Best style for first time brewer

In my experience porter is a very forgiving style.

 

I think any fresh ale kit that you like to drink would be fine. I think if you are prepared equipment-wise, have a solid procedure down, and it's a style/type you like you will be successful. If you do not have a way to control fermentation temps yet, focus on that.

In my personal experience, all beers are simultaneously easily to brew and easy to fuck up depending on preparation, sanitation, and execution of the individual beer.

PS Don't drink while you brew. This can lead to screw ups at best and dangerous situations at worst.

 

Wits and Hefes are easy and fast to brew...but still require some attention to detail...and if you ferment too warm (a noob mistake)...they'll still be drinkable.

 

I'll suggest a dark beer style that is to your taste liking. The flavor of the dark malts will mask most flaws from a brewing screw-up. But brewing flaws can be avoided if you pay attention to detail and do your planning homework before you start the brewing process.

Will this brewing session be from an extract or all-grain kit?

 

If going extract and not doing a full boil- I would brew the Dead Ringer Ipa kit from Northernbrewer.com. It is very good and the hops help mask any mistakes that one can make. Sanitize, Sanitize, Sanitize- and ferment in a basement or cool area at around 65-70 degrees with an American Ale yeast or Safale 05 dry yeast- and you will be fine!

 

I agree with my fellow Illinoisian Geneseohawk. Dead Ringer is a great first kit for a first time brewer

Overall, I'd say the best style would be IPA or APA. Very difficult to screw up.

 

What do you want to drink? My first was an English Brown, second an APA, both turned out great. Either a brown or an APA would be a good first beer. If you like Hefe, then this would also be a good one.

FWIW, don't automatically trust the local homebrew shop. There have been too many posts here about screwed up directions or ingredients from the local place. If you tell us what you like, we can tell you exactly what to buy and as a group, we are more likely to be right than wrong

 

pale ale with plenty of hops or IPA is fine, porter, hef, wit, wheat beers also have merit.

Anything "imperial" does not have any place in a noob situation.

and although you didn't ask, it won't hurt me any to do a simple ctrl-v and paste it here: this is a re-print of what I posted a few minutes ago in the other noob thread that's on page one today:

 

Pale Ale, IPA, Stout... quite forgiving, lots of decent recipes & kits to be had.

 

Double dry hopped barrel aged mango and habanero infused imperial stout bottled with brettanomyces. Or a pale ale.

 

You forgot the rolleye emoticon! This IS the internet, always be aware... Poe's law! Well, a corollary to Poe's law, probably. maybe. possibly.

 

I'd say a simple pale ale isn't too wild, too hard to do, not real hard to mess up, and the hops will help hide the mistakes that will be made.

If you manage to cool the wort to a proper pitching temp, pitch enough yeast, and ferment it within the guidelines of your yeast strain, it's rather hard to make a terrible tasting beer. Unless you have a god-awful malt bill, and add a boat load of adjuncts and stuff to it after the fact.

 

Agreed. My first three brews were all porters -- and there were plenty of mistakes made that benefited from this forgiveness

 

Brown Ale or Amber Ale is probably the most traditional first time brew style recommendation. Both fairly forgiving styles and fairly inexpensive styles to brew. Don't complicate or inflate the cost of your first brew with lots of hops, lots of specialty malts, or lots of flavor additives. While it may turn out just fine, it definitely won't be your best and is likely to be a batch that you make mistakes producing. Focus on getting the process down first before adding additional complication and expense.

 

I see you're in WA. Which home-brew store are you getting the kit from?

My first batch was a Belgian golden ale from Homebrew Heaven in Everett. Turned out really nicely.

 

I advise first to brew what you like. Some styles are easier than others and more accessible to newbies. Session beers, hefes, brown ales, pale ales, porters, stouts. Unless you live by the go big or go home philosophy that is pervasive among newbies, I recommend staying small.

 

Homebrew Heaven is my LHBS -- it's the bomb!

 

They were the LHBS for me, too. Then I moved to NH. However, I realized that I spent too much time there when I visited 5 years after I moved and the guys still recognized me.

I recently brewed a HBH Diamond Knot IPA clone and the Scuttlebutt Porter clone. Both were good. The DK was definitely the better of the two.

 

Go with a brown or amber, simple to make and easily a brew to share with non craft type people to inflate your ego.