MTBrewer said:
I was just ranting, becuz it seems that many of the recipes I'm seeing are getting too devoid of information - (boil times, mash times, fermentation times & temps, etc., and I, for one am NOT clairvoyant!
I can see that frustration. I just need the scantest information for a recipe: Style, Grain %, Total IBU, Hops list, target abv %. Obviously, more detail is better for cloning, but it isn't necessary to get into the ballpark.
After that, it's simply some "standard" processes: 1 hour mash (temperature dictated by abv%), 1 hour boil, appropriate yeast used at the center of it's ranges. The boil gets lengthened if the first hop charge won't provide the target IBU, or the gravity won't provide an OG to get to the target abv %.
I don't sweat stuff like the water profile or exact hop additions or exact yeast being in the recipe because I can infer a lot of the processes from the style. I can derive the volume from the OG needed for abv % on my system. Color sorts itself by grain %. Between the style goals, hops list and total IBU, I can create a respectable hop profile.
I can get a detailed recipe from a 3 Michelin star chef, but it'll still turn out different in my kitchen.
I've been the "pro"part of several pro-am brews. I taste the beer, look over the recipe and make some judgments on how it'll scale. Mostly, I rely on talking and collaborating with the brewer and how their beer tastes.
One saison had been through hell because the brewer left for vacation and came back to 90oF beer and sticky residue from massive blowoff. He then chilled it to 70, added new yeast and then left for another vacation, coming home to again very warm beer. Total time, almost 6 months. That wasn't reproducible on a pro scale and timeline! We ended up making a double batch and using one yeast, where the first portion was allowed to free rise ferment for 5 days (it got to 90!), then the second wort was added and we kept it around 72 for 2 days, then let it up to 78 and just let the yeast settle on its own. The whole beer was packaged at 30 days. The result was excellent, very close in side-by side tasting, making the brewer very happy and winning some awards.