starrfish

Recipes 

those are both easy & quick brews too! wheat just need to find your fav strain of yeast... do you want banana, clove, bubble gum... and what temp to get these flavors from each yeast (hardest part of getting wheat right) porter is just a bigger brown. almost any english yeast will make a fine porter... make life easy go with english hops and nothing past a second addition at 30 min (my porter only has a 60 min and it's based on a 1800's recipe from london. why screw with the original)

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Yankee Sand Flea on a Southern Beach.

“Son, you are a walking violation of the laws of nature, but you’re lucky, we don't enforce them laws.”

Ryush806

Recipes 

A hefeweizen extract kit would be fine if you like that style. I got my dad into the homebrewing with that. It turned out awesome!

For your first beer I wouldn't stress out too much about anything except sanitation. Get iodophor or starsan and you'll make a great beer! Throw the cbrite crap that tends to come with starter kits away!

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Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
- Benjamin Franklin (and I don't care if this quote has been largely discredited/misquoted...I like it!)

Beer, if drank with moderation, softens the temper, cheers the spirit and promotes health.
- Thomas Jefferson

On Deck: Nada
Primary: Air
Secondary: Air
(Recently) Bottled: Vesper's Abbey Dubbel, SWMBO's Strawberry Kolsch, AHS Anniversary ESB, AHS Anniversary Oktoberfest/Marzen

starrfish

Recipes 

+1

I cut my teeth on bleach & rinse. I now only use bleach post brew day clean out... brew day is all starsan no rinse. much happier much easier!


Just a side note I turned my facial hair green in the 9o's using a bleach solution, must have rubbed my face, and got asked by my date why my facial hair looked green... had to shave next day. Last time I had a 'stash.

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Yankee Sand Flea on a Southern Beach.

“Son, you are a walking violation of the laws of nature, but you’re lucky, we don't enforce them laws.”

BamaRooster

Recipes 

+1 my first kit intructions said to use the c-brite as a sanitizer and I had not found this place and didn't know any better. Just another mistake, of many, on my first brew. Those 2 cases of witches brew still sit in my basement, hoping one day to be drinkable. Do your research, question the instruction that come with your kit, and plan.

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wait....what do you mean all the beer is gone!

Home Brew Beer Guy

wailingguitar

Recipes 

a basic pale ale or brown ale are great first brews

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"Why did you.... what was the point of... how drunk were you when you decided this was a good idea?" - DMartin

theonetrueruss

Recipes 

Any mid gravity extract kit will do great. Follow the sanitation advice others have given (use star san, not c-brite) and all will work out fine.

Oh, and watch your boil real carefully for boil overs. It may be surprising how much the foam will rise as it starts to boil. It is good to have a spray bottle of water on hand. You can spray the foam as it rises to help knock it down. Of course turn down/off the heat as well. Once you get past the foam coming up (it's the hot break) and it is boiling nice and steady you are pretty safe. Add hop additions slow as they can cause some boil over problems on occasion as well.

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TheOneTrueRuss
Fat Messiah Brewing

unionrdr

Recipes 

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Everything works if ya let it-Roady(meatloaf)

dkennedy

Recipes 

To echo others- if that's what you like, then go for it! A Tripel or Imperial Stout might be a bit much for the first batch, but a Heffe or porter, not bad at all! Browns and ambers do seem really common, but I would say that starting with something that you're into is the way to go (and keep going...and start brewing every weekend...).

My first was a double batch day- a stout and a cream ale (extract with spec. grains). Brewed an all grain (BIAB) Heffe last week with a buddy, and it's really gotten me back into wheat beers. Tomorrow's plan is an India Brown, on deck after that are some simple SMaSH setups for hop research.

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Katie Bar the Door

Primary1: India Brown
Primary2: Seven Seize IPA
Secondary:
Planned: SMaSH

stikks

Recipes 

A Heff is not that hard with extract,Wheat DME light DME maybe a little crystal,water
and Heff yeast.One thing about a Heff ,its fast to the bottle and fast to drink.When I started I made several batches of it -pretty simple-

stikks

Recipes 

almost forgot,a few hops too