So I'm going to attempt my 1st batch soon.

[boondock86]

Was wondering what y'all thought would be best for me. I know im going to be doing an ale and was wondering what y'all thought would best suit me taste wise. I'm mostly used to american lagers and bocks but i love me some Fat Tire too. I was thinking of doing a pale ale or belgium ale. I've already surfed the forum a bit and i like what i see, lots of great info.

 

[Figbash]

Start simple.

John Palmer has an excellent web site (and book) for the beginning brewer. Follow his procedure and you can't go wrong.

Tom

 

[CouchFarmer]

I think most people start with a pale ale or a bitter or something similar. The recipes are simpler (fewer ingredients to play with) but it still has enough flavor to hide the blemishes of your first batch. Lagers are a different beast, you need to be able to hold the fermenter at a much lower temperature (extra equipment) and it takes way too long for impatient beginning brewers. I know I got impatient on my first batch and cracked the first bottle a bit earlier than I should have.

 

[android]

a pale ale will be a good start. i bet you could find a good extract recipe in the database here to get you going. a lot of the all-grain recipes have extract recipes buried in the threads, might be a good place to get a good one. use a yeast like nottingham and you should be good to go.

and +1 on following palmer's method, it worked great for me on my first brew.

 

[SumnerH]

Personally I'm a fan of starting with a beer that takes a while to finish, then doing a couple quicker beers the next couple of weeks. That's what I did, and it meant I always had a new brew to stop me from futzing with the ones that were fermenting, and when things finally finished up I had a few brews to taste and a bit of a pipeline established already.

Something like:
Belgian strong in week 1
IPA, stout, etc in week 2
Mild or hefeweizen in week 3

But if you're not going to brew a bunch of times in a row, go with something fast at the start to keep you engaged.

 

[boondock86]

cool ty for the info guys

 

[Grinder12000]

Pale Ale - the one thing new brewers do wrong is brew IPAs, Belguims BIG beers. Do something simple that will be ready. Ambers would even be better then a Pale Ale.

Get a Fat Tire Clone. Heck - my most popular brew is an Amber that started as a fat tire Clone and has been tweak so much that it is no longer a clone. People love it and it's fool proof.

 

[bhethcote]

I just finished my first batch (English PA) and I'd agree with the Palmer book as a great resource. Here's a couple takeaways that I got from my first batch:

1. Use a heat source with a good temperature control. Being able to keep the boil at a nice easy roll makes things a little more mellow.

2. Make sure the wort is ready for yeast to be pitched before you start preparing the yeast. I tried to get a little head start and it seemed like everything got kind of time-congested at the end.

BH