I do 1 gallon batches, so it's fairly simple, but watch this:
Here is the link to the recipe database on HomeBrewTalk. By looking at a few recipes you will get an idea of what kind of hops belong with a style of beer. Once you see how someone else has done it you can experiment with your own concoctions....or maybe just brew one or more of the recipes. They have been tested, there are comments on how the recipe turned out, etc.
There are a whole bunch of different types of beer. All the way from the thin and watery lagers we call BMC (Bud, Miller, Coors) to big and robust stouts and imperial stouts. Every beer style has a group of hops that work best with that style.
Hello, the easiest way to brew all grain right off the bat is to BIAB and to order all grain recipe kits, in the recipe kit it will tell what temp to keep the grain at when mashing and at what times to add the hops in the boil.
Hello, I would suggest that you split your grain into both paint strainer sacks, this makes it much easier to stir the grain in the sack and handling wet heavy grain when removing when the mash is done.
Best of luck!
I'd like to make the same offer. I'm in Pittsburgh.
Then why make 5 or 10 gallons when you could make 20 or 30? Your take on batch size is just that...your preference. Some people don't drink as much as you do or want variety. I personally could never drink more than a 12 pack of the same beer in any given timeframe. I like variety and I like to try new things. Staring at 2+ cases of the same beer is not appealing to me.
True enough. Cheers!
Your not missing anything, I was intimidated before my first 10 gallon batch, after brewing it, I told my wife why haven't we been doing 10 gal batches all along? its the same amount of work as a 5 gallon batch.
The guy that runs the lhbs was telling me of a customer who buys the supplies to make 20 gal. batches and only brews a few times each year. I guess the guy knows what he wants to have on hand and doesn't feel like tying up any more time and effort than necessary to meet that need. And it makes sense from a purely pragmatic view.
Even though we brew 10 gallon batches mostly, we also really like having several different beers on tap, so to make that happen I found a old kegerator and reconditioned it with a 3 tap tower, it holds 4 kegs so 1 is on a party tap, giving us each 3 to pull from most of the time, I say 3 each cuz I brew my wife her own beers that she loves and I don't really like, and I have a few she dose not like ether, so we try to keep it to 1 keg each that the other person isn't fond of.
That has to be a fun challenge with both of you enjoying beer. My wife will have a glass once in a while, but she really prefers wine. She and my daughter enjoy cider so I make a batch of that every once in awhile. In fact, aside from the small BIAB test batches, cider is about the only thing I still bottle.
LOL can't blame you a bit, I have only had, I think 2 wines that I have ever liked.
We've had some really good wines and we belong to a wine-club of one of our favorite wineries in Paso Robles. The problem I have with wine is the same problem I have with Scotch. I really like the good stuff and really don't like the cheap stuff. So I'll uncork a bottle of good zinfandel, cabernet or sangiovese for a particularly special meal. Then drink beer for the rest of my life.
