Ready to order my first batch of Grain for my first AG Brew

[Tequilla6]

Hi,

Just getting ready to order my first batch of grains for my first All Grain brew and need a recipe that is simple enough for me but also flavoursome. I love my Theakstons "Old Peculiar" and my Elgoods "Black Dog" so it will have to be a dark beer. I like Malty and Chocolaty but I don't care for heavy alcohol beers I like no more that 5% ABV and 4% should be just about right .

So any suggestions on what I should try first?

I heard about Barley Bottom's AG recipe kits and thought that this would make my first brew go a little easier but they only seemed to have one kit when I looked at the web page and it's not my kind of style. Does anyone else do them online?

[kevin01041961]

[color=#4000BWhat about Timothy Taylor ? i've not been brewing long but i tried it and my god it tasted great and a nice light beer, let me know i'll send the recipe [/color]

[floydmeddler]

Do you like Hobgoblin? Made an amazing clone of this recently. Here's the recipe I used:

Nob Gobbler

Size: 23.0 L
Efficiency: 75.0%

Original Gravity: 1.052
Terminal Gravity: 1.013
Color: 19.78
Alcohol: 5.12%
Bitterness: 27.3

Ingredients:
4.80 kg English 2-row Pale
250 g Medium Crystal
200 g Carapils
150 g Chocolate Malt
15.0 g Styrian Goldings (5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
15.0 g Fuggle (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
15.0 g Styrian Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
15.0 g Fuggle (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
15.0 g Styrian Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
15.0 g Fuggle (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
S-04 Safale S-04

This is pretty much identical to the real McCoy. can't wait to brew it again.

[aceuass]

[color=#4000BWhat about Timothy Taylor ? i've not been brewing long but i tried it and my god it tasted great and a nice light beer, let me know i'll send the recipe [/color]

no need to shout
the TTL is a great beer and to be able to brew a close comparrison imo a better beer is why I brew
Cheers
Paul

[Tequilla6]

Funny you should mention that brew as I bought a hobgoblin to try just last week. Waitrose had a special offer on, so that the price worked out at £1 a bottle and I was looking into the suitability of the bottles for home brew. Sounded good economic sense a bottle for £1 and a nice beer thrown in for nowt. Or is it the other way around £1 for beer and bottle for free? Anyway I ended up buying a pressure barrel as I didn't fancy filling all those bottles.

I heard that the wychwood bottles were not really suitable for secondary fermentation purposes. Cannot find the link to that at the moment though.

But yes the beer was good and I am grateful for the recipe and I will put it as a contender.

Cheers

[aceuass]

The bottles dont have the bottom lip for most cappers to grab onto so you cant cap them
Cheers
Paul

[Tequilla6]

As far as I can see the Timothy Taylor uses pale malt and as such does not come into my category of Mild, Porter style beers. I know technicall y the Hobgoblin is a little to heavy on my Alcohol limit but at least I can adjust slightly to bring the ABV down a little. If I changed the TT to my preference it wouldn't be TT any more.

So thanks for the recommendation but this will not be my first Brew.

Cheers

[Tequilla6]

Thanks Aceuass,

Glad I got it right, as I have never capped a bottle I am unsure what I was looking for in a bottle of beer to make it suitable for recapping. Ended up with 12 bottles of Bernard Dark from Tesco which I know should be OK as they have the Grolsch style lids

At the time of looking I was deciding how I wanted to keep my beer, Cornies, Pressure Barrels Swing to or Cap. Baring in mind I have none of the equipment at present and I would have to go and buy everything once I had decided. Ended up with a Top Tap Pressure Barrel which I am not happy with Should have got a Bottom tap, but now I have some experience and I understand a little better my preferences my next one will be the bottom tap as it will in my opinion be perfect for my real ales.

Cheers

[EportJake]

Brakspear Special sounds like it might do you. I brewed it as my second AG and it was a fine brew. Recipe courtesy of Norm's Real Ale Almanac post:

Recipe 2 BRAKSPEAR SPECIAL
OG 1043 ABV 4% 27 units of colour.

MARIS OTTER PALE MALT 3750 GMS
CRYSTAL MALT 134 GMS
BLACK MALT 45 GMS

Brakspear use No2 invert sugar which is unavailable to homebrewers so add the folloing to the boiler.
217 gms Tate and Lyle BLACK TREACLE
217 gms sugar.

HOPS Boil Time 90 minutes 46 EBU
CHALLENGER 60 gms
ADD 5 GMS FUGGLES AND 5 GMS STYRIAN GOLDINGS last 15 minutes.

I recommend WYEAST 1275 THAMES VALLEY yeast.

[Tequilla6]

Thanks EportJake for the suggestion. Looks a little complex with the invert sugar and all those hop additions etc, but I guess it's a vote of confidence on the capabilities of a newbie.

After looking through the old recipe index I have decided to do a ...

TOASTED OATMEAL STOUT courtesy of ChrisG

He has a recipe for a 33L batch which include the following.

