Back in December of 2013, I was given a copy of Ray Daniels’ Designing Great Beers by some close friends. After thoroughly reading the book, I was determined to take what I learned and put it into an easy to use homebrew recipe worksheet and guide that would help me draft my own recipes by hand, rather than using a brewing software.

Why, you ask? Well… why not?

I wanted to gain a better understanding on how the ingredients affected the end product, and wanted to be able to understand the formulas and other factors which we take for granted when using a brewing software.

My first recipe worksheet.

Over the last few months, I have been working on my worksheet and guide, and I have been very happy with the results! The first beer I drafted and brewed with this process was my Windward Amber Ale, where I landed within 1 gravity unit (GU) of my predicted conversion efficiency, and within 2 points of my predicted original gravity! I’m still in the early stages of using and testing this worksheet and guide, but I believe the worksheet is now ready to share (download links below).

I’d still like to improve certain sections of the worksheet, like the salt additions and final metrics sections, but I believe they serve their purpose for the time being.

If you have any suggestions to improve this worksheet, feel free to post a comment below or contact me. Otherwise, feel free to subscribe to my blog if you would like to be notified when the guide is updated.

Cheers, and happy homebrewing!
Ian

Download Links:

Recipe Formulation Worksheet Download

Recipe Formulation Guide Download

Updated: 2014-05-08