any tips on writing a recipe no idea where to start

[The Wiganer]

hey everyone i am a bit frustrated on writing beer recipes no idea where to start i got one recipe for a double chocolate stout but that was written for me (yet to start) i have great ideas in my head but cant put them onto paper i have discalcular aswell so i cant do numbers properly. any advice would be appreciated thankyou

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

Read some books? Brewing classic styles is a good source.

Can you cook well? Can you formulate original culinary recipes or amend them?

It's all the same really. Certain flavours go well together. You need to develop a palate or understanding if what beer ingredients do when you mash, boil and ferment them.

And keep it simple. Some of the best beers out there, especially commercial beers use very few ingredients.

Well made beats complex recipe every time.

[gobuchul]

have you tried some brewing software?

Brewtarget is free and very good. Simple to use as well.

You can play around with various ingredients and it will give you an idea of how it will effect bitterness, colour and alcohol content.

[The Wiganer]

i havnt tryed any software the thing with me is i want to make something what taste awesome for example i used to think all beer and lager tasted strongley of bread and i wanna make something like the dominant flavour is vanilla,chocolate or toffee if you get what i mean its like i tried a porter and and it stated that is really chocolaty but just tasted like roasted coffee. my pallet is second to none thankyou for the advice though

[GeeThom]

My advice would be get some software to help with calculating proportions and bitterness but you can start to design the recipe yourself by picking the ingredients. Start with a simple malt bill , define the percentages and then decide if you want to add hops, spices, chocolate, vanilla or anything else that appeals.

i know what you mean that some chocolate porters do taste of coffee but it's about getting the ingredients right. You can approximate flavours with malts or you can add essences after fermentation such as chocolate, coffee, mint and a host of others. It's just a matter of taste and experiment as to how much you add, just like cooking.

You will never make the perfect beer first time so be prepared to try and fail.

[Clibit]

If you create a recipe it's an experiment. You make it and then find out what it's like. You get better at creating recipes that provide what you want with practice. This can take a long time, even if you stick to one particular beer. Maybe you could describe the beer you want and and ask for ideas and suggested recipes?

[Pinto]

Think of it like making a cake - you start out with an idea of what you want, you pick the ingredients you want to get that flavour and then you plug them all Into brew software to get a recipe

I'm a brew target user since brewmate went screwy - and it'll help you along. This is the way I visualise the process so its personal, and probably not how others look at it - but hopefully it helps....

First, pick your style. This'll select a "range" of parameters to help you stay on course. Little arrows with in little sliders between red and green (remind me of the old medical tables in the original 'star trek' )

Then start plugging in your ingredients.

Base Malt - this be your Marris, pilsner or Munich etc. It's low colour, and brings the body and the ABV to the party. The amount you use will be dictated by your abv. Watch the slider

Modified Malt - Crystal, Cara's and specials - these are kilned malts bringing more body, caramels and colour to the brew - going to provide the colour from palest straw yellow through to mid Brown's and reds..... EBCs rising more slowly

Think bitters, IPAs, bocks and 'fests...

Dark malts - after a porter or stout ? You'll be needing brown,, choc, and roasted malts. These bring strong, dark flavours and the matching colour. Add small amounts and you'll see that EBC bar sliding along and the pint glass darkening quickly.

Special Malts and adjuncts - for those special twists and bonuses - looking for smokey? Touch of rauchmalt is your chap. Creamy mouth and glossy, long lasting stout head wanted ? Pile in those oats or the torrefied wheat.

Specials can sometimes be powerful in effect - read up on em and use with care.

By this point, you have a functional pint. Onto more important flavouring and balance....

Hops : so so so many flavour directions and bitterness levels - you'll have made your choice. Bittering hops in early, flavouring ones in late. Keep an eye on the bar for bittering to make sure your IBUs are in range for style ( you may want to mix this up later to your tastes - but until you have a point if reference, stay in guidelines)

Ok... We now have a recipe. A little fettling on brew length, etc and you'll know your water quantities and be ready for beer making....

It could be define, or dour.... But it'll be yours - and you can alter (or not) next time..

[Piscator]

i havnt tryed any software the thing with me is i want to make something what taste awesome for example i used to think all beer and lager tasted strongley of bread and i wanna make something like the dominant flavour is vanilla,chocolate or toffee if you get what i mean its like i tried a porter and and it stated that is really chocolaty but just tasted like roasted coffee. my pallet is second to none thankyou for the advice though

You really need to get to grips with the basics of how a recipe is constructed before you jump into writing your own - otherwise you will spend a lot of time feeling frustrated.
A great starting place would be to download the very good and FREE BeerEngine software by clicking on the "Extras" tab at the top of this page - this contains some basic sample recipes that you can look at and see what sort of ratios the types of grains are used at. For example... If you only knew that crystal malt has a slightly toffee note you might think that making a beer with 80% crystal malt would give a really strong toffee flavour in a beer. The truth is it would be a disaster.
The next thing to do would be to get a copy of Graham Wheelers book and start putting the recipe's into BeerEngine so that you can begin to manipulate the ratios of grain types and see what that does to the colours and gravities within a given recipe.

The sorts of flavours you are describing wanting to get in a beer are most likely to come from the addition of specialist ingredients like vanilla pods or chocolate/cocoa nibs - but unless you understand how the base recipe is built, chucking random stuff into beers in an effort to "create" your own recipe will be hit and miss at best.
Sorry but I don't think there are really any magic shortcuts, you will have to do some reading - the good news is that BeerEngine does all the maths for you so having trouble with numbers shouldn't be a significant hinderance. You might also want to check out Mikkeller as it sounds like you might appreciate that approach to beer.

Cheers
Steve

[The Wiganer]

thankyou guys means alot i will do some reading up

[hoggyafc]

As others have said, using software is an important start. There's plenty of free stuff to download (I use Brewmate) and you have to find which one suits you best.

I've found the Greg Hughes book, Homebrew Beer, to be really good. I started by messing around with hops, usually just changing hops in recipes for ones that I had. I'm just beginning to mess about with the grains in a recipe but having a look at the software gives me a good idea of what will happen.

I've made some pretty grim beer but that's all part of the fun.

[chris20]

When I start thinking of recipes I always get "Designing great beers" off the bookshelf. It gives a good break down of different styles of beer and the ingredients and incidence used by brewers and home brewers. The first few chapters shows you how to calculate grain bills and bitterness etc which I use to do by hand but it is a lot easier on beerengine. But as others have said I think beersmith does the same job

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

Take a step back for a moment.

Which is more important to you:

- the beer is your personal recipe
- the beer is a good

There is a certain amount of pride in developing something unique and personal, but you will get better results from following tried and true recipes.

[Jocky]

Personally I just like to iterate on good recipes. When I try a new style I will use a recipe with a good reputation, or one from a book like Brewing Classic Styles. I'll do a search to see what others say about the recipe, make it myself and then after tasting it I figure out what I'd need to do to make it into what I want.

[Pinto]

Personally I just like to iterate on good recipes. When I try a new style I will use a recipe with a good reputation, or one from a book like Brewing Classic Styles. I'll do a search to see what others say about the recipe, make it myself and then after tasting it I figure out what I'd need to do to make it into what I want.

Spot on

However, if I'm feeling experimental, i'll visit the brewers website and look at their information on malts, hops and flavours and make a flying guess - but this just makes it more fun

I blame Seymour for this

[sbond10]

Just to add a known good grain bill allows ypu to tinker hops in the middle that's what I'm doing atm