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Kabe

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Hi everyone!
I'm totally new to brewing but I'd like to start straight with all-grain. I've seen many nice recipes but my problem is that living in Spain I don't seem to be able to get all the ingredients mentioned in them. Here we don't have as wide an offer as people in America have (we're more of a wine country, you know). I'd like to know if there is some kind of rules on how to get substitutes for certain grains or hops.

Also, this is the website I'm planning on getting the ingredients from:

http://cervezartesana.es/tienda/materia-prima/malta-en-grano.html

Can you recommend any particular recipes for the ingredients available there?

Thanks a lot!
 
Not sure what you are talking about. It looks like that site has pretty much all of the common ingredients - and a pretty impressive lists of american hops.

Do you have a recipe you are having trouble with? A style you are looking for?
 
For example, many recipes include different kinds of "Crystal" malt (20L, 80L, etc.), but here I can only find one. Also some malts like "Biscuit" or "Victory" can't be found at all
 
my spanish is horrible, but I see 3 that say crystal and another half dozen that are "cara".

There really isn't a 1-for-1 sub of grains that spans every situation. Do you have a recipe or style you are trying to make? If so, I'm sure I or someone here would be able to help you based on the ingredients on that site.
 
Well I see you buy from Spain there is some other websites you can look into. You wont get american two row in spain you can get some english pale 2 row. Crystal 20L you can get cara-red form weyyerman that´s around 45 EBC which is around 20L (maybe a little more), for instance. You can find biscuit malt in spain in several places. Just post what you want to brew and I reply (not before tomorrow I´m working now)
Edit: Where in Spain are you at? spanish or expat?
 
Thank you for your kind answers,
Yes, I'm spanish and I still live in Spain despite the crisis :) Buying in foreign shops is always an option, but I was wondering if I could support our still young homebrewing businesses and even save a penny or two in shipping rates. Anyway, I think I'll take the middle road and order some things from the shop I posted and some others from the USA or the UK.

In any case,I was thinking about starting with a simple ale like any of these:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f71/swmbo-slayer-belgian-blonde-26599/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f71/dirty-monk-biere-de-garde-106658/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/fat-tire-clone-309962/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/bee-cave-brewery-haus-pale-ale-31793/

One of the things I find in shorter supply (or variety at least) is yeast. Is it so important to use the same specific yeast? I assume flavor will certainly change, but will it be very wrong if I use any other ale yeast?

Thank you again
 
I don´t know if should answer in english or spanish. I never saw spanish writen in this forum so this can be a chance to start :):
Para levadura te conviene la líquida, a mi entender es bastante importante pero siempre se puede sustituir. Basicamente puedes conseguir la levadura que quieras si la encargas con el tiempo suficiente. http://www.masmalta.com/171-levadura-liquida másmalta vende por encargo la gama completa de wyeast
También recomdable es http://latiendadelcervecero.com/es/cerveza-artesanal
o http://www.cerveseraartesenca.com/
o http://www.calarenys.com/
La cristal que suelen vender es la inglesa 100-120 L (200-240 EBC) aunque he notado que eso cambia, lo mejor es mandar un mail para ver que estan vendiendo ahora de cristal de que malteria es, eso te va a dar datos importantes para decidir que comprar. Normalmente sustituyo crystal 20L por carared con buenos resultados para una caramel 10L ufff a lo mejor me olvido de una malta crystal y pongo munich o vienna. De todas las recetas que vi la mayoria de las maltas las podes conseguir en españa al igual que las levaduras. Espero que te haya sido de ayuda.
PS: En que parte de España estas?
 
¡Gracias Obliviousbrew!
Esta tarde echaré un vistazo más tranquilamente a los links que me has puesto. ¿Tú vives en España también? Yo soy de la provincia de Alicante.
 
¡Joder, aparece en tu info y ni me había fijado! Anyway, now that we've found we're nearly neighbors I think we should continue in english for the sake of other members. :) So nice to find someone with some experience in Spain! Thank you for all the useful links, I'll check them out and tell you about the results.

Edit: Por cierto, yo estoy algo más al sur, en Orihuela.
 