5700gm Pale Malt
330gm Crystal Malt
350gm Chocolate Malt
220gm Black Malt
430gm Toasted Oats (I now know what these are, it was my only stumbling point)
30gm Roasted Barley
65gm Golding Hops (60 min)
S-04 Yeast

Would prefer to get this down to a 25L batch for my pressure barrel but as this is the first one and I don't know what I'm doing yet I perhaps should stick with the recipe rather than reduce the quantities by 18% to get my batch size. I can experiment later when I have gotten over my first AG brewing hurdle and I don't want to screw up the recipe amounts and change the taste of the brew from what ChrisG intended. From what I can see this is an easy recipe that means I throw all the grain in my Mash Tun and just need to add one type of hop (Goldings) to my boil for 60 min.

Order placed with the Hop and Grape for the grains along with my 10Gal Boiler. Just need to make my Mash Tun now. Off to B&Q to get the parts after this courtesy of jdt199 list of parts.

Cheers

[floydmeddler]

Thanks EportJake for the suggestion. Looks a little complex with the invert sugar and all those hop additions etc, but I guess it's a vote of confidence on the capabilities of a newbie.

After looking through the old recipe index I have decided to do a ...

TOASTED OATMEAL STOUT courtesy of ChrisG

He has a recipe for a 33L batch which include the following.

5700gm Pale Malt
330gm Crystal Malt
350gm Chocolate Malt
220gm Black Malt
430gm Toasted Oats (I now know what these are, it was my only stumbling point)
30gm Roasted Barley
65gm Golding Hops (60 min)
S-04 Yeast

Would prefer to get this down to a 25L batch for my pressure barrel but as this is the first one and I don't know what I'm doing yet I perhaps should stick with the recipe rather than reduce the quantities by 18% to get my batch size. I can experiment later when I have gotten over my first AG brewing hurdle and I don't want to screw up the recipe amounts and change the taste of the brew from what ChrisG intended. From what I can see this is an easy recipe that means I throw all the grain in my Mash Tun and just need to add one type of hop (Goldings) to my boil for 60 min.

Order placed with the Hop and Grape for the grains along with my 10Gal Boiler. Just need to make my Mash Tun now. Off to B&Q to get the parts after this courtesy of jdt199 list of parts.

Cheers

If you want, I'll scale it to 25L for you using Beertools. Let me know.

[Tequilla6]

floydmeddler,

Your mention of Beertools prompted another idea..

Tell you what I would prefer, I would like to try and get the figures myself as an exercise (only way you learn right ) and if you could confirm I have correctly adjusted the figuresthen that would be much more help to me. Teach me how to fish so to speak... Chris-x1, mentioned another application that was in his words better than Beersmith and was free, your post prompted me to look on the net to find it. I have downloaded the tool (Thanks Chris-x1) and have been looking at it. If I understand the tool correctly I have put in the ingredients list based on a OG of 1046 and a brew size of 33L. messing around with the percentages and OG (Ended up at 1047) and hops I have come up with a list that is almost the same as ChrisG. From what I can see if everything else is fixed and I change the Brew Volume from 33L to 25L, all the figures change to give me the percentages and weights I need if I was to do a 25L brew instead.

Here is what I come up with



So, run your figures and tell me if I am almost there.

Cheers

[Tequilla6]

So I now have received my first grain delivery from Hop and Grape

2 x 10 Gal buckets
Grain order, minus the roasted Barley
Bits and bobs.

My BES order is now through so I have all the plumbing bits, so It's going to be a busy weekend making IC Mashtuns Boilers and the like. Not to mention sorting out all my other current brews that need racking off for conditioning etc.

I will probably start another few threads one for the kit build and one for the brew itself so keep a look out for those.

Question arises around the Roasted Barley. As it seems H&G did not have it in stock and I only need 500grams, a local Indian shop sells packs of Whole Barley. Can I just buy a bag of this and roast in the oven and if so how long should I roast for do you think

Cheers

[arturobandini]

I cap the wychwood bottles with a twin handled capper without much of a fuss. Bench cappers are better suited to them and I would probably suggest a hand capper would do the job also.

[Tequilla6]

I found the link on the wychwood bottles and it's the neck shape that makes the bottles less than suitable. but a bench capper is as you say a perfect tool for them. If I was to go down the capping route a bench capper would be my choice. Whilst thinking which way to go I have found that my new rotokeg has a fault on every single valve and that the float O-Ring was causing all my problems. Now that my LHBS has sent a replacement float and cap the top tap work perfectly
I have also been a good boy and waiting for my Porter to condition and investing in the Czechoslovakian lager at Tesco. Now having over 30 Bottles with Swing Cap lids I think this will be my route to bottled beer for them moment.

My new bottom tap King Keg has also arrived today along with the grain bill and I can now store over 75L of beer at any one time which I deem enough at the moment. Guess my next storage purchase will be a cornie to at least try then out as well. Then I can decide on which storage system suits me better and sell on my other stuff.

Cheers for the help though