When first starting out on your homebrewing journey it can be a bit stressful. You want to be able to make something that you will enjoy and maybe even some of your friends will praise you for. The last thing you want to screw it up and lose interest.
So often the question comes to mind, what is the easiest type of beer to brew?
Ales are the easiest type of beer to start out brewing. New brewers often make mistakes, but the style is forgiving. Ales are forgiving when it comes to temperature control and flavor. Some of the fruity off flavors in ales are actually preferred as compared to lagers.
There are a lot of factors to look at when coming up with the absolute easiest type of beer to brew but ales certainly take the cake. They often have multiple flavor profiles that can mask some mistakes homebrewers make.
Below I’ll explain the most important aspects to look at when starting to brew and then go through a list of styles easy for any homebrewer to try for their first brew.
Ale is the Easiest Type of Beer to Brew
There are a multitude of reasons why ale is the easiest type of beer to brew, but what it really comes down to is flavor. Unlike the subtle nature of lagers, Ales are full of flavor and some of the hoppier varieties make it easy to cover slight mistakes.
Below is a list of problems a beginner homebrewer may have that make ale the perfect fit.
- Water profile- Water is important and if you are brewing a light beer with tap water you will get all of that chlorine and fluorine taste in your beer and it will be very apparent. Fuller hoppier beers tend to mask the flavor and gives the beer more bite.
- Yeast Styles- Lagers require cold temperature and beginner homebrewers don’t typically have fermentation chambers so they will need forgiving yeast.
- Dark Malt Complexity- Ales have much deeper malt complexity giving beer more flavor, this makes it easy to mask poor water. It also results in more unfermentable sugar giving you a juicier beer with great mouthfeel.
- High Alpha Hops- The higher hop acids make beer more bitter masking any mistakes you may have made on any of the above.
As a beginner brewer there are also many more ale styles to choose from, especially when it comes to extract brewing. This style of brewing takes the grain completely out of the picture, making it a much simpler process.
Check out my recommended starting kits if you are just wanting to get started brewing. Read more below to find out which style of beer you want to attempt first.
Note: Some kits below require additional equipment to get started. Such as the brewdemon. There is a starter kit that you can purchase alongside it.
Below are some beer styles I personally find easy to make. Its important that you stick to simple recipes and not try to add any adjuncts.
Adjuncts are anything other than: water, hops, yeast, and malt that can be added to beer. Their addition adds complication and makes the process more difficult.
Pro tip: Fruit is notoriously difficult to brew with, it is not for the faint of heart.
Steps for an Easy Extract Brew
In order to make sure that you are brewing up an easy beer you need to follow the basic steps in making beer. Any additional techniques that are used to change a beer won’t do. Below are the basic steps in brewing an extract beer.
- Boil water and add extract to it.
- Steep the specialty grains in the dissolved extract and water.
- Begin the boil with hops added during the boil.
- Cool the wort down and then add the yeast for fermentation.
Once you start using techniques after the boil or even before the boil, like mashing it becomes much more difficult.
American Pale Ale
This is probably the easiest style of beer you could possibly make on your first time. The amount of malty flavor from the extract will require a decent amount of hops to offset.
The hops will be able to mask any flaws or mistakes that you make when boiling your extract. For example if you scorched the extract, it may have a caramel taste. The larger than normal hop additions will typically cover this up.
This is probably the closest you can get to brewing an IPA without actually making an IPA. When brewing an IPA the higher hop additions and techniques used can become tricky so a pale ale is the perfect beer to get acquainted with the style.
Take a look at this Brewdemon 2 gallon extract kit to get started.
American Amber Ale
This is one of my favorite types of beer to make. I love its malty complexity. Often times though these beers are highly hopped. Honestly, I think its a mistake to hop these beers so much but its common practice these days.
So if you want a hoppy amber or a malty amber you can’t go wrong, which makes this style easy to work with.
There are not many adjuncts to this beer style so you can’t really move into more difficult territory with this one, but this makes it ripe for homebrewer experimentation.
Take a look at this Mr Beer 2 gallon extract kit to get started. The fermenter makes bottling super easy!
All Grain will Give you More Control
When you are ready to branch out into all grain consider checking out my article on amber ales and learn everything you need to know.
