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amiddler

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OK. So the Minister for War and Finance has let me turn to AG brewing. As I live in a small city 450 Km from Perth I will be picking up 25Kg (cost effective) grain on my trip there next week, but what grains? I am thinking of doing a few brews firstly with 1 type of grain to get a feel on how this all works before tinkering a little with speciality grain. What recipes would you recommend with one type of grain?

Drew
 
OK. So the Minister for War and Finance has let me turn to AG brewing. As I live in a small city 450 Km from Perth I will be picking up 25Kg (cost effective) grain on my trip there next week, but what grains? I am thinking of doing a few brews firstly with 1 type of grain to get a feel on how this all works before tinkering a little with speciality grain. What recipes would you recommend with one type of grain?

Drew

Drew, that depends on what kind of beer you like?

cheers

Browndog
 
Ok then browndog, I do like most beers but was thinking of some kind of pale or pilsner malt grain for the first few but I guess the real question is what and how much hops to add? I have figured that using pale malt will give me a pale beer but the hops can turn good brew into bad beer. Also I currently don't have the set up to lager or cool ferment my brews below 16-18'c so I will be aiming at ales for the time being.

Drew
 
Well, how's this for something simple. With your 25kg sack of pale, get 2.5kg of light to medium crystal to play with, adding up to 500g per 5kg of pale. As far as hops go, you have the choise of american, english or european. With your average hop, in broad terms you would want a 20gm bittering addition then one or two 20gm additions near the end of the boil for some flavour. For Pommy beers look at East Kent Goldings or fuggles for starters. For Yank beers go for Cascade, Simcoe, Centennial etc etc

cheers

Browndog
 
Go a trad ale, either Joe White or Barret Burston will do fine. You'll probably want to grab a few kg of Munich (Type 1 should be fine) and some Wheat Malt. That should give you the basis for a pretty reasonable drinker, Say 90% Ale, 5% Munich and 5% Wheat. Hops, whatever you want dude. Stay away from the low alpha versions (AA% on the pack) as you'll need a bucket load to get enough bitterness. Probably stay away from Fuggles but I think pretty much any other available hop will give you something drinkable (I'm not a fan of fuggles) and be a good starting point for the learning curve.
You can use Pils malt for the base of an Ale do, so don't let that deter you, it'll just end up quite light in colour.
Best advice is probably to find a simple recipe in the database that a couple of people have already rated and attempt that, you can build your decisions on malt and hop flavour from there.

Edit: Or do what Browndog said :D
 
You can use Pils malt for the base of an Ale do, so don't let that deter you, it'll just end up quite light in colour.
Best advice is probably to find a simple recipe in the database that a couple of people have already rated and attempt that, you can build your decisions on malt and hop flavour from there.

Edit: Or do what Browndog said :D

I prefer to use Joe White Pils malt as a base malt. It may just be me, but JW Trad Ale does nto clear as well as the Pils and tends to always give a slightly astringent flavour. In general though Joe White malts are fine, but if you get crystal malts make sure you go for Bairds or Wayermann as the Aussie stuff is not really up to scratch.
 
I feel sorry for the poor old fuggle hop. It's much maligned.....personaly, I love it, particularly in combo with styrian. I guess its one of those love it or hate it varieties. :lol:

Browndogs advice is excellent. For the sake of another 2.5kg of grain, you would go from plain and simple (yet still good - it is AG, afterall) to something much, much better.
For the pommy beers, EKG or fuggle on there own, or in combination with each other. Or either of them combined with styrian, or all 3 together. 3 hop varieties that work well together will give you seven (or in this case 6, cos styrian on its own isn't my cup of tea) different combinations to play with.
 
If a single base malt makes good beer, wouldn't it be better to go that route so as to get an idea of taste and character that you could build on? Excuse my ignorance but i'm not to far away from doing my first a/g as well.
 
If a single base malt makes good beer, wouldn't it be better to go that route so as to get an idea of taste and character that you could build on? Excuse my ignorance but i'm not to far away from doing my first a/g as well.

Not if he has to travel 450km to pick up his grain, may as well get something extra while he is there.
 
Thanks all for fast replies. Getting 2-3Kg here from Perth isn't so bad but if im in this for the long haul getting my base malts 25Kg at a time makes more sense. I do see that spending an extra $20 on grain while im in Perth will pay me dividends in the quality of my first brew. I will also stick with the tryed and proven British hops, Goldings and Fuggles. (I happen to think Fuggles is quite nice if used in the right proportions)

I will post more in the lead up to my first brew day.

