Choose my beers -> grain and hops bill

I made extract beers for 2 yrs, then quit for 2 yrs, now gonna start up again with AG. I live 3.5 hours from civilization.

I just spent 6 hrs over the last few days reading and learning and then shopping and buying online. I'm tired of reading and learning.

I just bought a Bayou Classic 44qt SS pot with strainer & lid, a ball valve kit with bulkhead & torpedo screen & bib & silicone hose, two WinPak containers for no-chill process, Bayou Classic SP-10 propane burner, a Winware 40qt aluminum pot, a drum set and a saxophone. I'm tired of shopping and buying.

I'm gonna BIAB 5 gallon batches. I'm gonna make my own voile bag. I'm gonna hang the strainer from a rope/pulley and use it to raise lower the grain bag. I'm gonna mash in 4.5 gallons of water in the SS pot and then dunk-sparge in 3 gallons hot water in the aluminum pot, then combine everything in the SS pot and mash out and boil. Maybe I'll skip the mash out, but I'm definitely gonna dunk-sparge. I like dunking stuff.

I already have 3 carboys, 120 16oz swingtop bottles, jug of Idophor, air locks, racking equipment, etc. I have a grain mill with a full range of adjustment. I can get free liquid yeast from the local brewery, so I don't buy yeast. I have a half pound of vac-packed Cascade hops I picked in August.

I'm tired of thinking about beer.

I'm driving to civilization in 2 days. While there, I will visit a nice HBS that sells base malts in 50lb bags and MO in 10lb bags and everything by the oz. Their prices are competitive. My plan is to buy enough grains and hops to make 6 batches of beer. I'm nearly broke so my goal is a smart grain bill without a multitude of exotic ingredients.

I don't wanna buy 6 kits. I wanna buy bulk grains and hops.

So if I'm lucky, maybe one or more of you guys will say something like this:
"You will make these 5 beers, one of them you will make twice. You will buy one 50lb bag of this base malt and 4lbs each of the following 5 specialty grains and 3 lbs each of these hops and 1 lb each of these hops and also this adjuncts."

I like good Porters that aren't overly bitter. If I do a beer twice, make it a porter. I like good IPA's (Inversion is one of my faves). If I do two beers twice, make it 2 porters and 2 IPA's. I like hoppy grassy aromas, but not overly bitter beers. I like Negra Modelo, I also like Corona. I like citrus, but I'm not a big wheat beer fan.

That's it. I'm sorry to be so lazy to have to ask you to pick my beers and then my grain bill, but it's because I haven't had a homebrew in two years and so I'm very weak. (gasp)

I look forward to learning what I'm brewing!

Thx! Merry Christmas!

Get a sack of 2 row and a pound of Chinook.

2 row is good for anything, and chinook is great for stouts/porter and IPAs

You'll need some medium crystal, chocolate, some munich would also be good in those styles.

This recipe is cheap and based on you liking mexican styles prolly up your alley

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

That's not all you will need, you are asking quite the question, but seeing as how you're 3.5 hours from civilization I would buy more than less, one trips worth of gas pays for a lot of homebrew ingredients and you'll be pissed if you dont have what you want.


As for yeast, your situation and budget are going to force you to propogate it in some way. I would look into yeast washing to start. For those styles you could get by with WLP001 and WLP002, although id lean towards 002 because of the porters.

Thats a start, but not much of one. good luck

I'm not going to add all that up for you but I'll direct you here to the boards recipe database: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f82/

These seem to be especially popular around these parts:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f62/cream-three-crops-cream-ale-66503/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/centennial-blonde-simple-4-all-grain-5-10-gall-42841/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f126/bee-cave-brewery-robust-porter-56768/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/dogfish-head-60-minute-clone-ag-extract-25709/

Hey thanks guys! I consider that a great start!

I do wash yeast already. Point of clarification: the local brewery is where I'm getting the yeast, so yeast is local, not 3.5 hours away.

I'll work on this some more this evening. Thx!

If you have an oven, a couple of clean cookie sheets, and a few hours to kill, you can buy 2-row and make your own specialty grains: http://barleypopmaker.info/2009/12/08/home-roasting-your-malts/

If your recipes called for them, you'd still need chocolate, black patent, MO, wheat, rye, but you'd have most of the basics covered. 1 bag would probably be good for about 4 batches. As far as hops, buy a pound of something high-alpha to bitter with, but preferably something that's also useful late, like Nugget or CTZ.