I’m not sure if I’ve ever shared my story about how I got into beer…
When I was younger… not even old enough to drink (shhh…) my uncle and dad teamed up to brew beers using all kinds of ingredients… their first one, a wheat beer…
Their second one a milkshake-smooth porter…
… and last, a rye PA…
I was fortunate to have had those be amongst my first beers to drink. From there on out I seeked out only high quality brews… if my friends knew the name of the beer, it probably wasn’t good…
One day I came across an article by Anchor Brewing Co., which happened to brew my uncle’s favorite beer at the time (anchor steam)…
And I remember one thing stood out the most… the owner/head brewer mentioned that the reason their beers were so good was because they handpicked only the best and freshest ingredients… and they knew how to combine those ingredients artfully to brew great beers!
… and that’s what today is about… if you are a homebrewer you’re already getting fresh ingredients (unless you are buying dusty cans of LME)…
and now it’s time to combine ingredients to brew the best beers we can possibly brew…
Coming up with recipes is NOT about picking ingredients… it’s about having an end goal in mind…
Once you have an end goal in mind, you can work to get there… take for example the milkshake-smooth porter my dad and uncle brewed…
They didn’t put together a recipe for a porter and then included oats to give it the milkshake-like consistency… no, it was the other way around…
If you can describe the beer as being milkshake-smooth, then you know you’ll need to use ingredients that will give the beer that feel…
In this case, oats will do that for you…
If you are looking to boost head formation or add a bit of cream-like consistency to your beers, wheat is the answer…
If you are looking to spice things up, rye will get you there…
So when you go craft your next recipe, don’t just think about what other ingredients you can ‘add’ to your current recipe…
Think about the beer you’ll be drinking… how it smells, how it feels, how it looks, how it tastes… and then ask yourself how the ingredients you are using will help you achieve that…
The ingredients are your tools to help you brew what you want… which is why I payed careful attention to make sure you fully understand what ingredients will do for you in my training program Better Home Brew Formula… check it out…
