Help stocking my AG larder

[Nicks90]

For my Christmas present this year, santa is going to be buying me a
30l electric tea urn
a digital temp probe
a box of tricks to control its temp / heating elements / timer
2m net curtain material to make a grain bag
2 metal fruit bowls 1) a platform to keep the grain off the elements 2) a rack to suspend the grain bag at the top to drain/sparge
6ft copper pipe and some silicone pipe to make a cooler
fancy siphon kit
50L sealable air tight plastic barrel to store grain and speciality malts

and finally some pennies to spend at our favourite online HBS on grain and hops. this is where i need a bit of help!
with a couple of minor exceptions, i have only done kits before and they usually mirror what I usually drink - typical english bitters, ranging from a nice light ossett brewery blonde to blacksheep styles - and this is what i would like to start brewing with my BIAB set up.
So if you had a few quid to start up a stockpile of ingredients, what would you suggest i start off with?

Grains:
25kg crushed pale malt is about where my knowledge stops!

Hops:
Challenger
EKG
Fuggles
anymore i should add for typical session bitters?

thanks for any help - i have looked at some online recipes and got myself confused, so thought it best to ask the experts on what would be a good base to build on.

Nick

 

[Zephyr259]

Speciality malt wise you'd want some crystal malt around 150 EBC and maybe another darker one in the 200s, that's Crisp light and medium for reference.

Chocolate malt is good for the darker beers either as a colour adjustment or a bit of flavour in a Riggwelter, Geterbrewed is the only place I remember seeing pale chocolate which might be more suitable if your focusing on bitters and browns and not going as far as porter/stout.

Flaked barley and/or torrified wheat are good for body and head retention (at least in theory).

That's all that you'll need for a standard bitter but I like adding Weyermann Munich II to my lower abv beers to give them a malty boost, some amber malt can also be handy for adding a bit of depth to a bitter.

Hops wise, you can't go wrong with those three. I like First Gold a lot and have been using Admiral as my main bittering hop as it's 13% AA so it keeps the mass of hops down which makes like easier on the Grainfather pump.

Good luck.

 

[The Baron]

where are you ordering the grains hops from?

 

[Slid]

Have to suggest Worcester Hop Shop if you like English beers.

Would suggest Admiral as your bittering hop and First Gold. Anything on offer hop-wise. Have made some very good beer from Strisselspelt, Marynka, Huell melon & Hallertau Blanc. Unfashionable hops, but quite serviceable.

 

[The Baron]

I would suggest First Gold, Styrian Goldings and probably Northdown all reasonably cheap hops to go with the ones you have already selected which are good choices. A selection of the crystals as per Zephyr has said but do not order a lot of chocolate as it will go a long way. If you order from the HBS in Ireland they do Special carafe 1 -11 & 111 which have the harsh bittering removed from them and my new favourite is Special x 500 which gives a hobgoblin style taste to dark beers without the harsh bitterness of roasted barley's etc good luck

 

[ACBEV]

My go to hops for bitters are First Gold, Goldings and Fuggles. I tend to use First Gold for bittering and aroma i.e. start of boil and at the end, in between Fuggles and/or Goldings. For dark beers like stout, porter and brown ale, I really like Bramling Cross and Fuggles, sometimes Saaz as an aroma hop, Bramling Cross also works well in pale ales at both ends of the boil.

Mild Malt... I use quite a bit of mild malt, like in mild ale! I also like to use a proportion in porters, stouts, browns, old ale and light ale, usually half and half between pale ale malt and mild malt.

Crystal Malts... I mostly use crystal 100, crystal 200 and special b, these three covers most of my crystal malt requirements.

Roast Malts... Amber, brown, Chocolate and black. A good proportion of my beers contain some roast malt of some sort, even if its only a token amount in some cases.

With what I've quoted above I can probably brew 90% of my regular beers, without holding ridiculous amounts of ingredients.

