Recipe suggestion for complete Noob?

Hello all,

My wife and I are about to try homebrewing for the very first time. We have all of the general supplies we need, but don't know what recipe to try for our first. Any suggestions for a nice, simple starting point? We understand that our first batch won't be great, so we just want something simple that we aren't too likely to screw up and give us something that is actually drinkable. Basically, we are looking for something that will help us understand the process before we more to more complicated (and, hopefully, better).

Thanks in advance.

I gotta tell you. I deeply believe that anyone who cares to brew beer can go ahead and start with unhopped extract, some specialty grains, and some hops. You'll hear folks go on and on about unhopped extracts and no-boil kits, but that makes so-so beer and doesn't teach you much about this "process" that interests you.

You can get a kit, if you like, and that will save you some trouble in coming up with a recipe, and there are some very good ones out there. If you like American Pale Ales, you can do something as simple as:

6# light liquid malt extract
1# 40L Crystal
1 oz Centennial or Amarillo hops, boiled for 60 minutes
1 oz Centennial, Cascades, or Amarillo hops, boiled for 15 minutes
Irish moss
SafeAle S-04 yeast

Have everything sanitizes and ready to roll before you begin. Your life will be much easier.

Steep the crystal malt in a steeping bag in about a gallon or two of water for 30 minutes @ 150-160F. Remove the gran bag, let it drain a little, and set it aside or just toss. Add the rest of your brewing water and bring it up to near boiling. Add your LME and stir gently until all syrup is dissolved (be thorough here). Bring everything up to a boil, skimming the foam as it comes up (you typically want to skim, as that foam will act like a lid and cause a boilover) until you have a stable, rolling boil. When you have a stable, rolling boil, add the first hop addition and set your timer for 60 minutes. Enjoy the quiet time while you brew, but keep an eye on the kettle, just in case a boilover tries to creep up on you.

When your timer reads 15 minutes, add the rest of the hops and the Irish moss. Enjoy the quiet time. When your timer reads 0:00, cut the heat and chill your wort as quickly as you can. If you happened to pick up a wort chiller, use it. If not, most folks use an ice water bath (fill the sink up with water and as much ice as you can, put the pot in there, uncovered, and stir the wort gently while moving the pot around a little (if you can) until you get cooled down to pitching temperature). Then, add any top off water you need to get to proper volume, pitch your yeast, mix it all up good (don't be afraid to get rough here, but don't make a mess), and be pleased with yourself that you are now a brewer.

Ferment with the SafeAle S-04 yeast for one week in the primary, rack to the secondary for two weeks, prime with 3/4 cup dextrose (roughly 5 oz.), bottle, wait a few weeks, chill, and enjoy.


TL

I would recommend getting any of the extract plus steeping grains and hops kits from Austin Homebrew or Northern Brewer. I used one of these for my first brew and it was excellent. Pick a style you like and have at it.

What would you like to drink? I made an English Brown for my first beer, but you can make English pale ale, American Pale Ale, hefeweisen, etc, and they are all about the same difficulty. If you're making it, might as well make a style you enjoy! If you tell us a commercial example of a beer you like, we could give you some pointers.

In all seriousness you can brew most anything you like with extract.

What kind of beer do you guys like? I'm sure one of us can help. Also, check out the recipe database. Lots of good recipes there.

BTW welcome to HBT!

Happy brewing!

Everything TexLaw said +1.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how good your first beer will turn out.

If you want to look at some recipe kits to get a sense of the variety available to you, then check out the Gold-Seal Extract kits from Austin Home Brew Supply. They are easy and they make really good beer.

Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with AHS. I just like their kits.

Welcome to HBT!

Thanks for the help and the welcome!

We both like good IPA's. I don't think that we have found a beer that has too much hop for us. We mostly drink microbrews, Victory Hopdevil and Bell's Two Hearted Ale being a couple of favorites.

I am really excited about getting started with all of this!

Oooh, more hopheads! I love it!

I would get an IPA extract kit from AHS like this: http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_452_43_263&products_id=1794

Now, this kit is more expensive than some, but it's got a boatload of hops! I think that would be a great kit. I would just get a dry yeast to start (Nottingham) because it's a good way to learn the basics. Actually, any IPA kit you get from Northern Brewer, Austinhomebrew, etc will be good. And the instructions they have in their kits are great.

check this out:

http://howtobrew.com/section4/chapter19-3.html

Well, then, if you want to get all crazy . . . . :rockin:

Consider adding another pound of extract and another half pound of Crystal to the grain bill, and another half ounce of hops to each addition. If you want to get really crazy, toss another ounce of hops into your secondary for the last week before you bottle.

Now, you don't need to do any of that, or you can save it for your next batch. It's always fun to add something onto the process and see what you can learn.

Also, I look back up and realized that I recommended Cascades for bittering (60 minute) hops. Strike that (and I will with an edit). Save your Cascades for later additions.


TL

What's great about brown ales and ordinary bitters is that you can ferment them for a week, bottle, wait two weeks and drink and it'll be good.

YooperBrew said:

Oooh, more hopheads! I love it!

I would get an IPA extract kit from AHS like this: http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_452_43_263&products_id=1794

Now, this kit is more expensive than some, but it's got a boatload of hops! I think that would be a great kit. I would just get a dry yeast to start (Nottingham) because it's a good way to learn the basics. Actually, any IPA kit you get from Northern Brewer, Austinhomebrew, etc will be good. And the instructions they have in their kits are great.

Click to expand...

That looks great! I think we might try it. There are so many options here...

If you are just starting out, you might want to check out this article from Brew Your Own magazine. It was part of their 10th anniversary series. This was the ten classic styles that they consider the easiest for home brewers. That does not mean crappy beer, just styles that do not require overly complicated recipes or techniques. I believe that they say in the article that the American Pale Ale is an EXCELLENT first beer to try.

http://***********/feature/1279.html

I brewed an AHS American Red Ale mini mash for my first beer and was very pleased. Awesome color, taste, smooth beer, and the mini mash feels more involved with minimal more work.

Got to emphasize again how cool it was to have good tasting red colored beer.

Thanks everyone. I have a couple of follow up questions that probably don't really merit new threads...

If I order from the Austin Homebrew site, they have a flat rate shipping, so it seems to me that it would make sense to order a few kits. Are the kits time sensitive? If I order a few and some sit on a shelf here for a while, will that be a problem, or should I really only order them as I want to use them?

The site says that shipping to me should take 3 days. If I ordered tonight, it would be here early next week (around 12/11 or so). I will be leaving town for a week 11 days later. Would that time frame give me enough time to get my first brew going and leave for 7 days? From what I can tell from reading around here, if I wasn't using a secondary fermenter, it would probably just sit in the primary until I am back. Does that sound right? Or, should I just do the smart thing and wait until I am back in town after the holiday to start my first beer (even though I am really anxious to get started)?

Thanks again!

You could start a batch before going out of town, that's no problem.

AHS' kits are made when you order them, so you could probably keep them a little while. Still, they are better the fresher they are. I would try to use them as soon as possible. But I have had some kits when I first started that I know sat around for a while in the homebrew store before I bought them and they were fine. A good way to tell is to taste the crushed grain- if it's not stale, it's good.

AHS' crushed grain comes in sealed bags, which helps, too. You could probably go a month or so, but that's only my guess. You can actually ask AHS (the owner is a member on this site, as a matter of fact) about this to be sure.

Excellent, that is what I wanted to hear. I think I will order a couple of kits. One I can start right away and one to get started on once I move the first one to bottles.