Recipes and recipe formulation...

Recipes can be helpful to the novice homebrewer, but they can also be misleading and confusing. Some recipes claim to be "clones" of your favorite beer, and while these recipes can define a style of beer, they often taste nothing like the commercial beer you've grown accustomed to over many years. Other recipes are extravagant and difficult to make, requiring many "imaginitive" yet unneccessary steps that can frustrate an otherwise enthusiastic homebrewer. While it isn't difficult to "try out" a new recipe that looks good on paper, it can be a waste of valuable time and resources if the beer doesn't taste good to you, and results can be difficult to measure because there is nothing to compare the "experimental batch" with.

If you have never made a batch of beer, it would be wise and economical to start out with a homebrew kit that contains premeasured ingredients and clear instructions on how to make it. Better yet, find someone with some experience making beer and allow them to walk you through one of their brew sessions. (They may even have some previous successes for you to sample, while you inquire into this exciting hobby.) There are a few easy, yet very important, fundamental practices that should be learned, and even a small amount of "risk management" (what if's) that should be discussed before you dive into your first batch of beer. (The gentleman who introduced me to the hobby told me that, "You aren't a homebrewer until you've had your first boilover".)

An understanding of beer styles will help to relieve any anxiety you may have about making a particular beer (everybody wants to make a "Guiness clone"). Beer styles are defined by their color, alcohol content, bitterness, specific gravities and many times the amounts and kinds of grains (the grainbill) contained in them, not simply their flavor or the name they're given. Recipes can take a lot of the fun out of making a good beer! Sometimes your final product will fall outside the parameters that define the beer you set out to make, but hey, if it tastes good, enjoy it!

Now that you've read the disclaimer, I will harken ye to a few of my favorite styles, and the ingredients that I used to make them. Understand that variations such as WATER, type of equipment used and personal panache play as much a role in the flavor of any beer as the ingredients listed in a recipe. However, for the curious...