Tired of kits. How to make from scratch?

[ChadS]

Hi, I’ve been brewing for a couple years, but I’ve always used ingredient kits. I’d like to brew my own recipes, but I don’t know where to start. Has anyone created their own beer that can share how they did it?

 

[cwise]

I have been at it a little over a year, and I am still learning a lot. I have made a few good recipes by using a known recipe from this forum, brewing it a few times. After I "know" the recipe, I make it again with small tweaks to see what happens. I find this is a great and quick way to develop a recipe.

 

[bracconiere]

i usually just open my containers of different crystal malts, smell them...and think hmm, what do i feel like? maybe 1lb light crystal with about 8 oz darker crystal for this batch, maybe i'll throw in 2oz dark for just a hint of roastiness....maybe i'll just do a light beer and go 100% base malt (really pretty good that way)

my last batch i used 2 lbs dark and 1lb light crystal, i figured the light crystal would just be a nice tie in between the dark and base malt...round it out, or something to that effect...

I like my beer simple....lol

edit: right now drinking a batch i used 20lb pale malt, and decided to try and kiln, then roast a bit hotter, to see what i got..2oz hop 60min boil, 1oz dry hop...pretty decent by my standards..(i brew 10 gal batches)

side note: unless you like your beer to taste like vegetables, stay away from corn...

 

[cactusgarrett]

Step 1: read Designing Great Beers
Step 2: ?
Step 3: profit

Seriously, it's just about deciding on the style you want to make, then researching what that style typically has. One step further is tailoring the recipe to your specific desires, but that'll come with experience and learning what ingredients A vs B is like.

Search on here, too. For example, there's already a similar thread going on here.

 

[HB_ATL73]

Hi, I’ve been brewing for a couple years, but I’ve always used ingredient kits. I’d like to brew my own recipes, but I don’t know where to start. Has anyone created their own beer that can share how they did it?

Are you an extract brewing solely? There are some ways you can improve a kit or extract brew with either a partial mash or steeping some extra grains. Also the kits recipes (which are all available online) provide a good base example of a style recipe- so you can always pick apart the ingredients and experiments with different hops/etc to make it your own.

 

[madscientist451]

I’d like to brew my own recipes, but I don’t know where to start.

1. Study the available books and other literature available. There are also many brewing podcasts with lots of great information.
2. Make a series of single malt/single hop brews so you can figure out what you like/don't like.
3. Decide what you want your end result to be: (roasty, sweet, dry, hoppy, fruity, creamy, things like that)
4. Experiment with specialty malts, different yeasts and brewing techniques to achieve your desired beer.

Another thing to try is brew a style you like from an established recipe, then consider what you would change. Re-brew and see how it comes out.
My best beer recipes have come from blogs where the brewer brews and then re-brews and has tweaked the ingredients based on his tasting notes. My own recipe efforts have been only OK, I don't have the time to do a lot of re-brews to dial everything in just right.
There are already lots of really great beer recipes out there, and I'm not saying don't try to make up your own, but if you have limited time and don't want questionable beer, its way easier to use established recipes and put your efforts into getting your brewing techniques figured out.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

I've never done a kit. I would just grab recipes that sounded good, gathered the ingredients, then give it a shot. If it was good I might remake it with tweaks that I found necessary. These tweaks might have been a hop substitution, different yeast, or grain. Some substitutions are based on preference - some are based on availability. After enough experience I have been able to develop quite the tap list of my own recipes. Coming up with names seems to be the hardest part. I literally have a house favorite named "beer".

 

[balrog]

Another thing to try is brew a style you like from an established recipe, then consider what you would change. Re-brew and see how it comes out.

^This. Start with something, like a clone of something, and think about "maybe maltier, maybe drier, maybe roastier"

'Tis easier to edit than create from nothing sometimes.

 

[friarsmith]

^ All of the above. See if your LHBS has this magazine. For a low price it'll give you a good survey of ingredients in a handful of commercial beers for just about every style. The recipes usually have an extract/grains and all grain version. I've had my copy for at least 10 years and I think it has been updated once or twice. I've liked the results from every recipe. Most are dead-on clones.

 

[deadwolfbones]

Play with a recipe builder like Beersmith or Brewfather.

As others have said, you can search the forums for a base recipe in the style you want to brew, plug it in to one of these apps, and then play with it to suit your tastes.

 

[bracconiere]

Play with a recipe builder like Beersmith or Brewfather.

As others have said, you can search the forums for a base recipe in the style you want to brew, plug it in to one of these apps, and then play with it to suit your tastes.

the color prediction is nice too!

 

[beernutz]

The authors include both extract and all-grain recipes. Great book and great recipes imo.