Drew
 
Jeez, i could have sworn he said One Grain only, i'll try and help you Drew, have a look at the bellow link and have a look at Fents and Barramundi's recipe's, these were excellent beers and you would like them , even though Fents used 500 grams of carafoam/carapils you don't have to

Link

Also do a search on One grain One Hop threads

Rook
 
Im sure there was a recent thread called "One malt, One hop brews". Have a dig around in the AG section.
Cheers
Steve
 
Jeez, i could have sworn he said One Grain only, i'll try and help you Drew, have a look at the bellow link and have a look at Fents and Barramundi's recipe's, these were excellent beers and you would like them , even though Fents used 500 grams of carafoam/carapils you don't have to

Link

Also do a search on One grain One Hop threads

Rook

I realise that he originally mentioned single grain brews, but why would you want to end up having to do 5 single grain brews when for an extra $20 while picking up your grain, have the option to try something a little different?

cheers

Browndog
 
I agree with the comments to grab some Crystal, wheat & munich while you get your 25kg bag of pale/pils. Get a high alpha bittering hop eg BSaaz / Super Alpha & a few lower alpha hops for flavour/aroma & you can make a whole range of beers, for not much extra outlay.

Don't forget some yeast while you are there.
 
Update and a few questions of course.

So I have decided on my first 2 brews at least to be of a singe malt, Barrett Burston Ale Malt, and Target hops for bittering with Goldings or Fuggles for Aroma/Flavour. This will give me a base line for further brews and teach me what each hop and malt tastes like. Also a few basic brews to get a handle on the process. I can hear those saying just to add some of this or that already, but I plan to be All Grain brewing for the next 30+ years so I have plenty of time to dabble with all sorts of malts and hops.

Question time:
I was looking on You tube the other day when I saw a clip of someone direct heating there mash tun with a 4 ring burner on very, very low to bring the mash to the acquired temp. Does this have any bad effects on the mash as this would save me building a HLT. I have a 12" false bottom so the grain won't come in contact with the base of the kegs. SWMBO has told me that I can spend around $500 (which is good) and cutting out the HLT will mean I can set up a temp fridge for fermenting or go to kegs.

Speaking of kegs. For about the same outlay I can turn my new fridge (mates second hand fridge that I picked up for 2 x glasses of beer, BARGAIN!) into either a keg fridge, holds 3 kegs and gas (2 drinking 1 gassing I hope) or a temp controlled fridge for fermenting. Which way should I go? I don't mind bottling for now but also love the idea of having draft beer on hand with the keg set up.

So many decisions to be made. I have decided to keep a small blog to allow others to later read what I have done to move from K&K to all grain. Not much to read at the moment but hopefully some things for newbies to read later on.

Drew
 
I would use the fridge for temp control for fermentation as you can make more styles of beer and better tasting ones with proper temp control.
you can make a hlt for under $25 just search for "bucket of death" and be careful to make one that is safe eg. cover all exposed connections.
that's my 2 cent's

cheer's

edit: just did a search on bucket of death and nothing turned up so i found a post [topic="23609"]here[/topic] wrap some insulation around it
 
Question time:
I was looking on You tube the other day when I saw a clip of someone direct heating there mash tun with a 4 ring burner on very, very low to bring the mash to the acquired temp. Does this have any bad effects on the mash as this would save me building a HLT. I have a 12" false bottom so the grain won't come in contact with the base of the kegs. SWMBO has told me that I can spend around $500 (which is good) and cutting out the HLT will mean I can set up a temp fridge for fermenting or go to kegs.

1. YOU NEED A HLT

2. From experience - heating a SS mashtun with a SSFB using a gas burner (3 ring in my case) causes burning/caramelisation of the wort under the FB as you cannot stir against the bottom of the tun. But do try it if you like, nothing like having to finish a keg of shitty burnt malt flavoured beer to assist gaining experience :lol:
Also tried using a double vessel with water in the outer vessel, took way too long to alter the temp of the total mass - water, vessels and the contents.
Speaking of kegs. For about the same outlay I can turn my new fridge (mates second hand fridge that I picked up for 2 x glasses of beer, BARGAIN!) into either a keg fridge, holds 3 kegs and gas (2 drinking 1 gassing I hope) or a temp controlled fridge for fermenting. Which way should I go? I don't mind bottling for now but also love the idea of having draft beer on hand with the keg set up.

Temp Controlled Fermentation Fridge - you need to make good beer before kegging, something you really need before going AG
 
1. YOU NEED A HLT

But not necessarily a dedicated HLT! I have never had a dedicated HLT, I use my kettle. My process is as follows:

Heat strike water in Kettle, transfer to MT with grain, mash.

Heat sparge water in Kettle, mash liquor to fermenter.

Then all mash liquor to kettle to boil.
 
Adamt, I like it. I am going to end up with a 3 keg system one day but could only find 2 kegs on the last trip to Perth, so using the kettle as HLT seems like the solution. Bucket of death maybe not. I'm defiantly not an electrical person.

Temp ferment fridge it is. I have seen the mash master range of controllers and have a sparky friend who works for beer. I don't like power personally, anything that can kill you with out you even seeing it, I try to stay away from.

Drew
 

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