New to All Grain

[tjd009]

My friend and I had been brewing extract for a while now and we just upgraded to a 10 gallon all grain set. We're debating on whether or not to brew our first all grain batch using a kit or just following a recipe. Our local supply store doesn't always have the ingredients we want (especially hops). We love the pale and IPA style. Any suggestions?

 

[mytommygundont]

You can't tell what individual grains taste like without knowing what grains are in a beer. Do your own recipe. SMaSH(single malt, single hop) recipes are great for getting to know individual hops and grains. Search SMaSH recipes in the recipe database. There are tons of em. Once you know what flavors a grain/hop imparts, then you can start formulating recipes based on what you want that particular beer to taste like. That would be my reccomendation.

 

[doc5md]

I'd either brew a couple kits or known good recipes a few times until you nail down your process a bit. Then I'd say go for your own recipe.
Good luck.

 

[ScottG58]

I have been brewing my way through Brewing Classic Styles. It helps to have suggestions for mash temperatures, hop additions and boil times. Good luck.

 

[Sir-Hops-A-Lot]

If you like pale ales and IPAs how about doing a double batch of Marris Otter (English base malt) and splitting it into 2 batches of 5 gallons each. There are a lot of recipes out there for SMASH using Marris Otter. I will suggest one batch with East Kent Goldings (UK style) and the other with Citra or Amarillo (US style).
That's what I would do.

 

[MEPNew2Brew]

Northernbrewer seems to make some good kits and they give you the ingredients/recipes. I have done a few BIAB that I based off some recipes on the internet, some AG kits from NB and some AG recipes I came up with on my own. I liked the NB all grain kits because they gave me a fairly good spot to start from to understand my AG set up.

By the way - I totally missed my first SG (by about 17 points or so) from a NB kit. But, by the second kit, I was spot on.

 

[jimyson]

If you like pale ales and IPAs how about doing a double batch of Marris Otter (English base malt) and splitting it into 2 batches of 5 gallons each. There are a lot of recipes out there for SMASH using Marris Otter. I will suggest one batch with East Kent Goldings (UK style) and the other with Citra or Amarillo (US style). That's what I would do.

Here is one that I just did. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=5732973

 

[sparkeee277]

Keep it simple for your first few brews until you get your efficiency down. A hefeweizen is a great drinker and pretty easy. Do like half white wheat and half 2 row and a noble hop..... Just be careful because the wheat can give you a larger than usual krausen (and sticky). You may want to use a blow off.....

 

[billl]

If you've been brewing for a while, just do whatever you want. It really isn't all that different than extract. AG obviously gives you a lot more options, but most APA and IPA recipes are pretty straight forward. If you have a particular recipe you like, just keep the specialty grains the same and replace the DME with base malt.

 

[WaltG]

What I did was just find a recipe I liked, went to my local brew shop and the guy put everything together for me. Next time I went in I went straight to the grain room and did it myself. I think doing it that way gives you a better understanding of the process.

 

[pondochris]

A kit is just a recipe that's put together in a box. I'd say find one you like and just go for it. See if you can email the recipe to your LHBS. They will be able to reply with suggestions for substitutions if they are out of something. They should be happy to get everything together for you so it's ready when you show up. I usually email 24 hrs in advance. Shipping is so expensive these days I never order kits online anymore.