Recipes for absolute beginners

[josh_euau]

Hello all!

New to the world of home brew, just completed my first starter kit and I am hooked. I'm wanting to do an all grain batch of IPA next - around 2/3 gallons.

Could someone recommend some beginner recipes?

I am lost when it comes to types of grain/amount of grain that needs to be used and how much water, how long to mash for Choosing hops and yeast etc. Would just love a step by step guide that I can then replicate moving forwards but change ingredients.

Cheers!

 

[myndflyte]

You're going to want to sign up for some brewing software such as Brewfather (my favorite), Brewer's Friend or Beersmith, etc. That'll let you build some recipes based on your batch size. What method are you using; BIAB, traditional mash? Because that'll affect how much water to use in your mash. My personal preference is BIAB because you use the full volume of water and just lift the grains out of the mash with the bag once it's done.

I think a good start would just be a SMaSH (single malt and single hop). I'd suggest just using 2-row as your grain here. Plug in some numbers to one of those software that'll get you an OG around 1.050 - 1.055 and shoot for something like 40 - 50 IBUs with a hop that sounds good, making sure to use plenty for late addition hops for flavor and aroma. Good all around hops are Cascade, Citra or Simcoe. Just google around for SMaSH IPA recipes and you'll find something that sounds good.

As for process instructions, you can read How to Brew for free or if you're doing BIAB, this is a good overview.

 

[Aki]

I would recommend reading recipes e.g. from Brewer’s Friend so you get to know typical process and amounts. Are you going to do biab or ’traditional’ all grain? Biab is much simpler to get hang of (I have only brewed 4 batches myself). Anount of hops is variable depending on ibu you’d like to achieve, different hops have different alpha acid levels which give different amount of bitters on same amounts. Brewer’s Friend helps in this case too, to help you determine water amount, predicted abv, ibu etc. If you’re not following a recipe made by someone else.

 

[Immocles]

That was a very simple stovetop biab recipe that I made recently that I really, really liked. My batch size was for 1.25Gallons though, so you could just cut the grain in half.. I only did a 30minute boil and I might be a bit light on the hopping for some folks, but thats just how I roll.

If you wanted to simplify the grain bill, you could just use about 1.5 pounds of pale malt for 100% of the grain ( I use 2-row, most of the time).

 

[Coastalbrew]

I recommend brewing a few kits from your lhbs or your favorite online shop, I highly recommend atlantibrewsupply.com, before jumping into recipe creation. That way you have a chance to learn the process and figure out how you like to brew, and start to learn about the recipes and how different grains and hops taste. Then when you find a recipe you like, try changing 1 part of it at a time and see how that changes the finished brew.

 

[Leezer]

I also recommend starting with an all grain kit so you can focus on learning the process first. If the beer doesn’t come out as you hoped it’ll be hard to know if it was the recipe or your process. Biab is a great way to go too.

 

[josh_euau]

Many thanks to all who took the time replying to me.

I think I am going to start with some all grain kits to get a basic idea of brewing and then look to change ingredients further down the line.

Could anyone point me in the direction of a UK website which sell all grain kits?

 

[apache_brew]

Get yourself a copy of How to Brew. Great information for a great brewing foundation. From there, look at Brewer's Friend and find the most viewed/brewed recipes. SNPA clone is a great first brew IMO.

Cheers

 

[Saunassa]

Was your starter kit an extract, partial mash or all grain? You might want to.look at the tried and true all grain recipes in the recipe forum here. My first few all grains were from here so I knew what to expect so if it did not turn out I could find out why.

 

[Saunassa]

On btw welcome to the brew club. If I could give away half my brew I could then brew more often, I just love to brew.