific recipe in mind, or a style...what are some good resources to check out to learn how to build a recipe? Are there any basic rules to follow? I realize this is somewhat vague as, while I could likely put something together that would eventually turn out to be beer, I'd like for it to be good, as well as know how and when to deviate. Thanks!
Recipe Building 101
- Thread starter Estrada
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
I bought the book "Designing Great Beers". Gives a good starting point for making your own recipe for many styles. I've blindly made great beers using this book as a starting point. You can also use existing recipes and tweak them... Your LHBS will be a great guide for tweaking any grain bill or hop schedule.
1977Brewer
Free Dan Hess.
The recipe section here is a great starting point. You really have to have a grasp on what ingredients do before you start building recipes. I figured a great place to start was to use a standard malt bill, and play with the hops. I'm using S-05 for now, so hops are my only real variable. I have a SNPA clone fermenting now, it's going to finish as an IPA.
Chris_Primavera
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2015
- Messages
- 228
- Reaction score
- 42
I'm in the same boat.
Brewed a couple of great extracts, now I'm looking to expand into BIAB more for the challenge than anything else.
Suggest you download Beersmith if you haven't already done so.
There is also this place called homebrewtalk.com where you can bounce your ideas off a few people and hopefully avoid any significant problems.
Good luck!
Brewed a couple of great extracts, now I'm looking to expand into BIAB more for the challenge than anything else.
Suggest you download Beersmith if you haven't already done so.
There is also this place called homebrewtalk.com where you can bounce your ideas off a few people and hopefully avoid any significant problems.
Good luck!
new2brew1221
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 29, 2012
- Messages
- 275
- Reaction score
- 8
I was in the same boat last year. I had brewed kits for a year and wanted to try to get more flavor and just experiment some. I started researching the different profiles of the hops and what different yeasts profiles were. I also looked at the ingredients in some of the kits I had done and changed one of the hops to see how it changed the final product. Some of the best brews friends liked last year were the ones I had changed up a bit and made it my own. Don't go crazy with trying your hand at making your own recipes, and post them on here for others to critique. There are A LOT of people on here that have the knowledge and experience to help you brew a good beer.
This was me a few years ago. I bought Designing Great Beers and Brewing Classic Styles. IPA and Hops are also good books if you want to focus on hoppier beers. Just make sure whatever you buy is new enough or classic enough it won't ever go too outdated.
And while recipe books in a way, I don't use them as such. I use them to find the window of what I want to make and then tailor it to my style/tastes. They're guides to crafting my beer.
That said, if anyone has any secrets to the black art of layering hops into something ethereal, feel free to let me know!
And while recipe books in a way, I don't use them as such. I use them to find the window of what I want to make and then tailor it to my style/tastes. They're guides to crafting my beer.
That said, if anyone has any secrets to the black art of layering hops into something ethereal, feel free to let me know!
I'm a beginner too. What I've been doing is brewing the same kolsch ale recipe and only changing the hops each time. Completely different beer each time. Once I figure out the hops flavor profiles and taste I can then determine what I like and dont like and since I have kept a record of the hops and amounts I have added I will be able to make a beer suited to my tastes.
Just kegged a kolsch with hallertau and saaz hops and I like it more than one with hallertau alone. Perhaps adding more haller pellets next time.
I also made a brown ale with northern brewer hops and have decided to never use that variety again.
So many variables so little time.
Just kegged a kolsch with hallertau and saaz hops and I like it more than one with hallertau alone. Perhaps adding more haller pellets next time.
I also made a brown ale with northern brewer hops and have decided to never use that variety again.
So many variables so little time.
Owly055
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2014
- Messages
- 3,008
- Reaction score
- 686
It's difficult to go wrong experimenting so long as you are using more or less conventional materials and proportions. That is to say, with your grain bill, don't do radical things. Base it on two row, keep crystal in decent proportions.... under 10%. Play with Munich and Vienna, try biscuit malts like Victory as a percentage. USE GOOGLE, and read about the malts you are wanting to try.
There is a beer balance chart out there that tells you what IBUs at what original gravity give what result.... It will accurately tell you weather your beer will be malty or hoppy, and how malty or hoppy.
Read about the hops and what their characteristics are, and look at the recipes section and read comments.
I use Brewer's Friend, which I find far more congenial for my type of brewing than Brew Smith.......but to each his own. BS seems to be more popular than BF with it's more Applesque system. I don't brew to a "style" normally. I brew what interests me. I play with hops all the time, and find combinations I really like, and some I don't really care for, but not "dumpers". Out of 58 brews in a little less than 13 months, I've had two "dumpers", one was a sour that I simply didn't like, and the other was something I shouldn't have tried anyway. I don't normally do recipes.
You can't go far wrong with the "noble" hops and their derivatives.. Google them. If you like a particular brew, read up on it, and look for clone recipes. I don't want to "clone" anything, but I do want to look for what lends a character I like. For example one of my all time favorites was an ale called Drifter by Widmer Brewing. The hop that lent it the character I loved so much was Nelson Sauvin, which I use extensively in various combinations, and is the backbone of many of my brews. Do you like citrus flavors, or stone fruit, do you like a spiciness or and earthy or evergreen or floral flavor or aroma?
