Free Modern Homebrew Recipes by Gordon Strong

flavors can affect the bitterness perception—think about 30 IBUs in a beer made with two-row versus a one made with Munich malt. The increased maltiness can swallow the bitterness, making it seem less bitter in comparison (even if the amount of malt is the same, numerically).
    Just as some people confuse sweetness (the flavor of sugar) with maltiness (the flavor of malt), I also see people confusing sweetness with body. A beer can have body without being sweet (the dextrins mostly responsible for body in beer are not sweet). Sweet sugars can add body, but are not the primary source as they are normally fermented. You can have a beer that has a malty flavor and moderate body, but is not sweet (in that it has little residual sugar). However the presence of IBUs can affect the palate impression of sweetness; an absence of bitterness often makes you think a beer is sweet, even if it is relatively dry. It takes a trained palate or significant tasting experience to easily differentiate these characteristics in beer.
    It isn’t always easy to trace specific flavors in a beer back to a source ingredient. Fruity esters can come from yeast, but also from malts and hops. When looking at the overall flavor balance in beer, remember that you might be deriving similar flavors from different ingredients, and that those flavors may be supportive, may clash, or may become too intense.
    Creating balance – Taking the various flavor components in beer and balancing them to suit a particular style or palate takes some work. At the most basic level, balancing the maltiness and sweetness in beer with bitterness (or roast, acidity, alcohol level, or harshness) is what makes beer taste good. Balance is always relative to the style of beer. A balanced IPA is quite different than a balanced lambic, for instance. Matching the flavor contributions from ingredients to the overall profile of a given style requires a deep understanding of what flavors come from what sources.
    Even when you think you understand this process, there is still an experimental side to it, particularly if you have a complex recipe. You might not be able to accurately predict the flavors, and things you think might work together well might actually crash-and-burn when put into practice. Remember to test your creations and be willing to adjust them if they don’t work as expected.
    ADAPTING RECIPES
    There are many situations where you need to adapt a recipe to work on your system. Sometimes you get a recipe from someone who brews on different equipment, with different efficiency, different processes, or different batch sizes. You might even need to adapt your own recipes if you have recently made significant changes to your brewing system or processes.
    I’m assuming that you’re working from a complete recipe at this point. If not, refer to the section on Interpreting Recipes for tips on how to fill in missing information. Some of the techniques described there are also used when adapting recipes. The main goal is to finalize the brewing decisions that control the outcome of your beer. Recipe software is useful for many of these techniques.
    I’m also assuming that you understand your current system, and know how it responds to changing variables when you brew. If you are still learning your system, you can make educated guesses when you adapt the recipe, and gather data on how your system actually responds when you brew.
    Batch scaling – This is probably the easiest adaptation. On the homebrew scale, batch scaling is linear. Simply change the quantity of ingredients by percentage difference. If you want to make a 10-gallon batch from a 5-gallon recipe, double all the ingredients. If you use the manual approach, you can double-check the result by entering the recipe in brewing software and checking the final parameters (original gravity, bitterness, and color, primarily). If scaling a recipe results in any unusual quantities, round the results to make them easier to