<----Starting All Grainer - wants simple recipes!

[StarCityBrewMaster]

Looking for some of your favorite all grain recipe's that aren't loaded with goods. Kind of like those books: 100 meals you can cook with 5 ingredients or less.

Real simple but REALLY good beers that I can kick off my all grain process with.

 

[billvon]

Try Smashing Blonde (search for it here.) Very simple all grain single malt-single hop recipe. 11# two-row malt, 2 oz German Tradition hops, that's it. Made it last night.

 

[Yooper]

Most AG recipes are ultra simple. You can do any recipe you want, besides some step mashes, or decoctions. I'd say that at least 85% of the recipes in our database (maybe more) would meet your requirements.

What kind of beer do you want to make? What's your favorite style? From a cream ale to an oatmeal stout, you could do anything you want.

 

[StarCityBrewMaster]

That makes me feel even more excited about AG brewing Yooper! I do realize that once I get a few brews under my belt and really understand the process and then also make beersmith my new best friend that all of it is fairly simple.

As for favorite styles I really don't know because I haven't experimented enough yet. Off the top of my head I like Bass, Newcastle, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Magic Hat 9, Blue Moon, Fat Tire, Anchor Steam, Victory Hop Devil to name a few.

 

[Arkador]

easy = any recipe that you can batch sparge. Don't be afraid of recipes with multiple specialty grains, or things in the boil phase that you have done before. All adding specialty grains does on a single infusion mash is add more variety of color and flavor.

I don't know all the terminology, but I only do recipes that involve dough-in, mash-out and sparge, and can do most recipes in Beer Captured or Clone Brews easily.

 

[Yooper]

That makes me feel even more excited about AG brewing Yooper! I do realize that once I get a few brews under my belt and really understand the process and then also make beersmith my new best friend that all of it is fairly simple.

As for favorite styles I really don't know because I haven't experimented enough yet. Off the top of my head I like Bass, Newcastle, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Magic Hat 9, Blue Moon, Fat Tire, Anchor Steam, Victory Hop Devil to name a few.

Well, then, about about a SNPA clone? Or a Blue Moon clone? Or an Anchor Steam clone? You get the idea! You can do ANY of them. None of the beers you mentioned are step mashes, and all can be done with a single infusion mash.

I have a pretty good steam beer in my recipe drop down (two of them, actually- one is Jamil Zainasheff's and one is mine), and I know that Biermuncher has a good SNPA clone. Fat Tire has about a dozen clone recipes, and Newcastle isn't difficult at all.

Take a look at the recipe database, and think about what you want to be your first AG, and decide that way. None of those are any more difficult than the other. Some may have a few more grains than others, but that doesn't really matter since they all go in the mash together. You can either buy the grains individually, or have your brew store mix them all together for you.

If it's still a bit intimidating, you can order a kit from austinhomebrew.com, or brewmasterswarehouse.com (or a number of other stores) and it'll all be weighed and crushed for you. Any of the beer styles you mentioned are easily doable by an all-grain brewer.

 

[Arkador]

What really made my first all grain experience easy, was teaming up with a brew buddy. It was a first for both of us when we did an al grain. Neither of us had everything to complete an all grain brew, but together, we did, plus we had a partner to reply on our first few batches. Our first brew (Fullers London Porter) won 2nd place in our club's monthly competition, and is being re-entered as a brown porter, where we are advised will likley take first.

 

[pkeeler]

With your first, you might want to do something with some color. A brown ale or porter would be good. Not brewing at either end of the color spectrum takes a lot of the water/pH issues off the table for the most part. There are probably AG Newcastle Brown Ale recipes floating around the internet.

 

[ajf]

For a nice simple Special Bitter, see https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f64/alans-special-bitter-76478/#post802677
Replace the NZ Hallertauer with whatever is available (the recipe was posted during the hop shortage, and that was all I could get at that time). You could also replace the Willamette with Fuggles, or Goldings.
If you are going to bottle it, you will need some priming sugar, and your FG will probably be a bit higher than mine. (I had a really good starter)
If you use dry yeast, I would replace the WLP002 with S-04. If you want to go with liquid yeast and are bottling, I would recommend Wyeast 1028, 1098, or 1275, or White Labs 013 or 023. I'm sure there are many other suitable yeasts, but I've never tried them.

-a.