recipe for my first AG!!

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rickthebrew

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just waiting for my coolbox to arrive for conversion into my mash tun!!

having a lot of difficulty deciding what my first AG brew should be - i really like hoppy / IPA style beers
living down south in devon one of my favourite local beers is St Austel`s Proper Job! - the website gives the grain bill as maris otter, crystal and black malts ( no ratios though!) and the hops as fuggles and golding ( again no ratios or timings!!)

:wha: any help would be great - i`ve ordered my hops (fuggles, east kent goldings and first gold) - yeast ( S-04 and nottingham) my grain is from tuckers maltings in newton abbot (10 miles from me) which is one of a few that produces malt in the traditional way.

any help with a recipe etc would be great - i`ve also ordered some protafloc tabs ( all from barley bottom!)

i suppose i`m just looking for a little advice - i`m not gonna worry to much about water treatment on my first brew!
so any recipe with the above ingredients - or help with the proper job would be much appreciated! :)
 
Proper Job is a lovely drink......one of my favourites.
I hope that someone is able to suggest an approximate recepie, I'd like to try it too.

I think you must pay attention to some basic water treatment though, particularly if you want to brew pales with accentuated hop notes.......you may be lucky and have perfect water for that style.

Good luck with your brew :D
 
I've got the following in the FV :-

0.60 kg Lyle's Golden Syrup (0.0 SRM) Extract 8.57 %
6.20 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 88.57 %
0.20 kg Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 2.86 %
76.20 gm Fuggles [4.00 %] (90 min) Hops 26.2 IBU
30.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [4.70 %] (15 min) Hops 5.6 IBU
25.00 gm Fuggles [4.00 %] (15 min) Hops 4.0 IBU
15.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [4.70 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.09 items Campden Tablet (Mash 0.0 min) Misc
1.09 items Protofloc (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
5.43 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 90.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Nottingham Yeast (Lallemand #-) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.064 SG (1.040-1.048 SG) Measured Original Gravity: 1.066 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.015 SG (1.008-1.012 SG) Measured Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Estimated Color: 5.3 SRM (5.0-16.0 SRM) Color [Color]
Bitterness: 35.9 IBU (25.0-40.0 IBU) Alpha Acid Units: 19.3 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 6.35 % (3.80-4.60 %) Actual Alcohol by Volume: 6.66 %

Ended up with 21l @ 6.7% so we'll see what comes of that! Don't be afraid to make your own recipe. I was aiming for GW's take on Summer Lightning but have run out of Challenger. Substituting Challenger for Fuggles meant I had to use a bucket load to get the IBU's up but what the hell, I'm sure it'll still be good. :)

One thing I would advise though is be careful with crystal malt and be extremely careful with black malt. 300Gms in a 23l brew is ok for crystal, the black malt I have but haven't dared to use yet as it can really ruin a brew if used to excess.
 
Addendum :-

I usually aim for 5Kg of M.O. and don't generally add golden syrup. However, I had to finish a sack of M.O. off and a jar of golden syrup donated by my daughter so I just slung the lot in!
 
rickthebrew said:
just waiting for my coolbox to arrive for conversion into my mash tun!!

having a lot of difficulty deciding what my first AG brew should be - i really like hoppy / IPA style beers
living down south in devon one of my favourite local beers is St Austel`s Proper Job! - the website gives the grain bill as maris otter, crystal and black malts ( no ratios though!) and the hops as fuggles and golding ( again no ratios or timings!!)

:wha: any help would be great - i`ve ordered my hops (fuggles, east kent goldings and first gold) - yeast ( S-04 and nottingham) my grain is from tuckers maltings in newton abbot (10 miles from me) which is one of a few that produces malt in the traditional way.

any help with a recipe etc would be great - i`ve also ordered some protafloc tabs ( all from barley bottom!)

i suppose i`m just looking for a little advice - i`m not gonna worry to much about water treatment on my first brew!
so any recipe with the above ingredients - or help with the proper job would be much appreciated! :)

Then you have a very good chance of brewing something that's very drinkable
:thumb:

Pale Ales are mostly made up with Pale Ale malt-Maris Otter, Golden Promise(my Fav) etc. There are many recipes on here that you can use.
Do you have beersmith? If not download it. It's very useful for a homebrewer.

