Recipe Selection

[smyrnaquince]

I've brewed a couple of extract beers, and now I'd like to try a 2.5-gallon AG. I plan to just scale down a 5-gallon recipe by half. My list of brews I'd like to try are:

• Porter
• Oatmeal Stout
• Belgian Dubbel

My question is, how do I pick a recipe? If I look in HomeBrewTalk.com and also do a Google search on the web, I can find multiple recipes for each of these. They all seem to have comments saying that they were good.

(On a related note, if you have suggested recipes for these that you have brewed and liked, please let me know. I get frustrated reading the posts of recipes someone wants to try, but never seeing follow-ups saying how they turned out.)

Thanks!

 

[asterix404]

You get a book called "Designing Great Beers" by Daniels.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0937381500/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Seriously though, play around some. Porter's should basically be the same ingredients. Stout should be a porter with Chocolate malt, and a Dubbel can be almost anything. Try to look at the ingredients and pick the hops that are similar or alter to give the same bittering units but hops you like. Read about what the different malts are doing and if you really want to get accurate, try to follow style guides.

 

[bannonb]

+1 on Designing great beers. You will see a preponderance of evidence on how various styles are concocted...then you put some creativity and artistry in it to make it your own recipe (not a clone).

Otherwise pick a style you like and look on this forum for recipes. Yes many people ask for input then never say how great it was, but we all did it.

Here's one for fun (it was excellent early this year and I'm ready to brew it again). It was from a Zymurgy article I think-another great resource for recipes:

Irish Red Ale
Type: All Grain Date: 12/29/2010
Batch Size: 6.00 gal Brewer: BannonB
Boil Size: 7.76 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Bannon's Keggles
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.50 lb Maris Otter-Pale Malt (UK) (3.0 SRM) Grain 64.38 %
3.00 lb Munich Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 25.75 %
0.50 lb Carared (20.0 SRM) Grain 4.29 %
0.40 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0
SRM) Grain 3.43 %
0.25 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 2.15 %
1.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (45 min) Hops 19.1 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (15 min) Hops 7.7 IBU
1 Pkgs Irish Ale (White Labs #WLP004) Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.050 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.052 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.006 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.70
% Actual Alcohol by Vol: 5.99 %
Bitterness: 26.8 IBU Calories: 227 cal/pint
Est Color: 17.4 SRM
Color:
Color
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion,
Medium Body, Batch Sparge-BB Total Grain Weight: 11.65 lb
Sparge Water: 5.04 gal Grain Temperature: 65.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F TunTemperature: 66.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment:
TRUE Mash PH: 5.4 PH
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge-BB
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 17.48 qt of water at 167.5 F 153.0 F

 

[BryceL]

Another vote for Designing Great Beers. Lately I've been having fun creating my own recipes and have had great results. I like to select a style and then look at some commercial beers that I really like in that particular style, gather information on what types of grain they are using, yeast, etc. I then combine that with my notes of past brews of what flavors I like or don't like and start plugging them into beersmith. I play around with it until I am within the limits of that beer style. I've got a 2.5 AG batch of a Oatmeal Stout going right now that tasted great when I sampled it. I just added coffee and chipotle to the secondary and it smells great!