So I am making the transition from malt extracts into full grain and am excited to begin tampering with different grains to create a great recipe I can call my own.
Should I buy a full grain batch for my first go, or start with a completely self created recipe?
Basically I would like to know if anyone has attempted something of their own on the first go around. If so did it turn out well.
Also if anyone has any first time recipes that they’d like to share.
I would highly recommend starting off with a kit for the first couple of tries until you get your technique down. Once you know your routine and get your equipment tuned to it, experiment to your heart’s content.
I’ve tried a couple of kits and then immediately went into creating my own. It has taken me about 5 batches to finally get my Pale Ale just right; on the other hand, my Robust Porter has taken me twice as many batches and I’m still not quite there yet.
I’ve always felt that if I can get one style brewed the way I like it, then I can move on to other styles and brew them just as well. But that’s just me.
You will get some great advice here so keep checking back on the forum. Good luck.
How skilled do you feel you are at recipe creation as an extract brewer? If you are comfortable with creating your own recipes using extract and you are excited to try the same all grain than go for it. to start with divide your extract amounts by .6 to get the lbs of grain you will likely need. if you can get any info on what goes into your favorite extract you can make some guesses about what specialty grains you will want to add to get to that starting point or you can just assume all base grain in place of the extract and use whatever specialty grains your extract recipe called for.
A few thoughts… I think it is probably best if you do NOT try to design your own recipe from thin air when you are still learning, as some malts need to be mashed, some don’t, some can be overpowering in small amounts… there are quirky things to know about certain malts. However, I do think it would be okay if you find several all-grain recipes from people that you respect, and review their recipes in detail for ideas and amounts and sort of combine the recipes to develop your own. That might work. However the best advice I can probably give if you are interested in designing your own recipes is to review in detail the book Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. That book is full of great guidance on different malts and appropriate amounts for each style, both extract and all-grain. Also more recently, Brewing Classic Styles by Zainasheff and Palmer provides a great award winning recipe for every current BJCP style, both extract and all-grain, so you can’t go wrong if you brew one of those. Radical Brewing by Mosher is also great but a little more advanced.
The alternative is to just brew kits and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. However, be warned that some kits are better than others. I trust Northern Brewer’s kits. I don’t trust kits from many other places. For instance I don’t really like the Brewer’s Best kits. You might get lucky, and you might not, depending on the source. All kits are not created equal.
Education through those books above and forums like this one is really your best weapon.
I’ll second Designing Great Beers. It’s a great resource and exactly what I was going to recommend before reading through all the comments.
Mort is also spot on. If you’ve created recipes already, they are easy enough to convert.
If you’re just starting, I’d stay simple. There’s no need to throw some of everything in a beer to get complexity.
First two all-grains were kits, next two were recipes from BCS or a reliable source. From there I was making my own while gleaning bits from other sources and reading designing great beers.
Wasn’t there a rumor that designing great beers was getting an update?
I’ve heard that Ray is working on an update, taking into account the better selection of ingredients nowadays. I hope so - I loved DGB. It taught me alot about stuff like gravity points, common percentages of ingredients, BU:GU, etc.
Design your own! It’s so much more rewarding. Just don’t do anything too complicated. Stick with an American Pale Ale or something. The first recipe that I designed was my first all-grain batch. There was no turning back from there. At that point, it was the best beer I had ever brewed. You get better with every brew. This is your hobby. If you feel that you can design you’re own recipe, do so. If not, get a kit… Or I’d suggest using somebody else’s established recipe.
Designing Great Beers is still my go to reference. I use the formulas in that book to create my recipes.
“If” I score high enough on my bjcp exam to qualify for the written exam, I’m going to have to buy that book and study up. Early on I had a rudimentary understanding of all the calculations, but recipe software has rotted my brain. Sadly I don’t think bjcp would let me use my tablet for recipe design questions.
But that’s a huge IF. I think it might be possible I scored high enough but not holding my breath.
