Recipe Inspiration Needed

[matt76]

Beers that I generally like are:

American IPA
English IPA
APA
Amber Ale
English Bitter

As already noted above, you'll have no trouble at all finding recipes for all these styles on this forum alone, let alone other UK & US forums etc, along with the usual books.

The best thing you can do, the best way to learn as a new brewer, is simply to get on and brew, to experiment and learn what works for you. And if it doesn't quite work out, remember it's just a hobby and have a think why and what you'd do differently next time.

One observation - I'd argue that all the styles you've listed there are more or less the same, or at least share a common ancestry.

What sets them apart is (a) strength and (b) use of local ingredients (malt, hops & yeast).

For example you could argue American Amber is simply an English Bitter made with US malts, hops (e.g. you might see Cascade used instead of EKG), and yeast (US strains generally cleaner, English are more fruity).

So one thing you might try is to take a "standard" baseline recipe to make all these different styles.

- This could be nothing more than changing the hops & yeast

- You can also play around with when you add hops, and how much

- Or maybe changing the proportions of the grain bill (American IPA might use less crystal malt or none at all, for example)

- Or just increasing the grain bill to make it stronger (arguably either by increasing only the base malt, or just increase everything).

Experiment, have fun and report back

 

[woolley2002]

As already noted above, you'll have no trouble at all finding recipes for all these styles on this forum alone, let alone other UK & US forums etc, along with the usual books.

The best thing you can do, the best way to learn as a new brewer, is simply to get on and brew, to experiment and learn what works for you. And if it doesn't quite work out, remember it's just a hobby and have a think why and what you'd do differently next time.

One observation - I'd argue that all the styles you've listed there are more or less the same, or at least share a common ancestry.

What sets them apart is (a) strength and (b) use of local ingredients (malt, hops & yeast).

For example you could argue American Amber is simply an English Bitter made with US malts, hops (e.g. you might see Cascade used instead of EKG), and yeast (US strains generally cleaner, English are more fruity).

So one thing you might try is to take a "standard" baseline recipe to make all these different styles.

- This could be nothing more than changing the hops & yeast

- You can also play around with when you add hops, and how much

- Or maybe changing the proportions of the grain bill (American IPA might use less crystal malt or none at all, for example)

- Or just increasing the grain bill to make it stronger (arguably either by increasing only the base malt, or just increase everything).

Experiment, have fun and report back

Thanks, I guess I just need to be more confident and be prepared to make a mistake and learn from it.

Would it be advisable to research into what hops go together well as well?

 

[matt76]

Thanks, I guess I just need to be more confident and be prepared to make a mistake and learn from it.

Would it be advisable to research into what hops go together well as well?

Just bear in mind that unless you're a total clown any mistakes are likely to be minor and you'll still end up with perfectly drinkable beer.

Yes to some degree it's worth researching hop combinations, but you won't learn how they actually taste (and taste is very subjective) until you make some beer with them!

Best thing is to make a recipe, post it here in General Recipe Discussion and the hive mind of the forum can advise any tweaks.

 

[Braufather]

Thanks, I guess I just need to be more confident and be prepared to make a mistake and learn from it.

Would it be advisable to research into what hops go together well as well?

id just buy Some all grain recipe kits to start off and concentrate on getting your process sorted.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Buy Greg Hughes book and pick a recipe.
And Happy Solstice all.

 

[St00]

I like Mean Brews approach to build recipes.

I made his Festbier recently it was pretty awesome, definitely one of the best beers I've brewed.

 

[woolley2002]

What other yeast could I use for this brew @Cheshire Cat ?

22 litres of Landlord
4700g MO
20g Black malt
25g each of EKG and Styrian Golding @60m
25g SG @15 m
25g EKG @ whirlpool 90C for 20m
Yeast The Firm & 1/2 pack of Gervin
OG 1048 70% BHE

 

[Cheshire Cat]

CML Midland, Safale 04, MJ M36.

 

[St00]

Wyeast 1469 Shirley?