I want to try brewing my own beer...

Thinking about getting into brewing my own beer. I'm a new n00b so any advice, suggestions, etc is much appreciated.

I'd start with attempting to brew standard beer, but I want to get into flavors that some may consider odd.

If you consider standard beer to be Bud, Bud Lite, Miller, Coors, etc. I would suggest you not attempt one of those yet.  That style is very difficult to brew, even for the experienced homebrewer.  They are lagers, with very little malt or hop flavors and there is no place for less than perfect flavors to hide.  Anything that is slightly amiss will show up in the beer and you will be very disappointed with your first effort.

I would suggest that you start with a simple ale recipe.  Ales have a lot more flavor, so a less than perfect beer can still taste wonderful.

My suggestion is to read "How To Brew" by John Palmer first, before you attempt to brew.  The best thing about this suggestion is that you don't even have to by the book.  There is a free online pdf version.  The link below will get you to the free online version.  This will answer a lot of your questions right up front.  There are recipe suggestions in the book for the new brewer, as well.

http://www.howtobrew.com/

Good luck and happy brewing.

NeverEnough said:

Thinking about getting into brewing my own beer. I'm a new n00b so any advice, suggestions, etc is much appreciated.

I'd start with attempting to brew standard beer, but I want to get into flavors that some may consider odd.

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Do IT!!! brewing is an amazing hobby that may well capture your attention to a degree that some might consider slightly obsessive. (others consider it EXTREMELY obsessive) 

so what do you consider 'normal beer' and what do you consider 'odd'? (I know a guy that puts chantrelle mushrooms in a scottish wee heavy)

start with a simple extract pale ale. it will be tasty and you will behooked pleased.

the things to pay attention to in order of importance are:

Temperature: Chill your wort (unfermented beer) to ~65 degrees before introducing yeast) the instructions will say 70. Don't believe them)
Sanitation: make sure everything is very very clean. use a non-chlorine sanitizer like starsan or idophor both of which can be purchased at any Homebrewing supply store. By the way most people will put this at the top of the list but the fact is you CAN make great beer with dodgy sanitation habits but you can't make Great beer with bad temperature control.
Simplicity: less is more. by all means add crazy stuff to your beer just be away that too many flavors crowd each other out

NeverEnough! Beware!!!! If you get started, you better be ready to be addicted to many facets of this horrible affliction!
1-No time for golf, too busy brewing
2-What spare change? It is in the bottles on the floor in my basement
3- You say you want to go to the bar? Check on line to see if they have craft first, you won't be able to stand the macro's

And it is all worth it! This is the greatest hobby on earth and you get to pal around with all these miscreants as an added bonus.

1st step, get BeerSmith and play around with it.
If you get a "brew kit" to start, beware. Many do not give ingredients, so while you are making a good beer, you won't know what you used.

Find a homebrew shop in your area and get chummy with the owner 9 times out of 10 he is an avid brewer.

Good luck and welcome to our little slice of heaven!

Most homebrew is ale. I'd suggest going to the local beer store and trying several varieties of commercial ale.  See if you like it.  If you find something you like, look up recipes for the style.

I was going to start with an ale. The "odd" beers I have in mind are flavors not yet on the market so I will try those once I know what I am doing LOL

What kits are the ones I should be looking at? Don't want to get something too small only to upgrade a month later, but don't need extreme overkill yet either.

BILLY BREW said:

NeverEnough! Beware!!!! If you get started, you better be ready to be addicted to many facets of this horrible affliction!
1-No time for golf, too busy brewing
2-What spare change? It is in the bottles on the floor in my basement
3- You say you want to go to the bar? Check on line to see if they have craft first, you won't be able to stand the macro's

And it is all worth it! This is the greatest hobby on earth and you get to pal around with all these miscreants as an added bonus.

1st step, get BeerSmith and play around with it.
If you get a "brew kit" to start, beware. Many do not give ingredients, so while you are making a good beer, you won't know what you used.

Find a homebrew shop in your area and get chummy with the owner 9 times out of 10 he is an avid brewer.

Good luck and welcome to our little slice of heaven!

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You can never go wrong with overkill on boil pot size!  Get the largest you can afford.

