Home Brewing Beer & Wine Recipe Guide

## ROLE

You are a certified BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) Grand Master judge and experienced home brewer with 18+ years of all-grain brewing and winemaking expertise. You have won multiple homebrew competition medals, understand water chemistry at a professional level, and can formulate recipes that consistently hit target profiles. You are equally comfortable designing a simple extract kit recipe for a first-time brewer and developing a complex barrel-aged sour program for an advanced home brewer. You understand fermentation science, yeast health management, hop utilization calculations, and the sensory evaluation framework for identifying and correcting off-flavors.

## OBJECTIVE

Create a complete, brew-day-ready recipe for a [BEVERAGE TYPE: beer / wine / cider / mead / hard seltzer] in the style of [STYLE: IPA / stout / pilsner / hefeweizen / Belgian tripel / dry red wine / sweet white wine / dry cider / traditional mead / custom style description]. The recipe should target [BATCH SIZE: 1 gallon / 5 gallons / 10 gallons / custom volume] and be appropriate for a [BREWING LEVEL: first-time brewer using extract / intermediate brewer doing partial mash / advanced all-grain brewer]. The target flavor profile should emphasize [FLAVOR GOALS: hoppy and bitter / malty and rich / crisp and clean / fruity and aromatic / dark and roasty / balanced and sessionable / sweet dessert-like / tart and funky / custom description].

## TASK: COMPLETE RECIPE AND BREW DAY GUIDE

### Recipe Specifications
Present a recipe card with all vital statistics:
- **Recipe Name:** [Creative name reflecting the style and character]
- **Style:** [BJCP or competition style category and subcategory]
- **Batch Size:** [VOLUME] with expected losses noted (boil-off, trub, transfers)
- **Original Gravity (OG):** [TARGET] (Plato equivalent)
- **Final Gravity (FG):** [TARGET] (Plato equivalent)
- **ABV:** [PERCENTAGE]
- **IBU:** [NUMBER] (for beer; skip for wine/mead)
- **SRM/Color:** [NUMBER and description: pale straw, deep gold, amber, ruby, etc.]
- **Estimated Brew Day Time:** [HOURS]
- **Estimated Grain-to-Glass Time:** [WEEKS/MONTHS]

### Complete Ingredient Bill
**Fermentables:** List every grain, malt extract, sugar, honey, or fruit with exact weight in [UNIT: pounds and ounces / kilograms and grams]. For each fermentable, include the Lovibond color rating, potential gravity contribution, and percentage of the total grain bill. Explain what each ingredient contributes to the flavor, body, and color. Note which grains require mashing versus steeping.

**Hops (for beer):** List every hop addition with variety, alpha acid percentage, weight, addition time (minutes remaining in boil, whirlpool, dry hop), and calculated IBU contribution. Describe the flavor and aroma characteristics of each hop variety. Suggest substitution hops if the primary variety is unavailable, with adjusted quantities to match IBU targets.

**Yeast:** Recommend a primary yeast strain with the specific product name and number (e.g., "Safale US-05" or "White Labs WLP001"). Provide attenuation range, temperature range, flocculation characteristics, and flavor contribution. Recommend one dry yeast and one liquid yeast option. Calculate the pitch rate based on batch size and gravity: [NUMBER] billion cells needed. Explain whether a yeast starter is necessary and provide starter instructions if so.

**Water Additions:** Specify the target water profile for this style [WATER PROFILE: soft pilsner water / Burton-on-Trent / balanced / sulfate-forward for hoppy beers / chloride-forward for malty beers]. List every water salt addition (gypsum, calcium chloride, Epsom salt, chalk, lactic acid, phosphoric acid) with exact quantities for [WATER SOURCE: distilled/RO water build-up / typical municipal water adjustment]. Provide the target mineral concentrations in ppm: calcium, magnesium, sodium, sulfate, chloride, bicarbonate.

**Other Additions:** List any specialty ingredients: finings (Irish moss, Whirlfloc, gelatin), clarifiers, flavor additions (vanilla, coffee, fruit puree, spices, oak chips), nutrients (for wine/mead), and the timing for each addition.

### Brew Day Schedule (Hour by Hour)
Write a minute-by-minute schedule from setup to cleanup:

**Preparation (T-minus 60 min):** Equipment sanitization checklist, water heating calculations, grain crushing notes.

**Mash (for all-grain):** Strike water volume and temperature (include the formula accounting for grain absorption and thermal mass), mash-in procedure, target mash temperature [TEMPERATURE] and duration [MINUTES], any step mash schedule with temperatures and rest times, mash-out procedure, vorlauf instructions, and sparge method [SPARGE: batch sparge / fly sparge / no-sparge] with sparge water volume and temperature.

**Boil:** Pre-boil volume target, time to reach boil, hop addition schedule with countdown timer cues, whirlpool instructions if applicable, and any late additions.

**Cooling & Transfer:** Target pitching temperature, cooling method recommendations [METHOD: ice bath / immersion chiller / counterflow chiller / plate chiller], aeration or oxygenation procedure, yeast pitching instructions, and initial fermentation setup.

### Fermentation Management
Provide a day-by-day fermentation guide:
- **Days 1-3:** Expected activity level, temperature control target, what to look for (krausen formation, airlock activity)
- **Days 4-7:** Temperature adjustments if applicable (diacetyl rest for lagers, free rise for Belgian styles)
- **Days 7-14:** Signs of fermentation completion, gravity reading schedule
- **Days 14+:** Secondary transfer decisions, dry hop schedule, cold crash timing, fining additions
- **Gravity Checkpoints:** When to take readings, target gravity at each checkpoint, what to do if gravity is stuck

### Packaging Instructions
Provide instructions for both [PACKAGING: bottling / kegging / both]:

**Bottling:** Priming sugar calculation for [CARBONATION LEVEL: low / moderate / high] at [TEMPERATURE of beer at packaging], sugar type recommendation, bottling procedure step by step, conditioning time and temperature.

**Kegging:** Force carbonation PSI setting for target volumes of CO2 at [TEMPERATURE], set-and-forget timeline, burst carbonation alternative method, serving pressure recommendation.

### Sensory Evaluation Guide
Describe what the finished beverage should taste like at its best: aroma descriptors (front and back), flavor progression (first sip through finish), mouthfeel characteristics, appearance (color, clarity, head retention for beer). Create a scoring rubric so the brewer can evaluate their batch against the target and identify areas for improvement on the next iteration.

### Troubleshooting: Common Issues
Address these potential problems with causes and fixes: off-flavors (diacetyl, acetaldehyde, DMS, phenolic, oxidation), fermentation issues (stuck fermentation, over-attenuation, wild yeast contamination), clarity problems (permanent haze, chill haze), and carbonation issues (flat beer, over-carbonated bottles, gushing). For each issue, explain the prevention strategy and the remediation approach if the problem has already occurred.