boondock86

Recipes 

Was wondering what y'all thought would be best for me. I know im going to be doing an ale and was wondering what y'all thought would best suit me taste wise. I'm mostly used to american lagers and bocks but i love me some Fat Tire too. I was thinking of doing a pale ale or belgium ale. I've already surfed the forum a bit and i like what i see, lots of great info.

Figbash

Recipes 

Start simple.

John Palmer has an excellent web site (and book) for the beginning brewer. Follow his procedure and you can't go wrong.

Tom

CouchFarmer

Recipes 

I think most people start with a pale ale or a bitter or something similar. The recipes are simpler (fewer ingredients to play with) but it still has enough flavor to hide the blemishes of your first batch. Lagers are a different beast, you need to be able to hold the fermenter at a much lower temperature (extra equipment) and it takes way too long for impatient beginning brewers. I know I got impatient on my first batch and cracked the first bottle a bit earlier than I should have.

android

Recipes 

a pale ale will be a good start. i bet you could find a good extract recipe in the database here to get you going. a lot of the all-grain recipes have extract recipes buried in the threads, might be a good place to get a good one. use a yeast like nottingham and you should be good to go.

and +1 on following palmer's method, it worked great for me on my first brew.

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primary: Tasty Blonde
kegged: Maibock, Schwarzbier, Irish Red, Oak Aged Dark Belgian

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SumnerH

Recipes 

Personally I'm a fan of starting with a beer that takes a while to finish, then doing a couple quicker beers the next couple of weeks. That's what I did, and it meant I always had a new brew to stop me from futzing with the ones that were fermenting, and when things finally finished up I had a few brews to taste and a bit of a pipeline established already.

Something like:
Belgian strong in week 1
IPA, stout, etc in week 2
Mild or hefeweizen in week 3

But if you're not going to brew a bunch of times in a row, go with something fast at the start to keep you engaged.

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On deck: Little Bo Pils, Bretta Off Dead (Brett pale)
Secondary: Oude Bruin, Red Sky at Morning (Sour brown ale)
On tap: Saison Duphunk (sour), Amarillo Slim (IPA), Earl White (ginger/bergamot wit)
Bottled: Number 8 (Belgian Strong Dark Ale), Eternale (Barleywine), Ancho Villa (Ancho/pasilla/chocolate/cinnamon RIS), Oak smoked porter (1/2 maple bourbon oaked, 1/2 apple brandy oaked)

boondock86

Recipes 

cool ty for the info guys

Grinder12000

Recipes 

Pale Ale - the one thing new brewers do wrong is brew IPAs, Belguims BIG beers. Do something simple that will be ready. Ambers would even be better then a Pale Ale.

Get a Fat Tire Clone. Heck - my most popular brew is an Amber that started as a fat tire Clone and has been tweak so much that it is no longer a clone. People love it and it's fool proof.

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Grinders Island Brewery - Pipeline (Batch #)

Secondary Kentucky Common(83)
Primary #1 Scottish Ale 70(84)
Primary #2 The Black Pearl Porter(85)

bhethcote

Recipes 

I just finished my first batch (English PA) and I'd agree with the Palmer book as a great resource. Here's a couple takeaways that I got from my first batch:

1. Use a heat source with a good temperature control. Being able to keep the boil at a nice easy roll makes things a little more mellow.

2. Make sure the wort is ready for yeast to be pitched before you start preparing the yeast. I tried to get a little head start and it seemed like everything got kind of time-congested at the end.

BH

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Cameron Creek Brewery
Beer is proof that there is a god and that he wants us to be happy!