Gordon Strong, President of the Beer Judge Certification Program, joins me this week to discuss Modern Homebrew Recipes and his philosophy for designing beer recipes. Gordon provides a unique perspective on how he creates award winning beer recipes.
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Topics in This Week’s Episode (54:57)
Today on the show I welcome Grandmaster beer judge and author Gordon Strong. Gordon is the President of the Beer Judge Certification Program and their highest rated beer judge. Gordon is also the only three time Ninkasi award winner (top US home brewer) and author of the book “Brewing Better Beer” and “Modern Homebrew Recipes” (Both Amazon affiliate links).
We start with a discussion of the typical homebrew recipe and what it looks like
He explains how pro brewers have a different approach to listing a recipe that reflects their approach to brewing
Gordon tells us why the pro and homebrew approaches are different
We talk about using percentages and specific malts and how this approach is not entirely new
Gordon shares his approach for designing a new recipe starting with a clean sheet of paper
We discuss his “brewing blocks” approach to recipes
He explains how creativity involves linking existing concepts and ideas (blocks) together
Next Gordon introduces several different approaches to developing recipes including working with styles and scaling recipes
He also talks about designing a beer that does not fit neatly into exising categories
We talk about the final tips he has for beer recipe design
Sponsors
Thank you to our sponsor Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine for sponsoring this episode. I encourage you to subscribe to their great magazine!
And also Anvil Brewing Equipment. Anvil is a new line of kettles, burners and accessories from John Blichmann at Blichmann Engineering. They make top quality brewing equipment built to last a lifetime.
Also check out BeerSmith, BeerSmith Mobile software and the new DVDs John Palmer and I filmed – How to Brew with Malt Extract and How to Brew All Grain are available now. You can subscribe to the BeerSmith newsletter for free to get some great articles on home brewing.
Thanks to Gordon Strong for appearing on the show and also to you for listening!
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