What to order ?

[Mr.Everready]

I'm planning on doing my first extract brew in the next few weeks. I don't have a local hbs so I need to order my supplies online.

What I'd like to know is what should I order

I'd like to get together a basic selection of malts and hops. I've only started drinking ales after years of lager so I don't like anything too bitter.

I've no idea where to start really, anyone have any recomendations ?

cheers

[Zephiacus]

Hmm, what sort of style are you looking to make then? A good place to start with extract is to do a recipe, a quick search on here should give you some crackers. Though you also cant go wrong with buying some crystal malt and hops, steeping the malts and making a hop tea nd combinging with extract. The only problem I had with extract brewing is that it's really addictive and now my living room is cluttered with my new AG build in process!

[Mr.Everready]

I've had so many individual bottles of beer over the last few months its hard to remember what I've had

I liked the Badger beers, Newcastle Brown, Deuchars IPA. Want so keen on Leffe, Hobgoblin, Speckled Hen. I know these things are very subjective though.

So crystal malt for starters, obviously I'll need malt extract too. So really it's a selection of hops I need, probalably 5 or 6 varieties to try, a couple of packets of each just incase.

[boingy]

I suggest you sort out a couple of recipes first, then buy the ingredients to suit. Otherwise your next post will be "hey, what can I brew with these ingredients I bought?"...

Look here for some recipes:

www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9700

[Mr.Everready]

Did you see the first 3 recipes in that thread ?

Old Speckled Hen - Leffe - Hob Goblin

Want so keen on Leffe, Hobgoblin, Speckled Hen.

Not so may extract recipes on that thread. My main problem is that ( as I mentioned earlier ) I only started drinking beers a few months ago so I've no idea what to look out for ( hop wise ) while tasting them. I'll have a search online and have a look for recipes, I suppose I'll just need to punt for 1 or 2 and go for it.

[Zephiacus]

Yeah, they are all extract recipes on the 1st page, and would be a good starting place. My slightly irritating habit to my friends is that whenever I have a new ale I try to note down the hops used and look up a clone recipe so i can gauge the profiles for my own recipes. But yeah, just pick one and go for it, you'll find that after 2-3 brews you'll start to get a good idea of hops used, and I never seem to use all the 100g of hops i get in a brew, so now have a freezer drawer with about 10 half empty bags in! I wouldnt go buying loads of hops as they are a bit pricey and sont have the longest shelf life.

[Mr.Everready]

I've had a play with Beer Smith ( play being the right word ) and put in an all grain recipe from Graham Wheelers book. It was the Deuchars IPA.

Thinking of trying a 5l batch just to see how it goes, how does this sound.
( I've no idea how to copy the recipe )

0.54 DME
0.03 Dry wheat extract
0.05g crystal malt
13.3g Fuggles @ 60 mins
4.35g Styrian Goldings @ 10 mins
0.65g Irish moss @ 10 mins

Colour 12.7, IBU 31.9, abv. 4.03

[Zephiacus]

That would certainly work, but I dont see much sense in just doing a 5 litre batch. Surely you'd be more economical doing a 5 gallon batch. As you'd still have to buy 500 g of wheat malt and 500g of crystal just to use a fraction of it.

[Mr.Everready]

Believe me, the other stuff will get used up

Unfortunatly I haven't got a large boiler at the moment, and I really want to try an extract !!!!

How would I go about doing the above recipe @ 25l if I had say an 8l pot ?

[Zephiacus]

You don't need a big boiler to do extract, but the size def helps. I do mine with a 15l pot which works really well. But with an 8ltr one you could still steep grains and have a mini boil or make a hop tea and it'd prob turn out just fine. But if you are really keen to do a small batch to try it out, then you might as well go for it, the results will probibly still be really good.