Recipe Request - First Beer

[Shanecb]

I thought it would be better to ask you guys than Google. A friend and I have been looking to make our first batch of beer for a while. What would you all recommend as a good first recipe? Preferably an ale of some sort. Something that's at least a little challenging, and is a good introduction to the beer making process. If you have an exact recipe you think would be good by all means please share!

Also, are kits something worth looking into? Sorry, just really have NO experience with making beer and not sure what would be best to start.

 

[akueck]

Beer kits are a good place to start since you don't have to worry about ingredients and you can focus on process. Kits that I have used (from my LHBS) turned out good beer. The big online stores all sell them too and I hear they are good as well. Pick a style of beer you like. I might suggest an English pale or brown beer if you're not sure.

Are you planning on starting with malt extract or are you going straight for all-grain?

 

[Vino]

Here’s one I’ve brewed over 30 times, it is my most reliable brew and quite tasty.


Golden Gekko American Pale Ale (Chinook)

6.6 lbs. Light Malt Extract
12 oz Weyermann Light Munich
4 oz Muntons Crystal 60
12 oz Muntons Cara Pils
1/2 oz Chinook (13.6%), 60 min.
1 oz Glacier (6%), 15 min.
1 oz UK Fuggle (4.3%), 3 min.
Whitelabs WLP0001 California Ale Yeast
Target OG: 1.054
35 IBU

I have also made this using Warrior and Summit for the bittering hops with good results as well as Muntons Premium Gold, Nottingham, and Safale US-05 dry yeast. The liquid makes a significant difference (increased hops flavor). I usually email the ingredients list to my LHBS and they have it ready the next day.

This one is a good candidate for dry hoping.

Enjoy!

BTW, If you need specific brewing instructions just send me an email.

 

[Shanecb]

Beer kits are a good place to start since you don't have to worry about ingredients and you can focus on process. Kits that I have used (from my LHBS) turned out good beer. The big online stores all sell them too and I hear they are good as well. Pick a style of beer you like. I might suggest an English pale or brown beer if you're not sure.

Are you planning on starting with malt extract or are you going straight for all-grain?

Thanks for the tip about the kits. My LHBS has a wide variety of kits, but we weren't sure if they were really worth it. A brown was one of the things we were thinking of doing, or maybe an IPA? We'll see I guess.

As far as extract or grain, I don't really know. I know what the difference is, but I don't know what the functional difference is. What are the pros and cons of each, and why would one be chosen over the other?

Here’s one I’ve brewed over 30 times, it is my most reliable brew and quite tasty.


Golden Gekko American Pale Ale (Chinook)

6.6 lbs. Light Malt Extract
12 oz Weyermann Light Munich
4 oz Muntons Crystal 60
12 oz Muntons Cara Pils
1/2 oz Chinook (13.6%), 60 min.
1 oz Glacier (6%), 15 min.
1 oz UK Fuggle (4.3%), 3 min.
Whitelabs WLP0001 California Ale Yeast
Target OG: 1.054
35 IBU

I have also made this using Warrior and Summit for the bittering hops with good results as well as Muntons Premium Gold, Nottingham, and Safale US-05 dry yeast. The liquid makes a significant difference (increased hops flavor). I usually email the ingredients list to my LHBS and they have it ready the next day.

This one is a good candidate for dry hoping.

Enjoy!

BTW, If you need specific brewing instructions just send me an email.

Looks, from what I know, like a pretty nice recipe. The time period with the hops indicates how long you should boil, correct? Do they all get boiled simultaneously or how does that work exactly?

Instructions would be pretty cool so I can try to match technique to ingredients. Check your PMs please.

 

[wildoates]

A lot of it depends on if you have the equipment to go beyond pure extract brewing...that's the first question to answer!

I will be starting a braggot this weekend, my first beer. I don't like it at all, but I'm stoked about making it for them's what I luv what do!

 

[Shanecb]

Can't say I have the equipment for all-grain brewing. I wouldn't be opposed to making the investment if there's some type of huge advantage to all-grain brewing over using extract. I would at least for the first batch or two probably want to use an extract anyway, until I get more into beer making to the point of making an investment in all-grain equipment.

