The Age Old Question.............

[theguy]

I am fairly new at hombrewing and have (so far) only made beer from the "brewer best" kits. While these kits are great for learning the process of brewing a batch, they seem seem to lack creativity. This brings me to my question. How do you come up with (or decide on) the next batch of beer you will make? Do you start with a recipe kit (brewers best or similar) and adjust? I am currently brewing my 4th batch (German Oktoberfest) and really want to try something a little different and wanted to get some ideas on how to "take the next step". Cheers in advance!

 

[Yooper]

I started with the Brewer's Best kits, but then started buying kits from austinhomebrew.com and northernbrewer.com. I wanted to make "clone" kits and other styles I couldn't find in the Brewer's Best kits. I liked everything I made, so I kept on by finding recipes online and asking for a critique here. Then, I bought some brewing software and started making my own recipes.

I would say that if you're getting bored with the Brewer's Best kits, then try finding a recipe online (we have a nice database) and then ask for some help formulating it to your taste. I like to pick a style, and then look at recipes for that style.

 

[SumnerH]

For my 2nd brew I'm doing a somewhat home-made recipe; I found a bunch of recipes for the style I liked and then picked out the elements I thought were good from each one, then threw my ideas into The Beer Recipator - Home (free recipe design tool) and tweaked until the IBUs/OG/color/etc were right for the style.

 

[user 29674]

I go to the nearest liquor/beer/wine store that sells "pick a six" where you pick out 6 beers for 6.99 7.99 or individually priced and buy stuff that looks good or I've never had before to learn the different styles. When I find something I really like, I look on HBT for a clone recipe and if I can't find a clone I look for a recipe in the same style. I write down everything I try in my brewlog with notes about what I liked about it and go through that when I'm getting ready to do a brew and pick the one that sounds the tastiest at the time.

 

[Casey27]

My suggestion, from my experience so far, is to find a reputable recipe on here or elsewhere that looks good to you. There are tons of recipes out there and most of them have been refined over time to make a really good beer.

One mistake I made several times as a beginner was to tinker with proven recipes before I had made the recipe in its original form. There is not reason to do that. First, try to follow the recipe as closely as possible, then, and only then, should you start making changes to make it suit your personal taste. If you want to change a recipe right off before even making it once, then it's probably the wrong recipe to start with. But that is just me learning from my mistakes...

 

[dontman]

Actually the 'Age Old Question' is 'Did I ruin my beer?'

Yours is less than usual.

I do like Aubrey in that I try to clone beers that I like. Or I pick a style that I am in the mood for and go to the recipes section of this site. Or I go on a kick such as Big Belgians or IPAs.

 

[tmoney1224]

I started out doing the pick six at the liquor store as well, helped me to find what beers I would like to attempt to brew. Then I looked around for some recipes and brewed them as written to see if it was something I liked. Now I am attempting to start doing my own recipes with beersmith's help and some suggested recipes that I tinker with to my preference. Eventually I will hopefully be able to know exactly what each grain and hop is bringing to the equation so I can make my own recipes from scratch.

 

[theguy]

I like the idea of picking up a "Pick Six" at the store. I will stop by the store this week and give it a shot. Thanks for all of the tips

 

[Homercidal]

Who can decide? I still can't. I hope to brew in about two weeks and I've been agonizing over the decision of what to brew for many weeks so far.

I usually try a bunch of beer at the store and then look for a recipe on here, or I've been looking at the recipes at Northern Brewer online. Most online stores offer kits for nearly all beer styles and they can be a great brew, or a great place to start if you want to tweak it a bit.

There are also several books with tons of recipes, and some books that help you create your own recipe with information on how to change your recipe to suit your desires.

 

[CBBaron]

I look for recipes online that have good reviews by several people or from books and magazines like Brewing Classic Styles and BYO. Sometimes i make these recipes as they are. Usually I make a few tweaks for the ingredients I have on hand or for my tastes. It is very important to keep notes about your process and recipes. When you produce a beer you really like it is good to know how you did it. This allows you to improve both your process and your own recipes and also gives you more feel for the ingredients so you can make recipes more your own.

Craig