Grain and hops shopping list

[BigYin]

I'm in the process of building my first AG brewery. So far all my research has been on the equipment, not in the actual ingredients.. so of course I have another AG newbie question for the forum :whistle:

I just love real ales, porters, and guinness types of beer. Not really interested in brewing lager.

What would be a good first shopping list, and what kind of quantities?

How long do various ingredients tend to keep?

Cash is always a concern for me - so I'm looking to make the best possible compromise between getting the most I can for whatever I have to pay in postage, buying in bulk to get a better deal where that will work, and not losing half the stock I buy because I can't use it in time...

The Brewery I'm initially setting up will be good for 20 litre or so brews. I notice a lot of recopes state the ingredients in percentages - so critically I don't yet understand how the weight is calculated so that you can apply the percentages to then know how much of each ingredient to weigh out....

Thanks in advance!! :drink: :drink: :drink:

 

[markp]

FWIW, here is my take on it BigYin.

You will use more pale malt than anything else, this is the base malt for the beers you have described in your OP.
A 25kg sack of pale malt is certainly the cheapest way to buy for our quantities and will give you 5-6 brews (probably +1, as you are doing 20 litre runs).
In decent storage conditions; you can keep the sack of pale malt for 6 months or so without any problem. So work out if you will get through a 25kg sack of pale malt in 6 months......I would dare bet that you will

As for the other malts and adjuncts - order these with your first sack of malt to make the postage sensible. If you live near one of the well known suppliers and can drive there, then you already have a saving on postage too.
To start with, I would probably order some crystal malt (both light and dark), some black malt, some carapils, some wheat malt (or torrefied wheat), some flaked barley and some roasted barley. 2 kilos of each of the crystals wouldn't take too long to use; perhaps a kilo of each of the others would get you going and allow you to try some varied recipes to get a feel and taste for what you like.
Some amber malt would also be a good idea for your darker ales.

Hops are usually bought in 100g vac-packed pouches.
It's difficult to estimate how many you would get through as I do not know how hoppy you are likely to be brewing the beers. Postage isn't too much of an issue with these though.
I would start with classic English varieties - fuggle, goldings, challenger, target. Again, you can do an assortment of brews with different additions to see what suits your tastebuds.

A lot of brewers buy a vac-packing machine to repack the hops and keep them fresh, you can also do this with your speciality grains to help them keep better for longer.

Hope that is of help to you and good luck with your brewery :)

 

[richardagutteridge]

: Hi bigyin. I have also just started and I used Barley Bottom for my first order although, sorry BB, I have found a supplier nearer to home (in Worcester) that is cheaper and looks just as good.

However this was my list for my first 4 brews it cost £52.26 including £6.99 delivery.

1 k crystal malt
1 K black malt
15 k pale malt
1 K flaked barley
1 K roasted barley
4 x safale S-04
1 X safale S-o5
goldings hops
fuggle hops
target hops
10 x protofloc tabs.

All 23 litre brews.=£13.06 per brew =28p per 500ml bottle perhaps 29p including electric.

It may seem a lot but I still have grains, yeast, and hops to make a fifth brew although I will have to get some more pale malt I think I have got off to a good start.

Hope this helps Richard G :drink:

 

[BigYin]

an excellent start chaps! :

 

[Tony]

Yup .... following pm... I'd go with what's been suggested. Maybe 25k of pale, a few k of crystal (a popular choice although I've been replacing with Munich recently), and a few k of wheat malt.

Difficult to know what to suggest with hops as it really does depend on what you plan on brewing.

You'll have fun whatever you decide on!

 

[BigYin]

Thanks again :drink:

I'll maybe pick a few likely recipes and work from there - no rush as I've not even started building yet! Waiting for a few questions to be answered on here, and my bulk order of various FV's hasn't arrived yet.. *beetles off to check emails again..*

 

[BigYin]

ah - dispatched today.... fingers crossed for tomorrow then :pray:

 

[richardagutteridge]

: Just a caution BigYin, once you cross over to the dark side you don't come back :drink:

 

[BigYin]

The FV's arrived this morning :mrgreen:

Nipped out to Tesco and got the kettles :mrgreen:

Now just need to decide on my final designs :hmm:

 

[markp]

Looking good there Yin :thumb:

I love seeing new AG brewers all excited and enthusiastic

 

[BigYin]

Just ordered a load of grains, hops, yeast, protoflac tabs - the lot!

First AG brew will happen in a week or so... Need a few other bits and pieces to arrive first, but so nearly there!! :mrgreen:

 

[unclepumble]

As with most of em,

25KG of pale malt is a defo (it does not make much difference what variety either, you would be hard pushed to tell the difference in most beers, so maris otter, golden promise, or halycon will do, just gio for the cheapest)
2-3KG of Crystal or as Tony I now use Munich malt in most of my brews.
6Kg of munich will compliment a 25kg bag of pale perfectly and give you some lovely copper coloured beers, with a good malt body.

If you want darker brews some black or chocolate malt is a good Idea but you don't need a lot so 500g of each will probably suit to start.

Hops
You can not go wrong with fuggles, goldings, and challenger, & if your tight like me pacific gem are a good buy for a bittering hop 20grams of PG for 60 mins with 23 G of fuggles 10 mins before the end will give you a nice well hopped beer, and you will get 4 brews out of 200g of Hops with enough PG left for a 5th brew

UP

 

[BigYin]

I based the order around a mix of the advice offered here, and the two brews I'm planning to do first : eskimo stout and eskimo bitter :drink:

Here's the order :

1.00 x Cleaner / Steriliser per 500g
1.00 x Crystal Malt Per Kg
1.00 x Black Malt per kg
3.00 x Flaked Barley per kg
1.00 x Pale Malt - Maris Otter 25kg Crushed
2.00 x Fuggles - AA 3.8%
1.00 x East Kent Goldings - AA 5.2%
4.00 x Safale S-04
2.00 x Safale US-05
1.00 x Protafloc Tablets 10
1.00 x Chocolate Malt per kg


It was from Barley Bottom, and carefully worked out to reach the free delivery target by a whopping margin of 23p :lol: :lol: :mrgreen:

 

[Baz Chaz]

........... and carefully worked out to reach the free delivery target by a whopping margin of 23p :lol: :lol: :mrgreen:

A man after my own heart :thumb: :rofl:

 

[mickeyt69]

: Just a caution BigYin, once you cross over to the dark side you don't come back :drink:

Agreed.... By the way nice avatar Richard

 

[BigYin]

: Just a caution BigYin, once you cross over to the dark side you don't come back :drink:

Agreed....

After all the effort I've put into building this lot - I'd better not be :lol: :lol: :lol: