Beer styles / recipes for all grain rookies

[dustinthompson85]

What direction would you provide for rookies going into all grain. Since we tend to dive head first I'm wondering if people have advice for sticking with certain styles while you get your process figured out.

Recommended styles?

 

[Bubman]

When I take the plunge I'm starting with BIAB.

 

[grampamark]

Some folks decide to go all out right from the beginning and choose something like a double, triple, royal imperial, mango infused, coffee porter.

I'd suggest something simple, like a SMaSH (single malt and single hop) for a first all grain attempt. The process is the same, essentially, for simple or complicated brews, but the more ingredients to keep track of and the more additions which have to be timed, the more chances there are for errors.

 

[GPP33]

There’s a whole section of HBT dedicated to recipes. Find one that has a bunch of responses and brew away. Yooper has a few good ones.

 

[TallDan]

Like @grampamark said, I'd go with something simple, but for another reason. My first AG brew was a cream ale. Nice and simple and if things went all wrong, I'd have less money in ingredients going down the drain/in the trash. A complex grain bill doesn't really add much effort, and if you've already done some extract batches, you're already used to everything that happens during the boil.

 

[cloudybrewer]

We can't tell you to stick with certain styles without knowing which ones you like. I would say, pick a couple recipes in your favorite style that:

1 Have good reputation. Designing your own recipes is hard until you know how different grains taste.

2 Use few ingredients. Keep it simple so you can focus on process.

3 Can be made with a very forgiving, neutral yeast. Yeast derived flavors are hard to master (like in a hefewiezen). Try something universal, like S05. Tons of people use it.

 

[rhys333]

I might consider a simple pale ale. About 94% base malt and 6% medium crystal, then two to three ounces of hops. Enough complexity to make it interesting, but not overly challenging for a first time AG batch. If you screw up badly, you'll be able to pick it up, but small issues won't jump out as the hops and specialty malt will allow you some fudge room.

If you prefer something a bit darker like an amber, perhaps up the crystal to the 10-12% range and increase the crystal L to C80.

 

[Leezer]

My first two all grain brews were Yoopers Haus Pale Ale and Yoopers Oatmeal Stout, both recipes found on here in recipe section. They are both great beers and not too complicated to do. I did them using BIAB method which also made things easier for me.

 

[micraftbeer]

I echo the above sentiments of pick a style you like. Then get a recipe from a good source, as you want your first attempt to be a success and motivation. Lastly, avoid high ABV. The conversion efficiency is harder/gets worse, and you'll plunge down the rabbit hole of reading posts why your conversion efficiency is so low...

 

[hottpeper13]

Pick a yeast that you are familiar with and have the capacity to temp control. Then pick a recipe on here that is simple. As stated making up a recipe takes some knowledge. If you don't yet have a mill you might want to start with an all grain kit from the LHBS.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

IMHO, the recipe is less important than sitting down before brew day and planning out each step. There are a lot more things going on with AG than extract brewing. Once you have done a couple AGH brews you can relax and work on autopilot. There's nothing worse than spending the day completing an AG brew, getting it into the fermenter, and finding a packet of hops as you are cleaning up.

 

[Lefou]

Single malt, single hop is the simplest.
I didn't do that, my choice was a blonde hoppy American-style ale. Very easy to do with just Pilsner, wheat, and a small mix of Citra and Cascade hops done with WLP001 yeast. Turned out great, and by a quirk of method discovered by accident, it was also dry.
Wished I had made more, it was good alone and with starchy food. Blonde ale is a large and forgiving category that can fit a lot of different ingredients.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

It's really tempting to be the kid in the candystore, especially when it feels like you're removing the constraints of extract brewing wrt to speciality grains. I think the single most important thing is to just do a brew that is effectively the same at the hot stage for your first 3 all-grain brews, even if you use different hops and yeasts.

That repetition reduces the stress level (as you've done it before) and it allows you to see how changes in procedure affect efficiency etc. Doesn't have to be a SMaSH, but at the same time I woudn't go above say 10% speciality grains to keep it nice and easy for your enzymes. If you're doing it 3 times, then you want a style that you drink a lot of - standard pale ale territory for most people.

You most important tools are pen and paper. Record everything you do - be a bit anal about it with your initial brews.

As above, planning is important. Whilst Brewsmith is probably the gold standard, there's plenty of free options such as www.brewersfriend.com website or Brewtarget software.