Hoppy flavours and aroma that you get from good commercial beers are easy to replicate in a small batch. Add the majority of hops towards the end of the boil. A good handfull to steep. That way you won't over bitter your ale. Aim for IBU of around 30. If your just trying out your kit for the first time I'd suggest something along the lines of 94% Pale Malt, 6% Crystal. The addition of crystal will give your brew a bit of body and some head. Mash at 67C and allow to drop to 65C for a 60 min mash. Don't overly panic and try to enjoy what your doing. Keep your eye on the boil-it'll go banana's the second your not looking. :x Sterilise everything twice. If it's steel, flame it with a blowtorch before using. You can't be too anal about cleanliness.
Some of the best beers you'll ever taste are made from one malt and one hop. Remember-less is more and you won't go far wrong. I wouldn't worry about trying to replicate a well known and highly thought of beer for your first try. You'll be very surprised how good an AG brew is compared to a kit. Even somthing as basic as a bit of Pale ale malt, some crystal and a couple of handfulls of hops at the right time.
What you want to be concentrating on is getting a good hot break, a good cold break and efficient cooling and racking off to your FV. After that the yeast will dictate what your brew will taste like and how it turns out. So be the most anal person ever when pitching your yeast. Even sterilised wipes for your hands aren't overboard in my opinion.

Ask heaps of questions here-the guys on the forum are a bloody crack team of brewing nuts. They won't see you wrong. Try to latch on to one of the more experienced brewers and see if you can get a mentor to help you through the first couple of brews. Once you've done a couple you'll wonder what all the fuss was about. Even Aleman was a novice brewer once-albeit many, many, many, many, many moons ago ;) :thumb: Aye mate :P
 
MEB said:
Even Aleman was a novice brewer once-albeit many, many, many, many, many moons ago ;) :thumb: Aye mate :P
I shall treat your remark with the contempt it deserves
icon_finger.gif


:lol:
 
Aleman said:
MEB said:
Even Aleman was a novice brewer once-albeit many, many, many, many, many moons ago ;) :thumb: Aye mate :P
I shall treat your remark with the contempt it deserves
icon_finger.gif


:lol:

Bwahahahahaha!!!
 
cheers for the help chaps!

couple questions -

should i attempt some basic water treatment - if so how?

what is the hot break and cold break?

i have brewed quite a few kits so i am pretty competent with cleanliness and sterilizing - haven`t had an issue yet anyway!

:thumb:
 
after a little bit of looking around i`ve come up with my first recipe!

anyone`s opinion would be much appreciated - it`s a big learning curve for me going from kit to AG and i can`t wait to get it under my belt!!


here go`s:


Half Proper Job!!

23litre

4500gram Maris Otter Pale Malt
500gram Crystal Malt
20gram Black Malt
25g first gold and 25g east kent goldings @beginning of 90min boil
10g fuggles and 1 protofloc tab - 10mins before end of boil

yeast so-4

og 1049
fg 1013
4.7% abv
29.3 ibu
18.0 srm


looking for a nice hoppy brew!!! :thumb:
 
Looks ok to me. Personally, I'd drop the crystal to 300Gms as the amount you have may give a 'cloying' beer and I'd up the M.O. bill to 4.7Kg to keep the OG around your planned estimate. I'd also be tempted to double up the 10 minute fuggle addition to 20Gms and maybe add an extra 5Gms to each 90 minute hop addition but then I like my bitter pretty bitter. :) I'd certainly up the 10 minute addition even if you leave the 90 minute hops as is.
 

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