Graduating to your own all grain recipes...

Chip99

Chip99

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So I have had half dozen successful brews with all grain kits. I'm using an all in one system which works really well with or without a bag. I sparge with a cooler and normally 3 gallons of 170 degree water. Because I'm using an all in one system I've had to modify the instructions that come with the all grain kits which are mostly made for guys doing on the stove or burner DIY setups. Point is that now I am getting very confident in my modifications and methods of brewing with the equipment I have.

Now I want to go to the next level. I have already bought some hops and ten pounds of two row malt. I'm wondering how to reduce my costs and still produce stellar craft brews. What is the level of experience out there in buying for example, 50 pound bags of two row malt and a pound or more at a time buying various pellet hops and then crafting your own recipes? Cheaper? Not worth it? I'm mostly an ale guy. Yeasts for this seem to be pretty common. I will most always stick to 5 gallon recipes. So hopefully this will get the discussion going. I'm wanting to learn as much as possible and the more I know the more questions I have. Thanks... Chip
 
As far as recipies, Brewers Friend has every type of recipe you could ever ask for. The ones in the quarterly brew section are fantastic.
When ordering grain (no local supplier anywhere around here) I just order ingredients for the next two or three brews. Couldnt use 55 pounds of one grain and still rotate recipies every brew.
 
At least for me, grain isn't that expensive. I get killed with the yeast because I intentionally overpitch, use expensive yeast, and I don't harvest. Hops can get expensive if you use a lot of them, but I don't normally use more than 3oz for 5 gallons.
 
Do you crush your own grain now or do you get it pre-milled?

If the latter, then obviously you will need a mill. Then, I would only order enough grain for 1 or 2 beers to get started and see how your system responds and what kind of efficiency you get. After that, how much grain you buy really comes down to how often you plan on brewing, how easy it is to source the grain, how much room you have to store it, what you need to buy to store it in...etc. These answers are likely different for everyone.
 
I prolly didn't start making my own recipes for 3-4 years. Until i understood better what the different grains did and how to balance them.

The biggest epiphany I think ever had in brewing is this: brew to gravity not volume.

Efficiency is a hard bitch to tame when you are getting different grains and your conditions change from brew to brew. So, do everything right and see where you land with your gravity and adjust your water to hit your target. Whatever volume you get, the beer will be right ;)
 
I started in whole-grain much the same way - originally with kits and crushed grains. I found pre-crushed grains to be too fine, so purchased a mill and kits with uncrushed grains - much better! After getting the hang of my all-in-one system, I decided to create my own recipes, mostly modifications on ones found here, and I haven't looked back! I do buy 50lb bags of my base malt (Briess Pale Malt), and 10lb bags of the others. I will try a kit from time-to-time, especially if I am looking for a specific clone.

I am happy with the beers I brew - mostly British ale styles, and going this way keeps the costs low - typically $20 to $30 for 5 gallons! Most of all, have fun and enjoy YOUR beer!
 
That is a good point. If you are making similar beers all the time, you probably could buy in bulk. I am all over the board, and I have a homebrew store not far up the road. Buying what I need for a single batch is a no brainer for me, but your circumstances are probably different.
If you are kegging, and you have a welding/gas store nearby, CO2 is much cheaper at the welding store if they offer the food grade.
 
It is going to suck if they ever decide to retire. They have only been around since the 80s.LOL
There is another one about 45 minutes up the road, but they are expensive and another in Tampa at about 90 minutes. They are expensive too, but damn, they make good beer at their brewery bar.
 
You could buy hops at https://hopalliance.com or https://hopsdirect.com look for deals. Then harvest your yeasts
and always buy your 2 row base malts in 55lb bags, if you can from a local supplier. After 60 brews, we are averaging $0.88/ 12oz. If you fill out everything on the inventory in Brewersfriend including cost of all ingredients, you quickly will see your total costs. Don't forget your gases Co2, oxygen, nitrogen and propane.
 
Sandy Feet said:
That is a good point. If you are making similar beers all the time, you probably could buy in bulk. I am all over the board, and I have a homebrew store not far up the road. Buying what I need for a single batch is a no brainer for me, but your circumstances are probably different.
If you are kegging, and you have a welding/gas store nearby, CO2 is much cheaper at the welding store if they offer the food grade.
Click to expand...
<sheepishly raises hand>
yeah, that’s me. I’ve been brewing since the ’90’s and I have 2x kegerators inside; 4 CO2 taps + 1 Nitro tap, 2x garage fridges, one of which converted to kegerator with 4 more taps. I have a fridge drawer full of hops, yeast most of the time, my own mill, 1x 220 electric all in one, 2x 110v all in ones. I try to plan my brews out to maximize my efficiency, but if I’m being honest, it only works sometimes ;-) I have 3x CO2 canisters in use, and 1 Nitro sometimes. I keep a spare CO2 on hand because I NEVER run out of CO2 mid week, it’s always on the weekend when the pump supply shop in town is closed.

@Chip99 since you’ve worked through the efficiency issues, sparge additions, you’re probably ahead of where I was when I upped my game to the all in one; I was doing no sparge for a while.