Assume you're going to get crap efficiency the first time round - if you're not using an automated system like a Grainfather then assume 60%, which will mean adding more grain than would be normal once you're in the swing of things. Once your efficiency is up over 70% then you can consider that you've lost your training wheels. The most important aspect of efficiency is repeatability rather than its absolute amount - different systems give different efficiencies, but below 70% generally suggests something is wrong.

Use antifoam -either "official" brewing versions or a dash of anti-wind medication that contains simet(h)icone.

Have a spare bucket to receive the spent grain.

If you're BIABing, then heat/waterproof gloves are really handy for handling/squeezing the bag of grain.

Bulldog clips are useful for helping to keep the bag under control.

Enjoy it!

 

[FleEsq]

When I first moved to all grain i did a lot of more complicated recipes; there were fun but my beer was not turning out the way I wanted. I have now on my 20th batch moved back to simple.... A SMaSH. The reason is I want to perfect my technique, sanitation procedures, understand my equipment and how the ingredients interact with each other. I am really glad I did I am producing beer that I like better than store bought and having fun doing it.

I like many other recommend you keep it simple. Pick a hop you like and do a SMaSH for a while, then branch out.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Pick a hop you like and do a SMaSH for a while, then branch out.

Actually I'd go the opposite way - if you're going to be a couple of SMaSHes/simple-recipe-pale-ales with the same grist each time, then that's a perfect time to try a few different hops to try and understand what they're like. And gives you a bit of variety from a drinking POV.

 

[toddo97]

When I moved to BIAB, my first two batches were from kits which helped take away some of the guesswork out and build my AG confidence.

 

[hogwash]

Biermuncher’s Centennial Blonde is an excellent recipe to start with and “Brewing Classic Styles” is a great book to help get familiar with how to put together recipes. Lots of tasty brews in that book too.

 

[Kharnynb]

buy a big bag of a decent grain like vienna or maris otter, 4-5 bags of about 3 ounces of good basic hops like hallertau, centennial, northern brewer etc.

grab 4-5 packs of danstar nottingham or safale us-05

just make a few beers, experiment with amount of grain, duration of mash and temperature, which hops, what do you like. one hop and a good grain makes great drinkable beer.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Start with a single temperature infusion (no stepped mash). Avoid too much wheat/oats/corn in the mash (less than 10%) - it makes the run-off and sparge much stickier. Try to match a beer style to your available water so you don't need to worry about water adjustments.

 

[TechFanMD]

I would go with something that is supposed to be a bit higher in alcohol (bit higher OG) than something like Biermunchers Blonde. The reason is that if you miss on efficiency by 10 points, you'll still have a beer with a decent alcohol content that won't seem 'thin.'

Or, have some DME on hand and have an online calculator handy - meaning bookmark it and understand how to use it (or know how to use the calculator in your beer software if you have any) so that you can make up for a drastically missed OG. Chances are you'll do great - but why not have a backup plan just in case?

 

[El Nino]

BIAB, it's a way you can do all grain without buying any new equipment other than the bag.

As far as beer styles, I say go with what your favorite beer is. Most important thing to do honestly is make it exciting / fun, and it's easier to get excited about your favorite beer than something you'll be whatever about. Ales / IPA's are good if you're looking for something good and quick though, US-05 fermentation is usually done in 7-10 days, so especially if you keg, you can get grain to glass time really quick.

 

[BeerBrewerTrain]

I might consider a simple pale ale. About 94% base malt and 6% medium crystal, then two to three ounces of hops. Enough complexity to make it interesting, but not overly challenging for a first time AG batch. If you screw up badly, you'll be able to pick it up, but small issues won't jump out as the hops and specialty malt will allow you some fudge room.

If you prefer something a bit darker like an amber, perhaps up the crystal to the 10-12% range and increase the crystal L to C80.

This or even simple IPA base malt 2row and crystal with hops really simple recipes and tastes good is 9lb-10lb 2 row 1lb-1.5lb crystal 40L-70L three hop additions bravo ibu 70-90 simple and tasty.

 

[bkboiler]

I’d try to do a simple english mild. Lots of flavor from the english malts (like marris otter, and the low OG means you dont have to worry too much about a super intense starter. It’s a basic hop schedule with low AA, so even if your measurements are a bit off, it’ll still be tasty.
Here’s a recipe I’ve made that was delicious and very easy (forgiving).
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/reapers-mild-1st-place-2011-hbt-competition.239228/
It even lends itself well to no sparge since it’s got plenty of marris otter.
Very important to make sure you chill the wort down to 60F ish and then pitch the dry nottingham, s-04 or whatever. I’d ferment between 60-65F depending on how much english ale yeast character you like!
Best of luck!