What type of beers should I brew

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Zakit24

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
Messages
50
Reaction score
2
Location
San Diego
Hello beer brewing world.

Over the last month I have been reading up on home brewing and have been getting ready to buy my first brewing materials in October (when I finally move).

Until then I have been thinking about WHAT I will brew and I wanted to get your input on what styles I should try. Here is a list of beers I do and do not like to drink:

Like-
German and Czech Pils
Hefeweizen
Duesseldorf Alt Bier
Koelsch (but I like the Alt better :p)
Witbier
Schwartzbier!
Porters (when not sweet)
Stouts (when not sweet)
Helles
tend to like dry not sweet beers (other than the weizens)

Dislike-
IPA
Trappist
Bock
Octoberfest
or anything else that is too hoppy or too sweet

So with this information what type of beers would you recommend for me and which ones should I stay away from (maybe also ingredients). Also what characteristics seem to tie all my Likes together? I have always found it difficult to explain to people what characteristics I like in beer. I just know which ones I like.

Thanks for the advice and I will post an update once I brew my first batch...whatever style it may be.
 
I'd avoid the lagers at first (and maybe even the hybrids) until you get the hang of the basics of fermentation. I'd probably start with a hefe, wit, or stout myself.

Have you tried any saisons? They're among the driest of the beers that I've had, but they have a very distinct flavor.
 
i am not being a smart ass.....but brew what you like and experiment. thats what home brewers do..you will screw some batches up.live and learn
 
i am not being a smart ass.....but brew what you like and experiment. thats what home brewers do..you will screw some batches up.live and learn

Oh yea I realize that. I am just trying to figure out new styles of beers that I may like and be able to describe my taste properly. I don't want to only stick to the biers I know I like, but I also don't want to brew 5 gallons of something like an IPA and end up not wanting to drink any of it (even though the brew is fine).
 
At this point I'd say any type of wheat bier,even though this does cover a pretty wide number of styles. Some brewing sugar added will dry a kit up a bit. The cooper's brewing sugar,for instance,is 80% dextrose (corn sugar),& 20% maltodextrin for more mouth feel.
The porter could be to your liking if treated the same way. But pale ales with English style hops might be to your liking as well. Or an English Bitter,which has a bit bitter finish,& low aroma/flavor hop profile.
 
I second the wheat beer suggestion. They are easy to brew, and you can adjust the hoppiness to suit you. Plus they finish fast, so you can sample your fist beer sooner!

And don't even worry about lagers until you have a way to ferment at around 35 degrees F.
 
+1 for "Brew what you like." That's the whole point of homebrewing, after all.

However, being in FL and assuming you don't have a way to control your fermentation temperatures, I'd go with a style that would be OK with plenty of esters / phenols, 'cause you're going to get a bunch. From your list of "likes", I'd go with the Hefe or a porter.
 
+1 for "Brew what you like." That's the whole point of homebrewing, after all.

However, being in FL and assuming you don't have a way to control your fermentation temperatures, I'd go with a style that would be OK with plenty of esters / phenols, 'cause you're going to get a bunch. From your list of "likes", I'd go with the Hefe or a porter.

I typically like my hefes and porters fermented on the cooler end, but that's a matter of preference (and a swamp cooler would take care of it anyway and that's cheap and easy to do). I brought up a saison for the same reason you describe, but I don't know what the OP doesn't like about "Trappist" beer as that's a fairly broad range, so that spicy goodness might rule it out.
 
Start out with maybe a nut brown then move to milds and bitters, then some lightly hopped pale ales, then try a hefe, then a Kolsch. Beers with a cleaner profile are generally harder to make and you need more control over fermentation temperatures. But really, just make lots of beer, pay attention to the ingredients that go in each batch, and keep careful notes.
 
Ahh ok so by making sure that whatever sugar I use to carbonate has a high level of fermentable sugar then the beer won't turn out too sweet? How will the taste differ if I use malt extract for carbonation instead of corn sugar?
Also what ingredients in the wort should I concentrate on to prevent too sweet of a beer?
 
Ahh ok so by making sure that whatever sugar I use to carbonate has a high level of fermentable sugar then the beer won't turn out too sweet? How will the taste differ if I use malt extract for carbonation instead of corn sugar?
Also what ingredients in the wort should I concentrate on to prevent too sweet of a beer?

Well,I wouldn't prime with malt,since I think that's just adding a little bit more un-fermentables. Corn sugar,table (beet) sugar,or demerara (raw cane sugar) work well,ferment out,so no extra sweetness would be perceived.
As for wort constituents,I'd be more exact in how much DME/LME was being used in a given recipe. Same for too much sugar,it can dry out the brew too much,leaving less body,or "mouth feel". Maybe even cidery flavors.
So basically,don't get too many unfermentable long chain sugars in your brew. Balance is the key here. And the right amount of bittering & finishing hops will also help create perceived balance.
 
Too sweet is a relative description. Could you give a commercial example of what you're looking for?

To answer the first question, the sugars from malted barley will leave some residual sugars behind (how much depends on multiple factors). Simple sugars (corn sugar, table sugar, candi sugar/syrup etc) will ferment out almost entirely, lightening body. But overdoing it can lead to a cidery flavor.

I've never carbonated with extract myself, I always use corn sugar, but my understanding is that it'll add a little more residual sugar (adding body and sweetness). Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

You're going to want to avoid malts with a higher degree of unfermentable sugar (minimizing crystal malts, for example), and adding some simple sugar into your wort (I've had good luck using corn sugar). If you're doing all-grain or partial mash, you'd want to mash on the low end of the range, and you'd want to pick a fairly attenuative yeast.
 
don't carbonate with anything but corn sugar until you get your process down enough to start messing with it. Some people do prime with things like honey, brown sugar, or dry malt extract but only for specific beers for specific reasons.

As for which beers to brew, i think stouts are a really forgiving style and the heavy amount of specialty malt covers up mistakes you might make along the way. An Irish red, Brown Ale, or dark english mild might also be right up your alley. And like everybody else said, leave the lagers alone until you have some good brewing experience
 
Dme is as common to brew as corn sugar use it.Your not ever using enough dme for priming to really make it sweet.I get a bit of creamier finish priming with dme.
Brew what you want,for instance ive been inspired with rye beers latley at least Cane and Ebels and Founders red rye,holy crap are they good.Must make rye pa.
 
I brew what I like and buy what I've never had.


This way, I get big batches of beer that are at least styled like beers I enjoy and when I purchase beer, if I don't end up liking it, I'm only out a few bucks.

I drink a lot of what I like and am always open to new styles/brands/locales.


Pick one you think will be a success. Brew it. Drink it. Then experiment with new ingredients, new styles, new processes.

You'll never stop learning and that's half the fun!

-Matt
 
Pick an ale out of the styles you like, buy a kit, and brew it according to the instructions. You will learn from every beer, reading this forum, and other research. I suggest ales only due to the fact that they require less equipment than lagers, are quicker from brew to drink, and tend to have an easier learning curve. A wheat is a great first beer IMO, but the key is it should be something you want to drink.
 
Awesome! Thanks for all the good advice. I think I will be doing a weizen as my first beer and try to move into lagers with a fermenting fridge after I have a couple brews under my belt. Pics to come in a few weeks of my first beer.
 
Why not use table sugar to prime? I suppose if you were a REAL stickler about reinheitsgebot, you might force yourself into using DME. But realize that DME also contains solids that will be left behind in the bottle.

Yes, it's a miniscule amount, but table sugar has NONE of that, and is pretty much completely fermentable, meaning it won't leave any sweetness behind.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top