Newbie brewer

In the US we can get Lallemand - I use Nottingham regularly (it has a wise temp range 10c to 22c) - Diamond is a tradiitional Lager yeast that works best from 10c to 15c. Unless you have a fridge and a way to control temperatures you may want to use Nottingham (it can may a very lager-esque beer).

I use Simpsons Golden Promise all the time! Great malt. For Simpson's malts you will have several categories of malts:
Base Malts (like Golden Promise)
Crystal Malts - I believe they give theirs names like Light (40L) , Medium (70L), Dark (100L) and Extra Dark (120L)
Roasted Malts - Brown, Chocolate, Black and Roasted Barely - I think Amber is in here too

You can substitute Simpsons Malts for some of the malts you find in other recipes. We can help with that. I recommend finding the recipe you want to try and brew and post it in a new thread under "Recipes for Feedback" and we can help you from there (just so we don't high-jack this thread) :)

I hope this helps.
Thank you so much for the helpful feedback and advice- as a newbie brewer I am still getting familiar with terms and stuff. And in South Africa, our liquor stores are shut down, so the homebrew industry is taking off- quite often I have to wait for supplies of grain, because they have run out! We do have some local options which I am going to try. It is a great challenge, though.
 
Welcome to the forum! What country are you in? Members on this forum are from all over the world (which I think is pretty cool). Maybe there is a member from your country or region who can help you source ingredients. Plus, knowing where people are from helps to personalize posts.
Hi there. I am from sunny South Africa- great place, lousy government and subzero economy, but plenty of beauty and natural resources and relatively "clean" environment. Wouldnt choose anywhere else to live- our wildlife is spectacular and our people too. Yes, there are problems, but generally, we are quite a resilient people- we try to work things out, we are growing more tolerant of difference, and there is a sense of a new, better nation being born from this turmoil. All that even before my first brew of the day!
 
Yes, we are definitely learning new skills here- all good for our local economy which is below zero at the moment!
I think this is awesome! Imagine in 10 years time what some of you new brewers could be doing in your hometowns! Welcome to the hobby/obsession and who knows what else it may become!

If you know your ingredients, start trying out the recipe builder and see what you can create with what you will be getting! Or, punch the ingredients into your inventory and let brewer's friend show you what recipes are out that you can attempt! -Not sure if inventory management is something that can be utilized as a guest or trial member but if so try it out. If not be sure to pop back in here and ask for some help building a recipe!
 
Thank you so much for the helpful feedback and advice- as a newbie brewer I am still getting familiar with terms and stuff. And in South Africa, our liquor stores are shut down, so the homebrew industry is taking off- quite often I have to wait for supplies of grain, because they have run out! We do have some local options which I am going to try. It is a great challenge, though.
Technically you can ferment anything with sugar in it - fruits, local grains (might have to do some home-malting), honey.... Keep us posted with your innovations! Necessity is a mother, as we learned here during our experiment with Prohibition.
 
Technically you can ferment anything with sugar in it - fruits, local grains (might have to do some home-malting), honey.... Keep us posted with your innovations! Necessity is a mother, as we learned here during our experiment with Prohibition.
Nosy, didn't you make beer from breakfast cereal?
 
Nosy, didn't you make beer from breakfast cereal?
Yep, Mikey Likes It Pale Ale. Life cereal. It needed barely to convert the cereal and made one of the finest beers I've produced.
 
Yep, Mikey Likes It Pale Ale. Life cereal. It needed barely to convert the cereal and made one of the finest beers I've produced.

Interesting :)
Do you have a link to the recipe?

I'm in landlocked Zambia and am normally managing to get malted barley in herevia friends visiting SA, so that has come to a standstill as the borders are closed.
Zam produces malted barley, but it all goes to Zambian Breweries for Mosi and Castle beer. Luckily, alcohol is not banned here ;)
 

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