Best learning experience for 2nd brew

[SatiricalPuma]

Hello, everyone!

I have my first ever batch fermenting nicely in the primary at the moment and will be racking to a secondary if today's gravity reading is the same as it was 3 days ago. I used the Brewers Best IPA extract kit. I hit a few snags (most notably it took me about an hour to cool the wort) but I've researched my mistakes and feel like I have a pretty good handle on the extract process now. I want to do a few more extract batches before moving on to partial mash and full grain...

My question is...is there a certain type of beer I should try for my second extract batch that would teach me more than the IPA kit did? I understand that IPAs are fairly forgiving, as the expectation of clarity is not as high and there are a lot of hops to mask off flavors. What would you recommend as either a more difficult brew or one that is different enough from an IPA that I may pick up some more knowledge. How about an Oktoberfest?

Cheers

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

I don't know if this helps much, but I recently did my first extract non-kit beer and it was a huge learning experience for me.
Getting all of the additions lined up and all of the grains for steeping was something I took for granted when doing kits.

 

[butterpants]

I don't know if this helps much, but I recently did my first extract non-kit beer and it was a huge learning experience for me.
Getting all of the additions lined up and all of the grains for steeping was something I took for granted when doing kits.

That's a good idea. Try SD-Slim's Lemon Lime Heffewizen. There's an extract recipe in his thread, the beer is fantastic and with all the hop additions+specalty grains you can deconstruct it all.... good learning experience.

 

[finsfan]

I would recommend any extract kit with steeping grains, that a good next step to take towards AG, but still keeps it simple. I would also recommend the Bavarian Hefeweizen kit from Northern Brewer. I did one this spring as one of my first extracts and was the best beer I have made it.

 

[SatiricalPuma]

I don't know if this helps much, but I recently did my first extract non-kit beer and it was a huge learning experience for me.
Getting all of the additions lined up and all of the grains for steeping was something I took for granted when doing kits.

That's a solid idea. I think I'll do a non-kit extract recipe this weekend. Sounds like a small step forward, which is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

I'm considering the Lemon-Lime Hefeweizen mentioned, but if anyone else has other non-kit extract recipe suggestion, they're welcome here (otherwise I'll just browse the recipes section).