Was wondering what your alls’ first non-kit brew or dare I say “homebrew”(in the slang tense) was, and how it turned out? Any horror stories or was it the hit of the party? What kind of lessons did you learn from the turn out? Think my first one is actually gonna be a Graff, which obviously isn’t actually a beer, but i want to get that recipe down before fall time hits so I can bring it out for parties and family gatherings and what not. The first batch (kinda going off of Brandon O’s recipe) was gonna be something like:
.5oz US Goldings Hop Pellets
1lbs Organic C-60L
1lbs Golden Light DME
1lbs Sparkling Amber DME
1oz Torrified Wheat
gallon of water
4 gallon of cider
Mine was a weird light APA, trying to make Cascade/Fuggles a thing. Cascade/Fuggles isn’t happening- quit trying to make Cascade/Fuggles happen!
Actually, it wasn’t that bad. I drank it all… just had a weird vegatbley thing happening in it that eventually aged out.
My 2 favorite styles are Irish Red (9D) and Strong Scottish Ale (9E)
For my taste, Irish Reds can be a bit too light, but Scottish Ales a bit too heavy. So I designed a recipe, for me, right in the middle. Style guide be damned! You should brew what you want to drink, and this is what I want to drink.
The recipe is still being perfected, but it’s already my favorite. I call it the “Red-Headed Step Child”
Ive always pretty much made my own recipes kinda sorta. I may look at a recipe of a beer I like but I alway change it to reflect my taste. I did brew a kit once people liked it but I thought it was just meh. Designing the recipes is the fun part for me I don’t see any pleasure in kits. No horror stories but a few mediocre beers that I either didn’t bother to brew again or continue to tweak. Good luck with your graff. :cheers:
Same here: Never brewed a kit.
My first brew was a full boil extract Kolsch that I worked up with help from folks on this forum. It turned out ok but I racked it off the yeast too soon and it had a bit of green apple (acetaldehyde I think) which didn’t clean up. It sort of worked ok with the very wine-like profile I got from that fermentation. People liked it but I was a bit disappointed myself.
After that I went directly to all grain and all “my own” recipes. I put that in quotes because I often seek advice here when working on recipes.
I plan on making my first “non-kit” brew soon. Since it is my first all-grain, I think I will make a SMaSH pale ale with 2-row and Centennial to keep it simple. I’m not sure if it is a good idea, but I’m doing it to learn the process :cheers:
From my 2nd batch, I always changed/added things to the kits I ordered. But it wasn’t until my 12th batch that I completely designed my own recipe- a Stickealt. Now ‘Ben’s Doublealt’ and batch #13 ‘Loghouse Honey Porter’(also my own recipe) are two of my standards. My ‘Gunslinger Cranberry Graf’ has also turned out real nice. And I kind of like my Oktoberfest, and the Bock last winter is a keeper…
Mistakes: Batch #2 which started out with the NB Honey Wheat extract kit. I added 1lb Ginger root, 2 lemons and primed it with maple syrup. Not much of a beer, but it’s a pretty good stomach tonic. There’s still 1-2 bottles left from 2/2013. Batch #3- NB’s Cherry Stout extract kit which I added 2 lb of hand-depitted Bing Cherries and a pot of strong-brewed coffee. It never got over a compost flavor. Wound up tossing that batch after 6 months with no improvement.
Just a SMaSH brew with 80% 2row, 20%wheat, Amarillo hops at 60,15, flameout. It turned out pretty decent, but it wasn’t that tricky of a brew.
Second attempt was a “meatloaf” stout. I took all the extra grains/hops I had laying around a brewed just to brew. Drinkable, but not that good.
I would stick to a basic beer for your first non-kit. It will give you a feel for how things turn out making up your own recipe. If your are using a known recipe that has been tried and true then that is a different story, have at it.
I have had a few turn out pretty good when making a “left overs” beer from ingredients that were hanging around. After a while you will know what you like and be able to look at a recipe and add, subtract or change things to get what you like. It’s fun.
I just remembered a cranberry wheat beer I tried that didn’t work out to well. Some day I will revisit that one.
