Recipe Formulation for a Balanced Beer
01/19/2024
By Jack Horzempa
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Introduction
In my recent article about Witbier I mentioned the word “balance” many times since achieving balance is very important for this specific beer style. But how does one
achieve proper balance for a given beer? A balanced beer is one where no one ingredient or class of ingredients stands out among the rest. Instead, all the ingredients work together to complement each other and come together as a unique whole. When a specific beer style benefits from the whole being larger than the sum of its parts this can indeed be a challenging task. The purpose of this article is to provide some insight and tips on how you can better formulate a recipe to achieve balance for your next batch of homebrewed beer.
To brew a balanced beer, one must give careful consideration to the choices of all the ingredients as well as to the brewing process choices to provide a final result where all the elements work together equally.
I think I would be remiss if I did not mention that for beer styles that are popular these days, for example IPAs, a balanced flavor profile is not necessarily a goal for many
brewers. But even for an IPA a more balanced beer can be a goal. For example, now is the season for Sierra Nevada Celebration IPA which is a more balanced version of an IPA with the hop aroma/flavor of Cascade and Celebration hops nicely complemented by the malt flavors (e.g., flavors from Crystal Malt).
But first you must have a target
I am of the opinion that recipe formulation is best achieved when you conscientiously consider what is desired for the final product. Take the time to consider questions such as:
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What color do you want the beer to be?
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What level of ABV?
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Do you want a dry finish or a beer that is 'chewier' in nature?
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What flavor(s) are you seeking for a given batch of beer?
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Does this beer absolutely need to be brewed per a beer style (e.g., are you brewing this beer to submit to a competition) or are you brewing this beer to suit your individual palate?
Sensory Profile of your target beer
What aromas/flavors are you seeking for your beer? Above I used Sierra Nevada Celebration as an example of an IPA which targets a balance of hops and malt. A decade+ ago some beer aficionados might describe this type of beer as being an East Coast IPA since although it was brewed on the West Coast, this beer is not just all about the hops. Of the four basic ingredients in beer (i.e., malted barley, hops, yeast and water) the most influential are the first three: malted barley, hops and yeast strain. There are other ingredients which can be used beyond those three, such as flavorings like coriander, curacao orange peel, and raw/flaked wheat in the Witbier beer style. The basic strategy for formulating a balanced recipe is to not have any one ingredient dominate the aroma/flavor profile.
The mouthfeel/body of the target beer is influenced both by ingredient and process considerations (e.g., mashing). I discussed in the Witbier article how my target was a beer with great drinkability and I consequently chose to not use grains that would add to the mouthfeel (i.e., no flaked oats) and I chose to mash at a lower temperature (i.e., 149 - 150 °F for 60 minutes) to create a very fermentable wort.
The appearance of the target beer are qualities such as color, head retention, clarity, etc. Until recently there were only certain beer styles where a hazy appearance was considered acceptable (e.g., certain wheat beer styles) but today a hazy appearance seems to be more acceptable for a variety of styles such as New England IPAs. I recently attended a beer festival where I overheard a young fellow step up to a booth and ask the beer server: “What do you have that’s hazy?”. This is indeed a ‘sign’ of the times.
Ingredients selection and brewing processes
Hops and hop schedule
The selection of hop variety(s) and how they are used during the brewing process greatly influences the sensory qualities of the resulting beer. Historically, hops were
principally used to provide a bitterness quality to balance the sweetness that would otherwise exist in the beer. In the long history of brewing beer, hops are a relatively new ingredient with the first use likely around the ninth century. Prior to then various herbs and spices were used instead. More recently hops were also used to provide some flavor/aroma to the beers. In the past decade+ there has been an explosion in the development of new hop varieties mostly because there is a desire for new and different flavors for hoppy beers such as IPAs.
To create a balanced beer, it is important not to overwhelm other flavor aspects of the beer by using too much hops in the bittering step or during the addition of flavor/aroma hops. An example of a balanced approach for hopping is the Bohemian/Czech Pilsner beer style where a single hop variety of Saaz is used for three additions to the kettle: beginning of boil for bitterness, some added with 20-15 minutes remaining in the boil for flavor and some added towards the end of the boil or flameout for aroma. A target bitterness of 30 – 40 IBUs would be appropriate here. The concept is that the sensory qualities of the Saaz hops are noticeable but not at the expense of overwhelming the aroma/flavor of the Pilsner Malt.
Grains and grain percentages
The main grain used to brew beer is barley malt but there are many types of barley malt which can be utilized:
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Base malts: Pilsner Malt, Pale Malt, Vienna Malt, Munich Malt, etc.
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Crystal/Caramel Malts which vary in color (e.g., lightest being CaraPils with darker malts up to 150+ Lovibond)
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Roasted Malts (e.g., Roast Malt, Chocolate Malt, Black Malt, etc.)
