AG recipes, where do I start?

[The Goatreich]

I'm picking up a second hand mash tun on the weekend, so I only need to make/buy a boiler and a few other bits and bobs and I'm ready to join the dark side of brewing. My major dilemma now is, where do I start? I know very little about what grains and hops create what flavours in beer, so I don't really know what to aim for.

Ideally I'd like to brew something summery, hoppy and light (golden hen, tanglefoot, hopping hare, bombardier gold) as a starter, and then maybe get a chocolatey smokey stout or porter on afterwards, but I'm not sure whether I'm jumping the gun too much with the recipes.

I could of course start with something VERY simple using one grain and one hop, which would give me an idea of where the flavours come from, but would I then end up with 23 litres of something average, when if I'd been a bit more adventurous could have been fantastic?

Is there a beginners path?

 

[puravida]

No reason that making a beer with a single grain and single hop should be average.
I've made some of my favourite beers that way. Main thing for making good beer is sanitation!!!!!

Having said that - it's really no more complicated to brew using a couple of different hop varieties rather than just one.

I'd look through the recipe pages on this forum as a start point. A bag of maris otter grain and some good all-round hops and you'll be good.

 

[The Goatreich]

Nice one, cheers. Keeping it simple at first will also help to keep initial costs down haha!

 

[Muddydisco]

You could try one of the recipe kits from several HB shops? that way you only get the grains you need and have a laid out recipe to get your feet wet with.

 

[The Goatreich]

You could try one of the recipe kits from several HB shops? that way you only get the grains you need and have a laid out recipe to get your feet wet with.

WINNER! I didn't know that kind of solution was available.

 

[Muddydisco]

Malt miller, Barley Bottom, Brew UK to mention a few that sell them

 

[PintofPride]

i just started all grain brewing and am waiting for it to finish condition in bottles. My main message to you would be to not get too phased or worried about all grain recipes. They're really not very complicated.

First of all you need to think, as always, about what kind of beer you want to brew, which it sounds like you already have. Second is to really find out exactly what you want to brew regarding the official beer style guidelines. this will make figuring out a recipe much easier, especially as it provides a useful tool on some recipe calculators, which I would also strongly recommend. Here's a great one

https://www.beertools.com/html/generator.php.

if you want to brew a simple, light summery ale then I would suggest:

Marris Otter pale as a base malt, with a very small amount of crystal malt to add a little colour and depth of flavour. There are a number of different crystal malts of varying darkness, but probably most common in British pale ales is often just known as crystal malt or British crystal and has an EBC of about 120. (EBC= colour units). If you're just going to use one type, this is a very good crystal malt for most British pale ales.

Regarding hops, East Kent Goldings and Challenger are a classic combination if you want to make something english. I used them in my brew and they taste and smell fantastic.There are a number of interesting American hops with very citrusy, fruity and floral aromas and others with clean high alpha acid bitterness that go very well together in a light summer ale.

My last piece of advice would be read read read. treat yourself to a good book on all grain brewing and read it all.

Just remember to keep it simple and don't stress. It is always a process of trial and error.

 

[graysalchemy]

i started by finding a clone recipie of a beer i liked, then i brewed that. You are better starting of with a tried and trusted recipie before you try and make one up yourself. When I do make my own recipie it is usually based on something out there tweaked to include hop combinations i like or a complementary adition of a malt i think will work. I also always post up a recipie for people more experienced than i to look over.

 

[Dave1970]

+1 on what GraysAlchemy says. I did a Fullers ESB clone recipe from the Graham Wheeler BYOBRA book for AG#1. Posted on here for a bit of advice and ended up adding a bit of wheat malt based on GraysAlchemy's advice.
Used the AG guided tour from the how to guides. Nothing all that difficult, just enjoy!

 

[Easy Peasie]

Get yourself a copy of designing great beers by Ray Daniels. It's helped me alot with my recipes.
:thumb:

 

[Hawks]

I also started with clones of beers I liked :thumb:

Its a great way to get to learn about your kit and some flavours - there are also some good single hopped beers out there like Bluebird

 

[The Goatreich]

Thanks guys. I'll check out the recipes on this site (again) and probably pick up a book of clones, and see where they take me.