 

[aaron_m]

I also started out brewing kits but wanted to be able to create my own recipes. One of the problems with kits was that I wasn't really giving any thought about what the ingredients were or the ratios being used. I would just combine the ingredients as instructed and end up with beer. That's cool and all but if I wanted to be able to create my own recipes, I needed to be able to understand how each ingredient contributes to create the final product.

I decided to pick a couple styles I like and primarily focus on those. I spend a lot of time searching for clone recipes of beers I like and comparing recipes between similar beers to try and better understand how the ingredients come together. I still usually start with a base recipe from here or somewhere else and then try to tweak it some to better fit the taste I want. As you brew a certain beer over and over you will start to get a better feel for what results you will get by changing certain things.

I still have a ton to learn but I'm enjoying the process and keep getting better with each brew

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Many good ideas here.

Styles (BJCP or otherwise) can be useful.

I find the"Make Your Best" series at https://beerandbrewing.com/ to be a useful summary of beer styles. I don't know if there is a summary page for the series. I generally look for a specific style, so I will search

make your best insert style site:beerandbrewing.com

For classic beer styles, let's go back to 1999 with the online version of How to Brew:

...here is a rough approximation of the recipes for the common ale styles:
Pale Ale - base malt plus a half pound of caramel malt,
Amber Ale - pale ale plus a half pound of dark caramel malt,
Brown Ale - pale ale plus a half pound of chocolate malt
Porter - amber ale plus a half pound of chocolate malt,
Stout - porter plus a half pound of roast barley.

Yes, those recipes are pretty crude, but ...

The book Mastering Homebrew by Randy Mosher is currently on sale at a couple of eBook stores for less than $2.00. Don't have an ebook reader? Go to http://randymosher.com/index.php?page=mastering-homebrew and take a look at "The Amazing Shape-Shifting Beer Recipe" image.

 

[GPNewBrew]

I am going to start brewing my own recipes as well. I have the book “Brewing Classic Styles” and using that and Brewsmith software I figure it will be fun and not terribly difficult. Pick a style you want to brew, and use Brewsmith to keep you within the style guidelines, and you should do fine

 

[Homergah]

My first "not a kit" recipe went something like this:

I had first brewed in the dark, yet emerging days of homebrew, that was the eighties. My first brew on my own occurred after reading everything I could find about brewing. The beer was not that great, but I still loved it. I decided to stay up late on the night I was told my cancer was in remission, and write my own recipe. So, armed with all the data I could find, and several home brews, I put together my first recipe from scratch. It was New Years Eve, 1999. As I was putting the final touches on the recipe, the DJ started playing the number one rock song of the century. Free bird. So the beer had acquired its name. It was tasty. On the one year anniversary of that night I wrote a little piece of literature that ended up being my first piece to get published, and I got paid for it! And it was in Zymurgy.

Anyway learn all you can about grains, hops, yeast, and water, and what contribution they each make to the final product. Then you'll be armed with knowledge. For me it always works better than spitballs.

 

[Immocles]

2. Make a series of single malt/single hop brews so you can figure out what you like/don't like.

Ive found myself in similar territories as OP. After listening to a few podcasts on the way to work, I've decided this is my next approach. It just seems like a good time with less chances of ending up with something absolutely terrible. My main issue is that I lack any type of real inventory at this point, and the nearest brew shop is a couple hour drive away. Maybe an internet dealer will have a great ingredient sale to stock up.

Do most folks keep a pretty sizable stock of various ingredients at their homes? I'm picturing basements looking similar to the grain bins I used to shovel as a kid...

 

[Homergah]

Do most folks keep a pretty sizable stock of various ingredients at their homes? I'm picturing basements looking similar to the grain bins I used to shovel as a kid...

Yep, pretty much. I currently have about 70 lbs of grain and maybe 30 lbs of hop. I sometimes have more, sometimes less. Cheaper in bulk.

 

[Kirkwooder]

I brew mostly pale ales/IPA's. After doing several kits/recipes from all over everywhere , I noticed that most beer recipes start with 7-10 lbs of "base" malts. Pick your favorite base malt and brew a single malt, single hop, or "smash", beer . It's really the only way to truly know what you are tasting is coming from what ingredients. Smash beers are really simple to brew from either extract or grain, and can be really drinkable beers. 2 cans of light malt extract, and 1/2 oz of Willamette @ 60, 30, and flame out, fermented with some us05 makes for a crowd pleasing lightly hopped pale ale. Steep in some cara pills, or wheat and you have a totally different beer.

Start with small changes and work your way up from there.

 

[brewcat]

I read about the style I want to brew. Then look at various recipes. From there, create a base recipe and think if I want more/less of something. Sometimes it is as simple as... I have these ingredients that need to be used... What style? A recipe calculator helps. As long as you aren't completely out of balance in style you should have drinkable beer. Then tweak it from there if necessary.

