Good beers for AG newbie to brew

[poolshark021]

Hey all I was wondering what you started out brewing when you switched to all grain? I want to get a good idea what grains impart what flavors to my beer. I know a lot of that is experience trying different specialty grains and different amounts but what are some beers that will really bring that out? I have grains coming for a california pale ale as well as an irish red and I am looking for suggestions for others.

[beerking]

I recommend you try some of the "mash required" specialty grains, such as Munich and Vienna. Brew a beer with 75-100% each of these grains. You will really get a great feel for what these malts, which you could not really use with a steep process, do to a beer. If you can do a true lager, even better.

[poolshark021]

Do you mean mash 10lbs of munich with a couple lbs of 2 row just to see how it tastes? And the same with vienna? Also what do you mean by true lager? I already have a lagering fridge with temp. controller that I have used for extract lagers and they have turned out great.

Oops I just realized this is in the wrong forum.

[beerking]

I have brewed an all munich lager, and an all vienna lager. Great teaching tools for people to understand the flavors each of these malts will produce. I used 10# of munich and 1# of caramunich, ditto for the vienna.
I think doing a lager (lager yeast, cool ferment) allows the full character of these malts to come out better. Ale yeast would work, but the esters might interfere with full appreciation and understanding of the malt character.
Besides, each of these beers could arguably be considered traditional Bavarian styles (although on the edge of the style characteristics). Vienna lager in the case of vienna, and a somewhat pale dunkel in the case of the munich (really more of a cross between a dunkel and a marzen, IMHO).
It was a lot of fun, and proved instructive when I brewed these.

[Mill Rat]

English ales are also a good place to start, too. These are also great for doing a series of beers on a yeast cake. The pale ales, browns, porters, stouts are all pretty straightforward, don't require step mashes, and with a yeast like WL 007, the fermentation doesn't go nuts, but will ferment out quite well.