Beer type advice?

[sneeden]

Hello Beertools community

I'm a beginner at this "activity", but I am really enjoying it. Not just the beer, but it's nice to spend the evening doing beer stuff w/music on.

Moving on, I've done 2 partial mash brews, both with pleasing results. The first was a very hoppy pale ale. The second, light blond ale. Both turned out great as far as flavor. I think I've got my inconsistent carbonation problem figured out.

I want to get to cookin' up my third, but am being indecisive about which style. I am interested in a porter or stout, but don't want to have to gag down 5 gallons of "not that good" beer...... You know what I'm talking about.

I want your advice. How would you rate the difficulty of porter and stout vs. the two "beginner" type recipes that I've done so far?

Teach me.

[slothrob]

I'd classify Porter and Stout as pretty easy beginner beers. Not that you can't make a bad one of either style, but they're generally pretty forgiving. Perhaps Porters are slightly easier, since they usually contain some Crystal Malt to help cover up roasted malt astringency.

You probably have soft water in San Francisco, like I have in Boston, which isn't the best water for making really dark beers. I'm not sure how much that will matter for a Partial Mash beer, but probably less than it affects all-grain beers. Look for a recipe that gets a lot of it's color from Chocolate Malt and dark Crystal Malt, and less from Black Patent and Roasted Malt, and you shouldn't have to worry much about astringency.