First time brewer, looking for a first time suggestion.

[Brewer #88154]

Hi friends,

I am looking for a fairly simple recipe to get my first brew day under my belt. I have studied the process, and I am ready to brew. If anyone wants to recommend a good first time recipe it would be appreciated. I am thinking an IPA, if worst comes to worst I can dry hop my troubles away!

Edit: I have an all grain set-up.

 

[J A]

IPA is a fine idea, but knowing how to use hops isn't a given. If you've got troubles in the process that make the beer less than drinkable, dry hops won't fix it for you. If you do an IPA, try to keep it relatively low gravity. Shooting for a 7% beer on your first try may not be the right approach.

You'll probably find that a simple ale like a blonde or session pale or English bitter will do nicely. If you like wheat beers, hefeweizens can be easy and forgiving.

Keep it simple.
Good luck and welcome to the forum.

 

[sn00ky]

Welcome, fairly new myself but I know your equipment will also help decide. do you have temperature control for fermentation?
I tried a light pilsner lager for my first AG. Turned out great, was quite forgiving during the process and fermented well. Be sure to consider your timing as it took a lot longer than I had planned for the first time .

 

[J A]

Be sure to consider your timing as it took a lot longer than I had planned for the first time .

He makes a good point. A lager or high gravity IPA will take longer than a simple ale of .050 gravity. Even if you're patient in terms of trying your first beer, you'll probably be itching to free up your equipment to get the second batch going.

 

[CRUNK]

I agree you must be in control of your patience, I elected to make an ale for my first batch and it turned out very tasty, it was pretty straight forward and less time to wait to try your finished product, get your feet wet method

 

[BoomerBrian]

A simple IPA or Pale Ale wouldn't be a bad choice. Like everyone else said avoid the high gravity stuff.

 

[Yooper]

If I may suggest one of my own recipes, I'd suggest this one: http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/400141/fresh-squeezed-ipa-clone

It's for a 10.5 gallon sized batch, so if you're looking for a 5 gallon batch, it can just be cut right in half except for the yeast- use a whole package. (Even better, use two packages of yeast or make a yeast starter). You can use dry yeast instead of the one I picked, S05 would work. Or, WLP001 or Wyeast 1056.

Ignore the water additions (the gypsum and calcium chloride) unless you're starting with distilled or reverse osmosis water.

This beer is pretty low ABV for an IPA, so it's quick from grain to glass. It's hoppy and not too bitter, and the hops help cover some fermentation errors.

 

[newmanwell]

For a first time all grain I usually recommend a brown ale or stout. My reason why is that it is easier to get your mash pH in the correct range with a darker beer.

 

[BoomerBrian]

If I may suggest one of my own recipes, I'd suggest this one: http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/400141/fresh-squeezed-ipa-clone

It's for a 10.5 gallon sized batch, so if you're looking for a 5 gallon batch, it can just be cut right in half except for the yeast- use a whole package. (Even better, use two packages of yeast or make a yeast starter). You can use dry yeast instead of the one I picked, S05 would work. Or, WLP001 or Wyeast 1056.

Ignore the water additions (the gypsum and calcium chloride) unless you're starting with distilled or reverse osmosis water.

This beer is pretty low ABV for an IPA, so it's quick from grain to glass. It's hoppy and not too bitter, and the hops help cover some fermentation errors.

My first all grain was a fresh squeezed clone. Turned out great.

 

[Nosybear]

Hi friends,

I am looking for a fairly simple recipe to get my first brew day under my belt. I have studied the process, and I am ready to brew. If anyone wants to recommend a good first time recipe it would be appreciated. I am thinking an IPA, if worst comes to worst I can dry hop my troubles away!

Edit: I have an all grain set-up.

I have brewed over 200 batches and still don't trust myself with an IPA. An IPA makes it too easy to cover your mistakes with hop flavor. My recommendation for new brewers is something very simple, like a blonde or a Kolsch. Brew it over and over until it tastes the same every time. At that point you have your process dialed in and are ready for some experimentation with different grains and hopping levels. My recommendation, based on your post, would be a pale ale, any recipe that has a simple grain and hop bill will do. That way, as you say, you could dry hop a problem away and still have a drinkable beer (but keep a few bottles of it "unadulterated" for later testing!).

 

[GFHomebrew]

Well I recon nearly every style has just about been covered lol. Dude what do you like to drink? Brew that.
But my 2c a simple pale ale

 

[Mark D Pirate]

If you don't have accurate temp control what's the ambient temp like where you intend to ferment ?
No matter what you decide to brew you will need to ferment it

 

[J A]

If you're still having trouble deciding, I got 2 words for you:
Cascade SMASH.
Here's my recipe:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/392102/cascade-smash (that malt is my local Pale 2-row...sub any good 2 row)
and here's Ozark Mountains Brew's version:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/301226/cascade-smash-http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/301226/cascade-smash-

And there are easily a dozen more in the BF data base.

Just use those as a guideline, pick a base malt and go for it. It would be extremely hard for you to come up with a bad beer if you mash and ferment and package anywhere near properly.

 

[Mark D Pirate]

SmaSh beers are a great way to learn what each base malt and hop variety bring to the party as well

 

[J A]

I'm pretty sure that if you had a couple of sacks of any grain and 3-4 lbs of Cascade, you could brew for months and never brew the same beer twice.

 

[Nosybear]

SmaSh beers are a great way to learn what each base malt and hop variety bring to the party as well

That's actually what I'd recommend: Pale malt and a single hop. Brew till it tastes good and the same every time then branch out. But since IPA was mentioned, I thought I'd give the guy a break and recommend pale ale. You can still hide errors in it but it should reveal most of them.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

a good pale ale is my go to beer next to a dark lager which im drinking now but its all about water and fermentation temps that makes either a great drinking beer, good luck with what ever you decide

 

[Mark D Pirate]

I'm pretty sure that if you had a couple of sacks of any grain and 3-4 lbs of Cascade, you could brew for months and never brew the same beer twice.

Particularly if you tried a few different yeast strains and water profiles as well

 

[Nosybear]

a good pale ale is my go to beer next to a dark lager which im drinking now but its all about water and fermentation temps that makes either a great drinking beer, good luck with what ever you decide

Me, too. If a brewery can't do a good pale ale, they can't do much of anything else well. I'd still recommend SMASH for a beginner but it's hard to go wrong with a pale ale.

 

[Mark D Pirate]

I still think a clean and delicate lager is much harder to brew than an APA , simply nowhere to hide in these beers .

I have tried a number of first attempts with our standard starter kits here (Coopers / Mr beer ) and they come with a lager kit and ale yeast that recommend a 7 day ferment at 21-27 °C and while it might be beer it sure as hell ain't a lager !