Some styles are easier than others. If a beginning homebrewer wanted to pick something easy to do well, what would it be? (saison, lager, english ale, american brown ale, dry stout like Guinness, etc.) Of course personal taste preference plays a role here, but, lets forget about that for now. What is the easiest style to make well?What is the easiest style for a beginning homebrewer to make well?
My goal is to help make that first brew more attainable and successful.
8 comments:
Personally I think the Hefeweizen from extract is the easiest beer to make. The beer has few hops, and you all all of them at the start. You don't need to pay attention to hop schedules, and it produces a good recognizable beer at the end.
I never comment on these because I usually find they are common knowledge but maybe I should. The easiest style for an amateur brewer to make is a stout or porter. The fact that it is a dark beer will hide any visual blemishes with color, excess yeast or cold break etc... In addition to that the use of roasted malts usually cover up off flavors well. Dark beer is the easiest to brew.
It's not the easiest, but I recommend starting with IPAs because it's the best beer to learn (and experiment with) hopping. Hopping lessons with extract IPAs continue to apply regardless of how you brew.
I agree on the stout, it is a bit more forgiving. The Hefe is pretty easy too but temperature regulation to get the right blend of banana or clove is an extra step you don't have with stouts.
I believe that most any ale from extract is a great beginner's beer, but to me the most important thing is to pitch loads of yeast early and often to get the brew started and finished in a timely fashion. Lagers are harder because of lag times and temperatures.
Brew what you like, unless it will take a long time before you can drink it. I was anxious as hell waiting for the first time I could open my first bottle of homebrew.
dOc, thanks for throwing your 2 cents in. Great advice!
Thanks everybody!
I agree with Deege...I think an extract Hefe is extremly easy. I also think brown ale from an extract kit is easy. Brown was the first beer I made and it worked well.
I think in general...any beer that you don't need special ingredients other than the basic 4, or one that doesn't require any special steps is easy.
Cheers,
Jason
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