EamusCatuli

Recipes 

Hey all,

So the only time I ever bought and used a kit was when I made my first extract batch a while ago, after, I went right away into making my own recipes. Now that I have decided to go AG, I was tinkering with a few recipes of my own. However, I notice a lot of people are using AG kits from AHS their first couple times. I tend to get right into things and formulate my own recipes, as I was never big on making beers that already exist ingredient for ingredient. In this case though, does anyone have any opinions on whether or not do a kit first??

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r2eng

Recipes 

Although I do make my own recipes, I have used AHS's all-grain kits with great success. The price is right compared to small grain purchases. I need to go bulk!

Also, I have found that I learned a bunch from brewing the kits and entering the recipes into BeerSmith. Known target "clone" recipes are close to the originals, but not exact. And for me, the data from Beersmith helps me understand what flavors the grains and the substituted hops (due to the shortage) impart to the brew, too!

Eric

jpsloan

Recipes 

I ordered the ingredients for my first AG from AHS, but it was from a recipe I found on the forum (Biermuncher's Centennial Blonde, to be precise). So, I ordered everything a la carte. Worked out great. Be sure to select each grain on the order page as the same specialty recipe, if you want them all bagged together... I found it handy, anyways.

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"An Irishman is never drunk as long as he can hold on to a blade of grass, and keep from slipping off the face of the Earth."

blacklab

Recipes 

+1 to jpsloan's comment. I order custom recipes from them all the time. All of their recipes that i have ordered have also been great. I can heartily recommend the Bells Two Hearts IPA specifically.

My LHBS is about 10 miles away and AHS ships for 6.99, so with the price of gas these days...

FSR402

Recipes 

what's the difference of using one of their "kits" from using a recipe found in a book or online?
Being a new brewer I'm sure you could make a recipe up and could make a good beer from it or it could go the other way.
Brewing from these "kits" will help get all the "steps" down and perfect your system. And as stated already, it's handy that AHS tells you what and how much is in the kit. Inputting this info into something like Beersmith and then playing around with it will help you some to understand what is doing what.

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wildwest450

Recipes 

All of Ahs kits are proven to make you a good beer, you never know what you will get online for a recipe. If your not absolutely sure about what ingredients do what (like me) your better off with a kit for your first few brews. I have made a few beers from members recipes on this site- BierMuncher, Ed Wort, And Ohio Brewtus, and everyone has turned out great! Don't feel bad if i've left your name off, it's early in the year.

david_42

Recipes 

If you buy a AHB kit for a beer you know & it turns out right, then you'll know your system is working properly. Think of it as calibration. On the other hand, I really enjoy making beers I've never had using their kits.

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EdWort

Recipes 

+1

You can't go wrong with an Austin Homebrew All Grain kit. It will help you build your skills while at the same time making great beer. All of their recipes kick butt and come highly recommended. Like David says, once you are dialed in with your system, it is fun to experiment by making different beers.

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Cheers,

EdWort

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ohiobrewtus

Recipes 

I did AHS kits almost exclusively from extract to PM and up until I got to about my 10th AG batch, then I started tweaking things and creating my own recipes. Even then I used their custom recipe option for my own recipes for quite a while before I went to bulk and got a mill.

Their recipes are all solid. Get your process down first, then start creating your own stuff.

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brewt00l

Recipes 

I did a kit from AHS for my first AG batch...the way I saw it, it took a few variables out of the equation and let me focus my narrow attention span on the process.