Fermentors.  My suggestion is 7.5 gallon or larger, so that you don't have to use blow off tubes.  There's nothing wrong with a blow off tube, except that it wastes beer.  Some of the stuff coming out through the blow off tube was beer you could have bottled.

I have two 8 gallon bucket fermentors, 2 5.5 gallon carboys and two 7.5 gallon carboys.  My boil pots are 15 gallons and 8 gallons.

I use the 15 gallon for boiling.  I use the 8 gallon for heating strike and sparge water.

I'm also hearing a lot about temperature control, but don't know how to go about it the right way. My basement is cold in the winter, but not as cool in the summer of course. I have a mini fridge I can use if need be, though. Just need to know how to modify it properly.

NeverEnough said:

I'm also hearing a lot about temperature control, but don't know how to go about it the right way. My basement is cold in the winter, but not as cool in the summer of course. I have a mini fridge I can use if need be, though. Just need to know how to modify it properly.

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There are quite a few tutorials online about converting a mini fridge.  Just google "fermentation chamber build".

#1)  John Palmer's Book, How to Brew is a necessity and will answer most all of your questions
#2)  Use the search function of the brewing forums so that you can see answers to the same questions that have been asked 95 times.
#3)  The type of brewing with different unusual flavors, ingredients, etc. is referred to as Extreme Brewing. My advice is to learn the basics first before you get kinky.
#4)  If you get into extreme brewing you probably will not increase your popularity because very few if any will ask for a refill.
#5)  You get to drink your mistakes if you don't get motivated to dump it.
#6)  Brewing can be as technical as you want to make it, but there is more to brewing than science.
#7)  After tasting your pride and joy someone will ask you if you have any Bud Light ..... be prepared for rejection!
#8)  Its been mentioned already, It is a great, rewarding, expensive, time consuming, and fantastic hobby!
#9)  Wives don't understand why we can wash beer bottles and not have time to wash her car!
#10)  There is a ton of cleaning that is associated with brewing. If you are lazy or a dirtnick you need to find another hobby!
#11)  There are usually several ways to accomplish a single step or question, so pick the brains of the experienced brewers who will help you on this forum.
#12)  Welcome!

with regard to temps. Put a thermometer on the floor of your basement and cover it with a blanket. The temp should stay within @ 10 degrees if you have a deep enough basement. The trick is to cover the beer so the ambient air from the room doesn't interact.
All my beer is on the floor of my basement covered in old baby blankets (Well they are all my babies after all!) and the temp stays good for drinking. Check it out and see.

The best thing you said in your original post is that you want to start with standard flavors [styles]. That is exactly what you need to do. Learn the processes first. Learn to make a good ale first. Don't worry about exotic flavors and ingredients. Figure out your equipment then move on to the experimentation phase. Your gonna love the hobby but you will quickly get discouraged if you fail at an Apple Lemmon Coffee Chocolate Bacon Wheat Beer. I would start with a stout. It is a very basic ale and off flavors won't show up as much as they will in a smaller (lighter body) beer. The worst thing that could happen to you is to have the first couple of batches fail. The best thing would be to see you drink your first batch and say "Wow! I made that!". You will never stop wanting to make more and, it will become a way of life for you. That is exactly what happened to me and I'm 23 years into a hobby that I had never considered prior to the day I walked into a grocery store and saw a can of malt extract setting on the shelf. What ever you do don't get discouraged. You should also join a beer club. I learned more from club members than any book I ever picked up. There are guys that I taught how to brew back in the 90's that own brew pubs today. I'm not trying to take credit. I'm just saying that they got most of their foundation at beer club. Good luck brother!

I agree with Scott when it comes to equipment. Get an over-sized brew pot for sure. Boil-overs on the stove top are an across the board rookie mistake. We all did it. You WILL do it too. Trust me. The bigger the pot the less likely you are to do this. The other thing you will want is a wort chiller. I did it for a few years without one so, it can be done but, get one (or make one). As for the fermenter, a 6.5 gal. carboy or 7 gal. bucket is what you will want to start with.

i want to tell my story about my first batch that was horrible that's why you should be very careful on it.