Finally I have almost geared up to begin all grain brewing. Since I do live quite a distance from a HBS I thought it might be a good idea to purchase a bag of grain for a base malt and then mail order specialty grains as they are needed. Sure would be nice if there was a HBS near by. What would be a good choice for a base grain?

I use maris oter pale malt. But my next purchase will be a few hundred pounds of 2 row.
Are you going to order some malt online or pick some up at a shop when you get near one?
Flat rate usps boxes are $12.50 i think with however much will fit in the box. I can get about 9 pounds in the smaller box.
I have good luck with pale malts. I will se how the regular 2 row will work. Its cheaper i know.

Hey Art,

I picked up a 50 lbs. sack or Rahr 2 row pale malt a while back, and have been using it with very good results. Pretty decent, considering its the cheapest stuff I can find. If price is not a problem, I also have used Marris Otter, and its a very good base grain. My brother will be purchasing a sack of Munich malt next, and I'll let you know how that works out for us, if you want.

Do you have any brewing software, like Beersmith or Promash? If not, I have a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that would be very beneficial to anyone brewing All Grain for the first time.

Cheers
Dave

Sounds like a good pale malt would be good choice. I have looked at a local suppliers web page and he carries sacked grain by Briess. Is Briess a good supplier of quality grain?

I do have the BeerSmith program, but get overwhelmed by all the choices

Let me put my taste experiences in perspective. I have been drinking package store beer for many years and sadly enough I have grown accustom to those products. While on vacation recently my wife and I visit some brew pubs in Nashville, TN and after many different samples of their brews we felt like total outsiders of the brewing community. Sadly to say none of what we tried was to our liking. Most were harshly bitter, but it seems there are a ton of homebrewers that advocate those kind of brews. Maybe I'm just an odd wad but the IPA and the Stout that I have tasted are not for me at this point. I even went to the local package store, and purchased several bottles of their imports & ect. Among them was Michelob's "Amber Bock" and it was a hit with the whole family. Since then I have gotten the "Amber Bock" on tap and it was excellent. So right now I'm considering trying to make a Bock. Just not sure if I'm jumping into a brew that would take a really advanced brewer.

Oh by the way I tried a can of Guiness Stout and it was way out of my taste range. Upon discussing with another brewer online about this experience he pointed out that it wasn't all the hoppyness of the stout but the roasted grains. That being said I have to go all the way back past square one. At this point I'm not sure what to pick and choose to stay out of those type brews. Seems all the decsriptions of the malts sound tasty. So you can see the delimia when it comes to trying to use the software and build a recipe.

I hope I haven't offended anyone by stating my taste in brews. I'm sure there are folks out there that love the brews that I don't. Just trying to describe the direction that I want to take in my brewing and hoping that I can get a little advice on how to get there.

Hey Art, I to love Amber Bock and as a matter of fact use it for cooking also. I boil brats in it before I grill them, marinate steaks in it, and even saute onions and mushrooms in it for the steaks. Great beer in my opinion. I know what you are saying about some beers being way to bitter. I have been playing around with some differant ideas and I found a hop that is great. I bought some Spaltz hops from Jeepguy and these things are great. I get the hoppy flavor and aroma but the bitterness is way down. I have tried these in a couple of differant style beers and the beers turned out great. Big hit with family and friends. I may never win an award but what the heck, I am loving the flavor.

John

Thanks for the tip John. I'll see if they are available from the HBS here since I do have to make a trip in the near furure.

Art

The hops are Spalt Select & have a very low bitterness of 1.5%.
Have you tried blonde ales or amber ales? You can make a blonde with very little hops & base malts only.(either pale or just plain 2 row. Throw some crystal 60 in there(maybe 8 OZ) & you have a nice mellow amber with some red color & just a hint of caramel flavor. I usually add more hops to the amber but if you hop it low you may like it alot.
If you go to http://www.beertools.com you can build a recipe & it will tell you what the color,bitterness, & % will be roughly.
Let me know if you want to try the hops but cannot find them. They are $1.20 per ounce on my site & i can ship 8 Oz for about $3.00.
Or if you want a premilled recipe put together with everything let me know. I think i can ship one for under $13. Maybe only $9 or $10 though for shipping.
I.P.A & stouts take a bit of getting used to. I hated them up till about 2 years ago. I used to go for mgd over pale ale every time. (slaps self!!) But now i find myself drinking double I.P.A. alot. & pale when i want a milder beer.
Briess is a very good malt!!

Here is a recipe i just came up with. It uses 2 pounds of honey which will keep the malt flavor down a bit & should be a very good intro brew!!
Blonde with Honey
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General
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Category: Light Hybrid Beer
Subcategory: Blonde Ale
Recipe Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5 gal.
Volume Boiled: 6 gal.
Mash Efficiency: 72 %
Total Grain/Extract: 9.00 lbs.
Total Hops: 2.0 oz.
Calories (12 fl. oz.): 193.0
Cost to Brew: $22.50 (USD)
Cost per Bottle (12 fl. oz.): $0.42 (USD)

Ingredients
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7 lbs. Maris Otter Pale
2 lbs. Honey
1 oz. Spalt Spalter (Pellets, 1.5 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
.5 oz. Spalt Spalter (Whole, 1.5 %AA) boiled 15 minutes.
.5 oz. Spalt Spalter (Whole, 1.5 %AA) boiled 5 minutes.
Yeast: Lallemand Nottingham
1 Whirfloc tablet last 15 minutes of boil
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Vital Statistics
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Original Gravity: 1.049
Terminal Gravity: 1.011
Color: 11.66 SRM
Bitterness: 7.9 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 5.0 %
Actual cost would be// $13 not including the honey.
With an all malt no honey version it would be about $16.
Hope any of this is helful!! Good luck & let us know what you make & how you like it!!

I have a brew just about ready to keg that is similar to the description you gave at first. It has some steeped caramel malt in it and I have hugh expectations for it. It has had me worried since it wasn't settling as soon as I had expected. After about 2 weeks in the primary it still wasn't quite clear, so I racked into a secondary and put that in my cooler set at 45 degrees. After about 3 days now it appears to be clearing nicely. I have a little gelatin to use if it doesn't complete settling satisfactorily. Keep your fingers crossed for me......it really smelled nice when I racked it.

Art