 

[akueck]

Well there are several big differences between extract and all-grain, with a wide blurry line in between called "partial mash". As far as brew-day goes, extract batches will be quicker because you get to skip the mash (conversion of grain starches to sugars). As soon as you dip into the partial mash land, the time difference all but disappears. Equipment is also easier with extract because you don't need to handle (much) grain, just the prepared syrups. A single large pot (which can be smaller than your batch size) is all you really need for extract batches. For brewing with grain that needs to be mashed, you'll want a container to hold the grain and water and a way to separate the two. Typically this is accomplished with a "mash tun" which for homebrewers is usually a "mash/lauter tun". (Lautering is removing the spent grain solids from the sweet wort.) Often these are coolers with a modified spigot. If you go all-grain, you also need a boil kettle large enough to hold about 20% more liquid than the size of your batch, plus headspace to prevent boilovers. And of course, you need a way to boil all that water.

The "philosophical" difference between the two extremes is a matter of styles, flavors, & colors (mostly). With extract, it is very hard to make very pale beers. The syrups have been condensed and are darkened in the process. Concentrated boils also darkens the wort. Concentration also affects flavors (more carmelization occurs) and hop efficiency (less iso acids extracted plus you dilute it at the end). Styles of beer with lots of non-barley grain are also more difficult to make with extract ("wheat extract" is usually 40-50% wheat and the rest barley for example).

Anyway, I would suggest going for extract with specialty grains (don't need to be mashed) to start. This gives you access to pretty much any kind of beer you want without having to get lots of equipment. Also go check out www.howtobrew.com which is John Palmer's book (first ed) free online. Lots of info and it should give you a good idea of what is going on and how extract vs. all-grain works some more.

 

[Medsen Fey]

Anyway, I would suggest going for extract with specialty grains

I second that suggestion. You really don't want to jump into all grain brewing for you first batch. A kit with extract can make a very drinkable beer, and it will give you the chance to get comfortable with the basic boiling, hopping, cooling and management of a beer wort. It is a little different from mead making.

I don't make as much beer as I used too these days due to time constraints. To make a batch of beer you usually need at least 3-4 hours for prep, sanitation, boiling, hopping, transfers and clean up. I rarely have that much time in one block. A batch of mead I can start in an hour or less, and then the things I need to do after that only take a few minutes here and there (and darned few are time sensitive).

 

[ibwahooka]

I just started my first batch of beer this past weekend and I used an extract kit. I haven't tried beer before, but it was fairly easy. I will post my results when I keg the beer in about two weeks.

 

[Recluse]

15 minute Amarillo Ale

A recipe that I wanted to make before I discovered Gruits, was the Basic Brewing Video "15 Minute Amarillo Ale" a quick extract brew.

Basic Brewing Radio and Video are great Brewing resources. They even did a few Mead episodes.

http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=15-minute-amarillo-ale

and another one of James Spencer's 15 minute extract ales:

http://www.basicbrewing.com/databas...nction=details&where_field=id&where_value=148

 

[Corcis]

http://www.byo.com/component/resource/article/511-countertop-partial-mashing

I am going to disagree about extract with specialty grains being the way to go to start with. Why? Because steeping grains over heat is a pain in the butt. Maybe it's just that my stove is crappy (it is), but holding the grains at the specified temperature for a half hour is a huge task. I would, personally, go with the countertop partial mashing they describe on BYO (the link).

It costs about $20 more than extract brewing. Yes, you have to retool recipes. Of course, if you do extract with specialty grains, you could simply omit some of the extract, use the same amount of specialty grains and throw in enough of an appropriate malt to bring it to four pounds of grain. No need to completely retool. You will save a few dollars each batch and it will pay for itself quickly -- the no-headache steeping-in-a-cooler (mashing) was worth every penny for me.

 

[Recluse]

Steeping specialty grains...

Well, James Spencer and some others advocate a simpler approach to specialty grains that just requires putting them in at the beginning and pulling them out at 170 degrees. (You can sparge with some more 170 degree water, or dip in a Strike Water pot as well to extract more as well as make up evaporation losses) so no worry about maintaining temp for a long steep.

I've used both methods, but based on small sample size and odd brews, I can't really to draw my own conclusions based on it. It does seems generally agreed by those with more experience than I, that the two methods are both suitable for adding specialty grain character to extract brews.

 

[Vino]

I am going to disagree about extract with specialty grains being the way to go to start with. Why? Because steeping grains over heat is a pain in the butt.

I have brewed well over 50 batches in just the past two years using extract and specialty grains and have never had a problem. My procedure is to heat 2 gallons of water to just below 170F, flame-out and then add the specialty grains (bagged), put the lid on, and every ten minutes teabag the grains, after 30 minutes pull and toss the grains and re-fire the burner. I find it to be the simplest step in the process.

