Advice on starting ingredients

[LesTom]

So I've recently taken delivery of the Brooklyn Brew Shop book and there's quite a few recipes that I want to try in it.

Thing is I'm getting a bit confused as to all the ingredients that I'll need to carry out a few of the recipes that I fancy.
For example one of the recipes calls for Pale Wheat Malt and another 2 recipes call for American 2-Row Malt. Now me being the archetypal frugal Scotsman :smile: I want to get the most "bang for my buck" so would one type of malt be OK? As in would Pale Wheat Malt work in the American 2-Row recipes or vice versa?
I do realise that there will probably be a quite distinct difference between Belgian Pilsner Malt and Munich Malt which another 3 recipes call for or can you substitute one for the other?

Oh and what in the name of all that is holy is torrified wheat and melanoidin malt? :-?

Sorry for the lengthy and dumb f**k post but just looking to get myself started on my own all grain recipes instead of made up kit ingredients.

 

[Brew_DD2]

Wherever you see pale 2-row, it's just pale malt. That's barley, rather than wheat.

The other you can get through Geterbrewed or the homebrew company. I like Geterbrewed as you can customise a grain kit to exactly what the recipe specifies.

 

[LesTom]

Wherever you see pale 2-row, it's just pale malt. That's barley, rather than wheat.

Excellent and thank you. Is Marris Otter a pale malt and a suitable substitute for American 2-Row?

 

[MyQul]

Here what I do as I like doing 5L-7L stove toppers on a semi regular basis:


To cut down on postage costs as 1 gallon/5L (I'm sure your aware that an American gallon is about 3.5L though?) brews dont need much grain you dont want to be ordering all the time so buy in bulk or at least lots of types of specialty grains all in one go

First off pick a base malt, I usually buy 10kg or so. Its even cheaper if you buy a 25kg sack. This will depend on what type of beers you mostly think your going to make. So for example, I like English styles and lagers so I buy lager malt (for the lagers obviously) and specialty malts to add to the lager malt like munich and biscuit to make it a bit more marris otter-y (I can also use the munich for lagers too). I then also buy a range of 250g (unless I reckon I need more) of other specialty malts, such as choccy, roasted barley, a couple of types of crystal etc, etc,

All of the above I buy uncrushed from geterbrewed.
- Uncrushed because uncrushed grains last about a year so any bits and bobs wont go to waste because I didn't use them straight away. I have a 20 quid corona style mill which does the job easily for the amount of grain for small batches (it still can manage full 23L batches but takes much longer). You can get them on ebay or here http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Basic_Malt_Grain_Mill.html
- Geterbrewed because they are one of the few online shops that do 250g amounts of grain. You'll find that many recipes for a 5L batch only require 100g or less (often much less) of a particular type of specialty malt so you dont want to be buying 500g of that malt

 

[MyQul]

Excellent and thank you. Is Marris Otter a pale malt and a suitable substitute for American 2-Row?

No. Marris Otter is more biscuity/nutty flavoured. A basic pale malt or pale ale malt would sub better for US 2-row

 

[LesTom]

Here what I do as I like doing 5L-7L stove toppers on a semi regular basis:


To cut down on postage costs as 1 gallon/5L (I'm sure your aware that an American gallon is about 3.5L though?) brews dont need much grain you dont want to be ordering all the time so buy in bulk or at least lots of types of specialty grains all in one go

First off pick a base malt, I usually buy 10kg or so. Its even cheaper if you buy a 25kg sack. This will depend on what type of beers you mostly think your going to make. So for example, I like English styles and lagers so I buy lager malt (for the lagers obviously) and specialty malts to add to the lager malt like munich and biscuit to make it a bit more marris otter-y (I can also use the munich for lagers too). I then also buy a range of 250g (unless I reckon I need more) of other specialty malts, such as choccy, roasted barley, a couple of types of crystal etc, etc,

All of the above I buy uncrushed from geterbrewed.
- Uncrushed because uncrushed grains last about a year so any bits and bobs wont go to waste because I didn't use them straight away. I have a 20 quid corona style mill which does the job easily for the amount of grain for small batches (it still can manage full 23L batches but takes much longer). You can get them on ebay or here http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Basic_Malt_Grain_Mill.html
- Geterbrewed because they are one of the few online shops that do 250g amounts of grain. You'll find that many recipes for a 5L batch only require 100g or less (often much less) of a particular type of specialty malt so you dont want to be buying 500g of that malt

No. Marris Otter is more biscuity/nutty flavoured. A basic pale malt or pale ale malt would sub better for US 2-row

Cheers @MyQul this is just spot on advice and perfectly suited to my 1 gallon (well 4.5 ltrs) requirements.
I'll go looking for a decent price and postage for some pale malt.

 

[MyQul]

Cheers @MyQul this is just spot on advice and perfectly suited to my 1 gallon (well 4.5 ltrs) requirements.
I'll go looking for a decent price and postage for some pale malt.

Again GEB. for a 25kg of their Irish Ale malt (basically irish 2 row) it's £17.10. for 10kg it's about 8 quid (iirc)

 

[LesTom]

Sorry for being dumb again but I'm about ready to place an order with Geterbrewed for my grains and hops. I've identified 4 recipes I would like to make and I've provided a screenshot of my spreadsheet with all the ingredients I need.
Is there any advice on how to rationalise both the grains and hops as in can I buy just a couple of each to get going or are they all so different that I need to buy them all?

 

[Pheqit]

This might help a little:
https://www.brew.is/files/malt.html

Could probably group all the pilsner + 2 row, all the biscuit + victory +melanoidin + aromatic, ignore caramel 10 just use 20 but a little less in place of it.

A bit harder for hops and depends what they are been used for but I use this site for finding substitutes for common hops:
http://beerlegends.com/hops-varieties

Hope that doesn`t confuse you further.

 

[LesTom]

This might help a little:
https://www.brew.is/files/malt.html

Could probably group all the pilsner + 2 row, all the biscuit + victory +melanoidin + aromatic, ignore caramel 10 just use 20 but a little less in place of it.

A bit harder for hops and depends what they are been used for but I use this site for finding substitutes for common hops:
http://beerlegends.com/hops-varieties

Hope that doesn`t confuse you further.

Thanks, and no that hasn't confused me more, in fact that first link is a great help and like I thought the hops are specific to each recipe.
I'm still getting used to all this home brew malarkey, but this forum has been/will be invaluable to me.

 

[LesTom]

I have ordered my grains and hops from Geterbrewed after @MyQul recommending them and my yeasts from Crossmyloof on eBay.
I've ordered enough ingredients to make a US gallon of Everyday IPA, Edelweiss and a Belgian Tripel. Now, which to make first?