Yup let´s continue in english for the sake of the thread. Anything you need just send a PM.
This guys are in Murcia
http://latiendadelcervecero.com/es/cerveza-artesanal
so expect lower shipping cost to alicante, they pack the things a lot better than the other guys, nice ziplock bags for grain and when you buy 250gr of hops they will give you two 125g vacuum packed bags. They also ship very fast I usually get it the next day. If you have a car is not a very long ride and you can save some money in shipping costs.
I got to admit I´m very thrill of finding a fellow homebrewer nearby, there is not a lot of us in Spain and just a handful in this forum (I actually think I´m the only spanish active member).
You´ll find that this forum is a great source of information from experienced brewers. As I told you don´t hesitate to PM if you need anything and if you are ever around Benidorm drop by for cerveza artesana. Cheers and brew on!
 
Another option is to toast/roast the grains yourself. I found the info in this blog valuable. You can even make specialty malts like special b using the methods mentioned there, or at least an approximation.

Love that blog. My attempts at crystal have been uneven, and I don't want to risk the wrath of the missus or the fire department by trying to make black patent at home. But any toasted-type malt from 10L to 175L
I make following those instructions. Easy as could be, and makes great beer.
 
Love that blog. My attempts at crystal have been uneven, and I don't want to risk the wrath of the missus or the fire department by trying to make black patent at home. But any toasted-type malt from 10L to 175L
I make following those instructions. Easy as could be, and makes great beer.

I'm thinking that for darker malts on the level of house burning folks could adapt some of the diy rigs that home coffee roasters are using. There's a ton of variations on this theme all over the place, including on here iirc.

make_452.jpg


Here's the make article this pic is from.

And do that outside.
 
Thank you all for the advice and links. To my brewing neighbor: small world! Not only I find you here today but according to my girlfriend the website from Cartagena you recommend is probably owned by the guy that sells extract brewing kits to our favorite beer shop in Murcia (Cervemur). I'll do a little research tomorrow, but anyway I think I'll give them a call and pay a visit. I'll tell you how it goes.

I'm also very glad to know about other brewer nearby!
 
LOL....I was going to post the anyone from spain thread in here, BUT I realized the only person other than me who posted in there, is oblivious brew....

Hey, is there any way possibly any of you could send me some chorizo? For decades my family would get it from a Spanish Butcher in Carbondale, Illinois, and we would have to buy it in a Mexican Grocery store in Detroit, but he evidently passed and you can't get it any more here in Michigan, and what I can find, is not the same (and obviously most of it is the Mexican Kind, but what few supposedly spanish brands just suck.) I'm learning sausage making to try to recreate the recipe we grew up on. But so far I can't get the right paprika to garlic ratio that I'm familiar with (the fat would just render out this brilliant red oil full of garlicky goodness.)

I don't know if there's a way, but if I could get a few different type from there, maybe I could get a closer approximation of what I grew up with. I just found some imported called Palacios from La Rioja, but it's too hard and mealy compare to what we used to get. I don't know if sausage can be shipped by "civilians" but if you guy could maybe help me out, and it didn't cost an arm and a leg, my sister and I would be so excited....we've tried over the years to find what we grew up with.
 
the paprika that you use (we call it pimenton) is very important I will try to find "Pimenton de la Vera" a very nice smoked paprika that is kind of unique in some places something similar (Pimenton de la Vera name protected with some kind of D.O.) and is sell like "pimenton de matanza" that translates into something like "slaugther paprika" I don´t know exactly what chorizo are you looking for but I wouldn´t mind to send you some... will it have problems clearing customs tougth vaccum packed?
 
the paprika that you use (we call it pimenton) is very important I will try to find "Pimenton de la Vera" a very nice smoked paprika that is kind of unique in some places something similar (Pimenton de la Vera name protected with some kind of D.O.) and is sell like "pimenton de matanza" that translates into something like "slaugther paprika" I don´t know exactly what chorizo are you looking for but I wouldn´t mind to send you some... will it have problems clearing customs tougth vaccum packed?

Yeah that's one of the issues I'm having, getting good pimenton, most of the stuff here is either so old it's tasteless....maybe that's what I should have you guys send me, some good paprikas.....

The chorizos we grew up on were not extremely hard like the spanish stuff we get here now, more like a summer sausage texture? It had a good amount of fat but it wasn't like a hard salami, more like the softer ones. I'm trying to describe something I haven't been able to find in a decade, it's like I'll know it when I try it....weird.
 
Take the advice on paprika given by Obliviousbrew. Won't be the same without pimentón. I'd be also glad to help, but there are so many kinds of chorizo... If you can't be more specific we can try to make a little selection. I've sent this kind of goods to France and Croatia to friends working abroad and they got there just fine. I don't know about the US customs but some ziplock might do the trick.
 
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