Grain On The Plane

[Diggles]

Brewing in Karratha, Western Australia for a few years. Mainly doing extract, but looking at the feasibility of starting some all grain soon. Just a bit hard to keep it economical, living in the middle of nowhere!
Will start doing BIAB to see what all the fuss about AG is and then build a rig....hopefully!

Does anyone have any suggestions as to which grain and hops to purchase to give me the widest recipe options, bear in mind I have to take it on the plane, my limit is approx 60kg

Chocolate Porter in the keg and just racked an awsome tasting cider....can't wait. Happy Days.

Diggles

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I'd be going a good base Ale Malt - I use Bairds (or Thomas Fawcetts) Perle Ale malt - which is halfway between Golden Promise and Maris Otter.

I can even get a malty lager from it (just).

That way you can trick it up with other spec malts.

Goomba

 

[hsb]

Is mail order not an option?
What do you hope to brew?
An ale malt seems like a good start - you can knock out APA, IPA, Porter, Stout, ESB and a lot more besides. Whether its Aussie, English or German/Belgian is sort of dictated by what your core brew will be?

 

[felten]

Pilsner malt is useful as a base for not only lager styles, but most styles. Munich is handy as well for a lot of beers, as a base itself or a portion of your base.

As for hops there's too many varieties to choose from, but personally I'd look at first getting something neutral and high alpha for bittering (magnum, horizon, etc) which you can use in all your beers. And then probably some of the more popular English, American and noble style finishing hops.

 

[QldKev]

Base malts
BB Ale or Pale, excellent for Australian and APA styles
Munich, heaps of beers
Marris Otter, English beers. If you don't want such a full on malt cut it back with the BB Ale
Wheat, wheat beers, but can be added to heaps of beers

Spec malts
Depends heavily on what beers you want to brew.

The problem is a lot of personal taste comes into it. I keep Marris Otter as my English base, others love Perle, others will tell you Golden Promise.
Some don't like the BB offerings, I love their style.



What I did when I started AG, was sat down and printed out all the recipes of interest from the recipeDB. Then throw them into a spreadsheet against grains they use. Tally up the key grains and there is your order. You will need to do some substitutions of grains but you will get a decent base set.


QldKev

 

[Diggles]

Gents,
Thanks heaps. Mail order will be the only option for the speciality grain and hops. Just found out I'll be back in town in June, so think I'll take the advice and compile a list of recipies I'd like to do and then drag on the plane another load of grain.

Has anyone tried to manufacture their own wort chiller from flexible copper tube using a forming spring?

Diggles

 

[Pennywise]

Yep plenty of people have made their own immersion chillers, AFAIK you'll need to get your hands on some silver solder for the elbow joins.

 

[Diggles]

Any suggestions as to a good confidence boosting beer to start with? All I'm looking for is a drinkable beer with a few interesting characteristics. My aim is to have 3 beers on the go, one malty (fat yak type), one hoppy thirst quencher (Carlton draft type) and an easy flowing lager (coopers 62 type)

.

 

[Diggles]

Yep plenty of people have made their own immersion chillers, AFAIK you'll need to get your hands on some silver solder for the elbow joins.

Got all the gear apart from the copper, so shouldn't be a drama. I take it it's better to get the 50 foot length as opposed to the 25 foot?

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Any suggestions as to a good confidence boosting beer to start with? All I'm looking for is a drinkable beer with a few interesting characteristics. My aim is to have 3 beers on the go, one malty (fat yak type), one hoppy thirst quencher (Carlton draft type) and an easy flowing lager (coopers 62 type)

.

This has got a good wrap from a lot of new brewers.

Read the comments as well, you could cut back on at least one hop variety or substitute.

Or the immortal Dr Smurto Golden Ale.

Goomba

 

[stux]

50KG of base grain, some hops and and perhaps 8KG of wheat

Suggest pilsner or pale ale (golden promise or Marris otter)

Better get some crystals etc

Each 5KG will get you a batch or so

 

[Diggles]

This has got a good wrap from a lot of new brewers.

Read the comments as well, you could cut back on at least one hop variety or substitute.

Or the immortal Dr Smurto Golden Ale.

Goomba

Awesone mate, will get right onto it.