Read, read, read..... and read some more. And play. I often buy a hop on a whim, then try to figure out where and how to work it into my brewing. Brewing should be an adventure, a journey of discovery. Your beers do not have to fit a "style", nor do they have to be blue ribbon winners. It's more important to learn than to "win".
H.W.
There is a beer balance chart out there that tells you what IBUs at what original gravity give what result.... It will accurately tell you weather your beer will be malty or hoppy, and how malty or hoppy.
Read about the hops and what their characteristics are, and look at the recipes section and read comments.
I use Brewer's Friend, which I find far more congenial for my type of brewing than Brew Smith.......but to each his own. BS seems to be more popular than BF with it's more Applesque system. I don't brew to a "style" normally. I brew what interests me. I play with hops all the time, and find combinations I really like, and some I don't really care for, but not "dumpers". Out of 58 brews in a little less than 13 months, I've had two "dumpers", one was a sour that I simply didn't like, and the other was something I shouldn't have tried anyway. I don't normally do recipes.
You can't go far wrong with the "noble" hops and their derivatives.. Google them. If you like a particular brew, read up on it, and look for clone recipes. I don't want to "clone" anything, but I do want to look for what lends a character I like. For example one of my all time favorites was an ale called Drifter by Widmer Brewing. The hop that lent it the character I loved so much was Nelson Sauvin, which I use extensively in various combinations, and is the backbone of many of my brews. Do you like citrus flavors, or stone fruit, do you like a spiciness or and earthy or evergreen or floral flavor or aroma?
Read, read, read..... and read some more. And play. I often buy a hop on a whim, then try to figure out where and how to work it into my brewing. Brewing should be an adventure, a journey of discovery. Your beers do not have to fit a "style", nor do they have to be blue ribbon winners. It's more important to learn than to "win".
H.W.
FirstAidBrewing
Well-Known Member
I have ventured into small-batch SMaSH beers. Start with a base of one grain, one hop and one yeast. Then change up one of those variables for the next batch. You should be able to tell the differences. That's what I'm doing anyway.
TheHappyHopper
Well-Known Member
I love the website BrewToad. I started using that when I first ventured into recipe building. When you start a new recipe, you pick a style that you are going for, and it will tell you what OG, FG, IBUs, Color, etc. that you can expect to get based on your ingredients and whether or not it fits into the style that you chose. This is especially helpful if you are brewing for a BJCP competition, but maybe not so much if you aren't worried about fitting into a specific style.
Research, examine, and read as much as possible in your free time. This includes books, internet articles, forums, podcasts, and clone recipes for beers you enjoy. Try not to wholeheartedly believe everything you come across at face value; there is a lot of misinformation to be wary about, so simply keep an open mind. There are also 1,000 ways to skin a cat.
You don't have to have first hand experience with every single grain, yeast, or hop out there; that is almost impossible. Collective third party research and reviews/opinions will get you close. If you like American Ales, then the basics to focus on will be 2-row pale malt (or Light DME), American Ale yeast, and American hops. British versions will be a tad bit richer, malt-wise and/or accentuate more maltiness.
I second using brewing software once you have a basic idea of recipe building. Choose a few styles that you enjoy to drink most, check out the BJCP guidelines for those beers, and begin to see how the amounts of ingredients added affects the Original & Final Gravity, IBUs, Yeast Attenuation, etc.
Things become a bit more difficult when you delve into water chemistry, ion exchange, acid treatments, etc. Brew science is a lot more complex than learning how to construct a simple recipe. For a beginner extract brewer, I would recommend using distilled water as a base since the extract will already contain an adequate amount of minerals that the maltster used to create the extract. Once you nail extract beers, move onto partial mash or all grain and start considering how water plays a role for the beer style(s) that you enjoy.
You don't have to have first hand experience with every single grain, yeast, or hop out there; that is almost impossible. Collective third party research and reviews/opinions will get you close. If you like American Ales, then the basics to focus on will be 2-row pale malt (or Light DME), American Ale yeast, and American hops. British versions will be a tad bit richer, malt-wise and/or accentuate more maltiness.
I second using brewing software once you have a basic idea of recipe building. Choose a few styles that you enjoy to drink most, check out the BJCP guidelines for those beers, and begin to see how the amounts of ingredients added affects the Original & Final Gravity, IBUs, Yeast Attenuation, etc.
Things become a bit more difficult when you delve into water chemistry, ion exchange, acid treatments, etc. Brew science is a lot more complex than learning how to construct a simple recipe. For a beginner extract brewer, I would recommend using distilled water as a base since the extract will already contain an adequate amount of minerals that the maltster used to create the extract. Once you nail extract beers, move onto partial mash or all grain and start considering how water plays a role for the beer style(s) that you enjoy.
Start doing SMaSH brews. Learn the characteristics of individual malts and hops. Read up on mash temps, water chemistry, fermentation temps, yeast selection, and how these factors affect your beer. Once you get a good feel for these things, start adding other ingredients to add dimension to your beers.
Similar threads
