Blank slate brews?

[Lucas Edwards]

So, I have been going at this for a while. Made about five (six?) Brews so far, and I'm working on my seventh.

I want to try brewing my own recipes with the Brewart ingredients, but I don't have a good "flavor profile" of each ingredient on its own.

What are some good "Blank Slate" brews? Simple brews that let you taste the ingredients and get a good understanding of what they do so I can figure out what flavors work together. (I would prefer if they taste... You know, good.)

I know that brewing is mostly a lot of science and math, but with all these powders and hop extracts pre-packaged it makes me want to just throw things together and see what sticks.

Coming at this from the position of a home cook, I understand my spices, I know what works together and what doesn't, I want to get there with brewing.

[BrewArt Team]

G 'Day Lucas, 

That's great to hear you're looking at experimenting a bit with different flavours. You're right that brewing is science and math, but there is also a lot of art as well (not a BrewArt pun). I find brewing is the perfect balance between science and art. 
My best advice is to have a look at the ingredients page on the BrewArt website here: https://brewart.com/au/store/ingredients We try to give detailed descriptions on what each Element/Enhancer does. There are a few simple things to note to make it easier:

• 1) The Elements add bitterness to your beer, along with colour, and alcohol. 
• 2) The Enhancers add body, mouthfeel, head retention and alcohol content along with colour. 
• 3) Each Element/Enhancer you add will add approx. 1% ABV to your finished beer (plus .5% for Priming sugar).

If you want a good neutral base to experiment with, start with just E1's and X1's, this is just a pure pale malt brew, then add a Y1 (American Ale Yeast) and Ferment at 18°C. E.g. 4 x E1's plus an X1 will get you a pale 24 IBU beer, at 5.5% ABV. It will be delicious, and a good blank canvas to experiment with hops and other ingredients. 

I hope this helps. All the best with your experiments. 

Cheers

[Rob Courtney]

On 20/09/2023 at 5:26 PM, Lucas Edwards said:

So, I have been going at this for a while. Made about five (six?) Brews so far, and I'm working on my seventh.

I want to try brewing my own recipes with the Brewart ingredients, but I don't have a good "flavor profile" of each ingredient on its own.

What are some good "Blank Slate" brews? Simple brews that let you taste the ingredients and get a good understanding of what they do so I can figure out what flavors work together. (I would prefer if they taste... You know, good.)

I know that brewing is mostly a lot of science and math, but with all these powders and hop extracts pre-packaged it makes me want to just throw things together and see what sticks.

Coming at this from the position of a home cook, I understand my spices, I know what works together and what doesn't, I want to get there with brewing.

https://community.brewart.com/forum/14-brewprint-customisation/

A whole section with brews others have made, with simple and more complex recipes

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

Hi @Lucas Edwards

There has been a number of posts on this subject including the use of Dextrose with the Elements and Enhancers.

I wrote one where I tried to break down each of the Elements and Enhancers to help others who want to experiment with their own recipes.

There are also some very good posts in this thread including how to make a Hazy IPA and others.

Another thing that might help is the (in)famous Shems spreadsheet excel document which has the recipes for cloning a variety of commercial beers. The best place to find the most recent version of that is on the Brewart Owners - Beerdroid & Brewflow Facebook group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/510017639207765/files/files

You'll also find a lot of other BeerDroid brewers who don't use this forum but are happy to share recipes and it's another great place to get inspiration on how to maximize your brewing experience.

And seeing a previous post you made, I'm also a gamer, love First Person Shooters so play a lot of Battlefield and COD and I do enjoy a beverage or two whilst I'm gaming but given I tend to make higher ABV brews, can't have to many or the aim will be off  🤣

Cheers,
Warren