Recipe adjustments - Dirty Blonde (non BJCP)

O.K. all, I got a grain mill for my birthday on Saturday and I am super excited Now I want to order massive amounts of 2-row and get to it, the issue is that my blonde recipe uses specialty malts and I'm hoping I can come up with replacements or roasting/mashing techniques that will simplify my recipe. I plan to buy 2-row in bulk, I will buy honey malt as well in relation to the 2-row, if I can find a replacement the munich and cara that would be great so I don't need as many food grade containers in my basement.

Dirty Blonde (non BJCP)

Batch size 5-gallon (All Grain, Full Boil)
Efficiency: 73%
ABV: 5.7%

grain bill:
8 lbs 0 oz - American 2-row
0 lbs 8 oz - cara-pils/dextrine
0 lbs 8 oz - munich malt
0 lbs 8 oz - Honey malt

Adjuncts:
2 lbs 0 oz honey

Hops:
1 oz Cascade @ 60 mins
1 oz Tettnang @ 45 mins

Yeast:
American Ale II (Wyeast 1272)

Thanks guys

I'm not sure what you are asking? You are looking for a replacement malt for Carapils and Munich? This seems like a recipe you do a lot of, why not just get yourself 5 lbs of each? I have 5 gallon food grade containers holding my 2-row, Vienna and Pilsen malts and then 1 container holding my specialty grains in individual 1-lb bags.

Yeah I'm basically looking for a replacement for carapils and munich; specifically wondering if there is a way to obtain similar properties from 2-row by roasting or mashing differently.

This blonde recipe gets a lot of use each year, maybe the answer is to plan my "brew year" or "brew quarters" and shop accordingly; for every 16lbs of 2-row I go through I only need 1lb of each of these specialty malts, so I guess if I buy a 55lb sack of 2-row I really only need about 3.5lbs of each of the others which really doesn't consume too much space; however, space is very limited in my basement/bottle conditioning room right now, it's not a bad thing exactly since it's full of beer/cider/mead/wine/empties.

I'm just trying to streamline my recipes a bit, switching out hops for what I have/will have on hand (started growing this year) and minimizing which specialty grains I use across the board; I plan to order twice a year, and wash my yeast more often than I have been.

I've been doing AG for about 1.5 years and I have found that 5 specialty malts take care of every recipe I make. I buy bulk 2-row, Vienna and Pilsen once a year.

1. Crystal 40
2. Crystal 80
3. Carapils
4. Munich 10L
5. Pale Chocolate

I don't do stouts or porters anymore so just having a few lbs of each specialty malt get me through a year of brewing and I brew 11gal batches every 6-8 weeks.

For the cost of specialty malts (<$2/lb) I can't imagine how it would be worth attempting to create them yourself, especially since if your custom malt doesn't work out you end up with a bad batch of beer.

My "house" standard brews are
- Blonde Ale (Carapils, C-40)
- American Pale Ale (C-40)
- American IPA (C-40)
- English Mild (Pale Chocolate and C-80)
- English Brown (Munich, Pale Chocolate & C-80)

Un-milled specialty malts should stay fresh easily for 1 year of not 2 as long as it's kept sealed in plastic bags.

I went through all of my "regular" recipes and made a spreadsheet.
I'm going to work over time to adjust my recipes so I'm "stocking" fewer specialty grains, apparently I use five different varieties of crystal across as many recipes, pretty sure I can trim that down.
I grow hops now, so I will play around and attempt to get down to using just those varieties, however, I may start growing an additional variety or two next year since I use them and they can't really be substituted easily.
I wash yeast, and it turns out I can get down to three varieties without much effort.

The standards for me are:
Blonde
Wheat
APA
Marzen/Oktoberfest
Christmas Lager
Wee Heavy S.A.
Stout

I modify them with adjuncts, but as far as basic styles are concerned that's what I typically run each year, and mostly the blonde.

Looks like one large container for the 2-row and six or so small containers (1gal or so) for the specialties after I cut down the list, I really only need 3-4lbs of each specialty for every 55lb bag of 2-row I buy, so I guess it won't take up too much room.. I'll definitely end up using it all.

Thanks for the replies.

seven house recipes
six specialty malts
five kinds of crystal!
four kinds of hops
three types of yeast
two types of beer
and a 55 pound bag of two row

I have heard that you should stick to buying hops for bittering additions and just use your homegrown hops for flavor/aroma additions. This is because it's impossible to guess the Alpha Acid % of your home grown hops.