Hey all, I'm still a newb at homebrewing. I've made a handful of beer and they all were prepackaged kits. I find this to be a great tool for those just starting out, but I now have this dumb thought in my head that kits are a form of cheating. I'm seeking tips on how to build my own 'kit' for my next beer. Is it as simple as finding a recipe in the homebrew shop book and then hand-selecting the resources? I've only made IPA's, however, I am looking to step outside my comfort zone. Thanks, mappy
Yes, it could indeed be as simple as that. The book Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels may be considered a bit dated (1998) but the concepts of performing recipe formulation for various beer styles may be helpful to you. https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Great-Beers-Ultimate-Brewing/dp/0937381500 There are also lots of recipes that can be obtained from various homebrewing magazines (e.g., BYO, Zymurgy). When you have put together your own recipe(s) you could start a thread here and solicit opinions of other BA homebrewers for feedback. Cheers! P.S. Another book which may be helpful to you is Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer.
I've brewed from kits three times early on when I first got into this hobby, but none of them produced very good beer. Blame the kits with old contents (maybe) and instructions with a lack of good details, or blame a beginner's faulty procedures, I don't know. My thing now is to find clone recipes for beers that you know and like and see if you can brew a beer that is as good as the real thing. I've googled recipes for Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger, Zombie Dust, and Heady Topper to name a few. Generally my finished product is close enough to the real beer that I'm satisfied. I also get a lot of my recipes from a book by Tess and Mark Szamatulski called Clonebrews. That book gives you recipes for all-grain, mini-mash and extract procedures for many well-known beers from around the world. Solid brewing procedures, fresh ingredients and temperature-controlled fermentation are probably the three keys that have to be in place for you to really like your finished product. It's not a big step to graduate from kits, so go for it!
Go for it. Kits are great in these modern times, unlike kits of before. In fact if you are using a good kit and can follow basic brewing procedures you're almost certain to make a very good beer. That is not the case with scratch built recipes. Follow @JackHorzempa 's advise and read Ray Daniels. Basically you get 4 ingredients. Malt, hops, yeast and water. And then you have a few dozen variations major and minor within each category. And that means a few 100,000 possible variations to brew with. For me, once I began to brew with ingredients I found interesting it really opened up my experience with each one. A SMASH beer is a great way to experiment with hops, or malt. Then make it again, tweaked. Change the yeast, etc. Make a West Coast IPA with a lager yeast. Make it with some black patent in place of C-60 and so on. You really get intimate with each ingredient and start to build a good understanding of ingredients like any good Chef would. Every now and again I'll make a kit beer of a classic style and enjoy recalibrating my internal guidance impulse. Be sure to ask as much as you want around here. Lot's of us have time to respond lately... Cheers
And speaking of reading, have you read How To Brew by John Palmer? The 1st edition is free to read online at Howtobrew.com or you can pick up the 4th edition online or at good bookstores so that you have something in which to write notes, highlight, etc. It's really a must-read for all homebrewers.
Don't, step, hell ,jump. Makeing your own recipes, kits is not hard if you let it be. Like sayohhhh base malt, light crystal, perhaps some other specialty malt, yeast and rock. Truly it's not super hard. This site has many recipes you can copy or get ideas from as does many other sites. I'm betting you will be off the kits and buying supply's for multi beers soon Have fun
When you find a recipe that sounds interesting to you come back here and ask for advice BEFORE you buy the ingredients and BEFORE you actually brew the beer. There are lots of people here that can help prevent mistakes if you ask ahead of time.
@wspscott raises a good point. There are some truly awful recipes on the internet, and even in some books. A good recipe doesn't guarantee a good beer, but a bad recipe pretty much guarantees a bad beer, or at least a beer that misses the intended style. You could read the "Averagely Perfect" recipe build projects here on the forum. Here's a summary with links that @riptorn put together that (along with the linked threads) chronicals the builds. They contain lots of discussions about what ingredients are appropriate in a style and why. https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...merican-brown-how-we-got-there-thread.616216/ You could also read the BCJP Style guidelines, which typically include some ingredients typically used for each style. As you begin to get familiar with ingredients and the way recipes are built, try this: Have someone send/show you recipes with the name and style removed. Try to figure out what the style is from the ingredients and process only. It will force you to think critically about what each ingredient and (generally to a lesser extent) process step is for.
Simple Homebrewing makes it all way easier, a good book worth reading. BIAB, extracts all a good way to brew. Don't be afraid to experiment. But, make sure you are using the freshest ingredients possible, it does make a difference.
All the beers I brew are my own recipes. It's not hard to formulate one. That said, when it comes to style guidelines, I throw the rule book out the window.