As far as the BJCP, you’ll get there, man - because you’ve dedicated yourself to it. As for the software, I love it and use it anywhere I can - I have no love for doing calculations that good software can do for me. But the book did teach me to think about what bitterness to malt ratio (BU:GU)I want in a beer, and what ratios are good for certain beers, instead of shooting from the hip like I did before. And I still use the gravity points to help convert preboil gravity readings - every now and then I’m off by a few points especially on bigger beers, and can adjust with DME if I think I need to.
I appreciate the encouragement. I probably should study the book anyway. Knowledge is always a good thing.
My suggestion is a kit or following a recipe. Its not that its so difficult, its just that I think for your first time with all grain its best to put all your concentration into learning the process. This is at least true for the grain bill. Your probably already comfortable messing around with hop additions, adjuncts, yeast etc.
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There are rumors that Ray Daniels wants to do that. Where he finds the time is the question. That Cicerone thing has him pretty busy.
Let me second Dave’s advise - don’t just pull a recipe out of thin air; at least not yet. Like a lot of folks here, I like to start by developing a “base” recipe, and then change one ingredient at a time until I reach the “just right” point. While a kit is certainly an acceptable start point, I usually research a number of recipes for the style I want to brew, especially any particularly good versions of the style that I’ve tasted, and then kind of average them out. Not average in the strict math sense, but find the common elements and use some combination of them. That way you can be pretty sure of starting off with a recipe that’s reasonably close to where you want to be. Eventually you’ll get to know your ingredients and your preferences and you can totally wing it to your heart’s content. Finally, reading up on recipe design is great advice, too.
+1 This is what I did. I went for a simple Belgian Wit recipe that I came up with after doing some research online.
Another suggestion (unsolicited, I know), is to brew one style of beer over and over again, to get your system and processes “dialed-in”. It’s not mandatory by any means, but it does give you a goal, which is repeatability. If that is a goal you wish to seek.
In the end, you will make beer - the guys here simply want you to make good beer, because it will turn you into another AHA Forum junky! And that is a good thing according to us.
First taste is free 
You’ve got a lot of good advice so far. When I made the switch, I started by finding and following other people’s recipes. I didn’t try anything terribly fancy at first. Just some brown ales, wheat beers, etc. Now I mostly create my own based on research for a particular style. I will say my first AG batch (a clone of a S Eng Brown) was one of my best to date and scored a 42 at the Blue Bonnett Brewoff.
If there’s a homebrew club near you, they will have some tried and true recipes and experience with them…a great resource.
My first all grain batch was made from the same recipe as my favorite extract batch. I bought it all at the same LHBS and asked them for help in subbing out the LME for appropriate amount of 2 Row. It worked out excellently, and I would suggest doing something like this. It will help you be able to compare it to something to help trouble shoot the batch if it needs it. Good luck and remember to have fun with it.
I agree with 69Franx-
Take one of your favorite extract recipes that you could normally brew in your sleep. A pale ale or brown ale is a good choice. You want something on the simpler side.
Sub out the extracts and replace them with base malts. We can help you with that here.
Brew it once, carefully measuring volumes, times, gravities, etc. Keep good notes. You’ll need them later.
Taste the result. Compare the gravity, etc, with what you are used to getting from your extract batch.
Tweak the recipe (we’ll help if you ask with good notes) so that it comes closer to what you are used to, and repeat the process.
This will let you dial in your system with something that is familiar to you, and you can do a side by side
with your extract batches (assuming you have some left) so you can see your progress.
A good starting point is to use 75% as your efficiency. You may hit higher or lower. The actual number doesn’t matter too much as long as you get good tasting beer as the end product. What you are shooting for is the ability to ACCURATELY PREDICT your efficiency so that subsequent batches are not a crapshoot.
That is actually the most important thing to master when making the jump, IMHO. You can always make up for efficiency numbers later, but accurately hitting the numbers you put into the software is what will allow you to fine tune later.
Expect the first couple attempts to not match your extract versions.
if they do, that’s awesome and rare. If not, don’t be surprised. The majority take a step back for a bit while
they dial in and get the hang of AG. Just keep good notes and ask questions. The beers will improve as you gain practice.
HTH-