Tweaking Recipes – My Journey

Over the years, there are several beers that I have made and re-made in an effort to perfect my recipe. Sometimes it’s to nail a specific style, sometimes it’s to fit my particular preference. On some occasions, I get close enough within a couple tries. However, there are several beers that I seem destined to name “Heinz 57” to represent how many iterations it took to find the right combination! Knowing that our next KART is going to focus on talking about judging feedback and how to incorporate it in revising a given entry from the Throwdown, I thought I’d share some of my experiences in making adjustments.

First, the feedback needs to be objective, critical and constructive. The friend saying “wow, that’s pretty good” while I beat my head against the wall because the beer has no head – that’s not helpful for the beer, my head or the wall. Judging from competitions can fit the criteria, if the judges have time to make thorough comments and if you can read it and if they have good palates with style knowledge. Club feedback can be a great place, but again – avoid the ‘friend zone’, talk with someone familiar with the style. I think BCBS is doing well here, and as the Club brews more styles, we will gain better breadth and depth of knowledge and experience. The other comment I’d make about feedback is to break it down in a similar fashion to judging. What’s off about the aroma? What’s off about the appearance? What’s off about the flavor? It’s possible or even likely that one change can impact more than one aspect of the beer.

Secondly, documentation. I know I’m an engineer with all my Excels and PowerPoints. I like being organized, and it is a real advantage when making deliberate adjustments to fine tune recipes and processes. Without my notes, I’d be guessing at what I did the previous time, which would be near impossible because I rarely brew the same beer within my next 2-3 batches. Find a method that works best for you – looseleaf paper in a binder, online recipe apps – whatever feels easy to use on brew day and be able to find for updates. Oh, and besides taking notes on the recipe and brew day – take notes on your critique of the beer and that from other sources (judges, club, comparison to a commercial beer of the same style, etc.). That’s an important bread crumb to remind you why you made a previous change that maybe didn’t provide a positive improvement.

Lastly, be deliberate but measured when making a change. What does that mean? The urge in some cases is to make changes to the malt, the hops, the yeast, the mash and fermentation temperature all at once. How will you know which change improved the beer and which change didn’t help the beer at all? The answer is, you won’t. Pick a limited number of adjustments, and don’t make huge swings unless you know for certain you were way off to start with. I’ll illustrate with my Extra Pale Ale recipe:

Recipes 1 and 2 made side by side – I used different malt extracts, different hops and only dry hopped one. My only nugget of wisdom – dry hopping was a good thing. I think.

Recipe 3 – new malt extract combo, new adjuncts, new yeast. Learning – did I need both of the adjuncts?

Recipe 4 – new malt extract combo, new adjuncts, new yeast. Learning – not as good as the last one?

Recipes 5 and 6 – common malt extract, common hop additions during the boil, different single variety of dry hop and different yeast. Learning – I don’t like Fuggle hops later than @20; one of the two yeasts is the right one; a half pound of CaraMunich 1 or Caramel 40L gets me the color I want.

(I went all-grain and had to restart on the malt side. Used the same yeast for all and stuck with it since.)

Recipe 9 – Added Simcoe and Cascade in similar quantities late in the boil and dry hop. Learning – I love West Coast ales. Found my hop profile and thus found my recipe!

Don’t get discouraged if you’re on iteration 3 and things aren’t improving – you’ve still learned something. I’d also recommend not to dump a batch without getting some good all-around feedback first. Keep in mind that some beer styles improve with some conditioning time, so don’t pull the plug too fast.

Happy brewing!