this is an ingredient list that my wife came up with to brew a beer for her.
she is looking for something fairly light in color , session style, and lite on the hoppy-ness
my question is, can a person just pull a bunch of random stuff together like this and still get beer?
or is there a method??
all I have done to this point is a few extract kits from NB, so my actual knowledge is small and her knowledge is none. she just went through NBs website and pulled random stuff with me giving her the category
I am open to suggestions and criticisms and even sarcasm
steeping grains :
Belgian Caramunich - crushed
Fawcett Pale Chocolate - 1 lb. crushed
malt extracts:
NB Gold Malt Syrup 6.0 lbs.
Briess Golden Light DME 1 lb.
hop schedule:
German Hersbrucker Hop 1 oz (60 mins)
Amarillo Hop Pellets 1 oz. (15 mins)
yeast:
Wyeast 1450 Denny’s Favorite
added to primary (or should it be secondary, or doesnt it matter?):
Sweet Orange Peel 1 oz.
Cacao Nibs - Ghana 4 oz.
That much pale chocolate will make it dark. If you’re going for something light and easy, I’d drop it completely. Drop that and you’re around 10.3 srm, 1051og and 18ibus. I’m not sure the cocoa nibs would be very good. You can do the orange peel in the boil if you want, too. Do late addition with the lme and you may get it lighter in color.
I haven’t brewed these (except the cream ale) but a Mild, cream ale, blonde, saison honey weizen or a kolsch all seem like options for light/session.
Though I am not sure how any of them would go with coco nibs. That seems like you need something malty and dark to go with it. (oh that has been mentioned I see)
Yes, you can throw stuff together and get beer, but it won’t necessarily be good beer, or what you want. There is beer software out there that you can use to build recipes. That will at least let you know color, gravity, bitterness, etc. It still won’t tell you whether it will taste good or not. That comes from research and experience (and brewing abilities).
A good way to start when you’re only a few batches in, is go through NB’s kits and read up on them. They are kind enough to publish all their recipes. You can also read reviews from people. That will give you a lot of info on each beer. You can add to it from there, or just brew it as is. Do searches on this forum for a lot of info, too. If you’re thinking of putting something in a beer, you’re probably not the first one, and there are probably already threads on it.
This helped me out a ton when first trying to build my own recipes. I use beer smith, but there is a ton of software out there so you have to find what works for you.
[quote=“gauzzastrip”][quote=“Ekffazr”]
7) check into brew software
[/quote]
This helped me out a ton when first trying to build my own recipes. I use beer smith, but there is a ton of software out there so you have to find what works for you.[/quote]
If you want to get a feel for how brewing software works before buying something, this site is free and works well: http://buildabeer.org/beercalc.htm.
If you ditch the nibs and pale chocolate, you have the makings of a nice blond ale. The Amarillo and orange peel will go together quite nicely and I think a half pound or so of CaraMunich will work fine. The color may end up just a bit dark for a Blond, but it should be quite tasty.
Simpler is better when you start formulating your own recipes. Throwing together a bunch of random stuff will make beer, but starting with a goal and putting together a simple recipe to meet that goal will make better beer. For an extract brewer, that generally means starting with a base of a light extract and adding one or two steeping grains to get to where you want to be.
If you’re not ready to drop money on software yet, you can use brewersfriend.com or hopville.com to practice with recipe formulation.
