All These Grains

It seems every recipe, no matter what the beer, involves some combination of grains to achieve the flavors and color of the style. Was this always the case? Did a traditional Alt ,for instance, use any specialty grains to get color and flavor; or were these styles formed by mere base malts and yeast strains, mashed a certain way?

 

The book "Brewing Classic Styles" contains a good deal of info on how many styles were developed. Many times brewers would kiln and roast their own grains to achieve flavor profiles.

 

I knew I should have read a book.

 

Designing great beer by Ray Daniels is a great book as well

 

I'll have to read that one as well. Thank you both.

 

I agree with the book suggestions.

To answer your question, there certainly were styles that were developed using only base malt, yeast, and hops. Traditional Kolsch varieties are 100% pilsner malt, yeast, and noble hops. German brewers traditionally used decoction mashes to add a malty backbone to the beers. If you look into decoction mashing, you will find that many people have started using specialty malts (e.g., Munich malt) to get the malty backbone rather than using the time intensive mash method.

 

I agree with the above books for creating recipes.
If you are new to AG brewing the best place to start is Palmer's How to Brew for detailed info on the brewing process, equipment, and a few recipes. Brewing Classic Styles is by Jamil and Palmer.

 

An answer--thank you.
I am not exactly new to all grain(255lbs of base malts used in the past 2 years); however I am also not immersed in the hobby.

I truly appreciate the book references, but the bit of knowledge rklinck shared is what I hoped to get and is the intention of a forum.

 

The books referenced will give you what you are looking for on ALL styles beyond the few mentioned. Brewers publications also has books that go into detail and history of many specific styles that may be of particular interest to you as well.

The intent of a forum is to provide the information sought after whether it be opinion, fact or a reference to a location/literature that would provide the answer the OP is looking for, glad we could all be of help