 

[Hoppyland]

All good advice. For traditional English styles, I do like Crisp Caragold malt - a very light crystal malt (only EBC 12) that gives a malty, slightly sweetish touch. For darker beers, I find Fawcett Pale Chocolate (EBC 525) useful. I get both from The Malt miller.

 

[BeerCat]

I am not affiliated but but i bought my net curtain already made into a bag from here http://brewinabag.co.uk/en/ and its decent. You might find a 40l bufallo for the same price as a 30l urn as well if your lucky.

 

[Portreath]

Good advice above, and yes 25kg of Pale malt is a must. I never buy any less and it's amazing how quick you get through it. For all my English older style I use Mangrove Jacks Liberty Bell, it's never failed me(yet)!

 

[Nicks90]

Thanks all
That's exactly what I needed! Can't wait to see what santa brings...

 

[AdeDunn]

Good advice above, and yes 25kg of Pale malt is a must. I never buy any less and it's amazing how quick you get through it. For all my English older style I use Mangrove Jacks Liberty Bell, it's never failed me(yet)!

Agreed on both points. My current sack is Minch Hook Head Irish Pale malt, and I rate it quite highly, it's producing really nice beer! Currently brewing a golden ale with it, which should show case it better than the porters I have brewed so far with it, as will show the clarity better.

I'm also a fan of the Liberty Bell yeast, at the moment though I'm enjoying playing with the Yeast Bay Sigmund's Voss Kveik liquid yeast. It's so easy to use for a liquid yeast. I've been able to pitch at about 38 degrees C (so not had to cool the wort as much), then wrap the FV in blankets to keep it warm... Ready faster too... Not exactly a traditional British yeast though for one second, but both of the beers I've made with it have been porters, which are pretty darn British.... lol Liberty Bell though is a really safe bet for a dried yeast though imho, but like any dried yeast you tend to have to take care pouring.

 

[Hoppyland]

For an easy-to-use British yeast I'd recommend White Labs WLP028 Edinburgh. It is a genuine top-fermenter, and has a clean finish which lets your malt and hops make their full impact. Mind you, you might prefer a more fruity-tasting yeast - in which case I won't make any recommendation, because I don't!
If you think that the liquid WLP yeast is too expensive, I'd suggest that this should not put you off as it can be re-used for many brews. This is very easy with this yeast. As a top-fermenting yeast it makes a very big frothy cap on the beer (the "krausen"). Give it 4 or 5 days in your fermenting vessel, and you can skim off a small cupfull of the yeast cap - the more porridge-like the better. Put this into a sanitised plastic container with a tight-fitting lid, and pop it in the fridge. It should keep for a couple of weeks without problem, although the earlier you use it the better. It will slowly ferment, even in the fridge, so you might need to release pressure after a few days.
I find that putting a good hit of recently-fermenting yeast into my beer gets it off to a very fast and vigorous start, with an excellent final product. I usually repeat the harvesting/re-pitching process maybe 5 times, and then buy in some fresh yeast in case mine gets contaminated.

 

[Oneflewover]

, but like any dried yeast you tend to have to take care pouring.

Sorry i don't follow, why's that then? Some dried yeasts flocculate really well and stick to the bottom of the bottle. Equally, some liquid yeast doesn't.

 

[AdeDunn]

Sorry i don't follow, why's that then? Some dried yeasts flocculate really well and stick to the bottom of the bottle. Equally, some liquid yeast doesn't.

Not in my experience.

 

[Oneflewover]

Not in my experience.

Ok, well I can tell you that they do. Whether a yeast is pitched in dry or liquid form has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on how it flocculates.

 

[Portreath]

I recently made a Guinness clone from GW's recipe book with MJ's Liberty Bell and it's fermented out in 4 days at 22/23 c, also I have a Cornish stout, same yeast 3 days in and almost fermented out. I should say that I only brew British style ales, so this yeast works for me without any faffing.:thumba: