[hopfenundmalz]

... hop utilization can be very different.

Is that due to the intensity of the boil?  Smaller system boiling more vigorously?

I'm not  hop scientist, but boil dynamics big vs small kettle. Boil off rates can be different. Other equipment differences can come into play, external vs internal Calandria vs steam jackets.

[erockrph]

To the OP, you need a base to start. Start by brewing some simple, proven recipes (I highly recommend Breing Classic Styles here). Learn how they come out on your system. Then change/add/delete an ingredient and see how that changes the recipe. It takes work, but it's tasty work, and it's a worthwhile investment. Over time you will have a solid foundation and can start to visualize recipes in your head.

[neuse]

... hop utilization can be very different.

Is that due to the intensity of the boil?  Smaller system boiling more vigorously?

I'm not  hop scientist, but boil dynamics big vs small kettle. Boil off rates can be different. Other equipment differences can come into play, external vs internal Calandria vs steam jackets.

From a BYO article "Behind the IBU: Advanced Brewing" (http://www.byo.com/stories/article/indices/37-hops/200-behind-the-ibu-advanced-brewing) "Alpha and iso-alpha losses are known to occur throughout the brewing process, for example by being carried out of solution by adhering to break material, trub, yeast and vessel walls." Kettle and fermenter walls have more effect with a smaller system.

[CounterPressure]

To the OP, you need a base to start. Start by brewing some simple, proven recipes (I highly recommend Breing Classic Styles here). Learn how they come out on your system. Then change/add/delete an ingredient and see how that changes the recipe. It takes work, but it's tasty work, and it's a worthwhile investment. Over time you will have a solid foundation and can start to visualize recipes in your head.

I've got a few styles that I feel I have a decent grasp on, and I much prefer simple beers. So I'm sort of doing that now.  I've brewed for a very long time, but the more I learn the more I want to learn. Reading on the web is a double edged sword, and there's contradictions on virtually every topic there is.  A guy can spend a lot of time sorting through all the "facts". And that's ignoring the number of times the entire industry changes their mind about this or that.

From a BYO article "Behind the IBU: Advanced Brewing" (http://www.byo.com/stories/article/indices/37-hops/200-behind-the-ibu-advanced-brewing) "Alpha and iso-alpha losses are known to occur throughout the brewing process, for example by being carried out of solution by adhering to break material, trub, yeast and vessel walls." Kettle and fermenter walls have more effect with a smaller system.

Hmm.  I was thinking last night about some of my old notes on early IPAs that turned out well. Those along with stuff I've read in the past week or so leads me to believe it's my boil process that's "ruining" the ones I make today.  There's more than that too, but I have some new stuff to try (on a 5 gallon batch, not 10 )

[neuse]

"Reading on the web is a double edged sword, and there's contradictions on virtually every topic there is.  A guy can spend a lot of time sorting through all the "facts". And that's ignoring the number of times the entire industry changes their mind about this or that."
That's part of the fun.

[denny]

To the OP, you need a base to start. Start by brewing some simple, proven recipes (I highly recommend Breing Classic Styles here). Learn how they come out on your system. Then change/add/delete an ingredient and see how that changes the recipe. It takes work, but it's tasty work, and it's a worthwhile investment. Over time you will have a solid foundation and can start to visualize recipes in your head.

I've got a few styles that I feel I have a decent grasp on, and I much prefer simple beers. So I'm sort of doing that now.  I've brewed for a very long time, but the more I learn the more I want to learn. Reading on the web is a double edged sword, and there's contradictions on virtually every topic there is.  A guy can spend a lot of time sorting through all the "facts". And that's ignoring the number of times the entire industry changes their mind about this or that.

From a BYO article "Behind the IBU: Advanced Brewing" (http://www.byo.com/stories/article/indices/37-hops/200-behind-the-ibu-advanced-brewing) "Alpha and iso-alpha losses are known to occur throughout the brewing process, for example by being carried out of solution by adhering to break material, trub, yeast and vessel walls." Kettle and fermenter walls have more effect with a smaller system.

Hmm.  I was thinking last night about some of my old notes on early IPAs that turned out well. Those along with stuff I've read in the past week or so leads me to believe it's my boil process that's "ruining" the ones I make today.  There's more than that too, but I have some new stuff to try (on a 5 gallon batch, not 10 )

I'm curious to know what about your boil might be causing it.