 

[Diggles]

50KG of base grain, some hops and and perhaps 8KG of wheat

Suggest pilsner or pale ale (golden promise or Marris otter)

Better get some crystals etc

Each 5KG will get you a batch or so

Nice one, looks like I'm on track. I've also got a mix of specials,but can't remember what...information ovreload!

Thanks

Diggles

 

[stux]

50KG of base grain, some hops and and perhaps 8KG of wheat

Suggest pilsner or pale ale (golden promise or Marris otter)

Better get some crystals etc

Each 5KG will get you a batch or so

Think I misunderstood the weight limit

Anyway, if your total limit is 60KG and you're prepared to take a sack of base grain then pick that

I'd suggest a 25KG Of Thomas fawcett golden promise good malty grain, will make any beer grainy and malty, but not as excessive as maris otter.

A pilsner grain is really very bland in comparison.

Then perhaps mail order hops and specialty grains on a per recipe basis. 80-95% of a given recipe would be your based grain

 

[Diggles]

Think I misunderstood the weight limit

Anyway, if your total limit is 60KG and you're prepared to take a sack of base grain then pick that

I'd suggest a 25KG Of Thomas fawcett golden promise good malty grain, will make any beer grainy and malty, but not as excessive as maris otter.

A pilsner grain is really very bland in comparison.

Then perhaps mail order hops and specialty grains on a per recipe basis. 80-95% of a given recipe would be your based grain

That's exactly what I'm thinking of doing, just got to come down to Perth every so often to r-stock on the base grain.

 

[hsb]

A (smaller) bag of Munich I is a good tip.
You can make APAs - 10-20% Munich I will boost the malty taste, a little bit of Crystal - add hops to taste and you've got a simple base brew.

But maybe I'm just obsessed with chucking Munich I in everything at the moment, it makes for a 'forgiving' blend if you don't totally nail the hot/cold side.
B)

 

[Diggles]

Anyone rank the Joe White Pilsner grain?

 

[cdbrown]

I rate JW export pilsner. Have been using it as a base malt in nearly all my beers where I don't need a upfront malt flavour. Used in ales and lagers.

 

[Arghonaut]

Its much better value if you buy hops in 1 pound or 500 gram lots, check out ellerslie hops for an aus grower, or niko hops in the states.

If it were me i'd get 2 or 3 of the fruity american hops, ie cascade, centennial, amarillo, chinook, simcoe or citra, but APA's are my favourite style so if it aint up your alley, maybe just try amarillo or cascade as they are probably the most widely used.

500g of Willamette as its pretty versatile and usually cheap, can do ambers, apas and have seen it used in english styles too.

500g of a noble hop like hallertau or saaz, for lagers and european styles.

500g of an aussie hop, galaxy or PoR depending on your taste.

500g of EKG if you are into English styles.

You could also get 500g of something like magnum for bittering, but i just use what i have on hand.

Thats my basic setup, sets you back <$100 up front, saves you alot of money in the long run, and can brew a huge variety of beers using it.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Its much better value if you buy hops in 1 pound or 500 gram lots, check out ellerslie hops for an aus grower, or niko hops in the states.

If it were me i'd get 2 or 3 of the fruity american hops, ie cascade, centennial, amarillo, chinook, simcoe or citra, but APA's are my favourite style so if it aint up your alley, maybe just try amarillo or cascade as they are probably the most widely used.

500g of Willamette as its pretty versatile and usually cheap, can do ambers, apas and have seen it used in english styles too.

500g of a noble hop like hallertau or saaz, for lagers and european styles.

500g of an aussie hop, galaxy or PoR depending on your taste.

500g of EKG if you are into English styles.

You could also get 500g of something like magnum for bittering, but i just use what i have on hand.

Thats my basic setup, sets you back <$100 up front, saves you alot of money in the long run, and can brew a huge variety of beers using it.

Pretty much all +1. Other than a bulk hop buy organised by a very charitable member, I grabbed my last lot from Niko.

It takes a while to get in, but it's worth it.

See when they have a sale (sign up to their email).

I grabbed their willamette, cascade and citra and have been steadily working through these.

Some hops are as little as $10-$15 US per pound and the post was $14 US.

Goomba