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We have been doing homebrew for about a year, which have all been can kit recipes. (adding kit conveters, malts, hops ect)
I realy enjoy pale/golden ales and would like to take the next step up from using can kits. I am interested in brewing from scratch.
Does anyone have any ideas, recipes or suggestions?

Ahhh... you may want to be a bit more specific as to what you have done before. Do you mean only cans and a kilo of sugar?

A good next step is adding some grains (steeping) and hops. Also using malt extract, rather than sucros/dextrose et al.

You should be able to find LOTS of recipies in this section.

Yeah, brewing complexity basically goes something like this:

Kit and Kilo
Kit and Kilo with specialty grains
All Extract with specialty grains
Partial (mini) mash
All grain (full mash)

I suggest stepping up to Kit and Kilo with specialty grains, or All Extract. I've got a nice all-extract Coopers Sparkling recipe if you like. Either that or a K&K with specialty Mountain Goat Hightail recipe...

Fancy sharing your Coopers Sparkling recipe there rwh? I'd really like to give it a crack.

Thanks in anticipation

Steve

http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... 2132#52132

Homebrewers,
Sounds like you are interested into moving into AG brewing, I would suggest that you contact a local club or PM other WA brewers, who might be able to show you what to do. After watching one AG I'm sure it will all make alot more sense.

You could also try the AHB web site or http://brodiescastlebrewing.com/index.php

As there are WA AG brewers whom I'm sure could be asked for help.

Cheers and good luck
AC

Can I ask a question as I would like to move my brewing along a step as well. I would like to have a go at steeping some grains. Now I know you steep them at a certaion temp for a certain time, what I wanted advice on is a) what sort of thermometer do you guys use to get the temp of the water right and b) how do you keep it there?

In regards to question a), I'm sure I've seen some sort of thermometer that hooks onto the side of the pot and the probe sits down in the liquid however after searching of a number of homebrew supply websites, I can't seem to find any. Do they actually exist or would it be a homemade jobby?

Thanks in anticipation of your replies

I just use a standard glass spirit thermometer, got it from the HBS I think. It's got 1°C gradations. The ones that clip to the side of the pot are sugar/toffee/candy thermometers, and they're available from homeware type shops, like House or whatever. They're less accurate though.

However, for steeping grains, you only need to keep the water between 70° and 80°C, so just about any thermometer will do. I just steep my grains in a grain sock in a pot, add cold water to cool, or turn on the stove to heat. You only steep for 20 minutes so temperature dropoff isn't a major issue. It's when you get into mashing that small temperature differences count.

rwh wrote:Yeah, brewing complexity basically goes something like this:

Kit and Kilo
Kit and Kilo with specialty grains
All Extract with specialty grains
Partial (mini) mash
All grain (full mash)

I suggest stepping up to Kit and Kilo with specialty grains, or All Extract. I've got a nice all-extract Coopers Sparkling recipe if you like. Either that or a K&K with specialty Mountain Goat Hightail recipe...

If equipment, ie lack of a pot big enough to boil 25 litres, is a problem you can mini-mash & add this to a kit. I've made a mini-mash stout that I'm really happy with.

Once you can do a full batch boil, All-Grain is a small step away.