New brewer doing 1st AG brew need advice

[AZbrewer1]

well i am a brewing noob and i guess i just wanted to be different but i am malting my own grain for 1st brew ever. i know i know i should start with extract to get a feel for things but so far it hasn't been too bad. after 24 hrs of turing and spraying grain i have 1/2 inch long rootlets and i checked the acrospires on a few and they are right about 50% of grain length. I am building a kiln this afternon with my fater in law out of OSB board, a big compter fan and a light used to keep chicks warm. My questions are:
i have a dual use hop (glacier 5.6%AA 8.7% BA. how much hops should i put in to bitter my brew MILDLY. i have 5lbs of grain and figure i can get about 2.5 to 3 gallons of beer.
How much sparge water (roughly) should i use to get the max use out of the grain. ( unknown barley type. had to order from amazon lol)
i have 2pkgs of dry muntons active brewing ale (6gm per pkg) should i use 1 whole pakg for the batch or what? less? more?
what type of ale would this be considered? i am not using any cryastal malts or adjucts just the pale malt grain i get after kilning
any help would be appreciated.

 

[djsethall]

Wow, You are jumping in head first into some murky water. I'd say to get your AG process down before jumping into malting.

 

[Yooper]

well i am a brewing noob and i guess i just wanted to be different but i am malting my own grain for 1st brew ever. i know i know i should start with extract to get a feel for things but so far it hasn't been too bad. after 24 hrs of turing and spraying grain i have 1/2 inch long rootlets and i checked the acrospires on a few and they are right about 50% of grain length. I am building a kiln this afternon with my fater in law out of OSB board, a big compter fan and a light used to keep chicks warm. My questions are:
i have a dual use hop (glacier 5.6%AA 8.7% BA. how much hops should i put in to bitter my brew MILDLY. i have 5lbs of grain and figure i can get about 2.5 to 3 gallons of beer.
How much sparge water (roughly) should i use to get the max use out of the grain. ( unknown barley type. had to order from amazon lol)
i have 2pkgs of dry muntons active brewing ale (6gm per pkg) should i use 1 whole pakg for the batch or what? less? more?
what type of ale would this be considered? i am not using any cryastal malts or adjucts just the pale malt grain i get after kilning
any help would be appreciated.

Well, you're way over my head with the malting. But with 5 pounds of grain, you are looking at 3 gallons of 3.75% ABV beer. For two gallons, maybe 5.8% ABV. If you went with a target of 2.5 gallons, you could probably get 4.6%- that sounds more reasonable to me.

With only base malt, the beer may be uninteresting and bland. But making it yourself is awesome!

You'll want to mash with 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain at 153 degrees for one hour, that will give you a little less than a gallon of liquid out. Then, drain that off and add 2 1/2 gallons of water at 170 to sparge (rinse) the grains. You should have right around 3.5 gallons of liquid. Bring the liquid to a boil, and add .75 ounce of glacier hops. Boil for 45 minutes, and add the other .25 ounce. Boil 15 more minutes (60 minutes total after you add the first hops). chill this down in a water bath as quickly as you can to 70 degrees, pour into a sanitized fermenter and add the yeast. Munton's yeast is junk, so if you have better yeast available use it! But if you don't, use one package of the Munton's. Using a hydrometer, take the SG of the beer.

Cover, airlock, and wait two weeks. That should about do it!

 

[AZbrewer1]

thanks guys! well i know i am proabably getting way ahead of things trying to malt the grains myself, but where i live there is no local source for extract or even pre malted grains...hell i had to order the griain i am working with now! and i ahve 2 feed stores here that will not even consider ordering it. but hey so far everything is looking good for it...the grains are sprouting really nice and only after 24 hrs of turing and keeping moist thanks for the info on the water temps and amounts

 

[dantheman13]

thanks guys! well i know i am proabably getting way ahead of things trying to malt the grains myself, but where i live there is no local source for extract or even pre malted grains...hell i had to order the griain i am working with now! and i have 2 feed stores here that will not even consider ordering it. but hey so far everything is looking good for it...the grains are sprouting really nice and only after 24 hrs of turing and keeping moist thanks for the info on the water temps and amounts

Do you live in Arizona? There are lots of online homebrew shops that you can order specialty grains and adjuncts from in the US.

Malting your own grain is so awesome though! Are you going to try growing your own hops too?

 

[AZbrewer1]

i ahve considered growing my own hops but haven't gotten all the info i need on it yet. yes i live in AZ up in the White Mtns.