Learning to improve my homebrew

Northern Brewer General
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So I have been doing a bunch more reading (Yeast and Malt books in the Brewing Elements Series) and I’m looking to start sharpening my skills. Not so much in my process but in recipe formulation and making adjustments. When I started brewing it was fun to try out different extract kits each time and see how they turn out. Every so often returning to a kit to brew it again to try and adjust my technique to see if it improves the finshed product. However I feel like the batches were too far apart to actually compare other than with my brew notes. I always felt like they could be better but wondered how the kit was designed to taste vs how it actually tasted.

As I recently started into all grain I’ve realized that there are a bunch more variables that you can control that change the finished product. Like water adjustments, mash temps, and mash schedules. While reading the Malt book I realized how important malt is to beer. And eliminating the mashing step in my process by using extract is just limiting the control I have on really important factors of the finished product.

What’s the best way to design a recipe and adjust it to come up with the vision you had for it? I’m done wondering if something tastes the way it should and ready for does this taste the way I wanted it to. I think looking at it that way would increase my love of homebrewing even more while also removing some of the pressure I put on myself to make great tasting beer.

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I’m new to brewing, so my knowledge is low. But I’ve been a craft beer drinker since the mid 90’s. My first 3 all grain batches have been clones. I figure I can buy a sixer of what ever I’m cloning and compare them.
I felt that if I just made beer without having a known base taste I would think it was great just because I made it.
When I get to where my clones are as good their store bought counter part I’ll start doing recipes. Or adjusting clones to have the characteristics I want.

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There’s no real secret, just taking the time to try different things and see how they’re different. The best advice I can give you is to taste deliberately. The best thing that’s come out of homebrewing is that I can analyze beer like a major geek, now. I used to try a new commercial beer and say “I like that… it kind of tastes like a watermelon jolly rancher chased by a caramel candy.” Now, I still think that, but I go to the brewer’s website and see what hops they have that are contributing to the melon undertones, what malts they might be using, and save that to the memory banks. So the next kind of tropical melon-like IPA I taste, I can then think “Mosaic and Citra,” and the next amber that tastes a little too sweet I can say “they went a little overboard on crystal malts.”

So the next time you get a commercial beer, try to parse the different things happening with water, malt, hops, and yeast. Think about how those ingredients are contributing to what’s in your glass. Think about how you’d try to replicate that. If you can, research how the beer was made and see how close you were with it.

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My advice is keep it simple and avoid those kitchen sink recipes. My grain bills tend to be very simple. I don’t try to clone a beer that’s pretty hard to do even with the exact recipe. You can take ideas from commercial beers to get an idea on grains and hops but then make your beer for yourself. One of the first thing I did was look at the IBUs of the beers I liked and brewed my beer to that level. After brewing a recipe a few times I adjusted the the bitterness to my taste . Then move on and change other things like mash temp or hops. Try to only change one thing at a time.

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I’m pretty sure I’ve heard @pietro expound on this before. Hoping he shows up with his fancy words! Seriously, he’s got some input in this subject.

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Have you seen

  • Randy Mosher’s Mastering Homebrew
  • Gordon Strong’s Brewing Better Beer
    ?

Mastering Homebrew is more about the ‘art’ than the ‘science’ of brewing. Lots of interesting ideas on recipe construction that I haven’t seen in other books.

Brewing Better Beer is highly opinioned toward all grain brewing: “there’s nothing in this book on brewing extract beers”. And yet, as an extract+grains brewer, I found it an interesting read and will add ideas from the book into my brewing hobby.

Each, in ebook form, cost me $10. I got my money’s worth plus a bunch more.

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I’ve read brewing better beer. I remembered when I read it that I was a little offended about the way he spoke about extract brewing.

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@porkchop #ligins

The good news is, you can continue to learn about this for the rest of your life. John Kimmich, Vinnie Cilurzo, Shaun Hill, Mitch Steele, all of them continue to learn about beer and brewing science, and how it can help them continue on the same path you are on.

Good advice on this thread, particularly about avoiding the kitchen sink recipes. Brew simple beer. But learn to brew it well. Pull a “Julie and Julia” and work your way through Brewing Classic Styles.

Pulling back, I would basically recommend a three-pronged approach:

1.) Learn sensory analysis. Pursue BJCP. Find local tasting classes, if you don’t have them, there are decent online programs like Billybrew.com. I embarked on this honestly to learn how to improve my beer and those of my friends who brewed. It has been awesome journey so far, and I love judging. More importantly, you will be able to interpret a particular process or ingredient’s effect on the final product, which is what this is all about.

2.) Continue reading. Lots. Then read more. But read from good sources. Forums are good, but there is a lot of bad advice out on the interwebs (some of which is likely mine). You seem to be at a point where you should read Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. That book was a game-changer for me. Every ingredient, every process has a purpose. Learn what they are and how to manipulate them. He teaches you how to build recipes. Then read Water. Then read New Brewing Lager Beer. Then read Braukaiser’s wiki site. Then read them again.

3.) Start investing in your system. Ingredients/recipes are important, but bad/low-rent process can make a well-designed beer undrinkable. Temp control. Yeast management (stir plate/Erlenmeyer). Kegging. Chilling. Full volume boils. pH meter. Advanced mashing/hopping techniques. In this order. If you don’t already have it, precise fermentation temp control will improve your beer more than any other process improvement. You will be amazed at how profound the difference is.

I don’t get ‘offended’ easily, but Gordon came across as a pedantic and insufferable little mouth-breathing troglodyte with that comment (though I do know what he was trying to say, I think) and it lost him a lot of credibility in my mind. I read the rest of the book, and pulled some good practices from it, but overall I wasn’t a big fan and kind of wanted my money back.

Good luck and remember to have fun, its a delicious journey. :beers:

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I will agree with ^^^^^^. I did quite bit of the same brew when I went all grain…. 12 years ago… I won’t tell you I know even a small chunk of the scientific stuff, but repeating and tweaking until you can knock off a very decent brew that yer friends will tell you they’d pay for a glass of is a great start. Then to chase after some other styles, keep yer eye on peeps and their take on how they brew. You can’t make a mistake to learn from by not brewing! Sneezles61

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