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I've made 2 beers now, a supposed Amber Ale w/ german perle hops, and a pale ale brew kit which was mash/extract. I messed it up, by boiling the malted barley, but you learn from your mistakes. My next endeavor may be a belgian whit, as I've heard the kit is really good. Any suggestions on a better option, especially for summer time, maybe even a good ingredient investment so I can start being self sufficient and cheaper?

Personally, I'd go for a slightly darker, bigger beer. Nothing too drastic though. Maybe a red ale? What are you favorite styles?

funkydrummer88 said:

I've made 2 beers now, a supposed Amber Ale w/ german perle hops, and a pale ale brew kit which was mash/extract. I messed it up, by boiling the malted barley, but you learn from your mistakes. My next endeavor may be a belgian whit, as I've heard the kit is really good. Any suggestions on a better option, especially for summer time, maybe even a good ingredient investment so I can start being self sufficient and cheaper?

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Say man if you want a Wit you should make a Wit and there are numerous kits out there you can get or you can build your own. Lots of folks on here would be happy to help.

well you see, I really do like wheat beer, and my supposed amber beer turned out to be brown, and pretty bitter. I used hopped amber extract x 2 cans, and it was really really close to being brown, if not brown. The pale ale is probably a bit lighter, but not too much. I have never tried a cream ale though, and there is a honey cream ale kit that is calling my name too. any suggestions on how to make that with just ingredients?

funkydrummer88 said:

well you see, I really do like wheat beer, and my supposed amber beer turned out to be brown, and pretty bitter. I used hopped amber extract x 2 cans, and it was really really close to being brown, if not brown. The pale ale is probably a bit lighter, but not too much. I really do want to make a wheat beer too.

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Sounds like a Hefeweizen or a Dunkelweizen would be great. They're pretty forgiving (I hear) and they ferment fast.

As long as you use LME you will not achieve your target color because there is other stuff in there. I suggest DME it gives you a little better control with color and if you do a full boil you really cant tell the diff. Here is a site where you can look up recipes, They are marked by Extract, Extract and grains or AG.

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipes

Good Luck

As most people know, after you've brewed 2 beers and there are about 1000 that you still want to brew. I say write down a list and throw a dart

If you're looking for a summery beer, then you for sure should look at a Blue Moon clone or a hefeweizen. Austin Homebrew has great kits for both.
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_452_43_246&products_id=10902

Rick's right, if you switch to DME the beers will be lighter than if you used LME... Another consideration is to go back an re-brew the amber recipe, re calculating it with DME (and buying the ingredients yourself.) That is if you kept the recipe sheets for them. Then you can compare the 2 different batches.....

To convert the recipe from LME to DME Multiply the amount of Liquid by .89

So if it was 6.6 pounds of liquid you would use 5.874 pounds of dry (5 pounds 14 ounces). Using amber or light Dme will yield you a nice amber ale depending on your steeping grains...

If you use brewing software, even free ones like beercalculus.com you can see what the SRMs (color) would be.

My house amber is a converted LME to DME recipe.

I was shooting for a Bell's Amber Clone...I got the taste dead on but got the wrong SRM numbers of Bell's Amber from some website, so mine came out darker...SO I know what to change the next time I brew it....

6 lbs. Amber Dme.
1.5 lbs. Crystal 60L (Next time I'll go for 30L which will give me the same SRM's as bells....)

I use 2 ounces of 5.9 AA cascade at 60
and 1 ounce at flameout

But the Dartboard Idea sounds cool!