I read this forum and a couple of others that I randomly found, and I am kinda curious. How do you all figure out your recipes? I am not talking clones or ones that are loosely like commercial stuff, but the ones where you just say, “OK, let’s try this” type of stuff? I am new, so this is kinda curious to me. Is it time and experience that you kinda know what the base is, then just mix and match and see what you come up with? I find it all very interesting. If this is a stupid question feel free to delete it, but you guys that kinda come up with your own recipes, you guys are what I hope to be some day. Rock on!!! Dino
Yeah, experience counts for a lot. I start with imagining what the beer should taste like, then work backwards from there. That means you have know the flavors of different ingredients, and to figure that out there’s nothing like brewing a bunch.
It’s not a dumb question. People have written whole books about recipe design.
I usually start with a particular style in mind. For example, my wife had a Vienna lager that she really liked a couple of months ago and asked me to brew one. I read the description of Vienna lager in the BJCP guidelines to get an idea of the end point. Then I looked at recipes online at Brew Your Own magazine and the AHA website. After looking at 5-10 recipes I had a pretty good idea of how to make a Vienna lager. Then I used that information to generate my own recipe, knowing what I like and what my wife likes in a beer. That won’t work so well for an IPA because the number of recipes you find to look at would be overwhelming. You need some kind of filter to narrow the selection in that case.
Thanks. I am getting that idea too. LOL. I am more of a Blind Pig, Racer 5 kinda IPA, so I guess that should be where I start. I want to get into more styles though, so maybe I will start looking at Fat Tire, Sierra Nevada and stuff like that. My brother likes Wheat beers and I have half his 5 gallon batch here, so I might try it one night just for the hell of it. Thanks to all who replied. RR
I look at the recipes section on the AHA website. I mostly look at award winners for a category. I look for commonalities from the various recipes. Lots of recipes have a bunch of ingredients. I try to boil it down to a basic recipe.
I also look at Morebeer.com and see what their kits include. I buy my ingredients there so, I think it’s okay to use their recipes. Besides they put them out there for all to see.
Once I have a basic recipe I start changing one (or two) things at a time. Frankly, I never stop changing. There are always more ingredients to try. That’s part of the fun for me.
I also search this forum. There are so many threads where people ask for comments on a recipe. I read those. There are posters (past and present) I have learned to trust.
Read as much as you can about ingredients; malt, hops, yeast, to help form an idea of their contribution to the finished beer. And then brew with them and take notes, lots of notes. After a while you start to know what each ingredient brings to the party, so to speak. It takes some time, but that’s where the fun is, the process of discovery.
- I try to select a base or combination of base plus one each per category of the other grains (only if needed) from the ‘mash required’ or ‘no mash required’ categories below. Some beers just have a combination of base malts such as my version of Festbier: 60% Pils, 25% Vienna and 15% Munich.
**Mash:
Base: Pilsner, Brewer’s Malt, Pale (‘2-Row’, Maris Otter, Golden Promise, etc), Pale Ale, Vienna, Munich, etc.
Special: aromatic, melanoidin, biscuit, Victory, Special Roast, honey malt, amber malt, and brown malt, etc.
Unmalted adjuncts: Barley, Wheat, Rye, Oats, Corn, Rice, etc
**Mash out/Vorlauf + Sparge:
Light C malt: C#, Cara-, Crystal, etc
Dark C malt: C#, Cara-, Crystal, Special B, DRC, etc
Chocolate: Light, Dark, Carafa, etc
Roasted malt: Roasted Barley, Black Patent, Blackprinze, etc
**Boil:
Sugar: Demerara, Lactose, Brown, Table, Turbinado, Candi Syrup, Invert, etc
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Think in percents.
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Have you seen this:
John Palmer’s template found in his book How to Brew, Chapter 20 Experiment! — Developing your own Recipes:
“To help get your creative juices flowing, 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 I want you to realize how little effort it takes to produce a different beer.”
- Combining these thoughts you can end up with something like this Amber Ale (combination of base malt and one specialty malt added to Palmer’s framework):
Mash
75% Pale Malt
10% Munich
5% Victory
Add at Mash Out
5% C40
5% C120
…then substitute hops and yeast in/out as desired, as well as water adjustments.
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Understanding styles can help. For example an American Pale Ale fits between a Blonde Ale and an American IPA in hoppiness and strength. Back off on the hops (and maybe the strength) and you have a Blonde Ale. Increase the strength (and maybe the hops) and you have an IPA. Tweak the malt-hop balance to favor the malt a bit more, and you have either an American Amber Ale or an American Brown Ale (add more crystal malt for an amber, add some chocolate malt for a brown).
