New to all grain - which grains should I buy?

[lsjames]

I have been brewing for a couple of months now. I've been working on converting to all grain brewing for a week or two now. I have a hot liquor tank (kegooler) a mash tin (another kegoooler) and an 8 gallon boiler. I have all the hoses and valves to connect them and my untested pasta grain mill. I still have my other fermenters and equipment. I have brewed five extract kits with good results.

I live two hours from the home brew store. I'm headed there this weekend. I'd like to start with an IPA but I have enjoyed the medium ales I have made.
My question is what grains should I stock up on? I'm planning to buy in bulk to save $.
I know I'll need a base malt and a few crystal malts 20l 60l. I also know I need some hops. I was going to go with pellets for the convenience. Any suggestions for a good base stock of grains and supplies? Thanks

 

[Kent88]

Pasta Grain Mill? Is that a brand, or are you going to try milling grain with a pasta roller?

I was going to say Munich malt until I read that you're making IPAs. I don't typically make IPAs, but from what I understand you'll want mostly 2-row. If you're in central U.S. you might find Rahr 2-row, I've heard good things about them. I've also heard that you want a decent malt backbone that can stand up to the hop bitterness, so maybe a small portion of your grain bill could be an english malt like maris otter, or even munich malt, but probably not enough to buy them in bulk.

Check out the IPAs in the recipes section of this website, find 4 or 5 popular recipes and consider what base malts are common to them.

 

[kh54s10]

I would look at a few recipes that you would like to brew. Add up the grains that are in them then buy at least twice as much base grain as needed and more than you need of all the specialty grains. Do the same with the hops. Get some dry yeast to have on hand even it you use liquid yeast for the brews.

I am also wondering about your mill. Most pasta grain mills won't work well for milling grain for your beer.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

"New to all grain - which grains should I buy? "

The ones you plan to put in your beer.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

But seriously, for your first AG batch or two, go simple. Simple grain bills and simple mash procedures.
I say this, because you WILL make mistakes, and the simpler your first brews are, the less likely you are to make a mistake that will significantly affect the outcome.
Try something like a pale ale, a blonde, that kind of thing (and stick to light-colored styles, because it will be satisfying to make something lighter in color than you could ever do with extract).

My first AG was a Shipyard Export clone and despite my mistakes (missing mash temp by about 8 degrees and having to frantically cool it with ice), it still ended up a lovely beer, both in appearance and flavor.

 

[Morrey]

Each brewer has their own tastes in beers which will drive you towards the grains and hops you'll purchase. For me, and for most brewers, a base 2 row malt like Breiss 2 Row is standard. I like wheat styled beers so I also buy 50# sacks of malted wheat. Specialty grains are more like a dash of this or a slash of that, so I never buy grains like that in bulk. I have C20, C40 and C60 in 5# bags but never in the 50# sacks.

I go to Lowes or HD and buy food grade white buckets w/lids. It takes two 5G pails to hold a 50# sack of grain for your planning purposes but you will need to keep the grains sealed tight so bugs and such wont infest.

When I plan a beer for the next weekend (I do this on Sunday after discussing with wife) and see I need specific ingredients for a beer, MoreBeer offers free shipping for $59 orders and I'll get it in before my Sat brew date when ordering on Sunday eve. This would be for specialty grains and hops for specific brews.

Pasta mill.....nah. You need a decent grain mill but you can start with an affordable Corona style grinder for $39 to get you in the milling business. Read some reviews and a good 3 roller MM3 mill kit will run you around $250. There are tons of other 2 roller and 3 roller mills so read old posts and shop around.

 

[kristiismean]

I would start simple, like the above.

90% 2 row
8% crystal 60 or lower
2% flaked oats

Bitter to 60 ibu at 60 minutes
then do 10, 5 and flame out additions if using centennial type hops
do 5 minute (or less) and flame out for citrus type hops (citra, amarillo, galaxy)

in my opinion.

 

[JLump]

But seriously, for your first AG batch or two, go simple. Simple grain bills and simple mash procedures.

+1 to this.

