25518, here's my Irish stout recipe. It's really easy, and comes out great. Give it a try...
6lbs amber malt extract
1lb roasted barley
1lb amber dry malt extract (dme)
1lb flaked barley
2oz fuggles hops
3/4 cup corn sugar (for priming)
Liquid yeast packet for Irish Ale
3- 1gallon jugs of drinking water
Put the 3 1gallon jugs in your freezer. Also pop the yeast packet to activate it. Make sure all your brewing supplies are sanitized and ready to go.
Add 3 gallons of water to your boiling pot and bring to a rapid boil. Make sure to have a spray bottle of cold water for the hot break. At some point your brew will foam up and try to boil over, just spray it down with the cold water and it won't do it again because the hot break is over. Slowly stir in the 6lbs amber malt extract, and 1lb amber dry malt extract. Look at the clock, take note what time it is. Then get 3 steeping bags ($3-$5 each). Take half the roasted barley and half the flaked barley, add to one steeping bag, tie it off and put it in the boil. Make sure you stir the crap out of the malt or it will stick to the pot and burn. Also keep the bag off the bottom, it'll float at first but tie it off to your handle or something. Boil 30 minutes this way. Then add the rest of the roasted barley and flaked barley to the other steeping bag and put it in the boil, tie off to the other side of the pot. Boil another 15 minutes. Then add your fuggles to the last steeping bag and toss in the pot. Boil another 15 minutes with everything in there. That's a total of one hour. Turn off the stove, take out all your steeping bags, and get your fermenting bucket ready. Take that water you put in the freezer and dump about 2 1/2 gallons of that cold ass water into your fermenting bucket. Then, using 2 sock filters combined, one inside the other, pour your boiled wort through the sock filters into the fermenting bucket, watch out the steam is hot! If you end up with a little more than 5 gallons it's ok. If you don't have a thermometer, cover the bucket with the lid and wait until the bottom outside of the bucket is Luke warm. Shouldn't have to wait too long, the ice water brings the temp down fast! If you have another bucket and 2 more sock filters, pour the cooled beer into the other bucket through the filter to get the rest of the gunk out, but it's not necessary. Take a small sample into a tall glass or flask and drop in the hydrometer and write down the reading. It should be about 1.050. If you want you can drop it right into the fermenting bucket to get the reading, just make it quick and be clean as possible. Grab the hydrometer out, open your yeast packet which should be swollen by now, and pour it in. Give it a good quick stir and cap the bucket off with your lid, then add your cork and filter. Make sure you fill that filter up half way with vodka, or Iodophor solution. Put the bucket in a dark place that stays warm, and leave it for a couple weeks. You'll know when you're done fermenting because you're hydrometer readings won't change. After about a week start taking readings, it should get down to about 1.013 When you're ready to prime the bottles, clean the crap out of them and set them upside down to dry. Also make sure to sterilize your caps. boil 1 cup of water with the 3/4 cup of corn sugar and then add to the fermented beer. Fill up your bottles, cap and put them in a dark place for another week or two. Try one after about a week and see how it tastes and froths up. If you're satisfied have at it! Otherwise wait a few more days. Don't listen to these guys talkin crap on here, they forgot what it was like to be starting out apparently. This recipe is dead-on every time and super easy once you do it once, it's a breeze. Let me know if you got any questions about any of this and happy brewing! Oh, and make sure to clean all your stuff as soon as you're done or it'll be really hard later. A lot of people are paranoid perfectionists, just do the best you can, learn from your mistakes, and enjoy what you created.