[CounterPressure]

I'm curious to know what about your boil might be causing it.

At my previous house I would often Brew right in the kitchen. I re-jetted my stove to get more horsepower out of it and it was just enough to brew 10 gal batches with insulation on the kettle. Which I still use by the way, and always have. Now I have a propane burner that I can just about set the kettle on fire if I want to and I think what's going on is that the boil is far too hard and is creating all kinds of problems with hop harshness. That beer had Cascade in the mash and Magnum in the boil for the entire time and I'm thinking they were getting utilized far too much. Some of the early batches I did at that home using biab were positively stellar. And I know for a fact they couldn't have been boiled as hard because I hadn't re-jetted the stove yet.

Maybe I'm wrong and maybe it doesn't mean anything. The only information I have is my own notes and what I can read online. Nobody can fix my beer from the other side of the earth. So I'm going to give it a try, for better or for worse.

[denny]

I'm curious to know what about your boil might be causing it.

At my previous house I would often Brew right in the kitchen. I re-jetted my stove to get more horsepower out of it and it was just enough to brew 10 gal batches with insulation on the kettle. Which I still use by the way, and always have. Now I have a propane burner that I can just about set the kettle on fire if I want to and I think what's going on is that the boil is far too hard and is creating all kinds of problems with hop harshness. That beer had Cascade in the mash and Magnum in the boil for the entire time and I'm thinking they were getting utilized far too much. Some of the early batches I did at that home using biab were positively stellar. And I know for a fact they couldn't have been boiled as hard because I hadn't re-jetted the stove yet.

Maybe I'm wrong and maybe it doesn't mean anything. The only information I have is my own notes and what I can read online. Nobody can fix my beer from the other side of the earth. So I'm going to give it a try, for better or for worse.

I think your correlation might be inaccurate

[erockrph]

To the OP, you need a base to start. Start by brewing some simple, proven recipes (I highly recommend Breing Classic Styles here). Learn how they come out on your system. Then change/add/delete an ingredient and see how that changes the recipe. It takes work, but it's tasty work, and it's a worthwhile investment. Over time you will have a solid foundation and can start to visualize recipes in your head.

I've got a few styles that I feel I have a decent grasp on, and I much prefer simple beers. So I'm sort of doing that now.  I've brewed for a very long time, but the more I learn the more I want to learn. Reading on the web is a double edged sword, and there's contradictions on virtually every topic there is.  A guy can spend a lot of time sorting through all the "facts". And that's ignoring the number of times the entire industry changes their mind about this or that.

It's great to get ideas from the web and from "experts", but in the end beer is an art that is guided by science rather than science itself. The end result is experienced with the senses the same as music or visual arts. The only "facts" that matter are whether you enjoy the process and the beer itself. If I read an idea that sounds like it may make my beer and/or brewday more enjoyable, then I try it out. If it works for me, I add it to my toolbox. If it doesn't, then I discard it.

[denny]

To the OP, you need a base to start. Start by brewing some simple, proven recipes (I highly recommend Breing Classic Styles here). Learn how they come out on your system. Then change/add/delete an ingredient and see how that changes the recipe. It takes work, but it's tasty work, and it's a worthwhile investment. Over time you will have a solid foundation and can start to visualize recipes in your head.

I've got a few styles that I feel I have a decent grasp on, and I much prefer simple beers. So I'm sort of doing that now.  I've brewed for a very long time, but the more I learn the more I want to learn. Reading on the web is a double edged sword, and there's contradictions on virtually every topic there is.  A guy can spend a lot of time sorting through all the "facts". And that's ignoring the number of times the entire industry changes their mind about this or that.

It's great to get ideas from the web and from "experts", but in the end beer is an art that is guided by science rather than science itself. The end result is experienced with the senses the same as music or visual arts. The only "facts" that matter are whether you enjoy the process and the beer itself. If I read an idea that sounds like it may make my beer and/or brewday more enjoyable, then I try it out. If it works for me, I add it to my toolbox. If it doesn't, then I discard it.

Excellent assessment. I like to say I learned the science and came out the other side.

