Home Brewing Forums/Recipes

I know there are other home brewers on here. My first batch is a couple of day from bottling and I'm already thinking about what I maybe want to brew next.

Anybody of suggestions on quality forums or sites for good recipes?

I've got a vision for a beer I'd like to brew but not enough experience to write a recipe from scratch. I'm thinking a refreshing honey ale for summer; probably with a decent helping of cascade hops (for that citrusy flavor) and maybe use a Bavarian weizen yeast.

Found this recipe that looks close to what I'm going for: http://beerrecipes.org/showrecipe.php?recipeid=959 I'm not sure if I should do an all-grain beer for my second batch. I'm also not sure about dividing up and adding the hops called for; maybe 1oz bittering, 1oz flavoring? Or split that flavoring hops into .75oz flavor and .25oz aroma? It looks like it just calls for all 2oz to be bittering.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/ is a good forum. They have quite a few recipes and helpful tips.

Home Brew Talk is alright, they're a little set in their ways over there, and get uptight sometimes, but it's an Internet forum- only GRM isn't like that It is a good site for beginners though, so check that one out.

As for creating your own recipes, it's easiest to follow someone else's (HBT has a whole recipe database) for a while, and then you kind of see what goes in to each style and you can start tinkering and adding/substituting things.

Once you are ready to start formulating your own, you can use Charlie Papazian's book The Complete Joy of Homebrewing (which, if you don't own already, you definitely should, that and John Palmer's How to Brew), which has a chart of recipe starting points for every style under the sun.

A tool I use, which is free (unlike Beersmith) is TastyBrew.com's complete recipe calculator- you input ingredients and batch size and boil times and efficiency and it spits out theoretical OG and FG, color, IBU, and whether those stats fit the guidelines for the style you're trying to brew. Very helpful.

That honey ale recipe is indeed an all-grain recipe. All grain isn't really hard, but if I didn't have someone guiding me through it, I'd be really really lost. By all means try it, but it is more challenging than extract, and you need more equipment than a big pot and your bucket or carboy. And that recipe calls for the 2 oz. of hops all for bittering, notice it says "60 min" after the hop measurement- 60 minutes is definitely a bittering addition.

All grain for your second batch - definitely jumping in the deep end. If you know an all grain brewer, it might be worthwhile to brew with them before attempting this yourself. Or at least invite them over to help you. Do you have a local homebrewing club?

Next step - decoction brewing. I wouldn't do it any other way...

racinginc215 wrote: I can convert that to an extract if you would like me to.

If you could, that would be great.

Actually, for my next I think I'm going to try a Belgian golden style ale. Pranqster is my general favorite beer, and I'd love to find a decent grain/extract recipe for that. After that I think I'll hunt for a Saison recipe. (I've brewed a Saison under guidance before, and it seemed fairly simple, just takes longer to ferment.)

kcmoken - Why decoction? I'm not totally sure I understand what you're doing with that, or why I'd go that method next.

I don't feel like limiting myself to just the pre-measured kits at the local brewers' supply, but I'm thinking all-grain is still a bit in the future.

Well you can always make up your own extract recipes, or start with specialty grain/extract recipes, where you steep specialty grains (a mini mash, essentially) before bringing everything to a boil and adding your extract.

And a Saison trick, if you're going to do one: use Le Chouffe yeast, wait until July, and let it ferment at about 90*F. I think the yeast is White Labs WLP 565 or 566. It can ferment that hot and will give you ridiculous flavors.

Jumping in to all grain on your second batch made me figure you would get to the most complex of grain brews by your third or fourth. A single step infusion with batch sparge isn't really that difficult. A double or triple decoction definitely adds complexity to all-grain brewing.

The local homebrewing club tried an experiment with the same ingredients, just different mash techniques. The body you get from a decoction mash is so much different than the body you get from a single or multi-step infusion mash. Granted you better plan on investing all day for a double decoction brew session, but the resulting beer is worth it.

I have a three tier system, flexibility is amazing for 10-15 gallon batches.

Twin_Cam wrote: And a Saison trick, if you're going to do one: use Le Chouffe yeast, wait until July, and let it ferment at about 90*F. I think the yeast is White Labs WLP 565 or 566. It can ferment that hot and will give you ridiculous flavors.

Le Chouffe is awesome stuff. Where do you get their yeast? That would make for a badass Saison. July would probably be about when I'll want to start brewing too. 90? Seriously? I'm not sure where I'd put it to keep it that temperature and out of the sun. My little closet might be sitting around 80 then. Or maybe I just stick it in a corner of the living room inside of a box?

kcmoken - Yeah, I'm dreaming (and talking) big, but I think I should probably start a bit smaller. Converting all-grain recipes to use more extract are probably better for now. I do not have the facilities to brew 10-15 gallons.

Salanis - you can get your brew temperature up just because fermentation generates heat, a lot of it. I have an 80-quart cooler, stand that on edge the tall way and it will hold an upright 5-gallon carboy and airlock. Put fermenting carboy into cooler, put cover on it (at this point the front), and now you capture all of that heat. This is my grassroots technique for fermenting at warmer temperatures. Toss in thermometer if you want data.

I used to have a similar box for cooler fermentation made out of blue styrofoam house insulation. Two compartments; one holds the carboy and one holds gallon milk jugs full of ice, between the two there was a computer cooling fan for air circulation. Once/day swap in a new gallon milk jug from the freezer, and the now melted one goes back in the freezer for recharge. I used this for years to ferment lagers.

Now I use a chest freezer with separate thermostat, more precise but not necessarily any better.