Home of the BrewNosers

Hi all. I'm kind of just getting going with all grain brewing and in search of some recipes to try. There's a million recipes online but searching through them is a bit overwhelming because I don't have a very good sense of what the different types of grains and hops will result in and I'm really worried about making a full batch of something I don't like.

So my idea is to try to find some clone recipes for some locally available brews, go buy them and drink em to see if I like them before brewing 10 gallons of it.

So I'm wondering if you guys can point me towards a few recipes and commercial beer to pair up. I really open to most styles. If I was in the LC I'd probably avoid most of the strong dark beers. I don't have good control of fermenting temps so I think that rules out all lagers?

You can probably find a few recipes or clones of local brews in the recipe section of this site. I'd recommend doing 5 or 6 gallon bathes until you figure out if you'll like the beer then scale up. Stick with a style you like. DIY Dog has some great recipes. You can check reviews of the beer online as it's been made professionally. I'd recommend making a few batches of solid recipe from places like these or a magazine. It's great to try these recipes and then see what you would like better the next time if you re brew it. What style is you favourite? or if you had to kill a keg yourself what would it be? As for lagers yes you will want fermentation control or a very cool spot in the house

Thanks. Maybe I'm coming at this wrong but right now it is a bit overwhelming. For example I figured I would try a simple brown ale next time. No problem finding recipies online but their ingredient lists vary wildly so picking one feels a bit random.

My current goto beer from local breweries is any ESB. Everwood Dave provided the recipe and kit for my first all grain batch this weekend.

The only reason we are doing 10G is my brother and I split on the gear to get started. We'll each leave 5g on brew day. Ferment and key separately at home.

It's been said many times on the forum but getting your hands on something like Brewing Classic Styles is good place to start.

It can be an overwhelming hobby but the only way to do it is jump in and and make mistakes. It makes you a better brewer and we never stop learning. Can't imagine Dave would steer you wrong with a recipe. I believe there is a thread on here about an Propeller ESB clone but since you've brewed one it's time to try something different.

Like Broob mentions brewing classic styles will give you great recipes and don't be afraid to swap ingredients if they aren't available. Find something you want to try and post the recipe to us. You can take the recipe as well to Dave. You'll get lots of help and opinions to make it and with available ingredients. Since you mentioned Brown I'll use the recipe below as an example: It's a home brewers award winning recipe brewed with Russian River Brewing in California. So it's good maybe higher abv than you want but you can scale it down if you want. So for base malt you can use any 2 Row or Pale malt or even Maris Otter. When you look at dextrin malt you can also use Carapils etc. Not all malts are the same and vary based on who malts them. I wouldn't worry so much about that now heading into your second all grain. You want to make sure you sanitise, pitch the right amount of yeast and ferment at the proper temp which I'm sure you've read over and over. Also we see a liquid yeast WLP001 for the brown. Maybe your not stepping liquid yeast yet so use US05 dry yeast as another option.

You have the Brewnosers at your disposal and we all want to see you enjoy the hobby like we do. Are you using Beersmith or another software to load recipes into? Hope this helps.

For 12 Gallons (45.42 L)
27.5 lb (12.47 kg) pale malt
3.0 lb (1.36 kg) dextrin malt
2.5 lb (1.13 kg) 40L crystal malt
2.0 lb (0.9 kg) wheat malt
1.0 lb (0.45 kg) 350L chocolate malt
1.0 lb (0.45 kg) corn sugar
3.0 oz (85 g) US Northern Brewer pellet hops, 5.1% a.a. (mash)
3.0 oz (85 g) US Northern Brewer pellet hops, 5.1% a.a. (60 min)
2.0 oz (57 g) US Northern Brewer pellet hops, 5.1% a.a. (15 min)
3.0 oz (85 g) Cascade pellet hops, 5.6% a.a. (10 min)
4.0 oz (113g) Cascade whole hops, 5.8% a.a. (0 min, hopback)
4.0 oz (113g) Centennial pellet hops, 10.5% a.a. (dry hop)
White Labs WLP001, 4000ml starter

Thanks guys. Appreciate the help.

First batch is fermenting. We ended up with a little lower starting gravity than expected. 1.042 vs 1.050. Perhaps because we missed our target mash temp by a few degrees low. 152 vs 154.4. Ended up with less wort than expected 4.5 each vs 5g. So...learned a lot but probably made beer . Identified a few missing pieces of equipment along the way. Started with a known good recipe and took some good notes so I think we are well on our way. Won't know for a few weeks though I guess. Oh, and for fun we are fermenting half with the recommended dry yeast and the other with a liquid smack pack so we compare end results.

In the mean time we want to brew up a few others. Woody, I think I'll take that brown recipe into Dave and see what he can put together for us for this weekend.

Thanks again.

Make sure you do a yeast starter with the smack packs.