Does anyone have a easy beer recipe for a beginner?

I am very new to brewing I have made a few hard ciders. I am wanting to try a beer now. Does anyone have a good easy recipe for a beginner?

Here is a kit sold by MoreBeer! that requires no specialty grains and a very easy hop schedule. I don't think it gets much simpler than this American Wheat kit ($25ish)

http://morebeer.com/images/file.php?file_id=881

That's kind of a tall order but I will try to help. Let's start with a few questions.

1. What type of equipment do you have? Are you looking for an extract recipe, partial mash, all grain?
2. What style of beer would you like to brew? IPA, Amber ale, Stout, etc.

As a general rule most kits from places like More Beer, Austins, and Northern Brewer are pretty easy and proven recipes. The directions that come with these kits leave a lot to be desired.

You might want to check out some of the kit offerings from Northern Brewer and other homebrew suppliers to get the hang of the boils and all the other things involved with beer making, and it will let you see how to make beers of the styles that you enjoy.

If you want to jump right into recipes, check out the HBT recipe forums. Extract recipes are generally easier and might be a good place to start; they're not much harder than doing ciders but introduce you to hop boils. Partial-mash and all-grain are possible too but you probably want to work up to these. I have just started tinkering with all grain for rather small beers and it can take a lot of practice to keep it from being a horrendous mess.

Have fun!

Thread really tasty beer simple recipe and fast turn around

Ventucky805 said:

Thread really tasty beer simple recipe and fast turn around

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Say what?

DerekJ said:

That's kind of a tall order but I will try to help. Let's start with a few questions.

1. What type of equipment do you have? Are you looking for an extract recipe, partial mash, all grain?
2. What style of beer would you like to brew? IPA, Amber ale, Stout, etc.

As a general rule most kits from places like More Beer, Austins, and Northern Brewer are pretty easy and proven recipes. The directions that come with these kits leave a lot to be desired.

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I have a 5 gal brew kettle, 2 5 gal carboys 2 1 gal carboys, hydrometer and everything you need to rack and bottle

Are there? There's gazillions of them! Well, okay... If I put myself back two months...

Okay. Finding recipes is easy but they can seem intimidating the first time. That's because they give the ingredients and basic instructions and assume you know what you are doing. I sure as heck didn't.

But your basic brewing kits usually come with well-written step by step instructions. *These* are invaluable for the first time brewer.

The Northern Brewer Kits have instructions you can view on line. Select a kit (say American Amber) and if you click on the "Additional Information" tag and there will be a link to recipe instructions. (Okay, the American Amber is maybe a bit more complicated than one would like [only because of the second fermentation and that it takes a full month] but read another.)

My first beer was an American Amber but with the kit developed by my local brew shop. It was quite good. I can post the recipe and instructions if you like. (Or I could give a plug for you to buy it from them; my shop has been *wonderful* to me.) But I'm sure you'll find a good recipe on your own.

Good luck.

Me: But your basic brewing kits usually come with well-written step by step instructions. *These* are invaluable for the first time brewer.

DerekJ: The directions that come with these kits leave a lot to be desired.

Oh, well.

I guess what I liked as a first time brewer was simply having instructions at all. I think the instructions by my local shop were somewhat better written than the average. They were great to have when I didn't know what I was doing. And once I did, I figured I could ignore them when I needed to.

klowneyy said:

I have a 5 gal brew kettle, 2 5 gal carboys 2 1 gal carboys, hydrometer and everything you need to rack and bottle

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Also I'm looking at getting a grain bag

klowneyy said:

I have a 5 gal brew kettle, 2 5 gal carboys 2 1 gal carboys, hydrometer and everything you need to rack and bottle

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Ok...it sounds like you have a pretty good start with equipment.

I see two options from here that don't involve buying extra equipment.

1. Extract - We can get you set up with a recipe that utilizes dry or liquid extract. Some of these will use steeping grains and some don't. The extract is just a concentrate that has resulted from a company mashing grain for you. It is the easiest form of brewing but has a couple draw backs. It is difficult to make a light colored beer and many people say that extract beers have a "twang" taste.

2. BIAB - BIAB stands for Brew in a Bag. It is all grain brewing without a mashtun. You use your brew kettle to perform the mash. All you would need to do is go to your local hardware store and pick up a paint strainer bag like this.

Which way would you like to go?

Also, do you have a particular style of beer you would like to make?

Amber's and darker beer will work with newer brewers. They tend to hid off flavors that may turn beginning brewers against the hobby. IMHO stay with the classic recommendations offered here. Go with recipes from well known brewers or established stock houses. It's about learning and success at this level.

Cascade Pale ale
7lbs light LME
2 o.z. cascade 60 min
1 o.z. cascade 10 min
ale yeast

cheers 17

My first batch was a simple American pale ale using about 7 pounds of light LME and 2 ounces cascade hops at full boil for one hour. It was great.