Oatmeal Stout
A classic oatmeal stout is tough to screw up. The dark malt complexity makes any base water used almost unrecognizable. The oatmeal additions will help add a smooth taste and easily benefit head retention.
The addition of hops will also help to balance the overall flavor and the hop additions are simple with no additions after the boil.
The great thing about the oatmeal stout is that it can serve as a platform for branching out into more advanced techniques. There are so many ways to mix up an oatmeal stout. Some include adding:
- Chocolate
- Vanilla
- Lactose
- Dark fruits
- Vanilla
- Spices
If your interested in brewing your own for the first time check out this Brewdemon 2 gallon extract kit.
Adding Complexity to an Oatmeal Stout
Once your ready to go all grain I also have an article reviewing all you need to know about brewing an oatmeal stout.
Brown Ale
This beer style is much like an amber ale although it is slightly darker. Interestingly enough the darker beer gets the sweeter it typically is. This is not the case with a brown ale as compared to an amber though.
The reason for this is because amber ales use caramelized sugars which result in less fermentable sugar and a sweeter drink. Brown ales don’t have such a high amount of caramelized sugars resulting in a nuttier taste.
This beer style is classically simple with basic hop additions during the boil and a flavor that comes from its toasted grain profile.
Brewing an extract makes the process super simple so check out Brewdemons recipe kit.
When Your Ready for All-Grain
When your ready to brew a brown ale all grain you might consider roasting your own malt. Its super easy and I wrote about the process in detail.
American Wheat
American wheat beer has its roots from the Germen Hefeweizen and Belgian witbier. The American version is subdued in its fruity esters and is typically more highly hopped than its German counterparts.
Wheat beers are typically brewed with a minimum of 50% wheat, although some American wheat beers get away with a little less than 50% wheat additions.
American wheat is an easy beer to brew because you don’t have to worry about clarity. Getting a beer to be see through clear is tricky and not having to worry about it at all makes for less stress. Not to mention the hops in this beer cover any imperfections in flavor.
The wheat beer is interesting because its actually more difficult to brew when going all grain. Wheat doesn’t have a husk so the mashing process needs some love and attention. But brewing an extract beer takes away that difficulty making it super simple.
This Northern Brewer one gallon all in one recipe kit will get you started brewing an excellent extract wheat beer.
Adding Fruit for Complexity
When you are ready to step up your brew game, this is the perfect beer to begin your adventure with fruit additions. This is tricky though because fruit is probably the hardest beer adjunct to work with.
I added peaches to my Hefewiezen recipe and the proportions and acidity of the fruit left know Hefewiezen flavor intact. But it turned out to be an excellent American peach wheat. If only that’s what I intended from the start.
The Hardest Ales To Brew
What should you stay clear of when brewing beer for the first time? I would say there are two that are quite tricky and those are sours and the famous NEIPA.
Sour Beer
Sour beer is harder because of the addition of bacteria as a souring agent to the beer. There is also a lot more that goes into hop preparation. Typically the hops need to be aged, before use.
A lot of sours also use fruit, so that adds to the level of complexity. Sours will also need more time to mature than any other typical ale.
New England IPA or NEIPA
This is a difficult beer to brew because of two things:
- Water Chemistry
- Dry Hop Additions
The water needs to be just right to get that juicy mouthfeel, so often adjustments need to be made to your water. This can be tricky for the few time homebrewer and a lot to think about. If you want to learn further check out my hazy beer article.
The dry hop additions of a NEIPA expose your hops to oxygen. The massive amount of hops used and oxygen exposure make your beer taste grassy and bad far sooner than any IPA made without dry hopping.
Final Thoughts on Ease of Brewing
You don’t have to start out brewing the easiest beers you can, but it makes a lot of sense to get the basics down. That way you can build on that base knowledge.
However, it doesn’t make any sense to brew something you don’t like just because its easy. So no matter how difficult a brew may be there are always ways to make it a bit easier.
For example when brewing a NEIPA you might just add the hops right after the boil. It may not be a true NEIPA but it will certainly be something you might like better.
If you find brewing to be a passion of yours be sure to check out my recommended gear section and some of my beer recipe articles for further learning.