Guidelines on ingredients for first all grain ale

[WM7793]

Hi everybody, I am looking to do my first all grain "bog standard bitter", and being new to all this, I have discovered that there is a bewildering range of malts, hops, and not to mention the various strains of yeast available to create craft brews.

I have absolutely no experience of what works and what does not with respect to these ingredients.

I appreciate that the beauty of brewing your own is that you can create a brew to your own satisfaction, or try to clone your favourite tipple.

However at this stage I am looking for some guidance as to the "safe ratios" and "proportions" between the ingredients to allow me to produce ale that will be drinkable, and then in the future give me the confidence to try different things.

I purchased Graham Wheeler book, and the majority are using pale malt for the pale and bitter recipes. (I realise that he is not trying to create a clone but to brew "in the style of beers".
I would have no idea what the outcome would be, if the malt was changed to Maris Otter for example!

Question 1.
For a 5 gallon brew, what would be the "standard" ratio of malts for example if a recipe had 3 ingredients?
ie Pale Malt, Crystal Malt and Wheat malt?

Question 2.
Same for hops, if a recipe called for Goldings and Styrian, with Fuggles for "lates"
What would be the ratios of each?

As stated, at this stage I have no knowledge or experience of the malts and hops to know what works and what will not in terms of how much of each, whether "too much" of either will "ruin" a beer, and looking for some guidance on what is probably a personal choice anyway.

I want to be able to produce drinkable ale and once this is achieved, then I will be able to then compare them, and then tweak and substitute in the future.

I hope this makes sense and I am not overthinking things again.

Best regards,
WM7793

 

[PD]

I think your overthinking for your first brew.......

Make things simple for yourself your first time. You have Wheelers book, pick a simple recipe and follow it, it will make good drinkable beer and give you the confidence to go on.

Pale Malts for a beginner are similar so done worry...just use any Pale Malt, Maris otter, Crisp Fawcetts etc you will not see any appreciable difference in them
Wheat Malt should be used around 5 -8% of the brew
Crystal malts darken the beer and effect the sweetness of the brew from pleasant to sickly !
Dark Malts, chocolate,black roasted barley etc alter the colour of your beer predominantly ( brewmates color picture of the brew is a very good likeness of the resulting beer.

Hops is a difficult one to answer as they will alter the style,taste of beers even in small amounts the timing of their additions etc, that you will get with experience.

first brew just brew a standard beer to the recipe that Wheeler gives ( Timothy Taylor Landlord ) for instance. The more times you brew it the more you can alter it, each alteration will make a slightly different beer.

First off...just make drinkable good beer. worry about styles and different flavors later....

Good luck.

 

[rpt]

Just follow a recipe in the book for your first brew. If you study GW's book you will see there is no standard ratio - that's why there are so many different but still great beers to choose from.

 

[oldjiver]

My safe (but boring) standard brew is 1kg Maris Otter per 5ltrs, 25gms crystal per 5ltr, and 10 gms fuggles or goldings per 5ltrs. Boring recipe but tasty beer not overcomplicated.
so 25ltrs would be 5kg MO
125gms crystal
50gms fuggles or goldings or a mixture of both.

 

[mike77]

Here are a couple of links that describe various grains and suggest maximum percentages.

http://www.brupaks.com/BRUPAKS GRAIN GUIDE WEB.htm

http://beersmith.com/grain-list/

As for hops one of the most important things to be aware of is IBU's (bitterness), higher IBU's = more bitterness. This guide suggests IBU ranges for different styles of beer.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/2009/01/24/beer-styles-ibu-chart-graph-bitterness-range/

Once you know how many IBU's you are aiming for take the Alpha Acid % from your hops and plug the details into a IBU calculator

http://www.brewersfriend.com/ibu-calculator/

 

[rpt]

I'm going to repeat myself and say just follow a recipe for your first brew, if not the first few. That way, if the resulting beer isn't great you'll know it's your technique rather than the recipe. For your first brew you don't want too many unknowns. You will quickly learn about different malts and hops if you follow a few recipes.

 

[WM7793]

Thanks guys for all your input. I really appreciate your advice and experience on this matter.

I will not overcomplicate things on my first brew and just concentrate on getting the process right!

But I also very much appreciated the more in depth information given from mike77, which will give me confidence to try other things in the near future.

Best regards,
WM7793