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…but don’t let the perceived ‘rules’ dictate your creativity. “The style nazi [wants] to define something as “English” or “British” is by the use of UK malt and hops. Even though beers actually brewed in Britain over the last 150 [years] have almost always contained some non-British ingredients.” — Ron Pattinson
Awesome replies guys. Thanks. I honestly thought it was a pretty stupid question, but what the heck, I am the king of stupid questions. LOL. Thanks again. RR
iMO the key to understanding how to design recipes is mastering styles. It’s not any different than any other forms of traditional arts or crafts. Even the most celebrated artists and craftsmen in the world stand on the shoulders of those who came before them. Understanding how styles change from region to region really gives a brewer a peak into what ingredients do to change the flavor profile of a beer. It also lets a brewer see how simple some of the most flavor recipes really are and allow them to make tweaks that fit their preference.
The creative urge causes almost every brewer to jump in and add lots of different ingredients to their beer, it’s totally natural. But understanding styles teaches brewers to use a restrained hand.
Keep recipes simple and branch out from there, changing one thing at a time. Once you have a base recipe change one or two things at a time until you get the beer where you want it. Making too many changes at one time will probably confuse you as to what has done what.
It is a bit dated, but Designing Great Beers is all about recipe creation. I don’t think the basics of recipe design have changed much; though you won’t set any help with some of the new IPAs. Most of the ingredients haven’t changed either. Check it out.
I started brewing about 10 years ago. I knew nothing about brewing other than the fact that I loved craft beer and wanted to learn how to make it. So, I read, and read, and read some more. Then, like many of the other brewers have mentioned, I start with a style in my head. Then I read about the style in BJCP. Then I may seek other recipes from AHA just to get some ideas. The rest is experience. Knowing: as another brewer stated - “what each ingredient brings to the party” is very helpful. So read the description of the ingredients you want to use. Also, learn your equipment.
In the beginning, I brewed some crappy beer. But not anymore. Lastly, spending time in this forum also is a great learning experience; there is no such thing as a dumb question.
I usually start out trying to find a solid recipe for the style I am making and brew that then taste it and next time I tweak it to get more or less of something. I am experienced enough know what I like and what changes in ingredients will do.
I have found that BYO magazine has well vetted recipes that can be found online easily. Ideally I would change one ingredient but I don’t have nearly the time I would like to brew so I tend to make whatever changes I need, like maybe lower or eliminate crystal malts and add more late hops.
Often my third brew of a style is completely my own recipe. But even if I like it I find it hard to resist tweaking. Like others I tend to move towards simplicity, but only if it works.
I generally keep changing the recipe until it is far worse than what I started with. But that’s the learning experience!
Know your ingredients.
Know the beer styles.
Know the processes used for different styles and ingredients.
Then you can say how do i get to my desired beer.
↑↑ All of the above.
And by all means, post your new recipe on this very helpful board and see what others think. Sometimes the recipe is fine as is, sometimes it might need a little tweak, and sometimes it’s way off base. We’ve all been there. We’re all still there.
Also remember, Google is your friend. When designing a new recipe, I take look at what others have successfully done and maybe pick one thing from this recipe, one thing from that recipe, etc. to create my own unique recipe. As others have said knowing what flavors various malts impart in the beer is a key to making a good beer for a specific style. Every style has been brewed many times so there is a wealth of information out there to help you.
Once I have a base recipe, I can tweak it to improve it for a future brew. That is the fun part!
Just my 0.02
Agree with Denny.
Sometimes I make a “concept” beers. They are usually for special occasion.
The recipe process goes like this.
What this beer should be like?
Alcohol? How big?
Color?
Bitterness? What kind of flavor?
Mouthfeel?
Any other special flavors and additions?
Final questions is “Will I like it?”
Then backfilling the ingredients that you know will get you those flavors.
It drives me nuts when people ask me what style of beer it is.
I do a plenty of beers to the style and I call them that as well.
Pick a style and look into award winning examples, then brew it over and over again, making minor changes until you are well pleased with it. Then do the same with another style.
Process, ingredients, water adjustments, and fermentation control all play into a good recipe.
For me, the biggest thing is knowing my ingredients, and knowing my outcomes. (also mentioned by many above)
To get to this point, I do a decent number of SMaSH-type beers, and beers that highlight a limited number of ingredients. I also make at least a mental note on any commercial beers I try (or beers brewed by others), and track down particular ingredients that create a flavor I want. For my own beers, I take copious notes, and do a review of every single beer I brew. That way I can figure out if an ingredient manifested as I expected (and if it didn’t, I can figure out if it was something inherent to the ingredient itself, or a process issue, or something else).
As I’ve built up my mental library of flavors and such, then I can start to build out recipes more creatively and confidently. And then as I brew them, I evaluate, and iterate, and apply what I learned to a future recipe.
Also as mentioned by others, if I’m brewing to style, I do a ton of research, and look for commonalities across recipes.