First Brew

[lpdean]

I brewed my first bacth this past weekend and had a great time doing so. I got a little worried when my airlock wasn't bubbling after the first day in the primary but I came home to find it chugging away as expected. My wife made fun of me when I got all excited about it.
If something happens in the process, how do you know that you have a bad batch or if it is just bad tasting beer. Any pointers you guys could give or ideas for my next batch would be greatly apprecited. I am thinking about a pumpkin ale of some sort since Haloween is just around the corner.

 

[chase]

I have found that it is really hard to make bad beer. On my second batch I dropped my unsanitized airlock into the cooled wort. I was certain that it would be spoiled, but it wasn't! It tasted wonderful (american pale). One thing that I do know will make for bad beer is high fermentation temp. My first batch fermented at 80º! Talk about fusel alcohols! Plus I got really bad headaches after drinking more than two. I fixed that problem with a fermenting cabinet.

Other than those two things, ales are really plastic. You can be very mean to them and they'll almost always be nice back.

My advice on pumpkin ale is this:
Pumpkin is actually very subtle flavor. Use several pounds (4+) if you want an upfront pumpkin flavor. If you use pumpkin pie spices, go easy on the cloves. They impart lots of flavor and will cover up everything else. And last, brew it ASAP. This type of beer needs all the time you can give it to age.

 

[TheJadedDog]

I agree, beer is pretty hard to screw up. Taste is the primary way I determine whether a beer is ruined or not, as long as it tastes good I don't worry about the other stuff. I do monitor when fermentation starts and if it doesn't take off within 3 days I'll take some action (like repitching some dry yeast); other than that I try not to worry too much (but I used to, just look at my early posts).

 

[Kayos]

Here is a recipe I came up with for an extract Ale...it has no actual pumpkin in it, but I think people taste the pumpkin spices and think it is pumpkin.

3 lb light DME
3 lb. amber dme
.5 lb crystal 75
.5 lb. caravienne
1 oz hallertau 60 min
1 oz cascade 30 min
.5 lb honey flameout
2 cinnamon sticks flameout
last 5 mins of boil:
1/4 tsp. crushed cloves
1/2 tsp allspice
4 tsp vanilla
neutral dry yeast