Recipe suggestions for a new all grain brewer?

I’ve made a double chocolate stout and a hefeweizen so far. The stout turned out fantastic and the hefe is still conditioning but gets better the longer i let it set. I’m thinking about trying a moose drool brown ale clone but I’m open to suggestions. Anything but an ipa or fruit beer is fine with me. I love ipa but I don’t think I could drink 5 gallons of it.

If you want a Brown ale - check out Tasty McDole’s Janet’s Brown Ale.  Pretty much a standard bearer IMHO.  I don’t know if there is an extract version, though.  Welcome to the hobby and the forum!

Edit - Duh, you want an all grain recipe, so definitely check out Janet’s Brown Ale, if you want to do a brown ale.  It is one of my favorites.

Cheers!

I really enjoy making brown ales because they are usually low alcohol, thus drinkable, and they have enough flavor to cover up minor flaws.  It is usually the style i suggest to new extract brewers but they can easily be made with all grain.  Stop by your local home brew shop and ask the folks there if they have any recipes that they use or if they have a clone for moose drool.

Happy Brewing

You could also try an amber ale that would give you more maltiness and less roastiness than a brown ale. You should be able to find lots of good recipes that are simple and straightforward to make. It all depends on what you like.

I have fun making Irish or West Coast Red ales. What I like about them, and I guess this is true with any style but I find it lends particularly well to the red ale style, is the endless options.  Different hops, different yeasts, that compliment the malt.  Here’s one recipe I use BIAB method, with whirlpool for hops.

5 gals, (7.8 gals of strike, no sparge/no bag squeeze, 150 mash temp)

5# German Munich
5# 2 Row
2.5# Marris Otter
.75# Carared
.5# French Kiln Coffee
.5# 40L Crystal

(really enjoyed this SH version)
1oz Jarrylo @60, .5oz @15 (+Irish Moss), .75oz @0, 1.5oz @dry

Both white labs Irish Ale, and Safale-05 are good.  The white labs yeast is a bit more complex, not better per say but different.

I am sure there are better recipies out there, but this is one I like to make repeatedly and alter from time to time, changing the hops and yeast. It’s both hearty, like drinking a loaf of bread, and refreshing enough to bring up mountain biking.

You could also keep it really simple and do a SMASH brew.  Single malt single hop.

If you have not already begun to adjust your water, now might be the time to consider addressing it. I spent a lot of time doing all grain with limited success, but when I learned about adjusting water… well that’s when my beer really improved. Martin Brungaard wrote a basic article in Zymergy a few issues back, it’s a good place to start.

Martin’s Bru’n Water website is the place for his invaluable advice!  The Water Knowledge page will teach you what you need to know about water, and there is a spreadsheet to help you formulate your water adjustment to hit your pH with your grain bill.  He also is a member of this forum, so we can tap his knowledge directly!

I would love to be able to know how to adjust my water better.  Seems complicated.  I just use a Pur filter on my tap and have done all grain this way for years.  That’s another thing I like about the styles I brew, IPA, Pale Ale, Stouts/Porters, and Reds - they all seem to do okay with this filtered tap solution.

Checking out the website now, https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/water-knowledge

We’ll see.

Once you get the idea of how much of what salt causes the change it’s not that complicated. After a few hunt and pecks it becomes easier.

This is a good way to scare off a new brewer with 2 batches done so far. For your third brew, I think you should pick a style you like to drink and find a simple recipe. IMHO, at this stage you should be paying attention to hitting your temperatures, gravities and volumes, calibrating your boiloff, and working on basic process control. You will still get good beer. Then, when you have that under control you can start adjusting your water (if  you want) and can maybe get great beer.

I agree that you don’t have to swallow the elephant whole. You also do not have to know all the ins and outs of water chemistry. Just like you dont have to know how to build a magnatron to be able to heat coffee in a microwave, knowing how to use a  spreadsheet or app to adjust mash pH is way plenty.

Moose Drool sounds good. I have never had it. Janet’s Brown and Noti Brown are 2 other popular homebrew brown ales.

This looks pretty close
https://beerrecipes.org/Recipe/12901/moose-drool-clone.html

My own recipe, you may modify or enjoy it too:

5.5 gallons:

OG: 1.053 @75%
ABV: 5
IBU: 32

9 lbs 2-Row
1 lbs Amber
.25 lbs Crystal 40
.25 lbs Crystal 60
.25 lbs Chocolate (350 L)

0.25 oz Magnum 15AA @ 60
1 oz Willamette 4.5AA @ 20
1 oz EKG 5AA @ 10

London Ale 1318 (or something like Windsor Ale, Wyeast 1450)

Lately I have been playing with recipes that are similar to one another.
I’ve made a few Saisons with similar base malts and different specialty malts. Like 9# Pilsner with 2#s of rye. Or 2#s Vienna. Same yeast, and I try to tell the difference between the specialty malts in use. I follow the same hop schedule.

Recently I just made one mash and pitched 5 different strains, but I have 4 1gal jugs and the space for that.

Smash beers are also fun, get to know your grain and hop.

Moose Drool is an awesome beer. In fact it’s on the docket for later this year. I’ve brewed it several times both extract and all grain. Just a delicious tasting pint.

What recipe or kit do you use?

For 5 gal:

Thanks!