Easiest Starting Beer

As you can tell by the thread I am posting in I am a aspiring brewer and I am curious as to what the easiest type of beer to make is for a beginner. I have done a little reasearch and from what I can see there are kits that require boiling of ingredients and those that don't. Is there a big taste difference between the two kits? Is it really that difficult to make the kits that require boiling? Which kit will have the quickest results, ie. which will I be able to drink sooner? Any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks.

A Brown in the range specific gravity of 1.040 will be drinkable in four weeks. Boiling the wort isn't a big deal and will taste better, largely because you are adding hops during the boil, rather than depending on hop oils and extracts.

If you're looking for a specific easy kit, try Brewer's Best kits. They have very easy instructions, and are complete when you buy them. I've used the English Brown, the English Pale, and the Red. All make very good beer. They require boiling in a 2.5 gallon or so batch, and then you add water to make 5 gallons. That would be a good starter type beer to make.

Lorena

My $.02...

Brown ales are often recommended because they're easy and will be drinkable sooner than most other styles.

However, hoppier styles, like an American or English style pale ale, are a little better at masking any small flaws in the final product. So I think you can make an excellent case for this approach in selecting a first brew.

I'd probably go with one of these aproaches--according to which style you prefer.

Thanks for the info. Are the Brown Ales you recomend similar to New Castle?

tron said:

Thanks for the info. Are the Brown Ales you recomend similar to New Castle?

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It is my understanding that the Brewer's Best Brown Ale tastes very similiar to Newcastle. Anyone care to confirm?

fezzman said:

It is my understanding that the Brewer's Best Brown Ale tastes very similiar to Newcastle. Anyone care to confirm?

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Send me some and I'll tell you.

Newcastle Brown is my port in a storm if a pub doesn't serve cask ale.
So I've got through a few in the past.

Most extract ale kits that you can get from Midwest, ABS or Northern Brewer are beginner kits and they're all pretty easy. You have grains, extract hops and sometimes something extra. They all come premeasured and with good instructions.

Instead of just looking for something easy, I'd try something you like. You'll end up being much happier with the final product and if you follow the instructions and have read the first Chapter of Palmer's 'How to Brew', you should have no problems.

To be honest with you I'd make whatever the hell you want. If you can boil water, use a thermometer, and clean stuff... you can make whatever beer you want. Drink commercial beer while your first batch ferments and conditions. Its worth the wait. Have one uncarbo'd beer when you bottle, another a couple days after its been on bottles, and save the rest for another couple weeks down the road. I buy beer in kits of two or more. I generally always have at least one fermenting... this week I bottled 10 gallons including a stout that needs to condition so i'm waiting a week to start the munich

fezzman said:

It is my understanding that the Brewer's Best Brown Ale tastes very similiar to Newcastle. Anyone care to confirm?

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Yes, it does. I had Newcastle in one glass and the Brewer's Best English Brown Ale in the other. My husband actually PREFERRED the homebrew. He said it tasted very similar, but the HB was fresher and more complex.

Lorena

My first was a Brewers Best irish stout. My wife had the same reaction to it that your husband had to yours. Brewers Best seem to be good kits and even as many mistakes as I made with my first batch my homebrew came out better than what I'd buy at the store. 'Course it could be that I just really like the idea of drinking a beer that I made myself.

rdwj said:

Instead of just looking for something easy, I'd try something you like. You'll end up being much happier with the final product and if you follow the instructions and have read the first Chapter of Palmer's 'How to Brew', you should have no problems.

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I mostly agree with this--there are a few things that a beginner shouldn't try right away, IMHO: any lagers, any fruit beer, anything with significant flavorings other than malt hops & yeast, anything above the gravity range of 1.065 or so.

But the vast majority of ales do not fit into any of those categories.

all of this information is greatly appreciated. the good news for me is ales are my favorite type of beer. does a stout like guinness fit into the same level of skill required as a ale?

tron said:

all of this information is greatly appreciated. the good news for me is ales are my favorite type of beer. does a stout like guinness fit into the same level of skill required as a ale?

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Yes--a dry stout (which *is* an ale) would be a perfectly ideal first beer. Go with a kit from Brewer's Best or one of the big online HB stores like morebeer.com, Northern Brewer, or Austin Homebrew. If you go the latter route, just make sure you're getting yeast since some of those places don't include yeast in the kits.

I was going to say it'd probably be drinking beautifully by St. Patrick's day, but if you brew it now I bet it'll be gone by then

If stouts are your cup of tea (cup-o-beer?) then I can't recommend the B.B. Russian Imperial Stout enough. I have gotten nothing but praise with this beer. Very robust with complex flavors. I added 1/3 lb of lactose for good measure.

Of course this probably would be better suited as a second brew because it takes longer to condition.

I've not tried the brown ale yet. My wife made Christmas candy for the lhbs guys. Maybe, just maybe, I'll do a bit of shopping while I'm there this Saturday. lol

The Brewer's Best kits list all of the contents on the outside of the box. They all follow the same general instructions with one exception...some of them have specialty grains which need to be steeped prior to boiling. If you are wanting to start out small-ish then perhaps seek out a kit that only has the extracts. There really is nothing to fear with the steeping though, piece of cake.

My first brew was a porter (not a kit, but using a recipe and the extract+steeping grain method) and it turned out great. I did a ton of research and read through Designing Great Beers (Daniels) and How to Brew (Palmer) before ever starting. The recipe was a modified version (different hop bill) of Port' O Palmer in How to Brew.

Darn. The last two batches I brewed were way over bittered even with just using the packet in the kit and following the specific timing instructions, and they both produced a large number of overcarbed bottle bombs that blew up in my kegerator. I checked and rechecked everything and still cant get it right...

Wheelchair Bob

cweston said:

My $.02...

Brown ales are often recommended because they're easy and will be drinkable sooner than most other styles.

However, hoppier styles, like an American or English style pale ale, are a little better at masking any small flaws in the final product. So I think you can make an excellent case for this approach in selecting a first brew.

I'd probably go with one of these aproaches--according to which style you prefer.

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I think there's a caveat here... light colored hoppy beers are probably not going to hide subtle off flavors like something roasted would... Dark and hoppy would hide more than dark and malty, but I'd still stay dark as my first limitation, unless of course, the OP doesn't like dark beers or really wants to go after something light - I just wouldn't want to dive in with a Munich Helles.

Waking the dead with this thread.

Not really waking the dead, just applied and had other good answers for my "why" research...

Wheelchair Bob

Rbeckett said:

Darn. The last two batches I brewed were way over bittered even with just using the packet in the kit and following the specific timing instructions, and they both produced a large number of overcarbed bottle bombs that blew up in my kegerator. I checked and rechecked everything and still cant get it right...

Wheelchair Bob

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If you are getting bottle bombs and overcarbonatiin, I'd wager that your bottling them before fermentation is done. How long are you fermenting for, and have you taken gravity readings prior to bottling?

The bitterness might be from the overcarbing... Carbonic acid can have a bit of a bite to it.