Beer Recipe Design
Brad Smith, PhD
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A spectrum of choices…
Deliberate - Mechanical
Artistic
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Come up with an idea
Research the target style and beer
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Develop the:
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Apply Techniques
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Brew, Judge, and Iterate
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◦ Determine target color, gravity, bitterness
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Grain bill
Hop varieties and schedule
Yeast variety
Water profile
◦ Mash schedule, fermentation, hop techniques, more…
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I want to brew a….
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Robust Porter (Category 12B) for Competition
Clone of Bass Ale
Something with Smoked Oats
Gluten Free Imperial Stout
Jalapeño flavored Atomic Hop Bomb
“I don’t know where I’m going, but I am on my way.”
- Voltaire
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What are you trying to accomplish?
◦ Style, Clone, Unique beer?
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What does each ingredient contribute?
◦ Can I do it with fewer ingredients?
◦ Is the beer balanced?
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How do the techniques contribute?
◦ Do they support overall goal?
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What’s Unique about my beer?
◦ Read Radical Brewing
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Start with the BJCP style guide (BJCP.org)
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Books
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Research Online (styles and recipes)
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First Hand Research
◦ Provides target OG, color, bitterness, some ingredients and
history
◦ Designing Great Beers, Brewing Classic Styles, recipe and
style specific books
◦ Google search, BeerSmithRecipes.com, discussion forums,
blogs, style specific articles
◦ Sample commercial and home brewed beer!
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What ingredients define the style?
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What alternatives might I consider?
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How does each contribute to my goal?
◦ A Wit requires unmalted wheat
◦ Weizen banana/clove flavors come from yeast
◦ Dry Irish Stout needs roast barley
◦ Vary the yeast, grains, hops used
◦ What about something really new (aka Radical Brewing)
◦ Can I simplify (SMaSH style) rather than dumping everything
but the kitchen sink in?
◦ What can I get rid of?
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Use Software or a spreadsheet
◦ Match your equipment
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Estimate
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Original Gravity
Color
Bitterness
ABV (rough)
Compare these to your target style
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I like to work in percentages
◦ Base grains first (80% typical)
◦ “Key” specialty grains next (5-10%)
◦ Remaining grains (body, ABV, etc) (5-10%)
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Select grains that match your target
◦ Ex: Maris Otter for flavorful English Ale
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Understand what each brings to the table
◦ SMaSH brewing (and variants) a great way to
understand what each grain does
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Bittering Additions
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Aroma Additions
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Dry Hopping
◦ Tend to use a single addition, long boil to achieve my
target bitterness (IBU) level
◦ I use Bitterness Ratio (IBU:GU ratio) for balance
◦ Most of the aromatic “hop oils” will boil off within a few
minutes
◦ I’ve moved towards very late or steeped/whirlpool hops
to maximize aroma and hop oil flavor
◦ Shorter contact times (24-72 hours)
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Select yeast for effect
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A Starter is Important for Liquid Yeast
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Fermentation Temperature Matters!
◦ “Styles” for yeast provide a good starting point
◦ Go “off style” to achieve a specific effect such as a dry
finish, low attenuation, or complexity added by esters
◦ A typical liquid pack is 100 Bil cells when produced and
degrades about 20%/month
◦ Ideal pitch rate for 5 gal, 1.048 ale: 164 Bil cells
◦ Lagers ideal pitch rate is double that of ale
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Know your local water source!
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Consider the Mash pH when designing beer
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Water additions
◦ What is your Residual Alkalinity (How to Brew)?
◦ Is your water deficient minerals or is it too hard?
◦ Dark grains lower pH – less of a worry
◦ Light beers - need buffer or acid to lower pH
◦ pH buffers or acids – to manage mash pH
◦ Overall water profile considerations
 Should I target a particular profile for this beer?
 Do I need to start with bottled water then add minerals?
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Pick mash temp as needed for beer body:
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A Single Infusion Mash - 98% of the time!
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Consider Brew-in-a-bag
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Prevent Stuck Sparges
◦ Light body – 148 F
◦ Medium body – 152 F
◦ Full body – 156 F
◦ Add melanoidin malt to simulate decoction
◦ Use flaked or torrified grains when you need to work with
unmalted barley/wheats/oats (no cereal rest)
◦ Saves an hour due to short sparge and cleanup
◦ Use rice hulls for wheats, oats, etc…
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Late Extract Additions
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Segregate Dark Grains into Tea
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Add Honey/Fruit (some sugars) after boil
or in secondary
◦ Reduces scorching, increases hop utilization
◦ Steep dark/harsh grains separate from mash
(Gordon Strong)
◦ Reduces perceived bitterness/harshness
◦ Fragile fruit/honey aromas boil off
◦ Risk of infection relatively low after primary
fermentation complete
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First Wort Hopping
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Mash Hopping
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Late Hop Additions
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Steep/Whirlpool/Hop Back Additions
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Dry Hopping – use pellets just before bottling
◦ Add hops to pot during sparge (smooth flavor)
◦ Don’t bother!
