Create the Recipe then stick to it?

[Benfleet Brewery]

Am I the only one who finds it hard to create a recipe and stick to it? I always seem to change something on brew day.
Today for example, I did a fake Vienna Lager. Was supposed to be:
5 kg Vienna malt
100g Wheat malt
100g Black malt
10g Magnum 45 mins
20g Mandarina Bavaria 15 mins
30g Mandarina Bavaria 0 mins

As I was about to measure out the grist when I thought “why don’t I do a SMaSH instead”? Why would I think that? I have my recipe. I had to try so hard to talk myself out of it and stick to my plan.

Then as the mash was underway I went to measure out the hops and thought “why don’t I use Summit for the first addition instead of Magnum?”. This time I wasn’t able to talk myself out of it and used Summit instead. I really wind myself up doing this.

 

[Linalmeemow]

Am I the only one who finds it hard to create a recipe and stick to it? I always seem to change something on brew day.
Today for example, I did a fake Vienna Lager. Was supposed to be:
5 kg Vienna malt
100g Wheat malt
100g Black malt
10g Magnum 60 mins
20g Mandarina Bavaria 15 mins
30g Mandarina Bavaria 0 mins

As I was about to measure out the grist when I thought “why don’t I do a SMaSH instead”? Why would I think that? I have my recipe. I had to try so hard to talk myself out of it and stick to my plan.

Then as the mash was underway I went to measure out the hops and thought “why don’t I use Summit for the first addition instead of Magnum?”. This time I wasn’t able to talk myself out of it and used Summit instead. I really wind myself up doing this.

I bought a "lucky dip" selection of hops on the cheap a couple of years ago and ended up with a bag of Premiant hops. It's sat in the freezer ever since. It doesn't fit in very well with what I usually brew, but I hate wastage so I often end up adding some in as bittering at the last minute then messing about with my hop schedule on the fly. I should just throw the bad away, honestly!

 

[Clint]

Well ...it's up to you really. My brew yesterday was for 60g of EKG...I only had 45g...so I added the amount of B-X to get me to the IBU I needed...
I'll often split a malt bill and use up bits left over..

 

[Banbeer]

The only time I changed a recipe was when I mashed, sparged, boiled, cooled and pitched a different yeast as I hadn't got the yeast I needed or anything close. I made an APA and the only yeast I had was a cider yeast, it fermented but boy did it have a twang to it

 

[Gerryjo]

I change mine all the time even after creating it or make one up on the and forget to take notes and have had some cracking beers... You win some big and others you just win..

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I change every recipe every time thinking I’m making improvements - most of the time I’m just making it different!

 

[dwhite60]

Once it's brew day it's carved in stone. Up until then anything goes.

 

[Clint]

I think I would like to settle on a "house pale"...an American style.. not too strong,bit of malt backnote..but I keep trying all sorts of stuff...none bad!
Then a bitter...this is harder to do I think.
Then I like a stout...what about about a wheat..or a Saison?

 

[Oneflewover]

Once it's brew day it's carved in stone. Up until then anything goes.

Yeah this about sums my approach up. I love tweaking my recipes and experimenting, but once I've decided what I'm going to do (and it can be painful getting to that point!) I won't deviate unless there is a need to; for example, OG higher or lower than expected

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Well, it’s not just me then. However, some manage to stick to the plan. I annoy myself because I spend a lot of time making changes to finally get to a recipe I‘d like to try but then rarely do just that. Don’t get me wrong, since I moved to AG I’ve not brewed anything I’ve not enjoyed drinking and some I’ve been delighted with. But I do wonder what they’d have come out like if I’d stuck to the plan.

 

[dwhite60]

If I stick to the plan making notes becomes a simple check list.

 

[foxy]

Changing the yeast and the hops can make a hell of a difference, keep the grain bill the same and just keep tweaking until you find what suits you. My last few brews I have been working on an ESB, what I like will not go down well in a comp so now I have a recipe for me and one for a comp. Though I will end up submitting both when comps start up again.