The importance of simplicity when starting out cannot be under stated. It's so tempting to shoot for the moon right off the bat but you'll end up just effing yourself. Also, I'm not sure how well a pasta mill is going to work. Getting the right level of mill on your grains is important.

Like people are saying, regular 2-row is going to be your bread and butter if you make a lot of IPAs.

 

[lsjames]

Thank you all for the advice. I'm looking forward to this weekend. I'll start with the two row and a few of the grains listed.

As for the pasta grain mill, its untested, but I have cracked corn with it. Not much more than a handful. It's based on several videos like this.

[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PXJ4OCCY_I4[/ame]

I would have bought one but my wife was at the end of her patience with my new hobby.

Thanks again for the advice. I'll post soon and let you know what I went with and the results.

 

[z-bob]

I'd recommend a 50 lb bag of North American 2-row or "pale ale" malt. It will fit in two 5 gallon buckets with Gamma lids. You can use that in almost everything; buy small quantities of specialty malts from the LHBS as you use them.

When you use that up, you'll know better what you want; can buy fancy European pilsner malt or British ale malt next time. (really not that much more expensive in 25 kilo bags)

 

[mongoose33]

As others have suggested, 2-row to start (in bulk, 50-100 pounds), a couple crystal malts (20L, 60l), in probably 3# each. Maybe 5# depending on what you're going to brew.

My beers typically have 10# of base malt more or less; that means I get 5 brews out of one 50-pound sack.

I think the Munich malt idea is interesting; you might get a couple pounds of that. I use that in a California Common I brew.

I'd also get a bit of flaked oats if you're ever going to do a stout or porter. Perhaps 2#.

And as far as your mill goes: you could have the LHBS mill a bit of that grain, just enough for your first batch, and compare the grist to what your pasta mill can do. The grist from a LHBS is likely less finely crushed than you'd might like to do yourself, so get a bit more of that than you think (like 10% more).

***************

PS: I watched that video above; it doesn't look bad, hard to be sure, but I do see some flour-like elements which means it's crushing down to a reasonable level.

HOWEVER, when you crush barley malt you want the hulls from the barley to remain mostly intact; they serve to help you filter the mash bed as you vorlauf. I'm going to guess that they would be beaten up pretty badly by this.

One way around that is to buy some rice hulls and include them in the grist after you have crushed the malt. I typically use about 1/2 pound in a recipe that includes 3# of Rye malt, which has no hulls. Otherwise, I run the risk of a stuck sparge.

 

[PADave]

I personally don't see the appeal of having large amounts of grains on hand. It means more things to buy just to have things sit around in. I rather plan out my next 2-4 brews, and place an order for the ingredients. Morebeer has them on my porch in two days.

 

[mongoose33]

I personally don't see the appeal of having large amounts of grains on hand. It means more things to buy just to have things sit around in. I rather plan out my next 2-4 brews, and place an order for the ingredients. Morebeer has them on my porch in two days.

He lives 2 hours from a homebrew store. In his place, I'd do the same thing.

Depending on what you have to pay for it, buying in bulk can save. Ten pounds of 2-row from Morebeer is $1.10 per pound. I can buy 2-row from Ritebrew (and pick it up) for $.76 per pound.

So if I buy 1 50# sack of 2-row, it costs me $38. Fifty pounds from MoreBeer costs $55. I save $17 each time I buy a sack of 2-row, and I save enough to buy the buckets to put it in. Then future buys save me that much money--plus I always have on hand what I need.

 

[z-bob]

I personally don't see the appeal of having large amounts of grains on hand. It means more things to buy just to have things sit around in. I rather plan out my next 2-4 brews, and place an order for the ingredients. Morebeer has them on my porch in two days.

I like to figure out what base malt I'm going to focus on for the next year and buy a whole sack of it. 2 buckets doesn't take up all that much room; I always have malt to brew *something*, and it's so much cheaper buying it that way.

I try to plan things out too, and place occasional orders from Farmhouse -- that's where I buy all of my hops, and weird specialty grains that the LHBS doesn't stock. I also buy odds and ends and packets of yeast (and an occasional expensive piece of equipment) from the LHBS.