◦ Very late may be best!
◦ Great for preserving volatile hop oils
◦ Adds small amount of bitterness
◦ Trend to shorter contact times – usually 1-3 days
◦ Recent research indicates 24 hours may be enough
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Pitch two different yeasts
◦ Either together, or separated in time
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Add Lacto or Brett in Secondary
◦ Sour beers only
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Diaceytl Rest - Lagers
◦ Raise temp by a few degrees for a day in secondary
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Cold Crashing
◦ Crash beer to near freezing in secondary
◦ Lager or Ale – may require more yeast for bottling
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Is Clarity Important?
Ways to improve clarity
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Watch protein content of grains
Cool wort quickly – Chiller
Use Irish Moss/Whirlfloc at end of boil
Choose yeast with high flocculation
Add a fining agent:
 Isinglass, Chillguard, Gelatin, Polyclar
◦ Cold store beer after carbonation
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Must be able to Judge your beer!
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Evaluate external appearance first
Capture aroma up front – right after its poured
Evaluate color, clarity, head retention
Taste the beer- overall impression first
 Finish, malt, hops, aroma
 Obvious flaws
◦ Mouthfeel
◦ Overall Impression
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The BJCP score sheet is a great guide
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Beer Judges are some of the best brewers!
◦ Provides 17 taste terms (grassy, phenolic, astringent, etc…) used for
evaluating beer
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Diacetyl/Butterscotch
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Astringency/Grainy
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Phenolics/Medicinal
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Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS)/Cabbage/Eggs
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Sour/Acidic flavors
◦ Use starter, diacetyl rest for lagers
◦ Oversparging, sparging too hot, excess tannins
◦ Chlorine in water, bacteria, oversparging
◦ Bacteria, high moisture malt, covering during boil or
insufficient boil
◦ Sanitation, Bacteria, excessive acid
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Pro brewers perfect their beer
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Seriously evaluate the flaws in your beer
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Brew it Again!
◦ Many homebrewers never brew the same twice!
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Adjust grain percentages?
Change hop schedule or varieties?
Fix or try new techniques?
Correct specific flaws?
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Start with a clear artistic vision
Do your homework (research!)
Create a list of potential ingredients’
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Run the numbers
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Consider which techniques are best
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◦ Simplify whenever possible – more is not better!
◦ Grain bill first
◦ Then hops, yeast, misc items
◦ Mash, Boil, Fermentation and Aging techniques
◦ Body, Clarity, Eliminating flaws
Judge your beer after brewing
Correct flaws and iterate!
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Beer Brewing Software
Brad Smith, PhD
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Recipe Design
◦ Build a recipe by picking ingredients from a set of several hundred
preloaded hops, grains, yeasts, etc…
◦ Calculates OG, Color, etc… in real time so you can focus on designing the
beer
◦ Print Step-by-step instructions for your recipe
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Recipe Manipulation
◦ Scale a recipe, adjust bitterness, adjust color, convert from all grain to
extract, change to your equipment
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Recipe Management
◦ Organize recipes in folders, share them in several formats, record data as
you brew
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PC Version
Macintosh Version
iPhone, iPad, and Android
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Name,
Equipment
Ingredients
Style
Comparison
Color
Choose
Ingredients
Custom Fields
Mash, Fermentation Profiles
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Current design is compared against the style guide as you
build the recipe
◦ OG, Bitterness, Color and ABV displayed
◦ Lets you focus on the design of the beer itself
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Screen clipping taken: 5/16/2013, 3:59 PM
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Brew Sheet
◦ Step by step
instructions for any
recipe
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Brew Day Timer
◦ Mash and boil timers
in desktop and
mobile versions
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BeerSmithRecipes.com
Cloud Recipe
Sharing/Storage
Web – Share/Search
Desktop – Cloud Folder
Mobile – Cloud Folder
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Features
Brewday Timer (Mash and Boil)
Local (offline) recipe editing
Cloud folder recipe editing
Editable ingredients
Equipment, Mash, Fermentation and
Carbonation profiles editable
◦ BJCP Style Guide
◦ Tools: Hydrometer, Infusion, Attenuation,
Mash Adjust, Refractometer, Carbonation
◦ Unit Converters
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Resources
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BJCP.org – BJCP style guide
Books:
 Designing Great Beers - Daniels
 Radical Brewing – Randy Mosher
 How to Brew – John Palmer
 Brewing Classic Styles – Zainasheff and Palmer
 Brew Like a Monk – Stan Hieronymous
 India Pale Ale – Mitch Steele
BeerSmith References
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BeerSmith.com
BeerSmithRecipes.com
Newsletter, blog, podcast
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BeerSmith.com/blog
Questions?
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