I had this thing back in the 90s called the beer machine. I believe they still sell it. Ferment and serve in same vessel. I probably did a porter or something from that. So, officially, that was my first beer. Then I gave up on it for quite a few years when I got my kegerator and just bought beer. Eventually, with the cost of kegs going from $50/half barrel in the early '00s to now over $100, I decided to get back into it, convert my kegerator to 3 taps and get the stuff to do full 5 gallon batches.
I brewed a Brewers Best American Amber Ale. I thought I did enough research, but still missed the whole "Room Temp is NOT fermentation temp thing." It certainly was drinkable and the next 2 got even better. for the 4th beer, I brewed the BB Amber again and this time it was actually a damn good beer.