Welcome! You jumped into the deep end of the pool right away! congrats!
have you tried a "SMaSH" yet? If not take your favorite base grain and your favorite hop and make those your only 2 ingredients, for a single malt single hop beer could be fun on an IPA, since your a hophead. My "smash" was a simcoe pale ale & wow! got to know what simcoe does at each addition.