Help me find the right beer for me to brew

[Zurik]

Hello, Im pretty much a beginner and English is not my first language so please bear with me.

I have been kinda disappointed with my first two homebrews because they turned out way too bitter/strong, those were Brewferm's Triple Kit and John Palmer's Cincinnati Pale Ale.

Heres what I like in a beer:
- I definitely love the dark/brown malty flavour of some beers. At my local brew shop I tasted some roasted malt grains and they were absolutely delicious. I'd love to make a beer that tastes like that. Brewferm's Triple beer says it has a full malty flavour but I didn't really catch that, maybe something went wrong, it kinda tasted a bit solvent-like which, as I have read, is a result from high temperatures when fermenting and yes it was kinda hot when I brewed that one but I digress.
- Like I said, my previous beers turned out way too hoppy/bitter, I'd like something milder but still not sweet. My previous pale ale brew called for 12 AAU of bittering + 5 AAU of aroma and it turned out hoppy/bitter, I should probably use way less than that my next time.
- I still don't have equipment for all-grain brewing so I'll be using malt extracts.
- A higher ABV is a plus.

So taking that into account, what do you guys think should I be looking for here? There are so many recipes and types of recipes I dont know where to start.

Thank you for your time.

 

[tooldudetool]

Try brewing a porter, a brown, or an irish stout. They are all pretty simple styles to brew, and they are all delicious. For a higher ABV go with a robust porter, Northern Brewer's St Paul Porter is a good one. Controlling fermentation temperature is one of the most important steps in making quality beer, so I would suggest looking into some type of temp control, even if it just involves a swamp cooler or frozen water bottles.

 

[Yooper]

I have a beginner's English brown ale recipe posted. I think that might be what you are looking for. It's not roasty like a stout, but it's not bitter either.

Edit- here is the link: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f67/extract-english-brown-ale-27601/

 

[kevinb]

I am brewing something like that right now.

http://www.boomchugalug.com/product/zoinks-scooby-shaggy-brown-ale/

 

[bredle]

You could try the extract kit for Shallow Grave (by Heretic Brewing):

http://morebeer.com/products/heretics-shallow-grave-robust-porter-extract-beer-kit.html

 

[hawgwild81]

Northern Brewer's Caribou Slobber kit is really good.