Good beginning recipe for new all grain brewing?

Any advice on a good all grain kit or recipe for someone starting out? Is one style easier than another?

This one:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/centennial-blonde-simple-4-all-grain-5-10-gall-42841/

Northern Brewers Patersbier. It's simple and a fantastic beer.

AG is really so easy, do what you like to drink. It's not complicated until you are getting into specifics like ph and water profiling etc etc...

As long as you take your time and hit all your mash temps, I say the chances are great that you will make a very drinkable beer. But, be warned, chances are really good you'll be hooked!

Do something simple, and not too big. This should let you taste the difference that AG brings, and should avoid any problems with fitting the mash volumes into your equipment. The BierMuncher recipe above is a good option, with a single temperature infusion mash. Avoiding other cereals should help avoid stuck sparges or similar.

Doing a kit recipe might also be a good bet, as you know that the recipe should work on multiple types of equipment, and you won't be missing anything. I've had good results from the Morebeer AG kits, bought with the grain crushed - Morebeer seem to get a good crush on their kit malts. Something like their ESB or American Ale kit should easily fit in 5 gallon equipment, and isn't too pricey if you are buying other bits for your equipment and can get free shipping. Or you can download their documents and buy the ingredients at your LHBS

I agree with other people saying something just simple. My first AG batch I did a very simple Cascade pale ale that came out great. Just 8 lb base malt + 1 lb Caravienne and some light cascade hops. It was actually amazing, at least to my tastes.

EasTexan said:

Any advice on a good all grain kit or recipe for someone starting out? Is one style easier than another?

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I think there's probably at least three questions to help answer your question.

1) are you doing a starter for your yeast? If not, I'd stick to an ale with an OG less than 1.055.

2) do you have reasonable control on your fermenting temps (like less than 70F)? If not you might want to avoid trying a real clean American ale and hefeweizen and try maybe an English ale or a nice easy saison (wyeast 3711 I'm looking at you) or really anything belgian.

3) what kind if beer do you like?

I also agree with keeping it simple. Not that the brewing process is really that much different with something complex but the troubleshooting is much easier if something doesn't go quite right.

SMaSH.

+1 on SMaSH simple, and delicious.

Re do your favorite extract batch that you've done so far in AG so you can taste the difference and compare/contrast.

Anything not involving mashing pumpkin...stuck sparge central

I did a simple Amber Ale Kit. This allowed me to figure out what I needed to improve on and what I was doing okay on. Even though all grain is not that difficult it is just more time consuming, but in the long run it allows more flexibility to the recipes. You can tweak this or add more of that to your liking. BeerSmith is a good software program to run your recipes through.

Fermentation temps are a big key to how the beer will taste in the long run. I know right now I am hitting the upper 90's in temp outside for you are a little north of me in the Piney Woods, so I do have a mini fridge (fermentation chamber) with an stc-1000 controlling it.

Just remember to relax and have a homebrew. Good Luck on your endeavor.

Welcome to AG! It's very brewarding.

Let me add that you want a good crush. Not too fine (prevent stuck sparges) and not too coarse (better efficiency). If you don't mill yourself, you may want to ask them to run it through twice. Most LHBS have the gap set a bit wide.