 

[rhinoceroceros]

I have been at it a little over a year, and I am still learning a lot. I have made a few good recipes by using a known recipe from this forum, brewing it a few times. After I "know" the recipe, I make it again with small tweaks to see what happens. I find this is a great and quick way to develop a recipe.

I recently started developing my own recipes after upgrading to all grain. What has been helpful to me is to start simple, research the style I want to brew, try to find recipes for commercial examples of that style that I would like to emulate and use brewing software.

I wanted to make an American Pale Ale so I knew I would have a pretty simple grain bill. I was able to find articles online specifically about pale ales (style guidelines, common hops, brewing pale ales). Some breweries post their ingredients or even the whole recipe for some of their beers, so I was able to see what goes in to beers I knew I liked. I also used Brewer's Friend to make the recipe, it's helpful to have something to put your recipe in and be able to get some information back about what to expect as far as IBUs and gravity

 

[jcom87]

Get the book "Designing Great Beers" by Ray Daniels and give it a read. It's a great book and a good starting point for recipe creation.

 

[ProblemChild]

my recommendation is get brewing software. read designing great beers. Learn how to use the calculations in designing great beers and compare them against the software. Start with a SMaSH beer and do a few test runs with the following permutations:
Base recipe,
Base recipe - move hops to different point in boil.
Different malt, same hopping as first beer,
Same different malt - move hops to different point in boil
Base beer - different yeast.

Monitor difference in yield and efficiency on each batch.

Gaining perspective of the nuances of base malts and hop schedules will be enormously helpful. Observing the vast changes that yeast can create is critical.

 

[r4dyce]

I would echo the idea of learning (or looking up) a basic recipe for the style you're shooting for, and then modify from there. Once you learn it (or write it down) it's an easy reference point. Brewing software tools are helpful here.

Prepare to be wrong! A lot of the fun of brewing is the experimentation and I'm guessing that's partly why you want to make your own recipes. What you get wrong can be more valuable than what you get right. And just like a good experiment don't introduce too many variables or else you want be able to pinpoint what's causing the taste you like/dislike.

Small batch brewing (even down to 1gal) can be a fun way to experiment or design a recipe. Very quick brew days and less waste if you screw something up. It can also be a fun way to test dry hops or flavor additions. Like take a 2 Gallon batch, split into two 1 Gallon fermenters. Dry hop one with hop A and the second with Hop B etc. Scale to whatever you like.

 

[Soulshine2]

Hi, I’ve been brewing for a couple years, but I’ve always used ingredient kits. I’d like to brew my own recipes, but I don’t know where to start. Has anyone created their own beer that can share how they did it?

less than 3 yrs brewing, did a scratch recipe ,turned out good. Find a brew app and play with it. Base it on 2 row pale and make small additions ,change/add this or that until you come up with a beer that fits a specific style ,color. Its a proportions game. I played around on the app for almost a year , tweaked it a dozen times before I actually brewed it.

 

[beernutz]

Ive found myself in similar territories as OP. After listening to a few podcasts on the way to work, I've decided this is my next approach. It just seems like a good time with less chances of ending up with something absolutely terrible. My main issue is that I lack any type of real inventory at this point, and the nearest brew shop is a couple hour drive away. Maybe an internet dealer will have a great ingredient sale to stock up.

Do most folks keep a pretty sizable stock of various ingredients at their homes? I'm picturing basements looking similar to the grain bins I used to shovel as a kid...

Pretty regularly yes. I am down to my last 48 lbs of grain but not long ago I had around 150 lbs in stock. It doesn't take up that much space--I use three stackable screw lid dog food containers.

Grain    amount  
Great Western Domestic 2-row    0    lbs
Great Western white wheat    0  
Weyermann Pilsner    0  
Rahr Pale malt    33  
crystal 120L    1.5  
crystal 60L    0  
crystal 45L    0  
flaked corn    0  
carapils    1  
Munich    8  
Rye    3  
Caramunich    0.7  
Carafa  III    1  
Crisp chocolate 220L    0  
Total    48.2    lbs
     
Hop    amount  
Mosaic 12.8 AA    3.5    oz
Centennial 10.4 AA    9  
Cascade 7.2 AA    11  
Amarillo 7.9 AA    16  
Hallertauer 3.3 AA    0  
Simcoe cryo 23.8 AA    0  
Simcoe 13.0 AA    0  
Bravo 17.5 AA    0  
Total    39.5    oz
       
Yeast    amount  
Danstar Bry-97 West Coast Ale dry    0    package(s)
Safale US-05    2  
K-97    0  
Munich Wheat     2  
Safbrew T-58 Belgian Ale    0  
Saflager S-33 Lager    2  
Redstar Montrachet wine dry    2  
Total    8  packages
       
Other    amount  
coriander    4    oz
sweet orange peel    0  
bitter orange peel    0

 

[beernutz]

Yep, pretty much. I currently have about 70 lbs of grain and maybe 30 lbs of hop. I sometimes have more, sometimes less. Cheaper in bulk.