I have about 140 pounds of malt on hand right now. I bought 150 for Black Friday, had some on hand and have brewed I think 5 or 6 x 6 gallon batches since. Here’s how I kind of plan things.

About March I will think about Märzen season. Last year I did 2x Märzen batches and a Vienna, all on the same yeast. However, I always keep a spare batch of yeast for these planned brews, just in case. Over the last month I did East coast porter, schwarzbier, will follow this with a Dunkel and hopefully one more all on the same lager yeast. When I first did this several years back, I kept the yeast in the ‘cold crash’ fridge in the first 6.5 gallon plastic fermenter, and when I was read to use it again, I got it out during brew day, transferred the yeast into my wort in a 2nd fermenter. Red neck, but it worked. Now I’m a bit more sophisticated about harvesting yeast, but not much :)

I’m not saving any money at all, no way, no how.

I have been creating my own recipes for a few years, I have a good handle on malt in my own opinion - others may differ, but hops challenge me. That’s part of the entertainment though, working up the recipe to where you want it, hopefully improving it and getting it where you want it to be. That doesn’t mean I don’t look at other recipes or read up on style guidelines, how to’s for various styles - I absolutely do, but once I have an idea of the style boundaries vs. how I want it to come out, I go write it up on my own, and brew it.
 
Dave Y said:
<sheepishly raises hand>
yeah, that’s me. I’ve been brewing since the ’90’s and I have 2x kegerators inside; 4 CO2 taps + 1 Nitro tap, 2x garage fridges, one of which converted to kegerator with 4 more taps. I have a fridge drawer full of hops, yeast most of the time, my own mill, 1x 220 electric all in one, 2x 110v all in ones. I try to plan my brews out to maximize my efficiency, but if I’m being honest, it only works sometimes ;-) I have 3x CO2 canisters in use, and 1 Nitro sometimes. I keep a spare CO2 on hand because I NEVER run out of CO2 mid week, it’s always on the weekend when the pump supply shop in town is closed.

@Chip99 since you’ve worked through the efficiency issues, sparge additions, you’re probably ahead of where I was when I upped my game to the all in one; I was doing no sparge for a while.

I have about 140 pounds of malt on hand right now. I bought 150 for Black Friday, had some on hand and have brewed I think 5 or 6 x 6 gallon batches since. Here’s how I kind of plan things.

About March I will think about Märzen season. Last year I did 2x Märzen batches and a Vienna, all on the same yeast. However, I always keep a spare batch of yeast for these planned brews, just in case. Over the last month I did East coast porter, schwarzbier, will follow this with a Dunkel and hopefully one more all on the same lager yeast. When I first did this several years back, I kept the yeast in the ‘cold crash’ fridge in the first 6.5 gallon plastic fermenter, and when I was read to use it again, I got it out during brew day, transferred the yeast into my wort in a 2nd fermenter. Red neck, but it worked. Now I’m a bit more sophisticated about harvesting yeast, but not much :)

I’m not saving any money at all, no way, no how.

I have been creating my own recipes for a few years, I have a good handle on malt in my own opinion - others may differ, but hops challenge me. That’s part of the entertainment though, working up the recipe to where you want it, hopefully improving it and getting it where you want it to be. That doesn’t mean I don’t look at other recipes or read up on style guidelines, how to’s for various styles - I absolutely do, but once I have an idea of the style boundaries vs. how I want it to come out, I go write it up on my own, and brew it.
Click to expand...
I have a certain weakness on the hop front too, but I know enough about the ones I use often. When I first started designing my own recipes, I used a few online sources to get me close, but the Mean Brews YouTube videos also help me dial some things in. I'm like you in that I like to tweak it the second time around.
 
Sandy Feet said:
I have a certain weakness on the hop front too, but I know enough about the ones I use often. When I first started designing my own recipes, I used a few online sources to get me close, but the Mean Brews YouTube videos also help me dial some things in. I'm like you in that I like to tweak it the second time around.
Click to expand...
I think because there’s a bit of subjectivity to aroma and flavor perception. Fortunately, some have a lot of usage history that you can fall back on.
yeah... I think I have maybe ... 2(?) recipes I haven’t tweaked to improve, the rest are ... flexible :)
 
Harvest your yeast. It's the most expensive by volume factor in your brew. Use it 8 times and you just made a batch for $2 and not $16.

Brew with the same ingredients as much as possible. It's amazing the number of permutations you can get out of different volumes of malt and hops.

Adjuncts are not a bad thing.

If you're going to make something high gravity, partygile it.

Hops are expensive...hopefully you were not planning on any modern IPA's
 
Dave Y said:
I think because there’s a bit of subjectivity to aroma and flavor perception. Fortunately, some have a lot of usage history that you can fall back on.
yeah... I think I have maybe ... 2(?) recipes I haven’t tweaked to improve, the rest are ... flexible :)
Click to expand...
The alphas are all over the place right now too. My Hallertau was something like 2.9 this time.
I think I have my Porter dialed in now. The only thing I changed this time was for the alcohol level. My Vienna Lager I would not change either, but is was really damn simple. I don't think I would change much on my French Saison, but I would like to play around with hopping it up. Just about anything else? Why not?:)
 
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