OK, I have seen how everyone here has some sort of brewing software, but how exactly do you use them? From the outside looking in, it looks like you take a recipe that you already have and plug it in? How do you actually make your own recipe? Must you have a keen understanding of all types of beer to formulate your own? Please help.
recipe formulation
- Thread starter wlffmnnn
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The software packages are just fancy calculators that will tell you what the gravity, color, and IBU rating of your recipe will be, and include tools to help you calculate water volumes and temperatures for AG brewing. They include general style guidelines to let you know things like "An IPA should have a gravity between X and Y, a color between A and B, and bitterness between J and K".
They don't give you guidelines about how to compose a grain bill or select hop varieties or anything.
For that kind of stuff, experience is a big help, but to get things rolling, there are a lot of books out there that cover this kind of thing.
I own a copy of Designing Great Beers, and I really like that book a lot. It has sections covering a number of different styles.
There are others out there, too, including Terry Foster's "Classic Beer Styles" series of books that cover one style per book.
