starting with grain - need tips!

[Krone9]

Hey guys

Not been on here long but very hooked on brewing. Currently smashing my way through my first ale which turned out a lot better than expected, got a stout nearly ready and a bitter just in.....

But.

These are all either from malt extract or kits and I fancy taking the next step and trying to brew from grain.

Can anyone recommend a fairly bombproof golden/blond/summer ale recipe I can try to get started

thanks!

 

[braziliain]

If you are thinking of going all grain, I would very much recommend the Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer book. It can usually be picked up for less than a tenner and has a wealth of great recipes for many different styles. I've turned out some great beers with the help of that book

 

[foxbat]

Exmoor Gold or Hop Back Summer Lightning are both dead simple brews and can be found in Camra's Brew Your Own British Real Ale book.

 

[marshbrewer]

+1 for Hop Back Summer Lightning, from Graham Wheeler's Brew your own British real ale book.

 

[prog99]

My first ever AG was Graham Wheelers Landlord clone. Dead easy recipe.

 

[xozzx]

I used AG "kits" for my first few AG brews. Most HB suppliers sell kits with all the grains weighed out and crushed in a bag, the hops separated into the different addition timings and a choice of yeast. It means you can work on the process and not worry about preparing the ingredients at the beginning. I mostly used BrewUK for the AG kits, all were a success.

 

[matt76]

I don't think it gets simpler then clibit's "Have a go at simple AG":
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/have-a-go-at-simple-ag.51779/

After one kit brew I moved straight on to this and I'm hooked already (gearing up to brew AG#3 soon...)

The ingredients are stripped right back to the essentials allowing you to concentrate on the method/process - plenty of time later to jazz up your recipes...

One thing I do recommend is get a grain bag - it's a much quicker way to get the grain out then using a big saucepan to ladle wort & grain through the kitchen sieve

 

[Zephyr259]

I started with clibit's method but with a scaled back bitter recipe, very easy and tasty. Did that 4 times brewing a bitter, barleywine, porter and NEIPA then got a grainfather.

Greg Hughes book is my go to, his Yorkshire Bitter is a great easy drinking pint. Wheeler's book is also good but never actually brewed from it yet.

 

[itry]

My biggest and probably only tip is , dont go down the replica and clone brew path. Its disapointing. You make it and your pleased as punch with it. But people only see that it dosnt taste like doombar. They forget its a really good standalone home brew. If you produced a relativly good ale people will say yeah thays a good ale. If you dont present a 100% doombar its not so impressive.

 

[Clint]

Agree! Some of my best brews have been "user upper" or a bit experimental. Still put what you have through a calculator to adjust IBU etc and to get a rough idea of style.

 

[Zephyr259]

Yeah, having read some clone brew threads they really go into the minutia. The originator of a tripel karmeliet clone had done 7 iterations of it over the thread, 133l of 8% beer is kinda crazy.

 

[Krone9]

Ok I'm almost ready to take the plunge on this - just trying to figure out the difference between my current process and the AG process.

Right now I boil about 6 litres of water, add malt extract and then top up to 23 litres in a bucket with tap. (and bottle straight from that as the sediment is very minimal)

To move to AG, I think I need to be boiling almost 30 litres to make a 23 litre brew, so need something like this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Home-Bre...id=1542453841&sr=8-3&keywords=30l+mash+kettle
(that right?)

Then I'll transfer to my bucket with tap, straining on the way (or use a bag) and proceed as normal.

Have I got that right - or is there a better option?

 

[Krone9]

also looking at this https://www.brewuk.co.uk/electrim-mashing-boiler.html

 

[Hoppyland]

To move to AG, I think I need to be boiling almost 30 litres to make a 23 litre brew,

Not at all. I've been brewing all-grain for years, but I've never ever boiled the whole of the wort. I only boil the runnings from my mash. I don't know precisely what volume that is - I've never bothered to measure it - but I'd guess it to be maybe 18l for a typical 23l brew (I don't brew very strong beers). This is then run into the FV and diluted with cold water to my desired volume. Until recently, this was done using a large stainless-steel pan (about 30l capacity) on a domestic hob. I don't lose much volume in the boil, mind you, because I never boil particularly vigorously, and I keep the lid on once the first, foamy, hot-break phase is over.

 

[Krone9]

Not at all. I've been brewing all-grain for years, but I've never ever boiled the whole of the wort. I only boil the runnings from my mash. I don't know precisely what volume that is - I've never bothered to measure it - but I'd guess it to be maybe 18l for a typical 23l brew (I don't brew very strong beers). This is then run into the FV and diluted with cold water to my desired volume. Until recently, this was done using a large stainless-steel pan (about 30l capacity) on a domestic hob. I don't lose much volume in the boil, mind you, because I never boil particularly vigorously, and I keep the lid on once the first, foamy, hot-break phase is over.

hmmm that makes me think I could use a 20litre soup kettle for that - some good ones in Nisbets for £40....scratch that - it would be a PITA to get the wort out afterwards.

 

[Dull Boy]

Get the biggest kettle you can afford & space will allow, electric is simpler, it doesn't run out, plus less boil loss, I use a 30L kettle, I'm hardcore BIAB & will not be moved on this, I bag around 17L of 5% beer, the stronger the beer, the less volume.

 

[Harbey]

also looking at this https://www.brewuk.co.uk/electrim-mashing-boiler.html

I started brewing in the summer and have now done about 10 very nice beers using this:

http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk...iler-chiller-mashing-bag-mash-kit-p-2426.html

It's fairly basic, but it's a great, low cost way to get started. You can also get a forum discount and it comes with a choice of free kits. I'm hoping that I'll be able to upgrade to a Grainfather one day and if so, I can still use this to heat the sparge water so nothing lost.

 

[Krone9]

gave clibits recipe a go and have 10litres fermenting as we speak

the OG was lower than expected (1.032) but after 1 week its down to 1.008 so likely to come in at about 3.5-3.7% after secondary

I suspect I didn't sparge well enough and probably diluted it a bit too much as this was done as a concentrated boil

Initial taste was pretty good - looking forward to seeing what this turns out like.

Of course now I'm convinced I need to get myself an electrim....

 

[itry]

Can i add one more tip that i live by.

Dont get caught up on numbers and trying to get it perfect. Get comfortable brewing. then get when you know you make beer thats drinkable start tweeking around with it