Good recipe and style for a first time brewer

A Pale Ale is about as simple as it gets.

 

Talk to your local brew shop and describe to them what YOU like, they will point you in the right direction. The kits are super easy to follow.

 

Something tells me he likes Pale Ales and IPAs.

 

If you're going to an actual homebrew shop (and not ordering online), just ask the people there, as was mentioned earlier. They'll likely carry some BYO magazines with recipe clones, and can help you replicate those or 'dumb them down' so you get something similar thats not over your head.

 

I just bottled my first batch this past weekend. I used a wheat beer kit from Brewers Best, which was very easy to follow. I tasted it prior to bottling and it seemed promising. I did what others have suggested and went to a home brew shop. They pointed me to a kit and said it had everything that I needed to brew my first batch. Then I asked what size brew kettle it contained, since I had read about that here. They guy then said, "oh, it doesn't have a brew kettle included". That spawned another discussion. The actual ingredient kit did have everything that I needed. Moral of the story for me anyways, is just make sure you do your reading ahead of time.

I have two pieces of advice from my first attempt regarding the "ease" of brewing.

1. Make sure you know how to siphon ahead of time.
2. Make sure you have a good way of chilling your wort. I was getting tired and cranky waiting for the wort to cool off enough to pitch the yeast (I hope I used "pitch" correctly here). I think I may have done it a little early.

Edit: I say "I think I may have done it a little early" because the stick on thermometer that came with the equipment kit sucked and I didn't have a better option.

 

I know buying the chiller would be ideal, but I have used an Icebath for both batches I have done and that takes FOREVER. I might have to save up for the chiller thing.

 

I agree with the suggestion of a kit; I find Austin's Homebrews instructions particularly easy to follow. I would recommend reading the instructions through ahead of time and lining up your ingredients as much as possible in the order you'll be using them (so you don't skip/forget anything). And I also found it very useful to prepare sanitizing solution and then just keep it one step ahead of the beer (ie, sanitize the primary fermenter and equipment, then use your siphon to transfer the sanitizer to your secondary (if you are using one) or bottling bucket before transferring the beer to primary.

 

I hear you. For, shall we say, "domestic reasons" I'm not sure if I'm going to be doing much more homebrewing. My wife got me a gift certificate to a homebrew store, but apparently only wants me to stare at my buckets, because apparently actually using them takes too much time for her... <deep breath> But if things ease up and my wife actually likes the beer, then maybe I'll keep going. If I decide to keep going I'm absolutely picking up some form of chiller when I get my next kit.

 

It's okay to brew the beer that you like if it's a simple recipe, but keep in mind as a noobie that if you want an option to hide any brewing flaw that might occur from a mistake, then a porter or stout with their bolder flavor will help to mask any minor flavor that might result from a brewing error.

 

My standard answer: brew whatever you like to drink, but keep the OG under 1.060 and use a "clean" yeast like WY 1056/WLP001/SF-05.

Below about 1.060, most yeasts will usually manage to do a good job even if you don't have your whole process down as far as pitch rates and aeration and other aspects of yeast management. And 1056/001/05 (it's all basically the same strain) will generally not throw off flavors even if, like many new brewers, you don't have the equipment to manage fermentation temperature very carefully.

 

Pale ale and IPA are great choices. Here's some general spewings forth that will help you out:

• read "how to brew"
• sanitation is very important, get starsan and don't fear the foam
• full boil is much better than topping off with water even if you have to use more than one pot (in which case you split the hops proportionately to the volumes of the pot
• cooling quickly and getting your wort below 70F before you pitch the yeast is important. get a wort chiller, or be prepared to use at least 20 lbs of ice (quite possibly more than that). Tap water that runs at 78F won't chill your wort to below 70F BTW. I use a pre-chiller for my wort chiller during summer
• fermentation temperature is extremely important. Below 70F is acceptable for ales, 65F is better. During the summer in warm climates you can't expect to keep your house that cool without spending a fortune on AC, so you'll either need to do the "swamp cooler" thing (look it up), or get a freezer/controller unit like I have (like many on here have for that matter)
• make a procedure and follow it. A simple extract + hops recipe can easily have 25 or more steps. PM me if you need an example, or search my early blogs alcaponejunior.wordpress.com for examples. You need to adapt the procedure for your recipe and your equipment
• focus on KISS methodology and recipes
• Do NOT open your beer for any reason for at least two weeks
• if you're going to bottle, save bottles, but clean them out well and immediately with HOT water, then let them dry upsidedown until they are TOTALLY dry, then cover the tops with tinfoil until you're ready to sanitize them on bottling day
• don't forget the sugar on bottling day
  
• don't get too drunk on brewday
• Relax, chill out, have a beer and don't over-think

Recipe wise I'd pick your extract and arrange for the original gravity to be about 1.060. I'd add some hops at the beginning of the boil to bitter to about 45 IBUs total and make a pale ale (this will be around a half ounce to an ounce, depending on the hops). The rest of the hops, probably around 3-4 oz, will go in late in the boil, something like 1 oz at 10 min, 1 oz at 5 min, and 2 oz at flameout.

Seriously, a brew made with nothing but extract and some hops is a perfect first brew and will come out great if you focus on the things above, and the stuff discussed in this and other noob threads.

 

Check craigslist. I live in IL too, and also homebrew. There is a guy in Schaumburg who makes chillers starting from around $50. Trust me, well worth the investment!

 

Nothing wrong with the joy of homebrewing, BTW. The fact you're researching and reading means your chances of making tasty beer have gone up about 1.749245 x 10^bzillion fold.

 

I brewed a hefewiesen as my first batch. 6 lbs wheat extract (which is actually 50/50 wheat and light malt I understand), 1 ounce noble hop (hallertau is what i used) and two packets of hefeweisen yeast (two may not be strictly required, but it was recommended to me ) i used wyeast 3068. Recipee is bring to a boil, add extract, bring back to a boil, add hops, wait 60 minutes, cool, add yeast. simple as simple gets.

 

do you have a link to that craigslist page?

 

if you quote their post, they get a notification, assuming they have such things turned on. otherwise they may not notice your question if they don't check the thread again. many of us who frequently answer noob posts probably don't check the thread again after a certain point. I know I don't necessarily read every post in every thread I post in unless someone quotes me and either has a question or brings up something I feel I need to pontificate on.