I’m wanting to start developing my own recipes. Extract plus specialty grains.
2.5 gal batch
3.3 lbs. Liquid Amber Malt
0.5 lb. Dark DME
0.25 lb Caramalt
0.25 lb Munich I Malt
O.5 oz Challenger Pellets for 60 minute boil
0.5 oz. Challenger Pellets for final 30 minutes
3 wks primary, 2 weeks bottle conditioning.
Comments please good or bad.
[quote=“lazy ant brewing”]I’m wanting to start developing my own recipes. Extract plus specialty grains.
2.5 gal batch
3.3 lbs. Liquid Amber Malt
0.5 lb. Dark DME
0.25 lb Caramalt
0.25 lb Munich I Malt
O.5 oz Challenger Pellets for 60 minute boil
0.5 oz. Challenger Pellets for final 30 minutes
3 wks primary, 2 weeks bottle conditioning.
Comments please good or bad.[/quote]
Looks okay to me. What yeast?
Safale US -05
Sounds like a nice dark ale to me, go for it.
The beer you are planning to make may end up tasting just great. I would however suggest that if you want to formulate your own recipes you might want to stop using Amber or Dark extracts or DME. Instead, use the light stuff and get all your color and flavor by adding steeped or mini-mashed specialty grains. The reason I say that is because you really don’t know what the manufacturer added to that stuff to get the color or in other words, you really don’t know what went into your finished beer. Also, should you decide to go all grain you will have trouble translating sucessful extract recipes into the associated all grain formulations for the reason cited above. Even in the event you stay with extract brewing, if your supplier changes extract brands you will end up inadvertently changing your formulations to the extent that the new supplier uses a different method to color their extracts. Finally, you can get extracts made with specific kinds of base malt (Marris Otter, pils malt, American two row etc.) which will allow you to brew more to style. After all, you don’t want to make a German Heffeweizen with Marris Otter or American two row, right? 
Thanks. Sounds like great advice and I’ll take it.
I agree with the advice above to use a single base extract in each recipe.
I would add that it would be good for you to check out Brewing Classic Styles
http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403283428&sr=8-1&keywords=brewing+classic+styles
. Even if you do not plan to use any of his recipes, you can use the book as a reference for ideas or as a sanity check for recipes that you make up.
Does the book have recipes for extract brewing with specialty grains or are the recipes in the all-grain category?
I agree with the previous post about the Brewing Classic Styles book. Most of the recipes are extract with specialty grains so I think you will really like it and find it useful. Generally when I come up with my own recipe I start with a published recipe and mess with it (and I use that book alot especially if I have no experience with a particular style). Generally, I’m trying to accentuate a particular characteristic of a beer and I make small changes until I get the beer where I want it. My thought is that you might as well not try to reinvent the wheel; you will get closer to what you want using other’s experience. After you have done this hobby for a few decades like I have, you will be able to just look at a formulation and tell what to expect from it. By the way, my other advice is to take very good notes; it would be a real shame if you came up with the perfect pint but because of poor record keeping were unable to reproduce it.
I just got this book a couple of days ago. The recipes are extract/partial mash, but each one also lists an all grain version.
It’s a good book.
