Noobie understanding brewing.

[held79]

I've made a few batches with the hopped no boil kits but I'm thinking about moving up. I'm oversimplifying this a bit but if I buy a some LME or DME and add in some hops of whatever I grab off the shelf, will I have a viable wort? Granted boil times and quantity will affect the taste but isn't a wort basically the malt and hops?

 

[double_e5]

Nothing wrong with doing this. Just ask your LHBS employee for some guidance in the amount of ME and hop to get a balanced beer. Or download Beersmith or another software to help you out. Another option would be to buy a kit. Most of them are very easy to put together and some have grains for steeping to add flavor/color. You can get a kit from your LHBS. Austin Homebrew has an awesome selection of kits and have very straight forward directions.

 

[ChshreCat]

+1 on steeping some grains.

There are many styles you can make (or make a close approximation of) with just some extract, one or two grains steeped before your boil and a well chosen hop. After you do it you'll wonder why you bothered messing with the kits you tried before.

 

[held79]

I brewed a bock from a kit that I enjoy. I have a stout in the fermenter and have a can of a brown ale. After that I may venture into "brewing" rather than just "mixing". Any easy recipes for a beginner on something that wouldn't be too bitter with a medium-full body?

 

[cuinrearview]

There are also some fantastic recipes available here in the "recipe" link at the top of the page. I'd do pre-packaged kit or a recipe from here as long as you can get all of the listed ingrediants. Write down a couple that look good to make sure you find one.

Yes malt, water, and hops are the three basic parts of wort. Add yeast and you have beer! Play with the above ingrediants with great care and control and you have really good beer. Just remember to have fun!