DerekJ said:

Ok...it sounds like you have a pretty good start with equipment.

I see two options from here that don't involve buying extra equipment.

1. Extract - We can get you set up with a recipe that utilizes dry or liquid extract. Some of these will use steeping grains and some don't. The extract is just a concentrate that has resulted from a company mashing grain for you. It is the easiest form of brewing but has a couple draw backs. It is difficult to make a light colored beer and many people say that extract beers have a "twang" taste.

2. BIAB - BIAB stands for Brew in a Bag. It is all grain brewing without a mashtun. You use your brew kettle to perform the mash. All you would need to do is go to your local hardware store and pick up a paint strainer bag like this.

Which way would you like to go?

Also, do you have a particular style of beer you would like to make?

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I was thinking about making a stout for my first brew. I would like to do all grain of possible

Okay so you want to get serious. This is not a stout , but an amazing robust porter that I get tons of compliments for.

Grain Bill:
10 lbs. Two row
1 lbs. Caramel/Crystal Malt
8 Oz. Brown Malt
4 Oz. Briess Roasted Barley

Hop Schedule:
1 Oz. Chinook, Full 60 minute boil

Yeast:
one package Safale US-05

Mash Temp 153

Sounds good. I suggest you go with something like this.

This is a recipe for a 5 gallon batch. You are not going to be able to do a full boil in your 5 gallon pot. That is ok though. You can boil about 4 galllons and then top up with water in the fermenter. You also only have a 5 gallon fermenter so you will need a blow off tube.

Or, you could just do a 4 gallon batch. If you decide to go this route you can place your order using this recipe.

4.75 lbs Maris Otter
1.5 lbs flaked barley
.75 lbs roasted barley
1.25 oz Cluster
1 package S 04 yeast
1 bag of priming sugar

Good Luck! Let me know if you have any additional questions.

I'm a noob with just a few gallon beer brews under my belt ( which are now in my gut). My LHBS has recipes at their store and they are nice enough to help scale down the recip3 from 5 gallons down to one. I started with one gallons and am now doing two gallon batches. The wife has seen the fruits of home brewing and is going to let me scale up to 5 gallons in may!

Listen to these guys tho! This forum is more valuable than any brew kit and most youtube videos!

hehawbrew said:

I'm a noob with just a few gallon beer brews under my belt ( which are now in my gut). My LHBS has recipes at their store and they are nice enough to help scale down the recip3 from 5 gallons down to one. I started with one gallons and am now doing two gallon batches. The wife has seen the fruits of home brewing and is going to let me scale up to 5 gallons in may!

Listen to these guys tho! This forum is more valuable than any brew kit and most youtube videos!

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Thanks i will do. I am also lucky enough where I live in a brewers club. Bellingham brewers guild. Witch I am going to be joining so I'm hoping that will also help a lot lol

DerekJ said:

That's kind of a tall order but I will try to help. Let's start with a few questions.

1. What type of equipment do you have? Are you looking for an extract recipe, partial mash, all grain?
2. What style of beer would you like to brew? IPA, Amber ale, Stout, etc.

As a general rule most kits from places like More Beer, Austins, and Northern Brewer are pretty easy and proven recipes. The directions that come with these kits leave a lot to be desired.

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Ok I just picked up a 5 gal paint strainer and a digital temperature gage

Sorry my post got cut off. The "simple hefewiezen" thread.
One of my first non kit beer I brewed. Even after going to grain I still brew it occasionally because its simple good and fast.
5# bavarian wheat dme
8 oz carahell (or crystal 10)
1 oz tetnanger (or hallertauer or other noble hop)
Danstar Munich yeast
Steep grain 20 mins
Bring to boil and add 3# dme and hops
Add the last 2 # dme in the last 10 minutes of boil.
Total boil time 60 mins.
This is for a 3 gallon boil.

klowneyy said:

Ok I just picked up a 5 gal paint strainer and a digital temperature gage

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That sounds great. Are you going to make the Dry Irish Stout from Northern Brewer or did you decide on a different recipe?

DerekJ said:

That sounds great. Are you going to make the Dry Irish Stout from Northern Brewer or did you decide on a different recipe?

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I have been playing around with beersmith and I am just going to try and make my own just using 1 lb of black barley grain and 1 lb of chocolate malt grain and use wlp300 yeast

klowneyy said:

I have been playing around with beersmith and I am just going to try and make my own just using 1 lb of black barley grain and 1 lb of chocolate malt grain and use wlp300 yeast

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Wow! Good luck! I started by making proven recipes to refine the process. Then once I got my process down I started experimenting with my own recipes. It made it easier to differentiate between process flaws and recipe flaws.

You are quite ambitious. Again, good luck and have fun.

6 lbs Pilsen (or Extra Light) DME
4 oz Saaz Hops
1 pkg US-05

If you can't control the temperature of your fermentation, you'll probably not like the result.