Brewed a standard hefeweizen. Not too difficult, pretty basic recipe.
Sunday I brewed what will probably fit in the APA style. 100% Vienna and all Citra hops. We’ll see how it turns out!
Mine was a pale ale. Northern Brewer for bittering and mix of Cascade and Willamette for flavor and aroma. Pale malt, a little light crystal, some carapils, and WY1056.
[quote=“HD4Mark”]I would stick to a basic beer for your first non-kit. It will give you a feel for how things turn out making up your own recipe. If your are using a known recipe that has been tried and true then that is a different story, have at it.
I have had a few turn out pretty good when making a “left overs” beer from ingredients that were hanging around. After a while you will know what you like and be able to look at a recipe and add, subtract or change things to get what you like. It’s fun.[/quote]
to be honest this is why im sticking to the kits. i want to experience the parts of each part beer.
Another good way to experiment is to do SMaSH (single malt, single hop) brews. You can get an idea of what malts have what flavors, and the same with hops. I’m in that phase now, doing a few with some recommendations and following some guidelines online to see what I like. I’ll then have a little more of a basis for designing my own recipe.
You could always buy some 1 gal jugs and do some different BIAB recipes and taste them separately.
I think it is a good idea when trying something really your not sure of is to do a 2 1/2 gallon batch.
[quote=“Coniac”][quote=“HD4Mark”]I would stick to a basic beer for your first non-kit. It will give you a feel for how things turn out making up your own recipe. If your are using a known recipe that has been tried and true then that is a different story, have at it.
I have had a few turn out pretty good when making a “left overs” beer from ingredients that were hanging around. After a while you will know what you like and be able to look at a recipe and add, subtract or change things to get what you like. It’s fun.[/quote]
to be honest this is why im sticking to the kits. i want to experience the parts of each part beer.[/quote]
Nothing wrong with doing kits. I got a free one right here from NB that was a promo for buying X amount of stuff a while back. Had not done a kit in a long time. It was fun and turned out to be a nice beer.
You can always just look at the ingredients list and instructions from a kit if it is available and look into buying the stuff separately. Then if you want make small substitutions and see what happens. If you post what you are thinking here, you will get lots of feedback.
Just thought i’d throw it up here real quick that I did my first SMaSH brew last night! Didn’t realize that by malt y’all meant like no extract lol. So I guess i also did my first All Grain brew too. I also had left overs so i made my own little monster too.This is only my 2nd and 3rd brew and the “monster” is just a little mess around type of thing but i’d like to hear how you all think it’ll turn out. Here’s my process for both.
Citra SmaSH IPA (1 Gallon)
-2.5 lbs. of 2 Rows
-7.5g Citra at 60 min
-3g Citra at 30 min
-3g Citra at 15 min
-11g Citra at Flameout
-dry hop with 10g Citra
Orange Rock Pale Ale (1 Gallon)
-2.5 lbs. of 2 Rows
-9g Glacier at 60 min
-6g Citra at 30 min
-6g Glacier + 3g Citra at 15 min
-3.5g Glacier at 5 min
-3.5g Glacier + 3g Citra at Flameout
-6g Glacier + 7g Citra for Dry Hop
PS. my apartment now smells of 2 rows… it’s amazing.
Interesting, how did you manage with all grain? Did you do BIAB?
For the Pale Ale, I might save the dry hops and taste a sample first. You can easily overdo it and turn it into an IPA.
[quote=“Templar”]Interesting, how did you manage with all grain? Did you do BIAB?
For the Pale Ale, I might save the dry hops and taste a sample first. You can easily overdo it and turn it into an IPA.[/quote]
Yes sir I did. Had a little trouble on the first one. Temp was more at like 165. Second one i started at 160 and ended at 140.
Coniac, I am brewing my first batch of beer tomorrow as all grain(and I am a little nervous). It will also be a pale ale. I have planned a hop schedule that includes dry hopping, but as Templar stated above I may save the dry hopping even though I adore IPA’s, but would like to stick to style. Let us know how the recipes turn out!
