I have only got 3 brews under my belt all in a local college brewing class. I brew a Black Ale and Pale ale because that's what the professors commanded. I was stationed in Germany for a couple years so I knew the flavors of bocks and hefeweizen really well. I really have not found a good fresh hefe here in the states as they usually have the yeast stuck together so I chose hefeweizen for my project beer. Over the months we have tasted probably 50-60 different beers withing different style ranges. We would write down out thoughts of Aroma, Appearance, Taste etc and rank them against each other to our liking. After getting warmed up in class and verifying blood alcohol was below .06 I would hit the liquer store on the way home and pick up a couple six packs of different craft beers to plan for my home brews and what I can really drink 5 gallons of in a timely manner. Soon discovered a HyVee grocery store nearby had a killer liquer dept. They had one cooler section of craft beers in individual and they run sales of pick any 6 for something like $5. Really good way to sample 6 different IPA's one time and stouts the next etc. I will probably brew another Hefe on my own equipment and then I picked out a honey wheat kit from Austin Home brew. Once I bottle my Apfelwine I will also get started on a Russian Imperial Stout that I tried about a month back. It was brewed in 08 by one of my professors, won awards and was absolutely delish. Anyway That's how I started and I probably won't target a clone recipe for my first year. Once I decide on style I look at recipes here by how many people are engaged in conversation about it or look at kits, how they rank and the number of reviews.