First all grain advice

[Brycey]

So my new 33l stainless steel boiler has arrived from the malt millar.I'm going down the biab route,hopefully i'll just about manage to get 23l in the fv with a bit of sparging.Bought these for the first brew!

4kg marris otter
1kg crystal
100g EKG
100g northern brewer
Nottingham yeast

I'm looking for a nice easy drinking beer for my first attempt.
So how much crystal should i add and what would you guys reccomend for the hop additions?
Hopefully get this on at the weekend.

Any advice for my first venture into the darkside would be appreciated.

Cheers
B

 

[dennisking]

I would go for

4000 pale malt
250 crystal

40 EK for 90 mins
15 EK last 15 min.

would give you a standard bitter.

 

[oldjiver]

Agree with dennisking. Too much crystal makes it too heavy, and too many hops can overpower a brew. I usually use 10gm per 5ltr in the boil and a little more at flame out or dry hopping.

 

[carl_saint]

What Dennis said! You'll be looking at about a 4.8-5% bitter with those measurements depending on efficiency. Only thing I would change is just do a 60 min boil and you prob want about 30L pre boil vol to get your desired brew length!

 

[RobWalker]

+1 on dennis! use the northern brewer for something like a wheat beer, pale ale, kolsch, lager, dark beer with no aroma hops, etc.

the simpler the better on the first run, it will be a cracking beer either way. I'm on a 30L boiler with BIAB at the moment and get about 20L with a 2L dunk sparge, so I think you will be close!

 

[Brycey]

Cheers for the advice guys!

Excuse my ignorance but i've been a lager drinker all my days and have only started to try and expand my pallet since getting into homebrew.
I was hoping for something like a golden ale,not sure what bitter is or tastes like!

Cheers
B

 

[dennisking]

Cheers for the advice guys!

Excuse my ignorance but i've been a lager drinker all my days and have only started to try and expand my pallet since getting into homebrew.
I was hoping for something like a golden ale,not sure what bitter is or tastes like!

Cheers
B

You might be better using just pale malt to get a lighter colour.

 

[RobWalker]

why not just use 4kg pale malt and bitter with northern brewer, 20g to start? a lager recipe brewed at ale temps might be more to your taste.

 

[Brycey]

why not just use 4kg pale malt and bitter with northern brewer, 20g to start? a lager recipe brewed at ale temps might be more to your taste.

Would the 20g be the only additions?doesn't seem very much!
Sorry for all questions i don't want to mess up my first all grain attempt.
I've done a few extract brews using sazz,tettnang and hallertau hops for aroma.I still have some of each of these left would any of them work using the northen brewer as the bittering hop?

Cheers
B

 

[RobWalker]

yes, any of them. saaz is my personal favourite, you can brew with aroma and flavour hops if you want, it's entirely up to you.

here's a basic recipe;

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Size: 26.33 L
Estimated OG: 1.039 SG
Estimated Color: 8.1 EBC
Estimated IBU: 19.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) Grain 100.0 %
20.00 gm Northern Brewer [8.50%] (60 min) Hops 19.6 IBU

you're obviously somewhat experienced, so just do what you like for flavour and aroma. 20-15 mins will give flavour, 10-0 mins will give aroma.

Don't be sorry, we're here to help and it's a daunting experience first time around! :thumb:

 

[Brycey]

Ok i think i've settled on a recipe! Any comments welcome.

4kg marris otter
25g northern brewer at 60 mins
15g sazz at 15 mins
15g sazz at flameout
2x nottingham

I also have 250g carapils.Would this add anything to the recipe or leave it out?
Was thinking of pitching the 2 packs of yeast and trying to ferment at 15-17oc in a water bath.
Sort of a halfway house between ale and lager.

Cheers
B