Hi all - I’m a newbie to brewing beer. I completed my first batch of Amber Ale, which turned out great. And now have a batch of Sierra Madre Pale Ale in the fermenter. So, I’m trying to decide what’s next?
Should I keep making recipe kits? How does one move forward and learn the “finer art” of brewing, once you’ve got the basics down? Do people ever experiment with designing their own brews?
Thanks all
Regards,
Dave
What helped me when I was brewing kits only was when a shop owner encouraged me to steep extra specialty malts like caramel malts or dark roasted malts before the boil, he said “just steep in a bag until you hit about 170 F then pull them out”. This adds extra flavor and color. About that same time I figured out that I could use light extract for every recipe and steep whatever grains I wanted before the boil… except for base malts which require mashing. Before long I became restless enough that I wanted to try mashing. For that, the easiest way is to mash in a bag (more commonly called “brew in a bag” or BIAB), which is just a long steep at 150 F for an hour. Then, like always, pull the bag out, and brew as normal. Then to get more “fancy” (Denny would laugh at this), try mashing in a cooler instead with a filter hose at the bottom, like this:
That, plus reading “Designing Great Beers” by Ray Daniels, is all what got me into brewing with all grain and designing my own recipes. And by joining forums like this one, it helps you to keep on top with the current knowledge and trends. Never be afraid to ask questions or post a recipe to ask for pointers. We have a lot of different opinions but typically will try to help you in a constructive manner to help make you a better brewer.
Another great resource is to join a local club, if you have one nearby.
That was my journey. It can be yours too. I’ve been brewing for 26 years now and I still love it as much as I always did.
Cheers and welcome!!
Welcome new comer!
Good to see you’re still here DMTaylo2!
One critical area that really needs your attention. Weight/ measurements. Don t go deep. Do get an accurate digital scale. Mostly using grams.
When you buy kits, measure the grains/fermentables. I really messed up and stumbled on to this later on in my brewing quest. You’ll come to understand how much sugar could be extracted from a pound. That will open the door to designing brews!
Keep us up to date on your journey.
Sneezles
I started paying attention to the grain bills of the all-grain recipe kits I used. That way I had a sort of idea what things went into each type of beer. Then I played around with recipes left and right. If I wanted a heavy stout with a lot of extra flavor, I used black/ coffee / chocolate malts on top of a normal recipe. Want extra abv? Just increase the grain bill a little (usually an extra pound or 2 of the base malt won’t require any further adjustments with hops and such).
I’ve also struck out more than a few times. They can’t all be winners. It’s frustrating to get a not-great beer after all the time and effort (and money), but it’s a good way to learn. And this forum is great at answering questions, so make sure to be a regular visitor!
Thanks for the great insights. I just received my copy of the Daniels book on Designing Great Beers. Looking forward to learning more here and through reading this book.
Regards,
Dave
Yes people do experiment with designing brews.
When I was at your stage, I took a slightly different approach. I went to the craft beer store and started buying different beers in smallest quantities I could get and visiting craft beer places and trying flights of beers. This allowed me to determine what beers I like. I rated them 1-5 1 being I could not drink it, 2 being I would not buy it again but would drink it for free, 3 I would not want to brew this beer unless major changes made, 4 I would like to brew it but would change the following, 5 being loved it would brew it exactly as is. I would then buy kits similar to the beers that got 4s or 5s. NB has many beer kits that are clones like caribou slobber is clone of moose drool. Also get others to taste your beers to get their perspective. If you are trying to brew a beer similar to a beer you like, do a blind 3 glass taster test. 2 glasses are same one is different with one being the purchased beer and other being your beer. See if you can taste the difference and if so which one(s) you like best. Based on your tastings, you modify ingredients and or processing conditions to get a more flavorful beer. For example, I don’t like the phenolic taste of wit yeasts so I modified wheat beer using safe ale s-05 and got a wheat beer I like a lot.
I recommend you document your brews in enough details that someone reading your brewing diary could brew your beers. This helps you figure out what went wrong like I brewed a dubbel recently and did not like it. looking at diary I used be256 yeast for the one I did not like instead of 1214. ( I should have followed DMtaylo2 yeast recommendation…no substitute for 1214)
I was lucky enough to talk with the head brewer of a craft beer I really like and he gave me the recipe!
Its like cooking, its an art and fun to experiment!
Something I don’t see mentioned- do you have temp control for your fermentation? I would take this step before spending the money on all grain. As @dmtaylo2 BIAB is the cheapest, easiest way to get into AG brewing. If you like it and get successful you can advance to all-in-one systems or 3 vessel.
Recipe kits are alright but I design my own recipes. How do I do that? First of all I use the book “Brewing Quality Beers” by Byron Burch as a great source of information. I also have some information from another book that I got from the library and photocopied out the important stuff. I don’t exactly remember what that book was. But just start reading. Information is everywhere. Also, if I buy grains at my local homebrew shop I always like to taste them. Pop a few grains in your mouth and see what you think. My recipes are all “partial mash” meaning that I use malt extract but I am also mashing about three pounds of base malts to produce fermentables as well.
I have figured out a lot of things by myself. For example, most books will say to prime a batch with 3/4 cup of corn sugar before bottling. I don’t do that. I use light dry malt extract and 1 and 1/4 cups to get proper carbonation. Of course I don’t bottle anymore since I now have a keg system. Most people will force carbonate their kegs but I prime mine with 5/8 cup of light dry malt extract. Works like a charm and then all I need to do is hook up the keg to the CO2 after about two weeks time and use serving pressure. I think it comes out a lot better that way. Also I used to add canned fruit extract to the secondary, but now I simply wait until the primary crashes (it stops foaming) and I add it there. Much easier. I had to figure all of that out myself.
