New to grain

[pittsy]

if you give us your desired style , strength , bitterness (ibu) sweet/dry, volume etc we could do some recipes for you if your stuck or unsure

 

[alawlor66430]

Oh I'm not really sure what style I'm going for I was thinking somewhere between lager and stout lol, maybe a nice amber coloured beer, if it needs 3kg of dme then that really puts the price up compared to a kit, I take it just using sugar to bring the abv up would leave the end result bland and thin bodied, some recipes would be great mate cheers

 

[pittsy]

Here is a great place to start http://hopville.com/recipes?process=1 , there are thousands of recipes there to get you understanding the amounts used , its in American volumes just click on metric and adjust brew volume to your brew wanted .
You can also have a go your self , here's 1 i've just done ,
Malt & Fermentables

% KG EBC Yield
66% 2 Amber Dry Malt Extract Boil 97 %
25% 0.750 Dark Dry Malt Extract Boil 97 %
5% 0.150 Weyermann CaraPils Steep 71 %
5% 0.150 Belgian Biscuit Malt Steep 76 %

Select an ingredient

Add
Specific Gravity
1.046 OG
(1.041 to 1.048)
11.4° Plato
1.012 FG
(1.010 to 1.012)
3.1° Plato
Color
20° EBC
10° SRM
Gold to Copper
Mash Efficiency
75 %
Steep Efficiency
37.5%

Hops

Use Time Grams Hop Variety AA » IBU
boil 60 min 15.0 Citra ~ leaf 11 » 17.8
boil 15 min 10.0 Citra ~ leaf 11 » 5.9
boil 1 min 50.0 Citra ~ leaf 11 » 2.6

Select an ingredient

Add
Bitterness
26.2 IBU
Alcohol
4.5% ABV
4% ABW
Calories
152
per 12 oz.

 

[pittsy]

p.s 3 kg = £14 ish plus yeast dried £2 (liquid £6.5 but you use many times if make starters etc) plus a bag of hops £3.50 is a total of £19.50 about the price of a good kit , maybe cheaper plus better beer , and it gets a lot cheaper if buying grains in 25kg sacks at £25 making 5 to 6 brews .

 

[alawlor66430]

I dinny understand that recipe at all lol, I need to learn to read them first I think, like music, when put like that it's not so dear is it once I get some different malts in and some different hops the only big outlay will be the dme, I just got some liquid yeast through the post there and it's wlp028 would I add the whole vile to the brew or how do I make a starter

 

[jonnymorris]

These are the grains;

2Kg Amber Dry Malt Extract - Boil
0.750Kg Dark Dry Malt Extract - Boil
0.150Kg Weyermann CaraPils - Steep
0.150Kg Belgian Biscuit Malt - Steep

And these the hops;

Use Time Grams
boil 60 min 15.0 Citra
boil 15 min 10.0 Citra
boil 1 min 50.0 Citra

Simples. Don't worry about the other stuff. It just tells you the colour, bitterness, ABV etc of the recipe.

would I add the whole vile to the brew or how do I make a starter

You can do either but you might want to learn to walk before you run.

 

[alawlor66430]

That's perfect cheers for the advice boys :-)

 

[alawlor66430]

I can only get 5 maybe 6 lites of water in the pot I've got could I still use this pot if I scaled the brew down to 15 litres instead of the intended 23