1.) Add 6lbs of DME to 2.5 gallons of water and bring to a boil. (Add the DME to the cold water, and slowly raise the temp while stirring until dissolved, then bring to boil.)
2.) At the first sign of boil add 2 oz of Saaz hops and start timing for 60min.
3.) With 15 min. remaining in boil add 1oz of Saaz hops.
4.) With 5 min. remaining in boil add 1oz of Saaz hops.
5.) Cool the mixture (wort) using an ice bath or wort chiller.
6.) Pour wort into sanitized carboy (hops and all, or strain if you feel necessary); top up with cool water until 5.5 gallons are reached.
7.) Pitch yeast into the wort (rehydrate if you wish.)
8.) Wait 4 weeks, keep the carboy cool @ ~65F ambient or less.
9.) Dissolve 2/3 cup corn sugar (dextrose) into 16 oz boiling water.
10.) Dump water/corn sugar into the bottling bucket and siphon the wort onto it.
11.) Bottle the wort. Keep bottles @~70F for 3 weeks.
12.) Enjoy.

klowneyy said:

I have been playing around with beersmith and I am just going to try and make my own just using 1 lb of black barley grain and 1 lb of chocolate malt grain and use wlp300 yeast

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Are you planning to use any base malt? You're not going to get many--make that any--fermentables out of that. Neither of those grains has any diastatic power, which means that they will not be able to convert their starches into sugars. I'm at work right now and don't have access to my copy of Beersmith, but if it's telling you you'll get alcohol with just those ingredients, that's because it simply uses a certain percentage of apparent attenuation to calculate FG (and therefore alcohol).

Also, I would strongly suggest scaling *way* back on the black barley, to about 1-2 ounces for a five-gallon batch. I haven't tried using large quantities of it myself, but everything I've read indicates that much more than a few ounces (in a standard batch) will impart acrid and unpleasantly bitter flavors to the finished product.

I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way, but you may be interested in Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels.

latium said:

Are you planning to use any base malt? You're not going to get many--make that any--fermentables out of that. Neither of those grains has any diastatic power, which means that they will not be able to convert their starches into sugars. I'm at work right now and don't have access to my copy of Beersmith, but if it's telling you you'll get alcohol with just those ingredients, that's because it simply uses a certain percentage of apparent attenuation to calculate FG (and therefore alcohol).

Also, I would strongly suggest scaling *way* back on the black barley, to about 1-2 ounces for a five-gallon batch. I haven't tried using large quantities of it myself, but everything I've read indicates that much more than a few ounces (in a standard batch) will impart acrid and unpleasantly bitter flavors to the finished product.

I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way, but you may be interested in Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels.

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No not at all I am on here for feedback and to learn. Thank you for your input and I was going to use about 1 lb of sugar as well.

Midwest's liberty cream ale extract kit!!! Super easy and tastes great to everyone!!!

klowneyy said:

I have been playing around with beersmith and I am just going to try and make my own just using 1 lb of black barley grain and 1 lb of chocolate malt grain and use wlp300 yeast

Click to expand...

klowneyy said:

No not at all I am on here for feedback and to learn. Thank you for your input and I was going to use about 1 lb of sugar as well.

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Okay, I wouldn't do either of these. That's a German hefeweizen yeast - banana and clove, probably not what you want in your stout. Sugar will thin the beer out, also not something I would use in a stout. I agree with others on finding a tried recipe to follow, either the one Derek posted or there are lots in the recipe database on here.

Since you're starting with all grain make sure you read up and understand the mash process. You're not going to have any extract to fall back on so you need to do that correctly to get a fermentable wort. As was mentioned, software isn't always sophisticated enough to alert you to all the potential problems with recipe design.

chickypad said:

Okay, I wouldn't do either of these. That's a German hefeweizen yeast - banana and clove, probably not what you want in your stout. Sugar will thin the beer out, also not something I would use in a stout. I agree with others on finding a tried recipe to follow, either the one Derek posted or there are lots in the recipe database on here.

Since you're starting with all grain make sure you read up and understand the mash process. You're not going to have any extract to fall back on so you need to do that correctly to get a fermentable wort. As was mentioned, software isn't always sophisticated enough to alert you to all the potential problems with recipe design.

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Thank you I will do a recipe and thanks for all the information

martiniw2olives said:

Okay so you want to get serious. This is not a stout , but an amazing robust porter that I get tons of compliments for.

Grain Bill:
10 lbs. Two row
1 lbs. Caramel/Crystal Malt
8 Oz. Brown Malt
4 Oz. Briess Roasted Barley

Hop Schedule:
1 Oz. Chinook, Full 60 minute boil

Yeast:
one package Safale US-05

Mash Temp 153

Click to expand...

I just got everything I need to brew this beer I have a few more questions. What's the alcohol content and and how many gallons does this make?