Easy beginner recipe recommendations?

**CthulhuDreaming** · 01-25-2012, 01:15 AM

I'm getting back into home brewing after a ~10 year hiatus, and introducing my younger brother to home brewing at the same time. I'm looking for some easy, tasty novice recipe suggestions.

We're interested in making English-style brown/mild ale, brown porter, and/or a pale (not so heavily hopped as IPA).

I'm also partial to malty, medium- to full-bodied, light- to moderately-hopped German lagers. Though I don't have the means for lagering, I'd love to find something along these lines that can be done at room temperature.

Have any recipe suggestions appropriate for showing an absolute beginner the basics of the homebrewing process?

maffewl · 01-25-2012, 01:31 AM

I have several friends who have brewed this and it turned out to be a fine beer.

http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/products/Rebel-ESB-Kit-%28Extract%29.html

I would say fermenting at room temp though would be on the high side. I'd look into creating a swamp cooler with a $7 tub from a local hardware store and some frozen soda bottles.

dwshotwell · 01-25-2012, 02:24 AM

I did Adventures in Homebrewing's (www.homebrewing.org, click on recipe kits and you'll find it) Bells Best Brown Clone kit for my first batch and thought it turned out great despite numerous mistakes on my part. I guess I'd call it a very forgiving recipe. I chose it because I love Bell's Best Brown, and although I wouldn't say I cloned it I would say I brewed a beer that was good enough that two months later I've done five other (different recipe) batches. It sounds like a lot of guys do the Northern Brewer "Caribou Slobber," a Moose Drool Clone, earlier on in their careers as well and get very good results.

Transamguy77 · 01-25-2012, 02:51 AM

My first batch was a Pale ale that after a few weeks in bottles it was a dead ringer for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, I got the kit from Youcanbrewit.com. They are actually my LHBS. I just did their Porter and it is excellent.

**unionrdr** · 01-25-2012, 04:14 PM

You could check out my Sunset Gold APA in my recipes. Got V2 fermenting now,with 1oz each of Ahtanum & stirling hops instead of the ones used in the v1 recipe. These two hops smelled really great coming out of the airlock the last couple days. Smelled of a sort of rich herby/spicy notes with just a touch of citrus to brighten it up. Def smells more like a Commercial American pale ale this time. I can't wait till the 2 week mark to taste it.

**Swilldog** · 01-25-2012, 05:38 PM

Welcome back,

10 years, things have changed a lot since you left. I would keep it really simple. Check out several on-line stores like More Beer.com, Northern Brewer.com, Austin Homebrewing.com and try a kit, it comes with complete instructions and all the ingredents you need to brew. Try a pale ale, brown ale, or porter. Also get some books on brewing (How to Brew by John Palmer). Northern brewer and other sites have videos too. You and your brother are going to so much fun.
Cheers

BrewGardenCA · 01-25-2012, 06:08 PM

I'm in Canada, so not too far north of you. We've got easy access to much of the Cooper's extract kits here. I've found they age really well. When I started homebrewing a few years back I did a bunch of them, really liked how the Stout and Dark Ale kits turned out.

**Yooper** · 01-25-2012, 06:41 PM

This is a super simple recipe for an English brown ale:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f126/extract-english-brown-ale-27601/

**CthulhuDreaming** · 01-25-2012, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yooper

This is a super simple recipe for an English brown ale:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f126/extract-english-brown-ale-27601/

Thanks - I like the thought of starting with a few locally available ingredients rather than a kit.