Remember that steeping specialty grains is entirely a leaching and dissolution process of sugars with no enzyme activity taking place to convert starches to sugars (mashing). How To Brew, John Palmer

Never was a big fan of partial mashing, it always seemed to make more sense to just make the move to a full mash, avoiding using extract entirely. IMO, YMMV

 

[Vino]

A recipe that I wanted to make before I discovered Gruits, was the Basic Brewing Video "15 Minute Amarillo Ale" a quick extract brew.

I made that recipe last year and it turned out great, I have since started using more and more late hop additions. In my experience the key to this or any recipe using aroma hops near or at flame-out is to chill the wort to pitching temperature as quick as possible for aroma retention. That and using fresh high quality hops.

 

[AToE]

Aren't most enzymes very vulnerable to heat? Or does it have to get much hotter than a mash gets to in order to denature the enzymes being used?

 

[akueck]

As has been mentioned, specialty grains don't have to be mashed. You are just sucking out the soluble compounds (some sugars but mostly color & flavor). Yes, you could get a little more sugar/stuff out of them if you soaked at 150 for 30 mins (or 120, or 140, or really any warm temperature), but the contribution to the overall gravity should be minimal. The method I use when I go this route is to put the grains into the pot at the beginning (room temp water) and pull them out when it gets to about 160-170. No extra time at all is required, and they are in the water for awhile as my stove does not heat up that fast.

The only reason to go partial mash instead of full mash is space, IMO. All-grain requires a mash tun big enough to hold all the grain you need, and a boil kettle that is oversized for the batch you are making. Most often this means you need a heavy duty burner and a kitchen stove won't cut it. Partial mash lets you have extra control over your beer with the mash but you can still hit your stovetop gravity by supplementing with extract. Personally I do partial mash if I need more than 4-5 lbs of grain as this is all my tun can hold (most beers need more than this). But if I'm making 2-3 gallons of Berliner Weisse I can do it all-grain just fine.

 

[Vino]

The method I use when I go this route is to put the grains into the pot at the beginning (room temp water) and pull them out when it gets to about 160-170.

I agree with this, but in my case I have had several grain bags scorch and stick to the bottom of the pot, so I switched to the "flame-out" method, either should work.

Most often this means you need a heavy duty burner and a kitchen stove won't cut it.

Sorry, I'm from the South where everybody owns at least one propane turkey fryer. ;D

 

[wildoates]

I used to have one of those turkey fryers, but my son co-opted it for brewing and took it to Norway with him. And my tamale pot, too.

Dratted kid.

 

[buzzerj]

First of all Happy Birthday Shanecb!
I have an extract with grains recipe for an Old English Ale that is very good and quite easy to make. It was rated the third best beer in our county in 2008. It's the best time of year to make an Old English Ale (Winter Warmer) as it is malty and delicious for the holidays and earlier or later as the case may be. You can even use dry ale yeast to make it. Let me know if you're interested and I will be happy to share it. As for kits, I'm not a fan. This recipe is just as easy to make and you can make it with a 2.5-3 gallon boil and top it up to 5 gallons with water if you'd like. A smaller boil volume is easier for a first timer as it is easier to cool the wort down after boiling by placing the boil pot in a sink full of cold water. I've had good success making beer and although it's more to do on brew day versus a mead, it's 4 weeks to bottling and the ale gets better several weeks after. The boil time is usually 60 minutes and is dictated by the addition of the first (bittering) hops, a second hop addition at say 15-30 minutes left in the boil is the flavor hops and the last hop addition anywhere from 0-5 minutes left in the boil are the aroma hops. Extract is pre-brewed wort either dried to a powder (Dry Malt Extract) or in a syrup form (Liquid Malt Extract). The grains you mash are only a couple pounds which you later sparge with hot water to wash their sugars, flavors and color into the wort. The grains add mainly more complex flavors and color to the base extract. It's really easy, relax and don't get freaked out. The method I use only requires you to boil a small portion of the extract and then later add the remaining extract after the boil is completed. It works really well.

Buzzer

 

[Shanecb]

First of all Happy Birthday Shanecb!

Many thanks! It was definitely a good one. Sure I'd love to take a look at the Old English Ale recipe. The more I look at the more idea I have of what I might want to do, and in what way it should be done. Just send me a PM if you could, please.


Thanks a lot to everyone who replied and left some insight. Learned quite a bit from this thread I didn't know previously! The jury is still out as to exactly what we might make for our first beer, but we definitely thinking along a better line than we were previously, I think.