 

[PhilBrew]

Once it's brew day it's carved in stone. Up until then anything goes.

... I'd like to think this is my approach, but every so often I find my "stock management system" (spreadsheet of ingredients) lets me down and I don't have the ingredients I thought I had (I suppose I'm long overdue a full stock check :tinhat: ) ... but last-minute substitutions usually aim to minimise impact, rather than look to make something else instead

Cheers, PhilB

 

[Stephenj]

I try to plan as best as possible and stick to it. I have really bad short term memory and if I don't have a tick off list and write everything down is get stressed out. Up until brew day though it morphs all the time with advice and ideas from here and the net.

As a side note, I actually managed to forget I had a brew in the FV chamber. I had planned for a brew day and mash water was heating up, everything out, and I just happened to think 'i better check the freezer is clean' and there it was, a surprise pale ale feeling neglected and alone, although snug at 20c.

 

[northof49]

Great to see this discussion thread. I brewed on Saturday and this issue arose. First of all, let me say that I am more of a cook than a baker, that is to say that I use recipes for ideas and adjust on the fly. I recognize that this is not the best way to approach brewing when I want to learn from my process and so I’ve decided that once I have set a recipe I won’t change it.

Saturday morning I’m reviewing my recipe for an ESB that I’d researched. I’d looked through a number of recipes to see what was possible given the hops that I have on hand (don’t currently have any Goldings) and found a recipe that calls for Willamette. I’m sure that I’ve sampled Redhook ESB (5.5% ABV, 11 SRM, 27 IBU) at some point, but don’t remember it. Any way, I notice that the recipe has a lot of crystal (765g!) and so I decided to reduce that and increase the pale malt to compensate (to 5.5 kg). I haven’t technically started brewing so I figure it is okay to make changes at this point.

I’m weighing out the pale malt and discover that I don’t have enough left in the sack. On the fly I decide to switch to ESB malt (Gambrinus), which I figure is consistent with the style and so mill it while the strike water comes up to temp. I’m mashing in when I realize that I’d completely left out the crystal malt and so I decide that I’m now making a Willamette SMASH.

Things continued in this vein as I overshot my gravity by 10 points. I’ve measured conversion efficiency with this ESB malt twice and with both batches the calculation was 98%. But I hadn’t planned on using it for this batch. So again, I’m modifying the recipe on the fly by adding about four litres of water as the wort is heating up to the boil. I ended up with 28 L of wort in the FV with the expected ABV calculated at 6.5% (and the brewhouse efficiency of 93%).

So while I like the idea of setting a recipe and sticking to it, life has a habit of getting in the way of those plans.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I can completely appreciate things happen on the day which necessitate making changes and that sort of happened to me in the example that prompted me to open this thread. I had planned for 10g Magnum for bittering. BF defaulted Magnum to 15%aa but when I went to the freezer mine were 10%aa. I really should have just upped the amount then but saw I had Summit at 18%aa and thought, that’s closer. The other thought I had at that moment was that the Tangeriny sort of flavour of the Summit could go great with the Mandarina Bavaria so went with them. I’m sure it will come out ok

 

[northof49]

I can completely appreciate things happen on the day which necessitate making changes and that sort of happened to me in the example that prompted me to open this thread. I had planned for 10g Magnum for bittering. BF defaulted Magnum to 15%aa but when I went to the freezer mine were 10%aa. I really should have just upped the amount then but saw I had Summit at 18%aa and thought, that’s closer. The other thought I had at that moment was that the Tangeriny sort of flavour of the Summit could go great with the Mandarina Bavaria so went with them. I’m sure it will come out ok

I’m not sure how much flavour you’ll get from the Summit hops added at the beginning of the boil, but they should provide the right amount of bitterness. If you had been shooting for 30 IBU you’ll end up with something a little closer to 35 IBU.