so i started home brewing a while ago I've made some pale ales and some random ipa's, i think I'm ready to make the ipa i want, i mean after all the whole purpose of home brewing is to brew the beer you want right? so i was hooked on Bootleggers Brewing "Far Out IPA" it a west coast style IPA that i fell in love with. the aroma the taste everything. I've looked online for the recipe and found nothing. maybe I'm not looking properly? three questions for anyone looking to help, 1, i know a while ago when i got into home brewing i found a site that had all sorts of recipes for home brewing. not sure what its called maybe the recipe is there, does anyone have the name of that site? 2, would it be considered disrespectful, or overstepping my boundaries if i go to the brewery, which is within a 30 mile drive from where i live, and try to contact the head brewer, and ask him for the recipe? 3, how else can i re-create that beer!?
1. Are you talking about the "beer du jour" site? It was taken down a few years ago but here is the web archive link to Fred's recipes. http://web.archive.org/web/20110608035946/http://beerdujour.com/recipe.htm Also here is a discussion with some other links you may want to try. http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/beerdujour-recipe-site.43556/ 2. It shouldn't. Frame it as mockery is the most sincerest form of flattery. 3. This site is a good place to start. If someone has tried to make it, was successful at recreating it, or has at least drank it, that would generate some quality info. Otherwise you need to start at your best guess recipe and tweak it from there.
Unless I knew the brewer, I wouldn't go in person and ask for a recipe. That would seem a little aggressive. But contact them through email/webform/whatever and ask politely. The worst thing that can happen is they say no. But some brewers will give you the whole recipe, and many will give you substantial information even if they don't lay everything out for you.
Asking directly for a recipe is hit or miss. Some protect their recipe as if it was the key to their success, but I think most would agree that execution is of greater importance. Some just don't want to open up the door to lots of random people asking questions and expecting answers. If you knew someone who worked at the brewery you might say "wow, beer X is really great, what is giving it that citrusy, melony, peachy aroma (or whatever)?" and you might be rewarded with a hop variety or two." If the brewery does tours, that might be a good chance to ask questions, but I have found some tour guides to possess little depth of knowledge ("Who knows the four ingredients that go in to beer? Anyone?").
I´ve been doing a couple of Brewery tours and found guides don´t want to give any ´special information´, it seems like they are in a hurry to dispatch the visiting group to do anything different than the repetitive speech.
Email them and ask. I've gotten responses and crickets from various brewers. Most won't give you the whole percentages roughly, but will give you the ballpark on base malts. Tell you to use a 20-40 crystal around 5-8 percent, and allow you to play around and dial it in.
It really depends on who's giving the tour and maybe how crowded it is. I once toured abrewery with my wife as the only other person on the tour, and the Assistant Brewmaster as the tour guide. He said almost no one ever stops by for a tour, they didn't really have guides, but he's be happy to show us around. Nothing seemed to be off limits (although I made sure not to press his hospitality). Afterwards, we sat in the employee's taproom for a bit and talked some more. And I've been on tours with 20 people, led by teenagers who knew nothing about beer (except for the four ingredients). I also recall a tour given by an elderly woman who really seemed to know a lot of interesting details about the history of the family that owned the brewery, but less making beer. There is a range of tour experiences out there.
I've emailed the brewery before and had the head brewmaster give me all of the ingredients and percentages of grains, hop addition times, and yeast strain. Sometimes they don't give you every detail so it creates an exciting challenge for us as homebrewers to try and nail it. Just express to them you're a passionate homebrewer and you love their beer so much you want to try and make it yourself. The brewer I emailed was flattered.
I got the entire recipe to a very coveted barrel aged beer out of Corvallis, OR from the brewer: percentages, mash temp, boil times, hopping, yeast, ferment temps, everything. Speaking of which, I need to brew that beer, maybe I will do that in January to age in my Bourbon Barrel I will be purchasing in Feb...
I was sitting at the bar in a brewery/brewpub and really liked their rye PA, I asked the bartender if one of the brewers was around and had time to chat. He came out to the bar a little later and we talked a bit before he went back to get the recipe book/brewsheet for that beer, gave me the grain percentages and the hops they used, also gave me a couple more samples on the house. To repeat what everyone else has said, it depends on the brewer/brewery. My guess is asking in person is more likely to be successful vs. email.
