First timer - advice, tips, and recipe

Do you like Two Hearted beer? If so, then the Northern Brewer Kit of Dead Ringer would be a good choice for you.

Cheers!

P.S. Permit me to be the first to state read the online book How to Brew:http://www.howtobrew.com/

 

Do you have a favorite commercial beer in either of those styles that you'd like to mimic? There are all kinds of recipes on the Internet that will allow you to have some comparison fun as a reward for your brewing effort.

Edit: Welcome to this insane but fun hobby.

 

Then you're not a citra hop fan?

 

If you're trying to steer away from a kit, here's an IPA recipe crowd sourced on this forum...
http://beeradvocate.com/community/t...rfect-american-ipa-project-the-recipes.74647/

And JackHorzempa is right. Read How to Brew.

 

If you don't want to do the red because it is too big, proportional scaling is your friend. If you don't want to do it because there is something about red ales that you don't like, tell us what you like and share the recipe; there will be plenty of people in this forum willing to tell you how to enhance the kit by adding more hops.

 

APA: Northern Brewer Sierra Madre extract kit
IPA: Northern Brewer Dead ringer extract kit

I'd recommend doing extract kits for your first couple (few) batches, and following the directions to the letter. If you do this, you will make decent to good beer. Once you're comfortable with the process, move to full grain kits, and once you're comfortable with that, you'll want to start creating your own recipes.

No idea about Carlo Rossi wine jugs, but if you want to do very small batches, these work great, fit an airlock, and are affordable: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...-batch-starter-kit/small-batch-fermentor.html

 

Add more hops. Always ;-)

 

The smaller the batch, the tighter your temperature control has to be: 2 gallons shifts temp in response to an ambient temp shift faster than 5 gallons. Temp shifts are not your friend

 

First-timer OP askes for advice, tips, and recipe.

Advice - brew what you bought
Tips - follow carefully all of the directions for the brew what you bought
Recipe - ibid

Free-styling first time out seldom ends well.

 

Ah, good tip! I fail to see how this is relevant to the OP's questions, though.

 

yes there are plenty of people here willing to tell you what to do.

do what you like to drink.

i have a cider in a one gal. (cider jug, the same one it came in) at the moment. if the airlock fits and you can keep the temp stable you should be fine

 

I'd say just brew the kit. No point in wasting the ingredients. Once you've got that one under your belt, use that experience in making the kit (or recipe) of your choice next.

More or less any vessel that can be sanitized will work for a carboy. But I would recommend going ahead and brewing the 5 gallons. Don't worry about having too much beer. (Some people would say that's impossible.) You'd be surprised how quickly a 5 gallon batch can go. Anyway, it's the same amount of work, only a few dollars more for 5 gallons vs 1-2.

 

Replace "Tips" with read How to Brew or a similar text. Instructions that come with 99% of the kits suck and misguide the new brewer from using better practices. Other than that I agree with the rest of what you are saying.

 

I agree with that!

 

Brew the kit as is, or add a bit more of the same or similar hops to give it more umph. Either as late hop additions to the boil, or dry hopping after primary fermentation has ceased.

Advice: READ, READ, READ. Brew this first one up and pick a book or two to read whilst it ferments.
-Plan your brew days ahead of time, outline what needs to be done and TAKE NOTES!
-Keep the fermentation temperatures consistent and around 64-68 degrees. No ups and downs.
-No splishy splashy transferings, go slow, be nice to your beer.
-Properly sanitize all equipment.

Tips: READ some more. Find similar "newbie" threads here and on other homebrewing forums, most will have answers to common newbie questions already there for you to read.
-Be relaxed but maintain focus on the beer/brewing.
-Be safe!
-Take notes

Recipe: READ some more. What do you like? You can ask for recipes based on what you like and I am sure you will get quite a few responses here and elsewhere. Google is your friend.

Good luck with your first homebrew and on your brew-journey!

Slainte!

 

Tru dat...but...and ain't there always a but...who's gonna choose between brewing and browsing Teh Palmer first time out?

Likewise.

 

I read "How to Brew" twice, some parts more, before brewing my first batch. I had seen enough incomprehensible discussions on the internet to know that I didn't know anything. And I wanted to make sure my beer didn't suck.