Many people have asked me where do I get my recipes from. When I first started brewing, I would go to my local homebrew supply store Midwest Supplies and pick out a pre-made recipe kit for the particular style of beer I wanted to brew. I have since spent a great deal of time learning about each beer style such as the history behind the style and the ingredients used in the style and can come up with my own formulation of a recipe that not only fits the style but more importantly suits my particular tastes. One of the most rewarding parts of homebrewing is taking a particular beer style and experimenting with the ingredients and your brewing process to come up with something that I can truly enjoy not only because I made it but because it suits my particular tastes.
For each recipe I start with one of my favorite books about homebrewing called Brewing Classic Styles. This is a recipe book from Jamil Zanasheff and John Palmer, two award winning homebrewers. The book provides a basic explanation of each beer style and then provides a recipe of brewing according to that style. What I typically do is start with that base recipe, then look to modify the recipe based on my own preference as well as what ingredients I have available to me.
Another way that I have gained a lot of knowledge about brewing is listening to brewing podcasts found on The Brewing Network. I have found the podcasts to be very informative as they go into detail on ingredients, the brewing process and often have interviews with some of the top craft brewers in the world. It is also a very humorous show as they sample beers of listeners, show guests, and their own homebrewed beer and over the course of a four hour show you can tell the effects of the beer have worn on them. The authors of Brewing Classic Styles also have a radio show where they explain each style in greater detail.
One of the recipes in Brewing Classic Styles features a recipe from a regular contributor to The Brewing Network shows Mike McDole. The recipe is for an agressively hopped American Brown Ale which he calls Janet's Brown Ale as it apparently is his wife Janet's favorite beer. Mike McDole also won first place at the National Homebrewers Conference with this recipe, so I figured I should give it a shot.
Steep Specialty Grains - 60 min at 155F
Amount Item Type
1.25 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain
1.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain
-- Add water to achieve boil volume of 4.08 gal
Boil for 60 min Boil Ingredients
Boil Amount Item Type
60 min 6.00 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract
60 min 1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops
15 min 1.00 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract
15 min 1.25 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract
15 min 1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (15 min) Hops
10 min 1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (10 min) Hops
0 min 1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (0 min) Hops
-- Cool wort to fermentation temperature
-- Add 1.75 gal water (as needed) to achieve volume of 5.00 gal
-- Siphon wort to primary fermenter and aerate wort.
-- Add Ingredients to Fermenter
Amount Item Type
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [Starter 1100 ml] Yeast-Ale
2/22/2010 Measure Original Gravity: 1.066 (Estimate: 1.066 SG)
2/22/2010 Measure Batch Volume: 5.0 (Estimate: 5.00 gal)
7 days Ferment in primary for 7 days at 68.0 F
3/1/2010 Transfer to Secondary Fermenter
14 days Ferment in secondary for 14 days at 68.0 F
-- Add Ingredients to Fermenter
Amount Item Type
2.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days)
Measure Final Gravity: 1.018(Estimate: 1.015 SG)
IBU: 48.6
ABV: 6.27%
Today I am sampling my first bottle of this beer. I think it still needs to condition, but it is an interesting mix of roasted malts and wheat with an earthy bitterness in the finish. I look forward to trying this again over the weeks to see how the flavor changes.
If you have a bottle of this, it is labeled as a green cap with "JB" marked on it.
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