Recommendations for 1st extract brew

I'm planning on brewing my 1st batch ever over the holidays this year (extract) as "all I want for Christmas is my 1st homebrew kit"

My favorite type of beer is the Belgium Trippels, Quadrupels, and most winter ale (Scaldis and Great lakes Christmas ale for commercial beers)

Considering the Belgiums typically take 9-12 months to ferment properly (from what I've read) I was wondering what the experts recommend for a good 1st extract kit... Other commercial beer that I love are arrogant bastard and Newcastle brown.

Also, whats the consensus on using the 1% alcohol boosts?

Thanks for the help everyone!

do a pale ale for the first, to just get a feel for it. those can be ready to bottle in 3 weeks, and ready to drink 2 weeks after that. don't do the boosts; they make the beer harsh, and make it burn. the 1 time some1 slipped 1 in on me, i didn't like it. a hefeweizen isn't supposed to be harsh, and it was.

I'm a noob myself with less than a dozen batches under my belt, BUT...

If you like Newcastle, do a brown ale kit. One of my first batches was an extract brown ale that I did here with a friend and it was awesome.

As for the alcohol boost :shrug: I usually wind up throwing an extra pound or so of extract in my brews, but that's just me. I can't say I would recommend it.

For your first few batches, just focus on following the recipe (unless it says ferment for 5-7 days and bottle. Ignore that part and use your hydrometer after 2 or 3 weeks to tell you when it's ready!) and getting used to the process.

You're right to be leery of big beers to start off with, everything takes longer, fermentation, conditioning, bottle carbing, all. takes. longer.

Have fun!

wizardofwoz said:

Considering the Belgiums typically take 9-12 months to ferment properly

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I'm pretty sure you can brew a belgian abbey ale or something in a lot less time than that.

The Belgian beers and winter ales you like will be a little hard to do properly in an all extract recipe. You'll need to at least steep some grain, if not move to a partial mash to really have the flexibility for that.

A nice brown ale could be pulled off all extract though.

Really big Belgian beers can take a long time, but there's plenty of them that you can brew in a much shorter amount of time and have them be great.

Chshre, I'm glad you're on. Please check my post in Brandon O's graff thread.

Wizard, for your first brew keep it simple. An all extract Hefe is good or try one of the kits from Williamsbrewing.com (ie. Brown Ale) as they are all extract.

D0ug said:

I'm a noob myself with less than a dozen batches under my belt, BUT...

If you like Newcastle, do a brown ale kit. One of my first batches was an extract brown ale that I did here with a friend and it was awesome.

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Also a noob with only 3 brews... but my first was also a brown ale. I'd vote for this too, since subtle off flavors won't be as apparent as with a pale ale. The brown might take a week or so longer before its really good, but I think you'd be pretty happy with it. Especially if you like maltier beers like dubbels and tripels, but don't want to wait an eternity to taste your first beer (trust me you wont!)

Happy brewing, if your first one goes well i'm sure you'll get addicted like the rest of us!

wizardofwoz said:

Considering the Belgiums typically take 9-12 months to ferment properly (from what I've read) .

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Who told you that. They are in the commercial beer business. You can get a decent Belgian in the bottle within a month. Lambics and Flanders (Sours) will take a year+, and are best left until you have a little experience and some understanding of what you are doing, but a Blonde, or Belgian Strong Ale is relatively simple. FYI: Chimay is a standard beer. I would not recommend a Belgian for a beginner as you need to use liquid yeast and control temperatures higher than normal. If that is what you want to brew, it will not take long to get to them.

wizardofwoz said:

Also, whats the consensus on using the 1% alcohol boosts?

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Don't mess with it. Start with a Pale Ale (or a Brown ale) and just follow the instructions. Don't add any extra sugar or booster. These are a couple of simple beers to start with.

The only thing I would recommend is get a decent yeast for the kit. Nottingham, or S-04 are good for English Ales, US-05 is good for American (they can be interchanged, but do have slightly different characteristics). If the kit has Windsor, Muntons, Coopers, or a no-name yeast, get a different yeast. Those 3 are low attenuators and you will be back asking why the beer finished so high.

As noted earlier. Ignore recommendations to rack to secondary. Unless you have a reason to rack to secondary, the beer will happily sit on the yeast for a month. The less you touch it, the less you can screw it up.

Once you have an idea of what you are doing, you can 'boost' the alcohol by using extra malt extra, but why boost the alcohol? If you want to boost the alcohol of a Pale Ale, why not do an IPA and increase the hops to compliment the increased malt.

Good luck.

Pale Ale, Porter or Stout imo

NB American wheat...4 weeks from start to drinking and its a nice beer

I picked up Brewers best new IBA kit for my brother-in-law (his wife is getting him a starter kit for Christmas) I think the high bitterness will help hide any off flavors and its dark so you wont be able to tell if its cloudy. I think its better to start with a full body kit to help mask any off flavors as you learn.

Not as sexy beer to brew, but my kit came with a lame-o American Light Ale kit that I was not to thrilled about brewing, but I have to say it was a cheap kit to use to form some sort of process around. I figured it I screwed it up, oh well it was an american light, right?! It didn't take long to ferment out and was ready to sample pretty quick. Long story short, I definately worked some kinks out of my process and learned alot with several mini-disasters along the way. I used a Dry English Ale yeast to try and give it a little something since I was not expecting much. I think the kit is at morebeer.com for $23 or something. After it was all said and done I had alot of BMC drinkers that loved it, I thought it wasn't bad for my first brew and was excited that I made actual drinkable beer!!! From there I moved quickly into Pale Ales, Amber Ales, Wit, IPA, etc.

Sorry for the ramble, but it might be a good idea to find a cheap kit to work your process out and move on from there. Keep it simple.

Best of luck!!!!!

Have you looked at "Brew Your Own" magazine? There is a bunch of Winter brews in the Dec issue that you might like. Directions do not look that hard and remember you got us here to walk you through it.

Just my thought

crash1292 said:

NB American wheat...4 weeks from start to drinking and its a nice beer

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Two in primary, two in bottles as per directions? Mine is about at 1 week in primary. Used SF-05 and there is no noticeable bubbling of the airlock anymore. Havn't taken a SG since the bucket lid is such a beast to get off, and I figure the extra time won't hurt

Thanks for all the advice guys, I'm thinking I'll either go for a nut brown or see if there is a quick and simple IPA out there.

As for the alcohol boosters it appears the overall consensus is to stay clear of them... I assumed it wasn't the best idea.

I've been told to hold off on any purchase until after Christmas but I'll report back on how it goes!

Brew either an American wheat, or a brown ale. Both are easy to brew and are ready to drink early.

My first was a cream ale... simple and great tasting.

A well made brown ale is always a satisfying beer. It was my first back in '93. Made several since then. Recipe I used came from Papazian book.

My first beer and first recipe were both a brown ale.

My first was the Brewers best red ale. It was a great one to start with, and even though I had some equipment problems on my first brew it turn out awesome. I also did the Brewers best Cream ale, and that turned out really good too.

I did a Williams Brown Ale and it was ready in about 4 weeks. Very good beer. Easy to brew, easy to enjoy. . . . . Check it out:

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/WILLIAM_S_HONEY_BROWN_ALE_P2733C183.cfm

NRS