Barley Engineers - Recipe Formulation

by Derek Springer

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Recipe Formulation Derek Springer Society of Barley Engineers

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Please ask questions!

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How many folks have created your own recipe?

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How many folks have wanted to create your own recipe?

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How many folks were too intimidated to try?

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It's Easier Than You Think! Remember: Folks were doing this for millennia before they understood any of it!

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Why Do It? ● Clone your favorite commercial beers ● Revive a classic style ● Put your own spin on your favorite beer ● Blaze bold new trails! ● GO MAXIMUM XTREME!!!

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What I'm Covering ● Steps for success ● Recipe tools ● Live recipe demo (?) ● RAFFLE!!!

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Some Assumptions ● You've brewed before and have a basic understanding of brewing technique. ● You're willing to go and research some of the finer points I discuss tonight.

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What This Talk Is Not About ● What is a good recipe. ● Extract or all grain being better. ● Teaching you specific formulas for various calculations (IBU/extraction/etc). – That's way too much to cover in one night! ● Specific techniques to use when brewing.

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Steps For Recipe Success ● Before we even get to making a recipe there's a lot think about! ● Like a good chef, good recipes come from understanding your ingredients & techniques. 1) Know your system 2) Know your malt 3) Know your hops 4) Know your yeast 5) Know your water 6) Know your process 7) Know your styles 8) Figure out what you're trying to do!

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Know Your System ● Volumes – How much wort/trub is left behind? – How much grain + water can your mash tun hold? ● Temperatures – How long to boil? – How much heat is lost during mash? ● Rates – How much evaporates during boil? – How long to cool wort?

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Brewhouse Efficiency ● “Into fermentor” efficiency – Gravity – Volume ● #1 factor guiding your numbers for recipe

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Know Your Malts ● Extract – Liquid / Dry ● Base – Pale (2 vs 6 row) – Vienna / Munich – Wheat / rye ● Specialty – Crystal – Toasted / roasted

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Malt Experiment ● Next time you are at the homebrew store take a grain or two of a malt (ask first!). – Smell it – Chew it ● Note interesting flavors & aroma. ● See: Zymurgy article on nanomashing.

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(The latest issues of BYO and Zymurgy both have in-depth articles about learning malt & hop characteristics)

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Know Your Hops ● Variety – Aroma – Bittering – Dual ● Alpha Acids / Oils ● See: For The Love of Hops by Stan Hieronymus

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Hop Experiment ● Get a case of Bud Light & a selection of hop pellets. ● Add a few pellets, recap. ● Pop 'em open a few days later. ● Try blending them!

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Know Your Yeast ● Attenuation ● Flocculation ● Ferment Temps ● Alcohol Tolerance ● Esters/Phenols

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Yeast Experiment ● Go to White Labs Tasting Room. ● Go “vertical” (taste the same yeast in multiple styles) ● Go “horizontal” (taste same style with different strains)

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Know Your Water ● An advanced subject! ● Download your local water report. ● The water around here is pretty good for most styles. ● Familiarize yourself w/ the important salts. (Ca, Mg, Na, Cl, & SO4)

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Know Your Process ● Mash schedules – (or grain steeping) ● Water additions ● Boil length ● Hop schedules

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Know Your Styles ● The best place to start w/ your recipe. ● Check out BJCP style guides for inspiration & guidance. ● What works & what's expected for the beer. ● Competitions are good for feedback!

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Style Experiment ● Check out the BJCP guide for a style and grab a few of the commercial examples ● Try to match your experience w/ the notes in the guide as you drink it.

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Or ● Don't bother! ● Start off simple and learn along the way. ● Have a goal & take notes. ● Keep refining.

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But seriously: Start learning your system!

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Onto The Recipes!

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● Ray Daniels ● 1996 ● Great primer on building a recipe ● History and in-depth analysis of classic styles ● No recipes, per se The Bible

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The Bible, pt. 2 ● Jamil Zainasheff & John Palmer ● 2007 ● Solid recipe from *every* BJCP category/subcategory

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Step 1: Figure Out What You Want To Do ● What are your goals for this beer? – Clone a favorite beer? – Brew an uncommon/novel style? – Learn a new technique? – Refine your favorite style? – Calibrate your system? – Do something crazy!?

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Step 2: Decide On Your Base ● Choose a base: – Light / Dark – Hoppy / Malty – Strong / Session – Clean / Esters / Phenols ● Steal Reference a recipe – Brewing Classic Styles – Clone of your favorite beer

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Step 3: Choose Your Ingredients ● Base malt – Pilsner / pale (ale) / Vienna / Munich – Wheat / rye ● Specialty malts – Crystal / roasted / toasted / “special” ● Hops – Bittering / aroma / dual / noble ● Yeast – Esters / phenols / attenuation / flocculation

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Step 4: Choose Your Process ● This is really up to you but here are some things to think about: – Late additions (malt extract & hops) – Hop stands / first-wort hopping / dry hopping – Multi-step mashes – Yeast blends / rinsing & reusing yeast ● Pick some techniques & learn what they do for your beer.

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Step 5: Brew ● Trust your recipe. ● Take good notes!

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Step 6: Close The Loop ● Taste your finished beer, take notes on what you expected vs what you got. ● Submit to competitions or bring to clubs and get some feedback. ● Go back to your recipe and makes changes.