I've recently started to homebrew and have started to really enjoy the process and learning more about it. So far I've done 3 all grain batches and have my 4th fermenting right now. So far I've only used recipes I've found either here on the recipes forum or elsewhere online. The recipes have been hit or miss so far. Nothing has turned out bad but some definitely missing the mark by a wide margin of what I'd like to make. I think part of the reason some haven't turned out quite as I imagine is because I'm pretty fond of really strong flavored beers. Most of the beers I really enjoy are big stouts (alot of them barrel aged), sours, and IPAs (tend to enjoy the ones with higher ABV and flavor like +7%). It seems alot of the recipes I find are a little more subtle than what I'd really like to start making. Is there any good sites or books I could look into learning to create some of these bigger beers? Any sites that have some breakdowns of types of grains and what they add to the beer? I feel like maybe I should just start working on creating some of my own recipes to suite my cravings.
Permit me to be the first to suggest you buy the book How to Brew by John Palmer and read it from cover to cover. Cheers!
Imperial Stouts and IPAs are going to be all about recognizing recipes that fit your tastes. Do you have favorites that are widely available commercially? Sour beer is all about knowing your microbes. As always, I'll recommend the Milk the Funk group on Facebook. Kick around the Milk the Funk wiki (just Google those four words) and then start asking questions on the FB forum and here, as we've got a decent amount of members of this forum that are experienced in making those kinds of beers. Other than that, you're just going to have to take time and learn from experience. Nobody knows how to do something well right away. Learning how to construct a recipe by just looking at grains and hops takes time. Add yeast into that fray and you've got even more to think about. One of the great things about homebrewing is that you don't have to follow the same rules as commercial brewing. You can add liquor or wine to your fermentations to fortify them and give them additional character and you don't need to use hops in your sour fermentations.
Brewing Classic Styles is a great guide for all types of recipes. It shows extract and all grain versions. Some of those recipes are the stronger styles you like. I also recommend you post recipes here for guidance. For example "I am brewing a stout. I really love (your favorite stout here). Here is a recipe I have. Will it get me close? (List recipe)"
Trying to think of widely available is a little tougher than I thought. For stouts the ones that come to mind are Bourbon County stouts, KBS, Firestone Walker beers like Parabola and Velvet Merkin. For IPAs, I can't think of too many since they're almost all local. Heist's IPAs like Citraquench'l and Blurred is the Word, I've had several Other Half IPAs that have been fantastic, Focal Banger, Dinner, etc. I feel like sours are an entirely different game that honestly seems a little intimidating at this point. I'd definitely love to get into making some of them. I totally get that I'm definitely not going to be an expert overnight, and I don't expect to be. I was more hoping to find a good place for information on where's a great place to begin. With the seemingly endless types of grains, malts, hops, and other additives, it's almost overwhelming on where to start to try to understand what each could bring to a finished beer. A baseline of general information followed by personal experiences seem like a good course of action.
The book I mentioned earlier has 1 solid recipe for 80 or so styles of beer. I used those recipes as a guide. Also, Designing Great Beer is an excellent guide, albeit a little older. Gordon Strongs Modern Homebre Recipea is also good. You mentioned you tried kits that haven't succeeded - what kits did you try?
You can always Google the ones that you like followed by "clone recipe". Once you look at a handful, you can, as @pweis909 said, come up with your own recipe and post it here to see what people think. They are, but, like anything else, you've got to jump in somewhere. I've always brewed with the idea that "simpler is better". Try brewing with base malt and one or two other malts to get an idea of what they bring to the table. IPAs are easy to brew with just base malt. I've been making a lot of NEIPAs lately and my grainbill is just Maris Otter and red wheat. That's it. Stouts can get a little more complex, but you can make a great one with 4 or 5 different malts total. Dive in. Post some ideas here. Can't hurt to give it a shot.
I'll definitely look into all of the books you've mentioned I did a couple of kits but I'd like to build more on the all grain. I've done 3 total batches of all grain with the 4th on the fermenter. I've done this strawberry milkshake IPA which turned out wonderful and which I plan on doing again soon but with some alterations from other recipes I've seen of the same style and this flapjack stout that I ended up not caring for very much.
I think keeping it simple, at least at first, is definitely a good idea. The NEIPAs are definitely something I've been enjoying alot lately and absolutely plan on making some in the future. I think the big stouts may end up being more complex with all of the additives that can go along with them like chocolate, coconut, coffee, etc. I bought the Beersmith 2 a little while ago and think it's pretty cool. Definitely a great way to keep track of recipes along with notes, see IBUs, potential ABV, etc.