There are other grains which can be used beyond barley malt. Examples of other malted grains are wheat malt, oat malt, and rye malt. And then there are grains which are considered adjuncts (i.e., contains starches but need the diastatic power of malted grains to convert these starches to sugars) with examples being corn, rice, flaked wheat, flaked oats, etc.
I have in the past brewed some batches which had a complex assortment of various grains but it has consistently been my experience that using too many differing grains resulted in a ‘muddled’ beer which I personally did not enjoy. My recommendation is not to use too many types of grains and my experience is that often less is more. Also important to consider when trying for a balanced beer is the grains which provide big flavors like Roasted Malts which need to be used sparingly so that grain flavors do not dominate the flavor profile.
Other fermentables
Sugars can be added to the beer to provide a variety of qualities. Simple sugars (e.g., table sugar, corn sugar) can be used to replace malt to create a drier beer for a given ABV target. There are sugars which can provide flavor and color such as Belgian Candi sugars/syrups or molasses but for a balanced recipe these products should only be in small amounts (or not at all). Think of dark(er) Belgian Candi sugars/syrups as being akin to Roasted Malt in their utilization.
Yeast selection and fermentation profile
Just like hops there are more and more yeast strains being provided by the numerous yeast vendors. When I started homebrewing in the 1990’s my local homebrew store only had liquid yeast from two vendors (Wyeast and a company called Yeast Labs which went out of business) and there were a lesser number of products as compared to today. There were also a few dry yeasts from vendors such as Muntons. Today there are many vendors for both liquid and dry beer yeast with plenty of strains to select from. There are technical performance considerations for yeast selection (how quickly does it reach final gravity, level of attenuation, etc.) but in the context of formulating a balanced beer the amount of flavor contributed by the yeast is a consideration. Some yeasts are relatively neutral as regards flavors contributed (e.g., Wyeast 1056/WLP001/US-05) while other strains can contribute a lot of flavors (e.g., Belgian Trappist/Abbey yeast strains); with fermentation considerations (temperature, pitch rate, etc.) being a factor. Which strain you select and fermentation considerations can be quite impactful for creating a balanced beer. I discussed in the Witbier article how I have used two yeast strains (i.e., Wyeast 3944 and Wyeast 3068) and that Wyeast 3944 is less flavorful of the two and consequently perhaps a better choice for achieving flavor balance for this type of beer.
And beyond just yeast strain selection, how the yeast is utilized (i.e., fermentation conditions) is an important aspect. Considerations including fermentation temperature, pitch rate, etc. are further discussed in the article below.
Brewing Water
Water is the largest ingredient of beer. Getting the brewing water ‘right’ is how you get your beer to the next level. There are water tools which provide suggested water profiles for specific styles/types of beer which may help you to get your beer to that next level.
In the below linked article there is discussion of how the amounts of certain minerals/compounds in the brewing water and their ratios can impact the flavor profile of beer.
Other Ingredients
There are ‘traditional’ beers that use flavorings as part of the ingredient list (e.g., Witbier) but in today’s world of craft brewing there seems to be no bounds for what kind of stuff to add to a beer with pastry stouts being a prime example; ingredients such as coffee, vanilla beans, chocolate, coconut, maple syrup, peanut butter, marshmallow, etc. For much of today’s pastry stouts the craft brewers seem to think that it is better to add lots of these ingredients but for a balanced beer less is appropriate here.
Mashing Process
For American craft brewers (and most homebrewers) the common mashing process is a single temperature infusion mash with a typical duration being 60 minutes. Each brewer can vary some parameters such as mash thickness or mash temperature. By varying the mash temperature, the fermentability of the wort can be controlled. A mash temperature such as 156 °F will yield a less fermentable wort with the resulting beer having more body while a temperature such as 150 °F will yield a more fermentable wort and resulting beer which has less body and oftentimes drier finish. Vary the temperature to achieve the target for the beer.
Other mashing methods could be selected: step mash, decoction mash. Conducting a decoction mash is discussed as providing increased Maillard Reaction Products (e.g., melanoidins) but optimally an undermodified malt is needed here.
Example of formulating a recipe for a balanced beer: Jack’s Smoky and Spicy Brown Ale
Over a decade ago my niece thoughtfully purchased for me a kit beer for a clone of Newcastle Brown Ale as a birthday present. For some unknown reason a ‘lightbulb’ went off for using this kit beer by using some non-standard ingredients to brew a Brown Ale.
