Recipe Creation

[natehilde]

I have been working recently on making the jump into AG. I have designs for equipment, and my wife has my Christmas list. The thing that I am having trouble with now is coming up with a method for sound recipe creation. How do I know if I should use two row or six row. How do I determine what type and quantity of hops to use. What would be the best yeast to use for a given product. I realize that I could start with a previously generated recipe and substitute different items in or out as a trial and error method. But how would I make one from scratch? Are there charts and tables to follow? Where would I find this kind of information and a tutorial on recipe formulation?

Thanks Nate

 

[Brewsmith]

Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. It's an excellent book and will give you the basics of most styles and recipe analysis of both commercial beers and homebrew contest winners.

http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Great-Beers-Ultimate-Brewing/dp/0937381500/sr=8-1/qid=1164591732/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-6198880-4251804?ie=UTF8&s=books

 

[the_bird]

For me, it's all about reading lots and lots and lots of different recipes. You absolutely need to invest in one of the software packages (ProMash, BeerSmith, BeerToolsPro) so that you can be sure of the IBU and bitterness calculations. They will also let you know if the beer you are designing falls within the parameters of a particular style.

Oh, and I just picked up Ray Daniels' "Designing Great Beers" - a phenomenal book. It walks you through the history of various styles and gives all kinds of details of what kinds of malt and hops are usually used, all the information you really need to start designing your own. I would absolutely recommend getting your hands on a copy of this.

I'm really in the same boat as you, but having a copy of BeerSmith, Ray Daniels' book, and reading as much as I can seems to be helping a lot.