How do you design a recipe?

[marcarm]

I've made a lot of kits in the past, and recently made a couple of extract brews. The next brews I'll be making will be BIAB, and have been looking for recipes to try.

I have a copy of Beer Smith, but I was wondering how you go about designing a recipe?

I feel a bit daft for asking this, I used to be a chef a few years back so recipes came naturally, but with beer and not being able to sample the finished product for some weeks I'm struggling. I'm also struggling as I don't know what each ingredient brings to the table.

For example, I've got a couple of clone recipes loaded into BS. Some of the ingredients, such as the hops I am unable to get from LHBS, and I prefer to buy from there as that place is a godsend! I'm not sure how I can substitute any of the ingredients. It's mainly the hops, they all have different ratings. The recipe also calls for Crystal 80l and Crystal 20l, but I have no idea what the stuff in my LHBS is (the website doesn't list that information). What happens if I can only get one type?

Is it just trial and error coupled with experience? When I have made my next two brews, I will have a load of hops left over, but without copying someone elses recipe I will be stuck as I won't know what goes with what. I've read that certain hops compliment each other and certain ones do not go together. There's too much information

I've got a recipe for a Ghost Ship clone (from here) but think I will be unable to get my hands on any Citra, but have a huge list of hops that I can get. I suppose I just need to be able to work out the IBU's and the EBC's etc

Sorry for the long post, I just really want to get this right, I don't want to be waiting 6 weeks to try some beer and it be horrible!

[Barley Water]

Well the short answer is that I surf my recipe books for similar beers as well as the internet. Once I have a general idea what others are doing I check out the style guidelines since I enter most of the stuff I make into competitions. I select an original gravity figure I want to hit then work up a grain bill based on my research and taking into consideration what I am specifically going for in the way of flavor. I then look at the hops and come up with an IBU target based on my research and preferences. After that I select the hop varieties based on research and desired flavor contributions etc. Finally, I select a yeast strain based on style of beer as well as general flavor considerations as well as attenuation characteristics. After that I just brew the beer. This part is the most important, I take good notes so I know what I did and after the beer is done I taste it and keep notes as to how happy I was with the outcome. Finally, I enter the stuff into a contest and compare the scoresheets against my personal evaluation, sometimes I am way off both in a good and bad way. I have won metals with beer I thought had issues and have had my ass handed to me on a silver platter for beers I though were great.

Based on the feedback I start tweeking the formulation and or my processes to try and correct issues. I keep messing with things until I start getting the results I am looking for both from my own perspective as well as contest feedback because as stated I don't completely trust myself. Sometimes this happens in a couple of iterations, sometimes it takes many (it took me about 8 years to finally get a Belgian Dubbel that won metals). Just like I am sure you did when cooking, after a while you can look at a recipe and tell if it will get you close to your goal. Additionally, you'll gain experience with the ingredients so that you will be able to make good tweeks if things don't work out the way you expect on the first pass. I really think the most important thing is to keep really good notes. I have a brewing book which has notes from batches I did over 10 years ago and I consult them if the beer I want to make is a style I have done before. Finally, I think it helps to experiment every once in a while just so you can always expand your "box of tricks" and to continue to make the hobby fun. By the way, I rarely make clones. I may try a clone once but after that I'll start screwing with things to put my own twist on the beer and hopefully make it better.

[Heron1952]

1. buy a copy of Graham Wheeler British Real Ale
2. Yes use BeerSmith
3. Forget your LHBS most of their business will likely be kits basic equipment, wine and fermenting in general.
There's nothing wrong with that but they are unlikely unless very large, to carry a wide,range either of hops or grain.
As you have found they will label more generically than exactly. The darkness of crystal matters! As does the AA value of hops. Beersmith will make this clear when you play with it.
4. Buy what you need for any recipe you like the look of from The Malt Miller others like the Worcester Hop Shop.
good luck keep going you'll soon want to brew more and more!

[NobbyIPA]

beer smith is great

if you want to make an unique beer that will work
you can go to recipe design

from there you can chose the colour range
bitterness range
abv etc of your favourite brew then mess around with whatever comes into you head or local home brew shop

but i would use a reputable shop so as to get the correct colour type grain and all the important information about the hops they are selling you etc

this is the style i use for my american ales of punk styles for example





from here you can

experiment with what you protocolary like

hops colour bitterness etc

[seymour]

All good recommendations. I don't think there's any big mystery, but there aren't really any true short-cuts either.

You'll become a good brewer the same way you became a good chef. Brew intelligently, paying attention as you do so, observe the results and how they compare to your expectations, making improvements each subsequent attempt. Seek objective feedback from people you respect, even when it hurts.

The more you brew, the better observations you make, the more you'll learn to recognize what each ingredient/technique adds to the mix, and then you'll gain insights about how to make substitutions. Learn the rules, so you know when you can break the rules.

You'll drink commercial beers and be able to mentally deconstruct aspects of it. You'll read about it, and learn to discern for yourself if their claims are credible or not. You'll start recognizing unexpected things about your own preferences, and how you'd improve other people's beer too, or how to make it your own...

Like anything though, it just takes lots of time, commitment and practice.

It sounds like you know a lot about beer, and have plenty of practice with kits. So pick a favourite broad category, lets say ESB or APA, whatever. Research a bunch of recipes, asking yourself why they differ and what each brewer must've been aiming for with each aspect. But eventually, you'll need to just pick a recipe and brew it. See how it goes and improve from there. Use whatcha got and don't get bogged down by what you don't have, and don't get bogged down by failures. Learn from those too. You got this.

