First time to all grain

I have a REALLY simple "summer wheat" recipe I've done a few times, and everyone seems to really like it. I'm getting ready to switch to over to all grain and though and thought this would be an easy one to start with.

The recipe is just
6.6 lbs of northwestern weizen LME
some fuggles
and a few spices and some citrus for the secondary.

What would be the closest grain to replace the northwestern weizen,
i want almost the very same taste,

this beer has become very popular among my friends and they will be upset if I change it a lot hahaha

Weizen would imply pilsner and Wheat, I believe. Perhaps you can get the breakdown of grains from the LME manufacturer or distributor of the kit.

I just googled Northwestern Weizen. The PDF from the company says it has wheat malt and barley malt. Nice of em to tell us what's in it I agree with tre9er, use wheat and pilsner malts

It at least says that the color is 6-10 L.

To try and replicate your beer to an all grain recipe, I would download Beersmith (free for a month) and plug your extract recipe into it. It has a converter to switch you to all grain. This will get you your recipe to start with. you can also play with the color and all by adding different specialty grains (your steeping grains in extract brewing), and the program will show you the effect on color, gravity etc.

Since this is your first attempt at all grain, I would plan on getting mediocre efficiency. All this means is that you need to buy an extra pound or two of your base malts (wheat, pilsner, etc) to mash. I would say to guess 70% efficiency for beersmith, and buy 1-2 pounds extra base malt for the recipe it spits out. worst case, you will have a bit higher gravity, but it at least wont end up too light. If you are going to use any pilsner malt, make sure you have a good rolling boil for 90 minutes, to kill off the extra proteins in pilsner malt.

Also, dont worry if your efficiency sucks, within reason. As long as you are in the mid to upper 60's or 70's, you're fine (it just means using an extra pound of base malt versus efficiencies in the 80's or 90's). worry more about consistency. As long as you can keep a consistent efficiency, you'll be able to adjust recipes to hit your gravity numbers. It will take you 4 or 5 batches to dial in your equipment and methods.

Most importantly, have fun! the jump to all-grain is worth it!

thank you very much kate00, very helpful.. I've assisted on all grain brews before, but not done it myself, it seems like so much more fun and such a better feeling knowing you did even more of the process yourself rather then just dump some syrup into boiling water, I'm really so ready to switch hahaha

I make alot of Hefeweizens, and always do a 50/50 Pilsner and Wheat malt split. I typically do 6.25 gallon batches at 6lbs Pilsner Malt and 6lbs Wheat malt, which is about 4.8lbs of each at 5.0 gallons, 5.3lbs of each at 5.5 gallons.

1.0 oz of hops @ 60 either way. I typically use Hallertau, but Fuggles is good in the style as well.

And fruit additions to Hefes are great! They take them really well!

Curious Topher, do you boil 90 minutes with Pilsner? I generally have in the past.

Kate00 said:

To try and replicate your beer to an all grain recipe, I would download Beersmith (free for a month) and plug your extract recipe into it. It has a converter to switch you to all grain. This will get you your recipe to start with. you can also play with the color and all by adding different specialty grains (your steeping grains in extract brewing), and the program will show you the effect on color, gravity etc.

Click to expand...

Beersmith is great- I love it. There are also free online calculators that will help you if you don't wish to pay for Beersmith after your free trial runs out.

I use a spreadsheet given to me by a neighbor and fellow brewer...he's brewed hundreds of batches using just this spreadsheet. It accounts for everything and cost me nothing. It does take some time learning the variables and where/why to change them. Particularly absorption, boiloff, dead space, etc.

I've read about the supposed Pilsner Malt DMS production. The rule on that is that if you have more than 50%, you need to allow for extra boil time to boil off DMS production.

I always stick to 50%, NEVER do a 90 minute boil, and always come out with no issues whatsoever.