That is a massive amount of hops. Where do you keep them all?

 

[Homergah]

That is a massive amount of hops. Where do you keep them all?

In a freezer. Admittedly, some of these are aged hops, part of an ongoing experiment.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I’m close to homebrew stores, so I can get most of what I want and don’t have to store malt or hops. I make something different every time. If I go out to a bar which is very rare, I make it count by having a different style of beer if I have more than 1. Using this “field work”, I see what inspires me. Then I look up the BJCP style guide and use online calculators to try and achieve that style. Even if I don’t really 100% succeed in what I’m going for, the beer is never unpleasant. When there are faults, it’s generally not from the recipe that I created but in small errors I make in my process.

 

[rmyurick]

You could always browse the recipes on this site.

 

[Soulshine2]

Hi, I’ve been brewing for a couple years, but I’ve always used ingredient kits. I’d like to brew my own recipes, but I don’t know where to start. Has anyone created their own beer that can share how they did it?

what kind(s) of beer do you like? start with those styles first,so you'll end up with something you can drink every day,a confidence builder .Next brew, go to your next favorite style and tweak some ingredients. Add something,swap a malt out for rice or oats...or corn. add a citrus zest to a wheat beer. change a yeast. Its easy to do little changes and come away with a beer YOU made. Your taste may evolve (mine did )and you'll start experimenting with brewing beers you may have not liked in the past but you might find more interesting now. Not many years ago I didn't care much for dark beers, in the last 2 years its like all I drink. Also the higher hopped beers ,I'm slowly working my taste into the higher IBUs as I find different hops characteristics. Relax, dont worry and have a homebrew. this is fun. Have fun

 

[wepeeler]

Hi, I’ve been brewing for a couple years, but I’ve always used ingredient kits. I’d like to brew my own recipes, but I don’t know where to start. Has anyone created their own beer that can share how they did it?

Best advice I could give, as someone who was doing extract kits for nearly a year, then switched to BIAB, is RESEARCH. Google everything, talk to everyone and read some brewing books. Get some brewing software so you can predict OG, FG, volumes etc. Also, try your best to accurately input your equipment profile ie volumes, boil off rate, starting volume, ending volume etc. This will help you understand your brewing process better. This may take a few brews to figure out, but brewing is always a learning process. I use Beersmith, but there are plenty of other ones out there. I think there's a free 30 day trial period. Know what style you want to brew, and research the heck out of it. Look at different recipes and see what people are doing. A lot of brewing is trial and error, but it can be somewhat streamlined if you know what you want to do vs just winging it. Some commercial brewers will give advice as well. As I said earlier, talk to everyone. Ask questions. You'll soon begin to understand who is giving good advice and who not to listen to.

And this forum has been invaluable to me and many others. I constantly just read threads, even if they don't directly influence me at the moment, because there is always something to learn!

 

[Velnerj]

I've never made a kit, my first batch of beer and every one after have been my own recipe.

Since you've been brewing for a while I'm going to assume you know some things about fermentation, ibus, gravity etc. So you're already light years ahead of where I was when I started.

Here are my tips for getting started:

1) As many have said literature is a big help. Focus on the sections of the books that deal with the mash, grain and hop characteristics.
2) when it comes to grains learn to think in percentages rather than weight amounts. This will save you from using too many specialty malts which may result in undrinkable beer. Base malts should be 100-85% of the recipe.
3) same for hops think in terms of ibus (or better house bittering units) rather than weight amounts.
4) Always know what an ingredient is bringing to your recipe. Less is more and if you don't know why an ingredient is included in your recipe eliminate it. Obviously you don't "know" what each element brings to your beer until you try it but you should at least know what the ingredient is intended to do.
5) try to focus on either hitting a certain gravity or a certain volume for your first few brews. Pick one of these and then later as you learn your mashing system you can create recipes that focus on both.
6) it's very likely your lhbs won't have every ingredient you need. Learn how to substitute grains and hops. Here's a good grain substitute chart: https://www.brew.is/files/malt.html
7) don't try to clone a recipe but rather see your recipe as an homage to the beer you're trying to emulate, you may even like your version better.

 

[Soulshine2]

Hi, I’ve been brewing for a couple years, but I’ve always used ingredient kits. I’d like to brew my own recipes, but I don’t know where to start. Has anyone created their own beer that can share how they did it?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060531053/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Buy this , read it, keep it handy and keep referencing back to it. I have it in "the library" and even a 10 minute session , I find information I missed before. Great simple explanations and do's and dont's of your every day home brewing.