[DeGarre]

1. choose style and gravity
2. pick malts and their percentages => gives you weight of each malt

that's grist done.

3. have a general idea of total ibus
4. choose hops to fit chosen style
5. choose hopping schedule say 60m, 20min, 5min
6. choose grams and hops for each addition to get desired ibu

7. choose yeast

[marcarm]

Thank you for the excellent replies.

I'm going to make a speckled hen clone soon from one of the example recipes in beer smith, then make the same recipe again after and tweak some bits to see what difference they make.

What I really want to do is make a beer that is like the Festival Summer Glory kit that was a limited edition. The box listed what hops it used, and also the addition of elder flowers.

I can always post my recipe on here for constructive criticism before attempting to make it!

[Dads_Ale]

Defo try to reproduce Ghost Ship. Went on a tour of Adnams last Sunday and that was the best taster, even from a can.

I tend to start with a clone recipe, from GW books or from the various forums, and then adapt from there to get what I like. Some of the adaptions are trial and error and don,t always work but that the way of learning what not to do next time.

[Mr. Dripping]

.........even from a can.

I think a cans are better packages than bottles personally.

Anyway, back to the original question. Lots of good advice given already.
Taste your ingredients....take a small amount of the grains you are thinking of using and actually taste them. You'd be surprised how many brewers have not tasted their brewing ingredients.
I've learnt a lot about different types of malt by doing this......far more than I would ever learn by chucking random amounts in a brew.

[seymour]

Taste your ingredients....take a small amount of the grains you are thinking of using and actually taste them. You'd be surprised how many brewers have not tasted their brewing ingredients. I've learnt a lot about different types of malt by doing this......far more than I would ever learn by chucking random amounts in a brew.

Excellent point. For example: have you ever eaten a handful of amber malt? It's so innocent looking, like some candy-sweet crystal malt. But no! Who knew such a light coloured malt would taste so profoundly roasty and charred?! That helps explain why a recipe may call for up to 20% Crystal Malt, but seldom more than 5% Amber Malt.

[marcarm]

Ok, had a little play with BeerSmith, and came up with this. It's not something that I would make, just more of an experiment to play with the software. I have no doubts that there would be something fundamentally wrong with this, I do want to make a red ale in the future but that is way down the list, plenty of other stuff to do first. I missed off the irish moss, yeast and the dry hops as well, just wanted to get the other stuff down first.

[pobrien20]

A few suggestions to make it easier.

Record all your readings, volumes (pre-boil, post-boil, boil-off, kettle losses, FV losses), gravity (OG, FG, etc), this will allow you to fine tune BeerSmith to your equipment & brewing method. You can then adjust your future beers to get closer to your planned recipe.

Keep it simple with your weights, 3.4kg is easier to read & measure out than 3.39kg (was that 3.39 or 3.99?), likewise on your hops, you ain't going to be measuring 0.38g of hops unless you have lab equipment.

Overall 10g of base grain will have little or no effect on the final result of a 4kg grain bill. Round up your hops to the nearest gram, likewise 1g will have little effect on your batch (unless you're using an ultra high bittering hop, >16%AA).

Remember we're not a commercial setup looking for maximum efficiency & repeatability all the time, a little variation from brew to brew will develop into the beer you want, if the first one is "not quite there yet".

Remember that the AA (Alpha Acids) start deteriorating once the hop is picked, to reduce the loss proper storage (vacuum packed, in fridge/freezer) is required. Use a Hop Storage index (http://brewerslog.appspot.com/HopAlphaCalc) to calculate how much AA are left when you go to use them, e.g. a 7.6%AA hop may only be a 6.2%AA after six months storage in the freezer.

[marcarm]

When changing the quantities on beer smith, it adjusted them by some really odd increments for some reason, but in reality I would probably round up accordingly.

[JKaranka]

I usually start by thinking about the overall style and then doing some research. E.g., now I'm brewing porters for a few months and I check what breweries use as grists and what historical records of porters are like. The first thing you learn is that BJCP very rarely is a good guidance for the beers that you might enjoy most (e.g., bitters that are too bitter, milds that are too strong, stouts that are brown, etc.), so you have a look at what they suggest and then find some better guidance.

The main considerations I take are:
- How dry should the finish be? This comes from balancing the strength to a particular yeast, and the malt content to sugar. If you have a strong all malt beer it will finish sweet unless you include some source of sugar.
- How strong the beer should be? Again, this comes from the total amount of fermentables and how attenuating is the yeast.
- Regarding colour, should it come with sweetness (crystal malts), maltiness (darker base malts), toastiness (amber malt), roast (brown, chocolate and black malts), fruitiness (dark inverts or candi) or be fairly neutral (sinamar / brewer's caramel).
- How do you balance malts and bitterness? Some consideration should be given to whether you are making a thin bitter beer or a heavy malty beer. OG to IBU is relatively useful guidance but not anything to follow to the letter.
- Is the beer dry hopped?
- Any particular hop aromas or flavours? Again, it's fun to have a distinct hop character, including mixing hops from different traditions. Obviously, some beers are all about hop character.
- Should there be a distinctive yeast character? Should there be brett funk? Should it be bone dry? Should it have a sour component? Should it be lagered? Is it going to be partigyled? Will it have a very sticky grain bed (e.g., above 20% oats, rye or wheat)? All these need some planning, for example, to get temperature control or to have space to age the beer.

[gibbiem]

I got told if you have grain, hops, water and yeast you will get beer. Fact. It might be good or bad, but it's still beer. Like everyone says, as long as you keep a note you can improve