The target I had in mind was to add some subtle smoky flavors from a judicious amount of Smoked Malt and also some ‘spicy’ flavor of Rye Malt. I wanted both the smoke and ‘spicy’ flavors to be in the background: noticeable but not dominating. For that first batch I decided to start low and only use 1 lb. of Weyermann Smoked Malt and 1 lb. of Briess Rye Malt. That batch turned out well but too subtle on the smoke so for the next batch (brewed a year later) I decided to up the Weyermann Smoked Malt to 2 lbs. Again, a nice beer but not quite at the level I was looking for. The next batch (once again a year later) I decided to up both the Weyermann Smoked Malt (to 3 lbs.) and the Briess Rye Malt (to 2 lbs.) and bingo: this beer was “just right” as Goldilocks would say. These three batches illustrate the importance of two things:
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Keep good brewing logs to remind you of what you brewed (and I like to use post it notes on the brewing log sheet with ideas for changes).
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You sometimes (often times) need to iterate on a recipe before the arrow hits the bullseye.
Other malt flavor contributors are from small amounts of English Dark Crystal Malt and English Chocolate Malts. For my recent (Dec. 2023) batch I chose to use a Bairds
Crystal Malt 135/165 (about 5% of the grain bill) and Bairds Chocolate Malt (about 2% of the grain bill).
The original kit I brewed with came with an English Ale yeast strain (Danstar/Lallemand Nottingham dry yeast) but in a subsequent batch I used a sachet of US-05 which I just happened to have in the refrigerator (always a good idea to have ‘extra’ dry yeast in the refrigerator) and that batch turned out great. I have used US-05 ever since for these beers.
All grain recipe
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons
Target OG: 1.050
Target FG: 1.010
Color: 18 SRM
Target Bitterness: 32 IBUs
Ingredients (Note: assumes a 75% brewhouse efficiency):
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4.5 lbs. Pale Ale Malt
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3 lbs. Weyermann Smoked Malt
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2 lbs. Briess Rye Malt
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0.5 lbs. Dark English Crystal Malt (135 °L)
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0.25 lbs. English Chocolate Malt (425 °L)
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0.5 ounces German Magnum hops (14% AA)
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1 ounce Styrian Goldings (5% AA) (or use East Kent Goldings)
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US-05 yeast (or an English Ale yeast strain)
Additional items:
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1 tsp. rehydrated Irish Moss flakes (last 15 minutes of boil)
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½ tsp. Wyeast yeast nutrient (last 10 minutes of boil)
Directions:
Mash at a water-to-grist ratio of 1.5 qts/lb. Adjust brewing water if necessary to achieve a mash pH of 5.2 – 5.4 (with my municipal tap water I add a small amount of lactic acid). Mash at 153 °F for 60 minutes. Sparge until approximately 7 gallons of wort is achieved (tailor amount based upon your boil off rate to obtain 5.5 gallons of wort post boil).
Boil vigorously for 60 minutes in an uncovered brew kettle adding 0.5 ounces German Magnum hops at the beginning of boil. Add 0.5 ounces of Styrian Goldings hops for the last 15 minutes for a flavor addition and 1 tsp. rehydrated Irish Moss flakes for last 15 minutes of boil. Add ½ tsp. Wyeast yeast nutrient for the last 10 minutes of boil. Add 0.5 ounces Styrian Goldings hops at the end of boil.
Ferment warm per the recommended fermentation temperatures by the yeast vendor.
Package when primary fermentation is complete.
Partial mash recipe
Ingredients (Note: assumes a 75% brewhouse efficiency):
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3 lbs. Pale Dried Malt Extract (e.g., Briess Pilsner DME)
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3 lbs. Weyermann Smoked Malt
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2 lbs. Briess Rye Malt
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0.5 lbs. Dark English Crystal Malt (135 °L)
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0.25 lbs. English Chocolate Malt (425 °L)
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0.5 ounces German Magnum hops (14% AA)
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1 ounce Styrian Goldings (5% AA) (or use East Kent Goldings)
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US-05 yeast (or an English Ale yeast strain)
Additional items:
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1 tsp. rehydrated Irish Moss flakes (last 15 minutes of boil)
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½ tsp. Wyeast yeast nutrient (last 10 minutes of boil)
Directions:
Mash at a water-to-grist ratio of 1.5 qts/lb. Adjust brewing water if necessary to achieve a mash pH of 5.2 – 5.4 (with my municipal tap water I add a small amount of lactic acid). Mash at 153 °F for 60 minutes. Sparge until approximately 5 gallons of wort is achieved and then add 3 lbs. of Dried Malt Extract and perhaps some top off water to achieve a total of 7 gallons (tailor amount based upon your boil off rate to obtain 5.5 gallons of wort post boil).
Boil vigorously for 60 minutes in an uncovered brew kettle adding 0.5 ounces German Magnum hops at the beginning of boil. Add 0.5 ounces of Styrian Goldings hops for the last 15 minutes for a flavor addition and 1 tsp. rehydrated Irish Moss flakes for last 15 minutes of boil. Add ½ tsp. Wyeast yeast nutrient for the last 10 minutes of boil. Add 0.5 ounces Styrian Goldings hops at the end of boil.
Ferment warm per the recommended fermentation temperatures by the yeast vendor.
Package when primary fermentation is complete.
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