First AG suggestions?

Well, my New Years resolution was to go AG this year. So that means that come spring (which in Wisconsin in an El Nino year could be any time from next week to, say, Memorial Day weekend) I plan to be out on my deck brewing up my first all grain beer.

What do you suggest I make? I guess I would like the first one to be pretty simple (certainly no complicated rests or anything like that), but still something that will highlight the difference between all grain and extract beers.

(I always wanted my first time to be special...)

I would take your favorite current recipe and convert it to AG so you can really taste the difference. If you save a couple you can then do a side by side taste test.

Happy Brew Year! Welcome to the AG Club

Here's a very easy beer to make and it's darn tasty too!


8 lbs. 2-Row
2 lbs. Vienna
0.5 lb. Crystal 10L

1.0 oz Cascade at 60 min.
0.5 oz. Cascade at 30 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade at 15 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade at 5 min.

Nottingham Dry Ale Yeast Hydrated 4 oz. water.

Two weeks in a plastic bucket primary and then straight to the keg.

Total cost for ingredients from Austin Home Brew is $16.42 and that includes milling the grain.

Brewiz said:

I would take your favorite current recipe and convert it to AG so you can really taste the difference. If you save a couple you can then do a side by side taste test.

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Yes. This is a great idea. If you don't know how to convert it, post it here we can help!

What style of beer would that bee. I am looking for a cheap good tasting beer to just have around the house.

Ryan

EdWort said:

Happy Brew Year! Welcome to the AG Club

Here's a very easy beer to make and it's darn tasty too!

8 lbs. 2-Row
2 lbs. Vienna
0.5 lb. Crystal 10L

1.0 oz Cascade at 60 min.
0.5 oz. Cascade at 30 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade at 15 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade at 5 min.

Nottingham Dry Ale Yeast Hydrated 4 oz. water.

Two weeks in a plastic bucket primary and then straight to the keg.

Total cost for ingredients from Austin Home Brew is $16.42 and that includes milling the grain.

Click to expand...

It's my haus pale ale. It's very quaffable and SWMBO loves it.

I'll always have two kegs of this stuff on hand. It's that drinkable.

Edwort,
After your initial post of this recipe, I decided to make it my first AG brew. It finally got bottled last night. I added an extra pound of 2-row because of efficiency fears, and added some Northern Brewer at the start of boil and at flame out. It tastes kind of like budweiser with extra hops thrown in. It has less flavor than I was hoping for, so I bottled with DME instead of corn sugar. However, it was very drinkable. Most of my home brews get emptied by the ones and twos. I will have a hard time brewing to keep up my thirst for this stuff. Next time I am going to play with the hops a bit, but the general idea of this recipe is good!

Sorry for bringing up an old post, but I have to re-state my last reply. I am now drinking this stuff after a couple of weeks in the bottle, and it is approaching fantastic! The best way I can describe it is a light IPA, with a kick! I let my wife try some last night. She is not much of a beer drinker, and prefers Bud (ack!) light when she drinks it. She really liked it. Not as much as my Cheesefood Ale, but at 1/4th the price per batch, life is good.

I have another batch scheduled for the weekend after Valentine's Day. I gotta get a steam beer going next while my basement is cold, and I am leaving town for a while on business. I am going to add a bit of Carapils, and change the hops a bit to move away from the cascade. Partially because I hate grapefruit, and there is a hint of it, and partially because this is a really clean beer that the hops "jump out of". I am a novice, and I want to learn which hops I like, and which I don't.

Wow- I'm glad it came out so good. My problem with my super drinkable beers is that they disappear way too fast around here. I don't think I'll every keg- I'd be drinking way too much. The only thing that slows me down is seeing the rinsed empties filling the sink!

I LOVE cascade hops. I'd put them in soup! But I bet you'd like perle hops if you want a "cleaner" and not-citrusy flavor. In my English style ales, I've used EKG and that is just a hint flowery, not grapefruit-y. I've used Saaz for finishing in some beers, and that's a good clean flavor. My Dead Guy clone uses mostly perle, with saaz and perle for finishing.

I'm also still learning, and finding out which hops I like, which malt I like, etc. It's so much fun, isn't it?

Wables said:

Sorry for bringing up an old post, but I have to re-state my last reply. I am now drinking this stuff after a couple of weeks in the bottle, and it is approaching fantastic!

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Yeah, I have noticed with Pale Ales once they hit their prime they are very drinkable. They seem to peak early-er and when they peak they are just so nice.

I find Columbus very intense in flavor and aroma but not so grapefruity like the "three C's" (cascade, centennial, chinook). I made an all-columbus APA this summer (my first AG batch) that was one of the best beers I've ever made.

A lot of American micros seem to pair cascade with willamette, which softens the cirtrusy characteristics, IMHO. I use equal parts of these two for flavor and aroma when I want a less assertive hop profile in a beer (like the oatmeal stout I'm planning to bottle this weekend, or for a Redhook-like Americanized ESB.)

Colombus is one of my favorite hops thus far.

I would take your favorite current recipe and convert it to AG so you can really taste the difference.

Click to expand...

i would not do this. it's a good idea for later on when you are a bit more seasoned with ag recipes but i've found that direct conversion of recipes from extract to ag do not come out the same and take some tweaking.

i would do something simple - such as a simple ipa or pale ale as posted looked very nice. the reason i would go with a tried and true recipe is that your results are going to be better

EdWort said:

Happy Brew Year! Welcome to the AG Club

Here's a very easy beer to make and it's darn tasty too!

8 lbs. 2-Row
2 lbs. Vienna
0.5 lb. Crystal 10L

1.0 oz Cascade at 60 min.
0.5 oz. Cascade at 30 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade at 15 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade at 5 min.

Nottingham Dry Ale Yeast Hydrated 4 oz. water.

Two weeks in a plastic bucket primary and then straight to the keg.



Total cost for ingredients from Austin Home Brew is $16.42 and that includes milling the grain.

Click to expand...

Im going to do this as my first all grain brew. Do you think i should up the grain bill in case my efficency is rubbish. What shoud the OG/FG and ABV be for this ale?
Also i guess this for an american 5-gal batch not U.K. imperial should i do the conversion on it and up the grain bill to suit.
One last question how long does it take to come into condition.

One last question how long does it take to come into condition.

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2 weeks in the primary
2 weeks in the secondary
3 weeks in the bottle