Buying grains for first AG

[timmy]

Hi all,

Am keen to get my first AG up and going after reasonable success in doing my first partial. I'm planning on putting an order together for my local decent HBS and I wanted some suggestions on what malts I should buy. Over the next couple of months I want to make:
- A Belgian Wit
- A Berliner Weisse (using the new Wyeast strain)
- An APA
- An Aust Sparkling
I'd also love to have a stab at making a NS lager along the lines of the Knappstein but that might be a bit beyond my skills at the moment....

So I reckon I need some pilsner malt for the wheats and some (guessing here) MO malt for the other two. Can anyone make a better suggestion?

Also, for my partial I cracked (to put it mildly) my grains in the blender on the ice-crusher setting. I say 'mildly' because it nearly ended up as flour. Am I right in saying that it will only affect sparging? If it will cause too many other problems I'll probably buy the grain cracked.

Cheers,

Tim

[drsmurto]

Hi all,
<SNIP>
- An APA

I'd also love to have a stab at making a NS lager along the lines of the Knappstein but that might be a bit beyond my skills at the moment....

APA i have made a few times and i personally prefer using pilsner malt. I have used JW ale malt and BB ale malt in the past but i think the weyerman pils was the best. Add some munich, a bit of crystal for colour (either light crystal or something more interesting such as caramunich), maybe a bit of melanoidin. You can make it as complex or as simple as oyu like. Some ppl use almost soley ale malt with a touch of crystal. Huge amounts of hops, i tend to go for 40IBU for a 1.052 OG. my best to date used amarillo for bittering and flavour and then a huge amount of cascade, chinook and amarillo at flameount and again dry hopped.

Knappstein i made quite simply by using weyerman pils with 5% melanoidin. 100% nelson sauvin but here's the trick. I only added it from 20 mins on. Its such a high AA (12-13 %) that using enough for flavouring still got me to 35-40IBUs! Its not hard as long as you cant ferment it at lager temps. I used wyeast 2000 but thats cos i dumped it on the yeast cake after a czech then german pils had been done. Recipe here

Also, for my partial I cracked (to put it mildly) my grains in the blender on the ice-crusher setting. I say 'mildly' because it nearly ended up as flour. Am I right in saying that it will only affect sparging? If it will cause too many other problems I'll probably buy the grain cracked.

My mill crushes quite fine so ends up relatively flour like in parts, husks still mainly in tact. It will depend on what manifold you have in your esky. I saved up and went for the beerbelly manifold - false bottom and that is working a treat. Sparge is so easy.

HTH
Cheers
DrSmurto

[KEG]

as long as the husks are relatively intact you won't have any problems - otherwise you might get excessive tannin extraction.

[Ross]

Timmy,

i'd suggest a Nelson sauvin summer ale. 4.5kg of MO + 500gms of wheat with 1 x 90gm pack of NS.
Fermented with US-05. Simple & tastey. One of the most popular recipes I've made. If you are interested I'll dig out the recipe.

Cheers ross

[beerdrinker]

Hi Ross im interested if you could find the recipe

[beerdrinker]

I think i found it on your site the bananamber looks interesting,do you do anything to sanitise the bananas? cheers

[Ross]

No, I simply peel & freeze the bananas. Then defrost & add to primary as the beer nears completion.

Cheers Ross