Beginner's recipe suggestions?

[Trombonist]

Ok, I've assembled nearly all the equipment and am ready to go! Can anyone recommend a fool proof recipe for a first go at all-grain brewing. A session bitter would be great! Cheers

[guypettigrew]

Start simple!

What alcohol level do you want to brew at? Let's say about 5%, and an IBU of about 30.

And let's assume you'll get about 75-80% efficiency.

I'd suggest a brew of 5 kilos pale malt and 250g of crystal.

Then, depending on the hops you have, Goldings, Fuggles and Challenger. You can determine the exact amounts by looking at Graham Wheeler's 'Beer Engine'. it depends on the alpha acid content of your hops.

Happy brewing!

Guy

[Martin G]

Why not pick a commercial brew you like and then search this forum and the recipe forum for a recipe. Just make sure the volume is the same as your brew volume and ask if you have any questions.

[seymour]

So, did you end up brewing something?

[darkonnis]

worcesterhopshop or the maltmiller do recipe packs, honestly... buy one to start with. Better to have 40pints of a commercial clone than 40 pints of something you threw together and may not like.

Part of AG which often gets overlooked is experience, the experience isn't in the doing. You could teach a 10 year old to make beer, experience is in knowing what each ingredient does and how it tastes. A good example is when people make a stout and it comes out tasting of char and coffee, because they underestimated how strong dark grains are.
I'm upto about 20 or 30 AGs now and every 4 or so I chuck in a recipe kit, usually something that has grains I haven't tried or hops I haven't used. This way you get something which "should" be drinkable and an introduction at the same time. I also use micro batches to experiment with but thats a different story.

[DerbyshireNick]

Just please please please avoid the default noob thing (I was terrible for it) and avoid trying to make complex beers. There is are so many variables at this stage it is very wise to just test out your process.

I whole heartedly recommend a smash brew (single malt and single hop) for your first few attempts. Dont be fooled into thinking lots of different hops and grains are needed to make a great beer. Something like 5kg of MO then 100g of challenger (30g@90min, 30g@45min, 30g@10min, 10g@FO)

I had all sorts of odd bitterness etc until I just went back to basics, got rid of all the exotic high alpha hops and so on and brewed the above. It was nice to find out that my process was sound. my lack of understanding of beer recipe building and trying to run before I could walk was the issue.

[Bribie]

Sound advice there. How often have we seen first time AG brewers who are going to brew a Belgian Bavarian Hefepoodle dunkelweiss Saison with fifteen hop additions.

I'd go also with a single malt single hop and you will see the light. On that subject, to get to grips with base malt just don't use any crystals, base malt only. Think "Summer Lighting" style".

[louiscowdroy]

worcesterhopshop or the maltmiller do recipe packs, honestly... buy one to start with. Better to have 40pints of a commercial clone than 40 pints of something you threw together and may not like.

Part of AG which often gets overlooked is experience, the experience isn't in the doing. You could teach a 10 year old to make beer, experience is in knowing what each ingredient does and how it tastes. A good example is when people make a stout and it comes out tasting of char and coffee, because they underestimated how strong dark grains are.
I'm upto about 20 or 30 AGs now and every 4 or so I chuck in a recipe kit, usually something that has grains I haven't tried or hops I haven't used. This way you get something which "should" be drinkable and an introduction at the same time. I also use micro batches to experiment with but thats a different story.

Good advice mate.....makes sense....

[Normski]

Always makes me laugh when I see a beginner question like this. We all make very well meaning suggestions and try to be as helpful as we can.
Then you go an look and see that the OP hasn’t been back to look for any replies to his question.

[hophit]

Just please please please avoid the default noob thing (I was terrible for it) and avoid trying to make complex beers. There is are so many variables at this stage it is very wise to just test out your process.

I whole heartedly recommend a smash brew (single malt and single hop) for your first few attempts. Dont be fooled into thinking lots of different hops and grains are needed to make a great beer. Something like 5kg of MO then 100g of challenger (30g@90min, 30g@45min, 30g@10min, 10g@FO)

I had all sorts of odd bitterness etc until I just went back to basics, got rid of all the exotic high alpha hops and so on and brewed the above. It was nice to find out that my process was sound. my lack of understanding of beer recipe building and trying to run before I could walk was the issue.

This is really good advice. May favourite beer at the mo is AIPA. I dmade th mistake of getting vcarried away doing so many different ones; throwing in loads of different US hops, some high AA some low, some piney, some citrussy, then adding varying amounts of different SRM crystal malts, caras etc and just got in a mess about what was affecting what. THen I went back to basics. Just MO low colour and one or two hops. Hey presto I could suddently control and understand what was happening with the beers when just changin one or two variables at a time. THen built up from there to a beer I really like by adding things in on at a time.