New to all grain

[Skatera20]

Hi all! I've just recently began homebrewing. It's time for me to venture into the deeper waters and test my hand in all grain brews. I've been scavenging the web and thinking of ways to come up with my own recipe for a pale ale styled brew. What I have came up with is all for a 2-gallon batch since the only fermenter I have is the mr. beer. The grains I plan to use are 4 lbs 2-row (base), 1 lb caramel L-40, and 1 lb Vienna. I was also planning to add either 1 oz. of citra hops for bitterness and another .5 oz. for aroma. My estimated final gravity is 1.023 and ABV is 7.69%. I am unsure of what type of yeast I am going to use and how much yet, but does this sound like a decent recipe to get going?

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Welcome to your new obsession 🤘
I rarely if ever use a pound of crystal in a 5-6 gallon recipe. For a 2 gallon batch i'd cut that to .25# or even less. The Vienna will be great. S-05 makes an awesome pale ale and is the same Chico strain as the liquid yeasts. Do you want an almost 8% pale ale/ IPA?

 

[chickypad]

Agree with the above. For a pale ale I think you'd want more like 3 lb 2-row, 1 lb vienna, and 0.25 lb C-40. Even at a modest 70% efficiency that would be about 1.054. 1.023 is way high finishing gravity for a APA or IPA, it likely will finish much lower with something like 05. Did you plug the whole thing into a calcculator? Because citra is pretty high alpha hop, for a full oz of bittering in 2 gals I'm getting in the neighborhood of 130 IBU's. I'd think you'd want more like .25 oz of a high AA hop at 60 then use 1-2 oz of citra for your late additions/dry hop.

 

[JLeuck64]

Hey there, congrats on making the move to AG! You won't regret it. My suggestion would be to consider just making proven recipes before you start experimenting with your own. Based on my own experience I've had REALLY good success with the recipes I've tried from this forum, and not to good experience with my own recipes I've tried to create. I started experimenting with my own recipes after I became comfortable with my equipment, or perhaps I was getting bored and needed to try something new. Once you get comfortable with your equipment and get consistent results from batch to batch that's the time to start experimenting in my opinion. It's easier for me to dump a batch that I created that just tastes awful knowing that I can replace it with another batch that always turns out great ( ;

 

[C-Rider]

Hi all! I've just recently began homebrewing. It's time for me to venture into the deeper waters and test my hand in all grain brews. I've been scavenging the web and thinking of ways to come up with my own recipe for a pale ale styled brew. What I have came up with is all for a 2-gallon batch since the only fermenter I have is the mr. beer. The grains I plan to use are 4 lbs 2-row (base), 1 lb caramel L-40, and 1 lb Vienna. I was also planning to add either 1 oz. of citra hops for bitterness and another .5 oz. for aroma. My estimated final gravity is 1.023 and ABV is 7.69%. I am unsure of what type of yeast I am going to use and how much yet, but does this sound like a decent recipe to get going?

I do only 2 gallon brews and have done this Pale Ale many times.

2 lbs 12.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 68.6 %
1 lbs Pale Ale Malt, Northwestern (Great Western) (4.1 SRM) Grain 2 24.9 %
3.2 oz Caramel Malt - 10L (Briess) (10.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.0 %
1.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 4 1.5 %
0.30 oz Galena [12.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 38.5 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0.0 min Hop 6 0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 5.0 min Hop 7 2.8 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 8 -
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 9 0.0 IBUs

 

[C-Rider]

I do all my own recipes and the way I come up w/them is
1-decide what to brew
2-Look up and get ideas for that brew by using this great book DESIGNING GREAT BEERS by Ray Daniels
3-Firing up BeerSmith2 and using the discriptions of what types of grains MIGHT be used I go to town.
Really never designed a BAD beer....some not so great and a few 2nd place contest winners.

 

[Kharnynb]

Most of my Pale ale style beers are very similar.

100% vienna

some hop i want to try the taste of.

us-05 or nottingham dry yeast.

It works great for testing and starting out.