[CounterPressure]

I think your correlation might be inaccurate

Well, I'm open to other suggestions.  My notes from years ago didn't include all the details they do now. I am more or less reading notes from all batches of the era and trying to put together a timeline of new equipment and techniques and then backing into what I should have made note of in other batches.  Not exactly "science"... I was trying to build brewing skills, not secretarial...  

I write down a lot more opinion and speculation stuff nowadays, regardless of how ridiculous I think it is.  I've wanted to have those ridiculous thoughts on paper more than once, and never wrote them down.  Also, I used Excel from very early on as a brewing notes DB.  But that was more for numbers and that sort of thing.  Lots of the text stuff was only handwritten on the sheets I was using for the brew day.  So, while there's lots of stuff, it's not so easily searchable.  I guess I should be happy I still have it all.  I just wish I'd written more.

[CounterPressure]

And finally for historic recipes (which are 75% of what I brew) I go to Ron Pattinson's blog, http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/.

Ron researches old brewery logbooks and recipe books and scales them to homebrew size batches. He publishes recipes every Wednesday and Saturday. I mention this one only because Scottish brewing is one of Ron's primary interests. He's toured the US giving talks on nothing but Scottish brewing and written two books on the subject along with countless articles on his blog... including recipes for the whole range of Scottish Ales. Use the search tool at the top of his site and look for the words "Let's Brew +Scottish" and you will get pages of recipes. Or scroll way down his page and look on the left hand side for a keyword menu (titled "Labels") to find hundreds of entries that include the words Scottish, Scotland, Scotch, and Shilling.

I listened to the podcast Ron did on Scottish brewing.  I guess if I want to brew a historical Scottish style, I'm restricted to 1.025-1.140, hops from near 0 to 8 pounds per barrel with a pound per barrel of dry hops.  Color is restricted to 3 srm through about 400, and age is the one relative constant where I need to drink it young!   As long as I stay within that, anything goes! 

[chinaski]

To the OP, you need a base to start. Start by brewing some simple, proven recipes (I highly recommend Breing Classic Styles here). Learn how they come out on your system. Then change/add/delete an ingredient and see how that changes the recipe. It takes work, but it's tasty work, and it's a worthwhile investment. Over time you will have a solid foundation and can start to visualize recipes in your head.

This is solid advice and is how I developed the recipes I brew most often.  Many of those recipes were starting points to what I now consider my own recipes.  Some of them I never changed except to match to the efficiency of my system and to use my own hops.  At very least brewing them straight from the book as is gave me a set of reference points that I've used when creating a brand new recipes.

[John M]

To the OP, you need a base to start. Start by brewing some simple, proven recipes (I highly recommend Breing Classic Styles here). Learn how they come out on your system. Then change/add/delete an ingredient and see how that changes the recipe. It takes work, but it's tasty work, and it's a worthwhile investment. Over time you will have a solid foundation and can start to visualize recipes in your head.

This is solid advice and is how I developed the recipes I brew most often.  Many of those recipes were starting points to what I now consider my own recipes.  Some of them I never changed except to match to the efficiency of my system and to use my own hops.  At very least brewing them straight from the book as is gave me a set of reference points that I've used when creating a brand new recipes.

Couldn't agree more

[Lazy Ant Brewing]

I consider myself to be an intermediate-level brewer.  I have a lot of questions, but I've got the basics covered, brew drinkable beers, and have never had to dump a batch.

A lot of my attempts start with a beer I drink and I think is pretty good but .  .  .

Fill in the blank
Too hoppy, not hoppy enough
ABV too high or too low,
I would prefer a different yeast because .  .  .
Can't get that precise malt or I don't like that because .  .  .

I've never been afraid to modify existing recipes or to read many recipes on a given style and create a "composite recipe" that is different from each, sometimes "twisting the normal parameters of a style" to suit my preferences.

Randy Mosher's mastering Homebrew is my go-to source for answering some of the questions I have, for generating ideas, and for surveying the boundaries of a given style.  His book has lots of charts, graphs, and illustrations that make it much easier for me to find the info I need as compared to other books on brewing.  I would recommend it to anyone.

Do I get it right the first time?  Of course not.  Is it ever perfect? No, but the joy is in the journey and the anticipation of waiting for the yeast to work its magic so you can have that first taste.

And, when you get a compliment being able to say, "thanks, that's my own recipe."