Grain Bill Design

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taxioverdose

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I just started my homebrewing journey and after reviewing a good number of recipes I have confused myself on how to design my own grain bill / hop schedule. Is there a "standard" to this or is it kind of trial and error?

My first BIAB all all grain recipe is going to be a hop forward American Pale Ale. I plan on using:

6 lbs Rahr 2-Row Malt

Hop Schedule:
60 - .5g Nelson
45 - .5 Galaxy
30 - .5 Nelson
15 - .5 Galaxy
0 - 1g Idaho 7

Wyeast 1056 (American Ale)

Plan on making a 2.5g Batch in a 5g kettle.

Please any tips or suggestion would be beneficial.
 
There is no standard but if you look at the BJCP 2015 styles every beer has a common theme. If you want to brew to style (some don't) then you have flexibility within the theme but will generally be within a limited scope.

I recommend getting Brewing Classic Styles because it covers off the styles nicely and you can go from there. I generally find a recipe and then adjust to my tastes. e.g. you may have an APA recipe but don't want as much crystal so reduce it.

With regards to your recipe I would add some specialty malts such as munich / vienna as the base malt can be bland. If that's what you're going for then fire away. I have done an APA with just boring 2 row base malt and found it lacking.
 
One thing i do when i have a style I'm looking at brewing is Google it and normally there is a "make your best...." article that will give a good base. I've also looked at people's recipes here to give me ideas. I haven't used rahr brand but the basic 2row i had was lacking in the flavor that i wanted. This time i went with pale ale malt which is a little darker so hopefully closer to the flavor I'm looking for. I'm still very new to making recipes and always learning. For hops i try to hit about 80% of the ibu at 60 then the last 20% at 10 minutes and under. Since hop oils are boiled off after 10 minutes or so, i try keeping my flavor hops within that time frame. For a stronger hop presence you could try dropping the bittering charge to 70% or 60% and increasing late boil additions.
 
Also, if you did indeed mean to state your hop quantities in grams, that is a tiny amount of hops. I will usually use a 1 oz. bag (28.4g) of hops in a 2.5 gallon batch. And I'm not a hop head; I'm usually shooting for 20-40 IBU.
 
Get your IBUs from a 60 minute addition (preferably with something cheaper than the hops your using, like Magnum or warrior) and put 2/3 of each ounce of the hops in your recipe in after the boil, once the wort is down to 170-180F, and let them steep for twenty minutes before chilling. Dry hop with the last mixed ounce of hops in the fermenter 3-7 days before bottling or kegging.
 
I just started my homebrewing journey and after reviewing a good number of recipes I have confused myself on how to design my own grain bill / hop schedule. Is there a "standard" to this or is it kind of trial and error?

My first BIAB all all grain recipe is going to be a hop forward American Pale Ale. I plan on using:

6 lbs Rahr 2-Row Malt

Hop Schedule:
60 - .5g Nelson
45 - .5 Galaxy
30 - .5 Nelson
15 - .5 Galaxy
0 - 1g Idaho 7

Wyeast 1056 (American Ale)

Plan on making a 2.5g Batch in a 5g kettle.

Please any tips or suggestion would be beneficial.
May I direct you to Ray Daniel's "Designing Great Beers". Several chapters about the various styles of beer , their place of origin and a breakdown of ingredients/recipes based on homebrew contest results. Not recipes per se but more of a breakdown of ingredients (both malts and hops )most used or found in the specific styles . Includes a chapter on water and hops .
It will change the way you brew.
I read/referred to Charlie Papazian until I found this book. I think Papazian is good for the beginner through a handful of batches. Daniel's is a great step up and I believe a necessity to any experienced home brewer.
 
Also, if you did indeed mean to state your hop quantities in grams, that is a tiny amount of hops. I will usually use a 1 oz. bag (28.4g) of hops in a 2.5 gallon batch. And I'm not a hop head; I'm usually shooting for 20-40 IBU.

Agree with this. An ounce in 2.5 gallons will not yield a hop forward beer. But as FatDragon said, adding hops later (10, 5, 0 or DH) will get you more hops on the nose than 45 or 30 minute additions which give more bittering charge.
 
I would suggest your start with a proven recipe. There are various sources for these (books, published kit recipes, and wild on the Internet). Often if I am looking to brew a new recipe, I will try to track down information on commercial examples that I enjoy. Often brewers will publish their grain and hop bill (likely not exact amounts) and for popular beers there are a lot of clone attempts out there.
 
published kit recipes

For example, I have found MoreBeer to have some decent kits. If you click through you can see the exact ingredients in the kit. You could buy the 5 gal kit from them and brew it twice as 2.5 gal batches, buy the ingredients someplace else, or just use their recipe to generate ideas.

They have the Sunset Pale Ale kit (based on Deschutes Twilight...I have never used this kit or tried Twilight):
https://www.morebeer.com/products/sunset-pale-ale-grain-beer-brewing-kit-5-gallons.html

Below are the ingredients for a 5 gal batch. You can divide all these numbers in half for a 2.5 gal batch. This grain bill should give a light malt flavor, but with more complexity than just 100% 2-row. The hop bill looks reasonable with the balance toward hop flavor and aroma.

Grain
  • 8 lbs American Pale
  • 2 lbs Munich
  • .5 lb Carastan
  • .5 lb Carapils
Hops
  • 60 min - .5 oz Northern Brewer
  • 30 min - .5 oz Cascade
  • 10 min - 1 oz Tettnanger
  • 5 min - 1 oz Amarillo
  • dry hop - 1 oz Amarillo
There are thousands of options for a Pale Ale, but starting with something like this would get you in the ballpark. I have not actually used any of the hops listed in the OPs recipe, but I am sure they could be plugged into a recipe like this one.
 
All grain or other I suggest you start with kits from your LHBS, they are proven and will give you a chance to see what works with what. I did 20 or so before I wrote my first recipe,and Ray Daniels changed my life.
 
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