 

[kristiismean]

I personally don't see the appeal of having large amounts of grains on hand. It means more things to buy just to have things sit around in. I rather plan out my next 2-4 brews, and place an order for the ingredients. Morebeer has them on my porch in two days.

2 hours away, and many people on here try to get the exact same results by spending as little as possible. it's a challenge.

Get a brewbag and use that in your mashtun instead of a false bottom. SO many benefits, not sure if there are any downsides to it.

When you buy your grain from the shop, (highly recommend the 50# bag) have them mill 10# of it. Then you do the next 10# with the same grain bill, and compare efficiency! nice head to head comparison.

 

[lsjames]

Thanks again to everyone who contributed. I made my trip to the grain store. It was awesome! I purchased about 140 lbs of grains. Base, several crystals, wheat, Munich, and one more but I forgot what. Made my first all grain batch yesterday. 10 gallons. 73% efficiency. I'll work to get that up.
The pasta roller mill worked great. I crushed 20+ lbs of grain in less than 10 minutes. And that was loading it 2 lbs at a time. I had the roller and scraps to put it together so it was free to me. I'll spring for a better one soon but for now this one works well.
Now the challenge is to use all the grains before they get stale. At least that's what I'll tell my wife ��

 

[pshankstar]

Now the challenge is to use all the grains before they get stale. At least that's what I'll tell my wife í*½í¸

If the grains are stored properly they should last a long time. I get old frosting buckets from the bakery department at the local grocery store. I then replace the lids with gamma lids. My grains stay in the buckets down in the basement. For the specialty grains I use old small containers from my wife's protein shakes (the powder containers) or the plastic containers that we get almonds in from BJs. They can hold 2-5 pounds depending on which ones I use. Anyhow this is what works for me to store my grains and haven't had any problems.

Congrats OP!! Now look into a corona mill setup. I use my "Ugly Junk Corona Mill" and it works great but I do BIAB.

 

[JKaranka]

Thanks again to everyone who contributed. I made my trip to the grain store. It was awesome! I purchased about 140 lbs of grains. Base, several crystals, wheat, Munich, and one more but I forgot what. Made my first all grain batch yesterday. 10 gallons. 73% efficiency. I'll work to get that up.
The pasta roller mill worked great. I crushed 20+ lbs of grain in less than 10 minutes. And that was loading it 2 lbs at a time. I had the roller and scraps to put it together so it was free to me. I'll spring for a better one soon but for now this one works well.
Now the challenge is to use all the grains before they get stale. At least that's what I'll tell my wife ��

Roller sounds great!

I order 50lb of a pale malt, 10lb of brown malt and 2lb of black patent as a standard. But I do brew a lot of porter and stout (10lb pale, 3lb brown, 1/4lb patent works well). I spice it up with the occasional Pilsner malt purchase and the odd pound of amber, crystal or wheat malt. But I'm definitively never without pale, brown and black.

 

[stevedasleeve]

For IPA skip the fancy base malts, go with 2-row. If you want to go session IPA go with MO or Golden Promise. I've moved away from crystal malts for hop fwd beers but if you want to go that route I'd get light colored crystal 20 or 40. Wheat malt is great btw. My current IPAs are 95% 2-tow, 5% wheat for a lovely white head and slight sweetness. Go crazy with the hops...

 

[JimRausch]

I'm going to recommend going in a slightly different direction:
1. Plan your recipes on a on-line recipe creator (or choose a tried and true recipe).
2. Get your base grains from your LHBS and have them crush them. The base grains are your biggest volume (typically 6-14 lb. depending on what you're doing) and I'm not sure your pasta roller would handle big volumes like that.
3. Get 1 lb. quantities (uncrushed) of various specialty malts. Weigh them out and crush them as needed. I would suggest Carapils, Carared(or C20), Caramunich2(C40), Caramunich3(C60),C120, Biscuit malt, Chocolate malt, Melanoidin malt, Roast barley. With that lineup you could do pretty much any style.