Might sound weird but google search a clone of something you like. For me one was Firestone Walker's Wookie Jack. I have yet to have the beer they make but find it fun trying to be similar. And in doing that, I made a beer that everyone I know loves, and is a favorite of mine. For me having a base beer is key and again, in attempting to clone KBS, and make my SBS (Scottish Breakfast Stout), I learned what my base stout recipe will be at a more manageable 4.5-5% abv vs the 9% abv my SBS is at. Find a recipe you like, and add or take something if you thing it needs to be that way based on your taste.
My guess is that either the first book or the third one in this link might get you some recipes. I have not looked at either book to know that, but both authors certainly have the credentials to write their book. https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Brewing-Deluxe-Homebrew-Recipes/dp/1592538029
And then there is the run and gun system, which is my preferred method. I experiment a lot and do not follow others recipes much. Sometimes I miss what I'm after but other times make a super new beer. Experimentation is great fun if you like that sort of thing. I live for it.
The things you mention liking take time to develop. Also. Read these. How to Brew by John Palmer and Ray Daniels Designing Great Beer. For sour beer. American Sour Beers by Michael Tonsmeire
I'm surprised no one has cautioned you yet, but if you are looking to make bigger beers (higher abv) you have to be careful of a few things. I top out around 7 percent so I'm not the most qualified to help,but here goes anyways (what's the internet for if not spouting off about things you are only vaguely knowledgeable of). Two big thing come to mind, first is you will get lower efficiency mashing for a high SG, so it will take more grain than you might think, which can cause further efficiency issues and mash tun capacity problems. How big an impact it has varies by system so you might just have to ramp up and see what you get. The second one is fermentation. First you need to have a lot of healthy yeast or you can get lower attenuation and potentially off flavors. Second is temp control, if you pitch a ton of yeast into a high sg, they will go crazy and put off a ton of heat and can push the fermentation into an undesirable range causing a bunch of fusel alcohols to be produced which results in a "hot" beer. I don't want to discourage you from making the beer you want, but recognize making good high abv beers can be more challenging than making good moderate abv beers. Personally I wouldn't try going above 6 or 7% until you are confident in your process, making starters, and have a way to control fermentation temperature.
It doesn't have to be purely experimental. BrewCipher has a tab that takes data from your known recipe and mash efficiency and predicts the efficiency to expect if scaling the grain bill up or down to a specified number of pounds. Your comment about it varying by system is absolutely true, but BC takes the system into account (assuming the user has entered his/her system parameters correctly). ETA: Once you know the system parameters, it fairly easy (~high school) math to figure all this out. It's a sh*tload of math (which is why I made the spreadsheet do it), but it's not hard. I have to smile when people say that they always get 80% (or whatever) efficiency, regardless of the size of their grain bills. They really don't (unless they are adjusting by collecting more/less wort and boiling longer/shorter).
Perhaps if you said why you didn't care for the beer, you could get some pointers about what went wrong. Off the top of my head, I would think that maple, cocoa, vanilla, and coffee are at least one additive too many, but maybe not. One thing I wonder is if the recipe could benefit fro a little crystal malt to give a sweeter canvas for the additives.
Thanks for this. Things like controlling the temperature because of more heat produced isn't something I'd considered before. It should be a little interesting to put an emphasis on keeping it cool with my conical fast fermenter. Even with the additional hurdles, I definitely would like my stouts to get above the 7% mark (although most IPAs I'm alright with hanging around in the ~7% range). I didn't do the recipe exactly as it was called out as I don't believe my local store had all of the same ingredients so I went with an employees recommendations for substituting a few grains (pretty sure I recorded the changes in Beersmith). The first bottle I opened when I thought that they were carbonated enough tasted a bit like a mess. A bunch of different flavors that just kinda seemed to clash. Wasn't awful, but nothing what I had imagined. I thought maybe some time would do it good so I didn't open another bottle for about a month and by then the only added flavors I get is fairly subtle coffee. I don't taste any of the chocolate, vanilla, or maple syrup (and I added a few extra ozs to try to make sure it came out). It's definitely a drinkable beer but not what I had envisioned it to be when brewing it.
It might help to share the original recipe and the one you actually made. LHBS recommended substitutions sometimes amount to "Whatever we carry that has a similar sounding name."
I wasn't sure of the best way to share the recipe out of beersmith so I took a screenshot. I haven't really thought much about this recipe in a little while but may return to something similar in the fall or winter.
