Recipes - How To?

[photek1000]

I'm only a few All-Grain brews in but as this hobby can fill almost any waking moment with thinking about kit changes, next beers to brew etc I think about brewing my own recipes rather than pre-assembled AG kits.

I know there is lots of options for software to help in building recipes but is there a good guide for a beginner to learn which malts go well together and which hops to use in certain amounts and what timings to create my own beers.

Basically how to go from off the shelf to my own with out creating a 40 pint undrinkable monster.

 

[IainM]

Ray Daniel's book "Designing Great Beers" has this info. The first section is about the sorts of calculation that are done automatically by recipe building software, but most the book is devoted to different styles, each of which has as section in which he looks at combinations of ingredients are used in commercial and prize-winner home-brewed recipes, what sort of OG and IBU levels you want to target to get a good representation of that style, and so on.

 

[photek1000]

Excellent, an opportunity for another brewing book :thumb:

I shall hunt out a copy.

 

[chub1]

I'm only a few All-Grain brews in but as this hobby can fill almost any waking moment with thinking about kit changes, next beers to brew etc I think about brewing my own recipes rather than pre-assembled AG kits.

I know there is lots of options for software to help in building recipes but is there a good guide for a beginner to learn which malts go well together and which hops to use in certain amounts and what timings to create my own beers.

Basically how to go from off the shelf to my own with out creating a 40 pint undrinkable monster.

Google your prefered recipie,you will find an endless amount to try. Take a look at the recipie buider available on here, i use it a lot to come up with my own recipie or tamper with an existing one.Also lots of recipies on here,at top of page that have been brewed and can give you some ideas:thumb:.
I have the Greg Hughes book which is a goodun also one by Dave Law which is also pretty useful.

 

[MickDundee]

Try a few recipes and tweak them to your tastes until you have something that's yours. The Greg Hughes book mentioned above, and Mr Google, are great for things like this.

Also get some decent brewing software like Brewer's Friend, then you can check the bitterness levels, colour etc.

 

[Hoddy]

And also look in the "brewed recipes" thread section on here. There are plenty of nailed on recipe winners in there. Always good for you try and then tweak to your own personal taste.


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[GlentoranMark]

I use the Wort app for Android that comes with a style guide. Styles give a particular malt, hops, IBU ect.

I never try and emulate anything, I just go for a guide. For my simple Lager at the weekend I used

4kg Irish Lager Malt,
50g Saaz 60 minutes
25g Saz 15 minutes
25g Saaz at 1 minute
Saflager lager yeast

It fitted a Czech Lager style so we'll see how it turns out.

Maybe not an award winner but no malt or hops were left over and I'm sure it will be quaffable.

 

[Sadfield]

Randy Moshers Mastering Homebrew is a good book for getting an idea about what to expect from different grains and hops.

To be honest the best way to learn is experimentation, start with a single malt and hop recipe, brew it. Do it again with a change. Repeat. As long as your process is ok then you won't make anything undrinkable, and often the simplest of recipes are the best. There can be a fine line between complex and confused.

Also, smell your hops and taste your grain, buy single hop beers (Mallinsons are great for this) drink them whilst reading about the flavour profile of the hop used.

The BJCP style guidelines are also a good reference as to what to flavours you should aim for in a recipe.

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[photek1000]

Cheers for the info, plenty to go on there, I do like to smell the hops when I am brewing but I guess it's about getting my head around the smells of raw ingredients and how they will taste in a finished beer, not tried a munch on the grain but will next brew day.

I already have a few books with good recipes in them and will use those as a base for a tweaking and take it from there.

If there's anything that's great about home brewing and beer is that there's always something new to learn each and every day.

 

[MiddleRoom]

Find a style you want to brew, look at the types of ingredients suited to it (hops, malt, yeast); choose your base malt(s), research grist percentages for the speciality grains, and brew. I find no real fun in brewing other peoples' recipes, and would rather experiment with my own from the ground up. There are no set rules in home brewing, that's the beauty of it. Just tweak as you go.

 

[sven945]

If you like Brewdog beers, go out and buy a few, and while you're drinking them read over the DIYDog recipe. It's perhaps less useful at identifying individual flavours, but pretty useful at seeing how ingredients work together.