Glad to hear you're having fun! I can't recommend a specific red ale recipe (
Jamil's recipes are always a good place to start, he wins loads of contests. Also
Northern Brewer posts the ingredients bills to their recipe kits, when you see a recipe you like just click "inventory." I know they have a red which might be a beginning for you), but I can offer some general advice.
Beyond the basic basics (sanitation, use your hydrometer, don't mess with your beer because the yeast know what they are doing, etc), here are the three things that will make the biggest difference in your basic ales (these three things can take your friends from "dude, you made beer" to "dude, what is this and where did you buy it? Do you have any more?" And after that it's up to you to perfect you recipe to your own tastes.
1) USE DRY EXTRACT. I know it costs more, but it doesn't get stale. It's very hard to tell if the liquid extract you get at an lhbs is fresh or not. Brewing is just like cooking: if you don't start with great ingredients, you shouldn't expect great results. Put another way, the best beers, like the best food, are simple and built around great ingredients. Use the rule of thumb for converting lme to dme: .75 lb LME = .6 lb DME (this is also equal to 1 lb grain, if you are converting a grain recipe to extract).
2) AVOID BOIL CARAMELIZATION. Caramelization is the formation of un-ferementable sugars in your boil kettle which leads to very annoying residual sweetness later. It is caused by boiling wort that has too much malt in it, usually in partial boils for extract or partial mash brews. This shouldn't be a problem if you are brewing all-grain.. If you are brewing extract, you should either do a full boil or, if your pot/burner are not big enough, add most of your extract late (the late extract addition will affect your hop utilization, use beersmith to figure this out-- say you have six lbs of extract in a recipe. In beersmith, add two extract ingredients: one for 1 lb, and another for 5 lb, but on the five pound one check the little box that says "late extract boil for __ min," most people do it for 10 or 15. Then fiddle with your hop amounts until the IBU is back to what it was before). When I do PM brews all the extract goes in late.
3) CONTROL YOUR FERMENTATION TEMPERATURE. Depending on whether it is hot or cold where you brew, there are lots of methods to do this, some will be more or less expensive or precise. Search this forum to find specifics, or describe your conditions to me and I can try to be helpful. Rule of thumb for ales: aim for 63-65 degrees F. It is really best to keep it under 70. Below 60 a lot of yeasts will quit on you.
You will find discussions about secondary ferments, etc.. It doesn't matter, do what makes you feel comfortable. Me, I brew and take OG, wait a half a week, take a gravity reading to be sure it fermented, then leave it another three-ish weeks and bottle. this is a total of 3 or 4 weeks before it's bottled. If you can find a cold but not freezing spot for the last few days before bottling, this will help your beer clear.
If you are bottling, ensure carbonation by letting the bottles condition for 21 days at 70 degrees. Any less and any cooler and you are rolling the dice. Consistency of carb between bottles will improve if you give them the full time. This meens you are drinking 6 weeks after brewing.
As far as recipes go, I usually start with a recipe I trust from someplace else (a friend, this site, a brewing supply store or site, a book, or a simple recipe based on a style guideline), and then modify it based on my personal tastes, my brewing process, and availability of specific ingredients. As you get more experienced you will learn what you can substitute, and you will perfect some recipes of your own. Using beersmith (as I do) and starting with a good recipe will give you an idea of the IBUs and the OG you are trying to hit. My way of doing it is bootleg: I enter the base recipe into beersmith using as much info as I can about the process the recipe was designed for (full/partial boil, mash or not, etc.), write down the OG, FG, IBU, and color on a piece of paper, and then start changing things around until I have something I can brew that comes up with the same numbers. Then I brew it.
Also, keeping recipes simple makes good beer and saves money (I need to be REALLY convinced to brew a recipe using .5 oz of three different kinds of hops, for instance... I'd rather buy one 2 oz pack of hops and use that all up than spend an extra $12 to have three partial bags of hops lying around).
If you get a recipe and want help modifying it, let me know!
PS I am from a rustbelt town in upstate NY and will be rooting for the Steelers tomorrow!
