Grain

[Ariando]

I am new to building my own recipes, I have about 20 brews under my belt (all Grain). I am wondering about ......lets say Caramel crystal/malt, how do y'all decide the amount to use. Other than just looking at other recipes and copying them. I would prefer not to make a batch of poo.

[Maine Homebrewer]

Other than just looking at other recipes and copying them.

As a cook, I look at recipes as suggestions. I pull from this and that recipe for ideas, then wing-it based upon taste and experience.

I'm not much of a baker. Cakes and such.  You really have to copy the recipes. There's a lot of chemistry going on, and it's unwise to wing-it.

The exception being bread.  Yeast bread can fail if you simply follow the recipe. Humidity, flour density, temperature, and other factors can affect the dough. I honestly don't know how much flour I use when I make bread. I measure all the other ingredients, but not the flour.  I do it by feel. Literally.

With beer, I started off by following recipes. As I tried different styles, I got a feel for how the ingredients interact. 

Mostly now I wing-it. If I want to try making something new, I'll google up a dozen recipes and compare and contrast. Then I'll create something that draws upon what I know I like and ignores what I know I don't like.

[Ariando]

Thanks for the input that sounds about how I cook food. I also wanted to say I have brewed close to 20 times only  5 all grains not 20 all grains (yet). I guess I will try stacking some grain to discover ......

[Oginme]

I would recommend checking out 'Designing Great Beers' by Daniels.  It is a bit outdated as far as information, but the methodology for creating recipes is good.  I also went to the BJCP website (bjcl.org) and downloaded their style guidelines.  From reading these and looking at clone recipes for the recommended commercial examples of a given style, I could get a feel for how much of a certain type of grain to add, how much hops and when, types of yeasts used for a given style.  I also recommend 'Brewing Classic Styles' by Zainasheff and Palmer. Although I picked it up after designing my own recipes for many beer styles, it helped with confirmation that my recipes were pretty close to others that had been developed.

Now with having brewed 40+ all grain recipes of my own behind me, I use the style guides as a starting point and branch out creatively on my own with new recipes, just as a cook will. 

[jtoots]

I would recommend checking out 'Designing Great Beers' by Daniels.  It is a bit outdated as far as information, but the methodology for creating recipes is good.  I also went to the BJCP website (bjcl.org) and downloaded their style guidelines.  From reading these and looking at clone recipes for the recommended commercial examples of a given style, I could get a feel for how much of a certain type of grain to add, how much hops and when, types of yeasts used for a given style.  I also recommend 'Brewing Classic Styles' by Zainasheff and Palmer. Although I picked it up after designing my own recipes for many beer styles, it helped with confirmation that my recipes were pretty close to others that had been developed.

Now with having brewed 40+ all grain recipes of my own behind me, I use the style guides as a staring point and branch out creatively on my own with new recipes, just as a cook will.

Pretty fantastic advice here.  I'm on board with Daniels' book, the guidelines, and I also use the "max % of grist" suggestions within Beersmith.

[brewfun]

+1 to Oginme's book recommendations. Both are fantastic resources for flavor development with malt and creating hop balance.

[Ariando]

Thanks I am l about to do some reading.