Which grains as a starting point?

[simon12]

The way Bashley has worded his question has got me wondering whether mash efficiency also impacts the ability to extract the flavour of the grain into the wort? Or does the "flavouring" max out well before the extraction of the fermenatable goodness?

I don't know but my guess is bad mash efficiency will still extract the full flavour while poor sparge efficiency will not.

 

[AdeDunn]

I buy it crushed, but bagged into lots of 5kg. So long as the bag is sealed it keeps much longer. Most of my brews I use between 3.5 and 4 kilos of the base malt as I rarely brew high OG beers. That's for 20-23 litres into FV. I tend to find I get good efficiency with Crisp Maris Otter. I tried the IREKS Pale Ale Malt too, it gave lower efficiency but tasted nice. lol Had a heck of a lot of chaff in it though (bits of stalk and the like), where Crisp malts seem to be just the grain itself (husk included naturally).

I brew fairly often though.

 

[Lesinge]

I echo most of what has already been said. I buy base grain in 25kg bags and you will need a vermin proof container as mice love it. I normally use MO normal and extra light but have used Golden promise and bog standard pale ale malt if I feel the need to save money. Always use either Carapils or Torrified malt in IPAs to get better head retention. As to hops please see brewdudes.com where Jon and Mike do a whole series of single hop reviews, I have found so much about hops this way. I also buy hops that are on special and then try them out, going to use Topaz this weekend to see what it is like. However, as mentioned you can't go far wrong with the C American hops as well as EKG or other mild British hops for more gentle beers, porters and stouts. As to yeasts I use Mangrove Jacks, Fermentis (US05 and 04) and also Danestar all dried yeasts which are inexpensive and work well with little effort. I will eventually go to liquid yeasts and yeast harvesting at some point. I have found it hard to make bad beer so with the GF you should be more than ok. To put in recipes go to the site, log in and go to the Community section. It is great to sync to an iPad or phone etc. As others have mentioned, watch the videos on the GF as they are really helpful.